March 9, 2008--Water rights, pheasant hunters clash (Denver Post)
Like most conflicts in eastern Colorado, this so-called Landowner Lockout is all about water. But to thousands of pheasant hunters, it soon may be about birds. In a swelling protest against Colorado Division of Wildlife participation in a lawsuit that pits rights to surface water against irrigation wells, hundreds of farmers have joined in what amounts to a boycott of the 2008 pheasant season. Landowners in Yuma County, center of the protest, pledged 340,000 acres to the boycott. Supporters in Kit Carson, Washington and Phillips counties have contributed lesser amounts in what has become a literal groundswell of remonstration. Wildlife managers fear the lockout will spread to other parts of pheasant country. At the center of the dispute is the continuing struggle between those who hold senior rights to surface water in the North Republican River Basin and farmers who drill wells to irrigate crops. A recent emphasis on biofuels from thirsty corn has served to accelerate the conflict. A separate, yet similar, hassle is being played out on the South Republican River, where a plan to drain Bonny Reservoir to protect wells emerged as a bill in the current session of the Colorado General Assembly.
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