{"id":72443,"date":"2017-06-05T18:58:00","date_gmt":"2017-06-06T00:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/great-old-broads-start-montezuma-county-chapter\/"},"modified":"2017-06-06T00:58:00","modified_gmt":"2017-06-06T00:58:00","slug":"great-old-broads-start-montezuma-county-chapter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/great-old-broads-start-montezuma-county-chapter\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Old Broads start Montezuma County chapter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Susan
Susan Treneer and Pat McClenny are leading the new Montezuma Broads Chapter of the environmental group Great Old Broads for Wilderness.<\/span>Jim Mimiaga\/The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The environmental activist group Great Old Broads for Wilderness has started a new chapter in Montezuma County.<\/p>\n

The national organization, based in Durango, has 36 chapters \u2013 mostly in the Western U.S. \u2013 that advocate for preserving wilderness qualities of public lands.<\/p>\n

Montezuma Broads is their latest local foothold, joining chapters in La Plata County, Ridgway, Pagosa Springs and Moab<\/p>\n

Led by older women but open to anyone the Broads are known for scrutinizing federal land policies and acting to protect public lands from the impacts of oil and gas development, roads, off-road motorized uses and grazing. Advocating for the protection of archaeological resources is also a cause, as well as regulating extractive industries to combat climate change. They frequently volunteer in the field and sometimes use irreverent humor to get their preservation message across, such as dressing up as cleaning ladies to pick up trash in Utah wilderness areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like the idea that they value older women, and they obviously have a sense of humor,\u201d said Pat McClenny, broadband leader for Montezuma Broads.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re learning about the issues, and meeting with public land officials and local groups.\u201d<\/p>\n

McClenny, along with co-leader Susan Treneer, said the goal of Montezuma Broads is to partner with other groups on projects and take a \u201cnoncombative approach.\u201d They plan to participate in volunteer service work, such as noxious weed control, trash pickup, trail maintenance, fence mending and archaeological site stewardship.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe archaeology in this area is amazing, and it\u2019s important to have a Broad chapter specific to supporting Canyons of the Ancients National Monument and Anasazi Heritage Center,\u201d Treneer said.<\/p>\n

They want to collaborate with San Juan Citizen\u2019s Alliance, Southwest Colorado Canyon\u2019s Alliance, San Juan Mountains Association and the Dolores River Boating Advocates.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one group can do it all, so we are finding our niche,\u201d McClenny said. \u201cI see us doing educational programs for the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Great Old Broads was formed in 1989 to challenge Utah Sen. Orin Hatch\u2019s assertion that roadless wilderness designations prevent the elderly from accessing public lands.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a misconception that older people can\u2019t do physical outdoor activities. A lot of us our capable, but we recognize not everyone can do the physical labor so we offer other volunteer work as well,\u201d McClenny said.<\/p>\n

The La Plata Broads chapter has previously weighed in on local issues. They are critical of ranching polices on Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, which allows for grazing if it doesn\u2019t interfere with cultural resources.<\/p>\n

In 2015, Great Old Broads joined a coalition of environmental groups to protest reissuing the monument\u2019s Flodine and Yellow Jacket permits citing outdated range studies and poor rangeland health.<\/p>\n

Fearing litigation, monument managers agreed to not issue the permits until an updated range study could be conducted, which is ongoing.<\/p>\n

Great Old Broads supported the BLM\u2019s recently approved master lease plan for the Tres Rios District, which adds additional regulatory oversight for oil and gas development on some BLM lands in Montezuma and La Plata counties.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith all of the archaeological resources, I think a closer look at oil-and-gas development under a more comprehensive public process like an MLP is a good idea,\u201d Treneer said. \u201cWhat is scary for a lot of people is having nothing but oil wells and tank farms like what is happening on BLM lands around Chaco\u201d in New Mexico.<\/p>\n

Great Old Broads are known for effective environmental campaigns, but have faced some resistance in southeast Utah.<\/p>\n

Broads successfully advocated for the Recapture Wash near Blanding to be closed to motorized vehicles. Signs posted in the canyon in 2010 read \u201cWanted dead or alive: Great Old Broads for Wilderness. Great Old Broads not allowed in San Juan County.\u201d<\/p>\n

In April, San Juan County, Utah filed criminal charges against a former La Plata Broads staffer for allegedly trespassing on state trust lands in an incident in which her husband allegedly closed a gate to a water source for a local rancher\u2019s livestock.<\/p>\n

Montezuma Broads don\u2019t foresee a confrontational style in their local conservation efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to form partnerships, and build alliances with people who may have different opinions,\u201d Treneer said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like our country has gone too far with the confrontation stuff,\u201d added McClenny, \u201cand it is good for people to know we are not like that. We are members of the community and want to work with our neighbors. People here would rather talk with someone local than an outsider.\u201d<\/p>\n

To learn more about Great Old Broads visit their website.<\/a><\/p>\n

jmimiaga@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

promotes wilderness, conservation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":72444,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,13,28,60,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-72443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-frontpage-lead","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\/72443","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=72443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72443"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=72443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}