{"id":24815,"date":"2024-11-16T18:01:04","date_gmt":"2024-11-17T01:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/canyons-of-the-ancients-will-start-enforcing-rules-in-december\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T23:02:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:02:38","slug":"canyons-of-the-ancients-will-start-enforcing-rules-in-december","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/canyons-of-the-ancients-will-start-enforcing-rules-in-december\/","title":{"rendered":"Canyons of the Ancients will start enforcing rules in December"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Canyons
Canyons of the Ancients National Monument recently announced that it will start enforcing existing rules on public lands within the monument on Dec. 16. (Cameryn Cass\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Canyons of the Ancients National Monument recently announced that it will start enforcing rules on public lands within the monument.<\/p>\n

The move came from finalizing a \u201csupplementary rule\u201d derived from the 2010 Resource Management Plan that centers on public use, said Ray O\u2019Neil, the monuments manager at Canyons of the Ancients. Enforcement will start Dec. 16.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe change is not in what we\u2019re asking, but now we have the opportunity to enforce it,\u201d O\u2019Neil said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe average user is unlikely to notice changes resulting from the establishment of this supplementary rule,\u201d according to a recent notice in the Federal Register<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Within the 20-mile Sand Canyon trail system, for instance, hikers or bikers can now be cited for creating \u201csocial trails,\u201d as that area is the most visited in the entire monument, O\u2019Neil said.<\/p>\n

Other things that are prohibited and subject to enforcement include gathering and cutting firewood, collecting \u201cpaleontological or geological resources\u201d without a permit and recreational shooting \u201cdue to the potential for damage to archaeological sites.\u201d However, shooting with a valid Colorado hunting license is permitted.<\/p>\n

Geocaching is not allowed, nor are rock climbing, rappelling and bouldering outside designated areas.<\/p>\n

Last year, O\u2019Neil said they set out to involve residents in this conversation and opened up public comment regarding the monument rules and regulations. Of the roughly 100 responses received, he said most were not from the area.<\/p>\n

The most contended rule among the public involved camping within 300 feet of riparian areas. Over 100 people opposed that and suggested a buffer be put in place instead, the notice said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the acreage is not conducive to camping\u201d anyway, the notice said. So, camping is not allowed within 300 feet of riparian areas.<\/p>\n

The roughly 174,000 acres of land that makes up Canyons of the Ancients was designated a national monument in 2000 by President Bill Clinton \u201cto preserve the cultural and natural objects of the monument,\u201d according to the notice.<\/p>\n

Within the monument, there\u2019s an estimated 30,000 cultural sites, making it \u201cthe highest known archaeological site density in the United States,\u201d according to the Bureau of Land Management<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Of those 30,000 sites, 13 are public sites that visitor center employees point people toward, since they\u2019ve often been hardened or have trails that withstand traffic and interpretive signs for learning, O\u2019Neil said.<\/p>\n

The notice reminded readers that \u201cthe BLM is responsible for protecting the objects for which the Monument was designated and for avoiding or minimizing impacts to them,\u201d and enforcing these existing rules aims to do so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

is in enforcement; the rules have been there for years<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24816,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1171,837,28,60,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-24815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-canyons-of-the-ancients-national-monument","tag-dolores-county","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24815","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=24815"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78687,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24815\/revisions\/78687"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24815"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=24815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}