Mesa County has countered the call for a national monument around the Dolores River with plans for a much smaller national conservation area.
The Dolores Canyons National Conservation area would increase protections on 29,806 acres around the Dolores River in Mesa and Montrose counties. The proposal for a national monument around the river in the two counties calls for increased protection on 391,000 acres along the river.
Mesa County commissioners in May adopted a resolution opposing the national monument plan, which was crafted by river and environmental advocates asking President Joe Biden to use the Antiquities Act to create the Dolores Canyons National Monument. The commissioners in May pointed to existing protections on federally managed land around the river and questioned how additional layers of protection might impact mining, logging and grazing as well the region’s ability to handle increased visitation.
The national conservation area proposal released Tuesday by Mesa County maintains existing water, and grazing rights while protecting access to “critical minerals necessary for meeting energy, carbon and national security goals.”
The proposed protections are very close to the river corridor while the national monument proposal covers most of the Dolores River drainage with increased levels of protection that limits new mining and development.
The Dolores River Boating Advocates, which helped craft the national monument proposal, applauded Mesa and Montrose counties working to permanently protect the Dolores River landscape but called the proposal “grossly inadequate.”
☀️ READ MORE
The counties’ plan closely mirrors the federal legislation proposed by Colorado U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet in 2022 that would create a 53,187-acre National Conservation Area on Bureau of Land Management acres and a 16,664-acre Dolores River Special Management Area on Forest Service land along the southern portion of the Dolores River in Dolores, Montezuma and San Miguel counties. Mesa County declined to be a part of that national conservation area plan in 2018.
“Because the southern landscape is geographically very different from Mesa and Montrose counties, modeling a boundary after the southern proposal is not an effective conservation approach,” reads a statement from the Dolores River Boating Advocates. “Much of the boundary in the southern proposal naturally follows a deep canyon wall, but that same guidance does not exist in the far broader northern landscape.”
Locals in Mesa and Montrose counties have expressed concerns that the monument designation will restrict motorized access, injure economies by restricting grazing and mining while drawing visitors who could overwhelm rural communities.
Bennet and Colorado U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper have visited with locals in the area and recently announced a desire to work toward increased protection on federal land around the Dolores River.
Mesa County, which has more than 70% of its land publicly owned, spent several months gathering input from residents to craft the smaller conservation plan. Commissioner Cody Davis said he hopes the map is “a starting point.”
“I think the Dolores River national monument map is kind stuck in a rut right now and I’m hoping our proposal will help encourage conversations and part of an iterative process where we say ‘Hey, what are we missing?’” Davis said. “I know the environmental community is saying we are missing a lot. I want to hear from them. I don’t think it works to start big and then start nipping and tucking. I think we start small and then talk about what we can add.”
There’s a lot of middle ground between 30,000 acres and 400,000 acres. Davis said the Mesa County proposal hues to the topography of the river so federal management does not restrict water, grazing and mining activity in drainages above the river. The county is happy to adjust its map, he said.
“I don’t want to get hung up on acreage. I want to get hung up on what is most important to protect,” he said.
National monument supporters said the national conservation area proposal published this week by Mesa County does not protect wildlife habitat in the Unaweep Canyon or on the Uncompahgre Plateau and excludes permanent protection for wilderness study areas around the river.
“Mesa and Montrose counties have failed, once again, to offer a good-faith plan to safeguard the Dolores Canyons,” said Anna Stout, a councilwoman for Grand Junction and the city’s former mayor, in a statement. “For almost 50 years, communities have worked to protect the outstanding wildlife, incredible canyons, and world class scenery found just outside Grand Junction. We shouldn’t wait another year to see it protected, much less risk decades more of inaction. It is time for Senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper to fill the leadership vacuum, work with President Biden, and finally conserve the Dolores Canyons National Monument.”