Not out of the woods

History is rife with artists who were underappreciated in their time: Vincent van Gogh, Johann Sebastian Bach, Emily Dickinson, etc.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude, whose elaborate outdoor art installations include “The Gates” in Central Park and “The Umbrellas” in California and Japan, are not those kind of artists. While their works are usually met with some kind of opposition, you’d be hard-pressed to say that they’re underappreciated.

In fact, Colorado congressional representatives are already flaunting their support for the artists' latest project, “Over the River,” a plan to suspend 5.9 miles of fabric panels above the Arkansas River along a 40-mile stretch between Salida and Cañon City, Colorado.

Lt. Gov. Barbara O’Brien even wrote an op-ed in The Denver Post calling the project “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” that will leave Colorado with “a creative legacy” to inspire our children.

Haven’t we jumped the gun a bit? Like most of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s works, “Over the River” (which would be removed after two weeks) will take at least two years to construct. But before that, the artists have to wait for the Bureau of Land Management to release an Environmental Impact Statement, which won’t be ready until 2011 at the earliest.

Declaring support for a project with so many unknowns at this point seems a little hasty.

Variables the BLM has to consider include the effect of drilling more than 8,000 anchors along the river, the impact of increased traffic and the use of alternate routes during the construction and viewing period, the potential disturbance of bighorn sheep and other wildlife in the canyon, and more.

“There’s going to be major traffic jams and all kinds of problems getting through the canyon; it’s just a narrow winding road,” says Dan Ainsworth, a resident of Cañon City since 1998 and president of Rags Over the Arkansas River, a group opposing the project. “All these people use the road to get to church, school and work. Their livelihoods will be disrupted for nearly two years.”

The opposition group has been approached by retired officials from the Colorado Division of Wildlife who are concerned that bighorn sheep will be driven out of the canyon, Ainsworth says. The artists, who are footing the costs of the entire project, have offered to replace the sheep in the off chance that any are harmed, he says.

“You can’t just buy bighorn sheep, you’d have to do research for two to three years to see if they’re compatible with the other sheep, and then there are health tests to see if they’re diseased, and then you have to wait for a permit to even move them,” he says. “All of that can take up to ten years. You can’t just run down to Wal-Mart and buy a trailer load of sheep.”

The BLM’s Front Range Advisory Council, comprised of  local ranchers, environmentalists, archaeologists and other citizens, met yesterday and drafted a resolution asking the BLM to allow the environmental review process to “run its course within the time necessary to provide for a thorough analysis.”

Only time will tell if the agency's analysis comes out in favor of "Over the River." Until then, Colorado will have to find something else to inspire its children. Like perhaps the beauty of an ordinary mountain river.