STATE OF THE ROCKIES

Grading the “State of the Rockies”

By Tonya Poole, 4-11-06

“It appears, increasingly, that nature bats last,” said State of the Rockies Faculty Project Director Walter Hecox last night at the unveiling of the project’s 2006 Report Card. Formatted by program coordinator Bryan Hurlbutt, the report calls out issues of population growth, habitat fragmentation and threat, ranching and conservation easements and, interestingly, our ability to nurture and educate our youth – as lead researcher Caitlin O’Brady reminds us, “they’ll carry us into our future.”

Report Card Highlights

Baseline Statistics

The Rockies Baseline is established as a set of key indicators to “take the pulse” of our region and measure where we are against our goals, and how we compare to other regions of the country. Baseline statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau show a 7% growth rate in the region since 2000, well over the national average of 2%, with a total population of 19,400,000 (2004). Other baseline statistics from 2004 include:

- Commuters in the Rockies average a 22-minute drive to work each day, compared to the 25-minute average
- About 20% of families in the region speak a language other than English at home
- About 22% of the region’s population identify themselves as Hispanic or Latino
- Median home value in the region was $162,232
- High school graduates stood at 27%, those who went on to obtain at least a Bachelor’s Degree were at 17%.
- Regional median income was slightly below the national average at $43,391
- Poverty levels across the Rockies stood alongside the national average at 10%
- Employment growth in the Rockies was 8%, with the largest gain in the service industry at 15% - both exceeding the national average.

Grading State Government

In 2005, state governments in our region received grades in the categories of money, people, infrastructure and information. Utah came away the big winner with A's and B's across the board. Colorado and Wyoming had the most work to do with averaged grades of C+ and C, respectively.

Ranching and Farming

Farm output as a portion of national GDP continues to decline (down to 2.2% by 2004), with 93% of farmers forced to earn off-farm income. Development pressure and other factors have resulted in loss or sale of farm and ranch lands to the tune of about 140,000 acres each year between 1992-2002.

Ranchers are approaching these challenges in a number of ways, including diversification, adoption of new management techniques, and partnering with land trusts to establish conservation easements – partnerships with any one of ninety-nine local, national and international land trusts operating in the Rockies region to preserve and protect ranch land from development. Montana had, by far, the largest of number of conservation easements at 470,142 acres, Colorado came in second with 314,695 acres, and Nevada trailed at 490.

New Resource Management

Wildlife, water and land resources continue to be among the most heated and complex issues facing the Rockies region, and new approaches to replace failed government handling of the issues continue to rise to the surface. The 2006 State of the Rockies Report Card highlights five case studies representing a small handful of the new and innovative programs and techniques drawing attention:

- Predators on the Range: The National Wildlife Federation’s Grazing Allotment Retirements in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming
- Fee Hunting: The White Mountain Apache Hunting Program in Arizona
- Water Rights for Conservation: The Colorado Water Trust
- The Undaunted Stewardship Program in Montana
- Trading Forage for Conservation: The Rowe Mesa Grassbank in New Mexico

Also included is a special guest contribution discussing experiments in managing federal real estate, using the case of the Valles Caldera National Preserve and Trust.

Biodiversity and Habitat

Guest contributors Tass Kelso, Anna Sher, Randy T. Simmons and Phillip M. Kannan contribute thought-provoking commentary on topics like ecosystems, invasive species, wildlife management and endangered species – and the discussion continues with notes on habitat threats and fragmentation.

The Habitat Threat Index suggests that human populations are harming habitat in two primary ways: converting natural habitat into human habitat, and by harming the remaining natural habitat. According to the study, the highest threats to habitat are occurring in southern Nevada, and isolated parts of southern Idaho, northern Utah, central and eastern Colorado and central New Mexico. Average threats are occurring region-wide, with most of central and northern Nevada presenting the lowest threat.

Fragmentation – the splitting of habitat to accommodate development or other human modifications – was stressed as one of the most significant threats to the region’s biodiversity and natural heritage. Colorado’s front range came away with the most habitat fragmentation in the Rockies.

Climate Change

The debate on whether or not long-term, deep-scale climate change is occurring, and whether or not that comes as a result of human behavior, is one of our time’s most pervasive debates. For many of us in our region, there’s little doubt about the former: weather patterns are increasing in intensity, and while we’ve yet to be as affected as the gulf coast and the polar regions have been, climate change is slowly changing the way we live and work in the Rockies.

The State of the Rockies 2006 Report Card suggests strong merit to the latter, and identifies fossil fuel combustion as the biggest perpetrator: increasing carbon dioxide levels and trapping heat near the earth’s surface – resulting in higher surface temperatures (the greenhouse effect).

Documented temperature change in the 20th Century alone was seen most profoundly in southern Arizona and New Mexico, central Idaho and across southern and eastern Utah, with isolated increases as much as 2˚ C between 1940-1996. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts a rise in earth temperatures by as much as 5.8˚ C by the year 2100, though warming will vary regionally.

In a region so deeply dependent on climate (for skiing, ranching and agriculture, recreation and other activities), findings suggest that the shift must be made from asking whether or not climate will change, to developing solutions for its inevitability.

Environmental Justice

Encompassing the issues of income, race, ethnicity and pollution, the State of the Rockies 2006 Report Card suggests that while the environmental movement has seen increasing success in protecting wild lands and native species, far less has been done to protect our own species. Toxic facilities were put on the block, and the findings suggest that low-income, non-white populations are more likely to be affected by toxic pollutants than their higher-income, Caucasian counterparts. In fact, the United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice published a report in 1987 contending that race is the “most significant factor in siting waste facilities.” A 1994 study confirmed those findings, and found that conditions had since worsened for minorities.

The biggest inequalities between race, income and pollution were found in Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Pueblo, Colorado Springs and Albuquerque. Unfortunately, more pollution emissions are released per square mile in the Rockies, even with lower population densities, than anywhere else in the country. Attention to environmental concerns, and equity, is therefore absolutely vital to the West's health as a region.

Nurturing Our Youth

While at first glance the topic departs some from the whole of the State of the Rockies thematic, youth and future are inextricably connected. Measurements in areas such as family support, team involvement, healthy surroundings, educational opportunities, safe neighborhoods and engaged communities were evaluated and scored for this year’s report card to take the pulse of how we’re preparing our young people to take the torch and carry our region into a healthier tomorrow.

The big winners here in overall score were in Storey County, Nevada, Pitkin County, Colorado and Hinsdale County, Colorado – each earning the number one spots in the overall top 10 in metro, micro and rural county categories, respectively. Statewide, Wyoming fared best overall with no counties achieving a grade below C.

Among the poorest-scoring counties overall were Maricopa County, Arizona, Pueblo County, Colorado, Canyon County, Idaho, Bighorn County, Montana, Humboldt County, Nevada, Socorro County, New Mexico, and Tooele County, Utah.

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