Washington Focuses Efforts On San Luis Valley
Hundreds of attendants filled the auditorium of Adam?s State University Wednesday awaiting a community discussion held by San Luis Valley native and U.S. Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar.
Salazar was joined by U.S. Secretaries Michael Bennet and Mark Udall and Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper at the meeting, which was held as part of President Obama?s America?s Great Outdoors Initiative
?Never in the history of this valley, and probably never for 100 years, will you see the kind of group lined here that we have today,? said Salazar.
Salazar said he plans to promote ?tourism, job creation and historic preservation here in the Valley.?
Salazar added that he has ?specific initiatives that will accomplish that agenda.?
According to Salazar, those initiatives include creating a system of trails throughout the Valley. He said these trails will create jobs and increase visitors to the area.
Salazar also said they plan to focus on landscape conservation, and will be working with private landowners to promote land conservation across the region.
Lastly, Salazar said there is also the possibility of the creation of a national historic park located within the San Luis Valley that would also increase tourism.
He said one of his goals is to ?try to make sure that rural communities have opportunities that often bypass rural communities.”
Udall, Bennet and Hickenlooper expressed their support and commitment to the proposed projects.
?Job one is job creation. The way you create jobs in the Valley is you protect the water resource. You protect traditional economic activities. You protect the jobs that are tied to those economic activities and you look for ways to create new jobs,? said Udall.
Udall also said that one of their main objectives while in the Alamosa is to listen to the people.
?If the people want to move forward, we?ll go to work this year,? said Udall.
Salazar said that while they are moving ahead and making progress with respect to upcoming projects in the Valley, the changes will take time.
?It won?t happen overnight. It won?t happen over a year, but over multiple years with the right kind of attitude and perseverance mostly from this local community here in the San Luis Valley we can make a lot of this happen,? said Salazar.
According to the Department of the Interior, the San Luis Valley is one of three priority projects in Colorado.
