{"id":24541,"date":"2024-12-06T19:57:34","date_gmt":"2024-12-07T02:57:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-lawmakers-work-to-protect-dolores-river-canyon-by-end-of-year\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:55:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:55:19","slug":"colorado-lawmakers-work-to-protect-dolores-river-canyon-by-end-of-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-lawmakers-work-to-protect-dolores-river-canyon-by-end-of-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado lawmakers work to protect Dolores River Canyon by end of year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"In
In this 2019 photo, a raft from Mild to Wild Rafting floats the Dolores River through the canyons of the Dolores Valley near Cortez. (Christian Murdock\/The Gazette via AP)<\/span>Christian Murdock\/The Gazette via AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

WASHINGTON \u2013 Colorado lawmakers from both political parties are watching and waiting to see if President Joe Biden will use his presidential powers to designate the Dolores Canyons a national monument before he leaves office in January.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, lawmakers are moving forward with plans to protect the southern Dolores River through legislation in Congress.<\/p>\n

U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Republican who just won election in Colorado\u2019s 4th Congressional District, said she is working with U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, a Democrat, to create a national conservation area around the southern Dolores River in a public lands bill package by the end of the year.<\/p>\n

The national conservation area would include the land along the river in Dolores and San Miguel counties. The legislation would also make the land in Dolores and Montezuma counties a special management area.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are currently working on a lands package,\u201d Boebert said. \u201cAnd in that, I have several bills that will be included, and we\u2019re hoping that we see that before the end of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boebert said she has been communicating with Bennet on the legislation. A spokesperson from Bennet\u2019s office said in a written statement to The Durango Herald<\/em> that Bennet is \u201cactively trying\u201d to get the lands package passed by the end of the year.<\/p>\n

Boebert and newly elected Rep. Jeff Hurd, R-Grand Junction, are against Biden designating the area a national monument through the Antiques Act of 1906.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that the president\u2019s authority under the Antiquities Act of 1906 is meant to complement local support and buy-in from the people that would be affected most by those federal land-use decisions,\u201d Hurd said. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t think we have that in this case. And I also am concerned about the scope and breadth of that determination.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to a survey, 60% of residents in Mesa County said they do not support the designation. Montrose and Mesa county commissioners also have adopted resolutions against the monument designation.<\/p>\n

Boebert said she is worried about Biden designating the area a national monument because it could end existing mining.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bill that I\u2019ve worked on with our Colorado senators allows for these multiple-use activities to remain,\u201d Boebert said. \u201cThere\u2019s a big push to lock up any uranium development and I think that\u2019s another reason why they want to unilaterally use the Antiquities Act to lock this area up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boebert said the Department of Interior has not been keeping her informed on the potential designation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve said to keep me informed on any information that you guys have to move forward in this and they have not done so,\u201d Boebert said.<\/p>\n

Hurd, who will be joining the Colorado congressional delegation in January, said he is supportive of protecting natural resources and an approach that involves a bill through Congress.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy concern is where we have these blanket prohibitions that are not driven by local stakeholders and that take these multiple uses off the table completely,\u201d Hurd said. \u201cIt\u2019s about finding a balance. So balance doesn\u2019t mean we\u2019re going to mine everywhere. It means that we\u2019re going to take a look at it and, pragmatically, look at the ways that we can balance energy production, mining and conservation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bennet and U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper have hosted information sessions to release their own guidelines for protecting the area. They said the Bureau of Land Management should continue to manage the area and any existing mining, grazing, hunting and fishing should continue. Hickenlooper also supports the guidelines.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that we\u2019ve been doing a lot of listening and talking to the community, so a big part of the goal is whether that is going to translate fast enough into a detailed parameter for a monument,\u201d Hickenlooper said.<\/p>\n

Maria Tedesco is an intern for The Durango Herald and The Journal in Cortez and a student at American University in Washington, D.C. She can be reached at mtedesco@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Republicans oppose Biden designating area a national monument<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24542,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[44,28,193,60,122,716,1569,1651,367,25,1566],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-24541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dolores","tag-headlines","tag-land-use","tag-montezuma-county","tag-monument-and-heritage-site","tag-president-joseph-biden","tag-river-use","tag-sen-john-hickenlooper","tag-u-s-rep-lauren-boebert","tag-u-s-sen-michael-bennet","tag-u-s-senate"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24541"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78573,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24541\/revisions\/78573"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24541"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=24541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}