{"id":28871,"date":"2024-03-04T23:04:11","date_gmt":"2024-03-05T06:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/opposition-to-national-monument-along-dolores-river-grows\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T00:43:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T06:43:15","slug":"opposition-to-national-monument-along-dolores-river-grows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/opposition-to-national-monument-along-dolores-river-grows\/","title":{"rendered":"Opposition to national monument along Dolores River grows"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A
A tree begins to bloom inside Dolores River Canyon, Apr. 23, 2023, near Bedrock. (Hugh Carey\/The Colorado Sun)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

A couple of weeks ago, Sean Pond was at home in Nucla when a group of ranchers visited and asked if he could help spread the word about a proposal to establish a national monument around the Dolores River. The proposal \u2013 it is not a formal plan \u2013 seeks to persuade President Joe Biden to use the Antiquities Act to designate a roughly 400,000-acre Dolores River Canyon Country National Monument in Mesa and Montrose counties.<\/p>\n

Pond, a former nuclear engineer who now runs an RV park in Naturita, quickly launched a petition at change.org saying the monument designation would cancel all mining in the uranium-rich area, end hunting and cattle grazing and curtail motorized travel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it absolutely, positively could be a threat,\u201d Pond told The Colorado Sun<\/em>. \u201cIf you look at the history of monument designations over time, more and more restrictions are put in place as more people start coming. We could start losing access. These are public lands me and my family and our neighbors have enjoyed for decades. A lot of local people have a lot of concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the first 10 days more than 2,100 signed the online petition, many leaving comments blasting the plan.<\/p>\n

Scott Braden, a Western Slope conservation advocate whose Colorado Wildlands Project is among the 13 conservation groups behind the monument proposal, said the petition \u201cis making mischaracterizations about what a monument will or won\u2019t be.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will not end ranching. It will not close Jeep trails. It will not stop hunting. That is simply not what we are proposing,\u201d said Braden, pointing to an online fact sheet he helped assemble to better inform residents about the plan.<\/p>\n

People around Colorado seem to favor protecting the Dolores<\/div>\n

Colorado College\u2019s annual State of the Rockies poll this year asked 436 Colorado residents about protecting existing public lands surrounding 162 miles of the Dolores River to \u201cconserve important wildlife habitat, and safeguard the area\u2019s scenic beauty and support outdoor recreation.\u201d The poll showed 92% of respondents support the protection plan and 6% oppose.<\/p>\n

Advocates for the monument last year commissioned the nonprofit research group Conservation Science Partners to identify \u201cbiologically rich pockets of unprotected public lands\u201d in Colorado. The group\u2019s report showed the five-county region around the Dolores River as the largest and most biodiverse of the 71 areas identified, with high biodiversity values that support a variety of animals and plants.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Dolores River was flowing at 3,400 cfs on May 10, 2023. (Jason Blevins\/The Colorado Sun)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Colorado Wildlands Project said the analysis underscored \u201cthe immediate need for comprehensive, landscape-scale conservation\u201d around the Dolores River. The report suggested a national monument designation would ensure management that balances biodiversity and conservation with local economies and \u201cpreserves public access.\u201d<\/p>\n

National monuments are not cookie-cutter. Each has its own management plan. The most recent national monument in Colorado \u2013 the Camp Hale-Continental Divide National Monument designated by Biden in 2022 using the Antiquities Act \u2013 specifically emphasizes outdoor recreation with wording that allows skiing, camping, hiking and snowmobiling.<\/p>\n

But the rules that establish a monument can be changed over time, Pond said, especially as impacts from increased visitation become acute. Officials at the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, which was created by presidential proclamation in 2000, crafted new rules approved by the Bureau of Land Management last year that limited motorized access, banned recreational shooting and restricted camping.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver time, these places lost motorized access and what does that mean out here for ranchers who need vehicles to reach remote water tanks?\u201d said Pond, who with his wife owns the Rimrocker Adventures RV Park in Naturita, which rents off-road vehicles and paddleboards to visitors. \u201cThe advocates here say there will be increased recreational opportunities. My response is there will be zero recreational opportunities in a national monument that don\u2019t already exist without any restrictions.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Pond and his wife opened Rimrocker Adventures in 2021, he told the Norwood Post that tourism and recreation were thriving in the West End, a 2,100-resident stretch of western Montrose County where uranium and vanadium mining once reigned.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are discovering the West End,\u201d he told the newspaper. \u201cPeople are coming here and spending money. I think it\u2019s just the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Boaters
Boaters float past ancient sandstone cliffs formed in the Jurassic Era inside Dolores River Canyon near Bedrock. (Hugh Carey\/The Colorado Sun)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
A proposed ban on new mines raises hackles in West End<\/div>\n

Conservation groups have spent decades trying to increase protections around the Dolores River, which often runs dry in the summer as upstream agricultural users drain Reservoir. The river swells In banner snow years, like 2022-23, and paddlers flock to the region for rare floats through remote canyons.<\/p>\n

In 2022, Colorado\u2019s federal lawmakers \u2013 an unlikely pairing of Democratic U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet and Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert \u2013 proposed the Dolores River National Conservation Area and Special Management Area Act to increase protections for about 68,000 acres around the river in Dolores, Montezuma and San Miguel counties.<\/p>\n

The monument idea is meant to complement the national conservation legislation and comes from a push for broader geographic protections in a wider swath of land around the Dolores River by drawing in the remote gorges of the river corridor in Montrose and Mesa counties. The Dolores rolls through roadless limestone and sandstone canyons and old-growth Ponderosa forests, including the Bureau of Land Management\u2019s 30,000-acre Dolores River Canyon Wilderness Study Area in Montrose and San Miguel counties, which was created in 1980.<\/p>\n

Advocates in March 2023 polled 750 residents on the Western Slope, including 450 in Dolores, Mesa, Montezuma, Montrose and San Miguel counties. The poll by Keating Research found 68% of residents in the five counties supported a national monument and across Colorado\u2019s 3rd Congressional District, support reached 72%.<\/p>\n

Both the monument proposal and the legislation allow existing mining operations to continue while prohibiting new mining.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a choice between mining and a national monument,\u201d Braden said. \u201cWe think there can be both on the landscape if we are smart about drawing the boundaries.\u201d<\/p>\n

The final boundaries for a possible monument have not been drawn. He said a formal map and monument plan will be vetted by local Tribes and communities.<\/p>\n

Pond said a shutdown on new mines would not work for the communities along the Uravan Mineral Belt, a 210-square-mile geological zone that has produced more yellowcake uranium and radium than any other region in the country. But there hasn\u2019t been any hardrock mining in the 2,100-resident West End community for several decades and the coal-fired power plant in Nucla closed in 2020 and was demolished. There are hundreds of dormant mines in the area needing remediation.<\/p>\n

\"Uravan,
Uravan, where many Naturita residents grew up, is now a condemned town and a superfund site since 1984. Courtesy of \u201cUranium Drive-In\u201d<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

But the price of uranium is up, over $100 a pound for the first time since 2007. There is a buzz in the West End communities of Bedrock, Naturita, Nucla and Paradox around a mining revival, Pond said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople here are excited about the prospect of good-paying mining jobs,\u201d said Pond, whose family has worked in the mining industry and for the Department of Energy for generations. \u201cIf they stop new mining claims, they are taking money out of our pockets and taking the hopes and dreams of an entire community.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hope for a uranium renaissance on the West End is almost a half-century old and while mine revival proposals do accompany spikes in uranium and vanadium, large-scale operations have not returned.<\/p>\n

Natalie Binder, who has converted a 120-acre former mining camp above the San Miguel River in Naturita into a boutique retreat and artist compound, said even if a national monument increases visitation to the region, \u201cit will not change the remoteness of these lands.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Tuesday night, more than 100 West End neighbors gathered in the Gateway Community Center for a presentation by Pond, who offered his criticism of the monument plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think a lot of the perspective that this will be bad news is coming from the fact that no one has really heard anything about it,\u201d said Unaweep Canyon resident Dean Rickman, who helped organize the meeting.<\/p>\n

Rickman said most of the attendees of the meeting were ranchers and only a handful supported the monument plan.<\/p>\n

Braden said no one has missed any opportunities for public input. There are many more meetings ahead as monument advocates shape a plan for increased protection that will include historic uses and existing rights. So valid mining claims, commercial outfitting and grazing will continue inside a monument that better protects the Dolores River watershed, Braden said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope to have many opportunities to persuade people that this monument could be a good thing for the Western Slope,\u201d Braden said.<\/p>\n

Read more at The Colorado Sun<\/div>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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