{"id":24846,"date":"2024-11-14T10:01:45","date_gmt":"2024-11-14T17:01:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/new-rules-for-canyons-of-the-ancients-national-monument\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T05:02:36","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:02:36","slug":"new-rules-for-canyons-of-the-ancients-national-monument","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/new-rules-for-canyons-of-the-ancients-national-monument\/","title":{"rendered":"New rules for Canyons of the Ancients National Monument"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image naviga-align-left alignleft\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=8a027325-a63d-48c0-bec7-3ecf6c1a0c3f&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"992\" height=\"1298\" alt=\"Painted Hand ruin, an 800-year old village within Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Photo courtesy of BLM\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Painted Hand ruin, an 800-year old village within Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Photo courtesy of BLM<\/span><span class=\"credit\">du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<p>The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has finalized a supplementary rule to regulate activities on public lands within the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, impacting Dolores County and Montezuma County in Colorado.<\/p>\n<p>The rule implements decisions from the 2010 Resource Management Plan (RMP) to protect natural and cultural resources in the area.<\/p>\n<p>Key changes in Dolores County include restrictions on recreational activities such as hiking, mountain biking and horseback riding, which are now limited to designated travel routes within the Sand Canyon-Rock Creek Special Recreation Management Area.<\/p>\n<p>Camping is prohibited within 300 feet of riparian areas, developed recreation sites, and certain sensitive areas to protect wildlife and archaeological sites.<\/p>\n<p>Recreational target shooting is banned to prevent damage to archaeological sites, although hunting with a valid Colorado license is still permitted.<\/p>\n<p>Geocaching and rock climbing are restricted to prevent harm to archaeological objects and nesting raptors.<\/p>\n<p>The rule aims to balance recreational use with the preservation of the Monument\u2019s significant archaeological and natural resources.<\/p>\n<div class=\"naviga-element naviga-subheadline1\">Additional impacts from the new rules<\/div>\n<p>The Bureau of Land Management\u2019s (BLM) new rules also impact Montezuma County, alongside Dolores County, by regulating activities on public lands within the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument.<\/p>\n<p>In Montezuma County, the rules enforce travel management restrictions, limiting mechanized and motorized vehicles to designated routes to preserve the area\u2019s wilderness characteristics.<\/p>\n<p>Specific prohibitions are in place within Wilderness Study Areas (WSAs) in Montezuma County to maintain the natural and cultural integrity of these regions.<\/p>\n<p>The rules are designed to protect the high density of archaeological sites found throughout the monument, ensuring that recreational use does not compromise these valuable resources.<\/p>\n<p>To view the original document on the Federal Register, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.federalregister.gov\/documents\/2024\/11\/14\/2024-26396\/notice-of-final-supplementary-rule-for-canyons-of-the-ancients-national-monument-in-dolores-and\" id=\"link-46a2d05f321e2c96c891e82e52f8492c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">click here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>activities now limited to designated travel routes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24847,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1171,1030,28,976],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-24846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-canyons-of-the-ancients-national-monument","tag-environment","tag-headlines","tag-outdoor-recreation"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24846","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=24846"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24846\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78701,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24846\/revisions\/78701"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24846"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=24846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}