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On western Colorado's Uncompahgre Plateau lies a network of red-rock
canyons home to perennial streams, waterfalls, petroglyphs and an
abundance of wildlife. It is an area environmentalists and many local
residents want to see protected, but some people worry protection will
mean forever shutting them out of a prized recreational venue.
The
211,199-acre Dominguez-Escalante Management Area has been proposed for
designation by Congress as a national conservation area. The
centerpiece of the proposal is the protection of the 73,056-acre
Dominguez Wilderness Study Area as wilderness, which would bar most
motorized vehicles from entry.
The proposed conservation area includes Big and Little Dominguez
Canyons, Kelso Mesa, Roubideau Canyon, Escalante Canyon and portions of
the Gunnison River. The area's wide elevation range, from 4,800 feet in
lands along the Gunnison River to 9,000 feet in the forested lands of
the Uncompahgre Plateau, means that it incorporates ecosystems as
disparate as upper Sonoran desert and fir-aspen forests.
If
the conservation area is created, it could mean more federal money to
help the Bureau of Land Management care for the land, which is expected
to receive more recreational users in the coming decades.
Jim
Riddell of the Colorado Environmental Coalition said the canyons
deserve protection because of their unique features. "There's
relatively few places in Colorado with this kind of low altitude
canyonlands that are set aside as wilderness," he said.
Riddell
noted that the canyons provide habitat for wildlife such as elk, deer
and bighorn sheep and also house an amazing array of archaeological
artifacts. "There's hardly anywhere you can go where if you start
scratching around at the dirt, you won't find something," he said.
Although
no conservation proposal can please everyone, Riddell said he believed
the Dominguez-Escalante National Conservation Area would provide many
benefits to the local community, including hikers, local businesses and
even ranchers.
"We have done a lot of talking with a lot
of people and tried to come up with a reasonable solution that is as
reasonable as possible to as many as possible, and we think this
proposal hits the mark pretty nicely," Riddell said. "These are
gorgeous, spectacular areas with tremendous values for both their
natural and archaeological resources."
The future of the proposal may indeed rest on just how much public support it gets.
Sen.
Wayne Allard (R-Colo.) has been gathering public input on the proposal
for months and has scheduled a public forum on Dec. 14 in his Grand
Junction office to discuss the proposal.
Allard Spokesman
Steve Wymer said the state's senior senator does not have a timeline
for introducing legislation creating the national conservation area,
but he would "like to do it soon." Allard has decided to retire rather
than seek re-election in 2008, so next year could be his last
opportunity to introduce such a proposal.
Colorado's other senator, Democrat Ken Salazar, has also been seeking public input on the idea, most recently sending a
letter to commissioners in Mesa, Montrose and Delta counties in late October
asking whether they would like to see the lands designated as a
conservation area. At the time, Salazar indicated his willingness to
draft legislation should local communities want to see the land
protected.
Stephanie Valencia, a spokeswoman for Salazar,
said the local commissioners are getting close to submitting their
recommendations to the senator. "As soon as he gets those from them, he
is prepared to introduce legislation," she said.
A
spokesman for Rep. John Salazar (D-Colo.) said he plans to introduce a
bill in the House of Representatives after Sen. Salazar completes his
version of the legislation. "Once the senator is ready to go, then we
would consider action," said spokesman Eric Wortman.
Montrose County Commissioner Bill Patterson said the county is
currently working with the state's senators and Rep. Salazar on a
national conservation area designation for the Dominguez-Escalanate
canyons area. "We've talked it over with the other commissioners from
Delta and Mesa counties, and we are in agreement supporting an NCA
designation so long as it protects some grazing rights," Patterson said.
In
fact, some local ranchers have gotten behind the idea of protecting the
lands, in hopes of preserving the Uncompahgre Plateau's ranching
tradition, which is currently under threat from the Western Slope's
booming population and the respective increase in development and
recreation.
For cattle rancher Larry Jensen -- who owns a
grazing allotment in Roubideau Canyon and a private inholding at its
edge, where the canyon and mesas above its rim become part of the
10,402-acre Camelback Wilderness Study Area -- preserving the lands
also means protecting his livelihood.
"With the population
increase in western Colorado, we need to protect some of these fragile
ecosystems, but on the same side, we don't want to see those
protections become detrimental to the historical ranching operations
that have been on the plateau for several generations," Jensen said.
"So, through all these negotiations, we are trying to find a political
solution that will spell out exactly what this protection means."
Jensen said he fears off-road vehicle use could threaten his ranching operation and Roubideau Canyon's delicate ecosystem.
"It's
desert country. As a consequence, the vegetation is fairly fragile and
it's impacted rather vehemently by off-road vehicle traffic," he said.
But
any effort to close the canyons to off-road vehicles is sure to meet
fierce opposition from local riders, who consider the current
restrictions on riding too restrictive.
"We would like to
have all of the wilderness study areas and national conservation area
open for motorized use," said Walt Blackburn of the Thunder Mountain
Wheelers in Delta, Colo.
Blackburn noted that prohibiting
motor vehicle access in the canyons will simply increase traffic
elsewhere, multiplying the damage in those areas. Additionally, he
said, recognizing the canyons as a national conservation area could
make its protection more difficult.
"What bothers me most
is if they designate this as national conservation area, then everybody
in the world is going to want to come here and look at it, and we'll
have an influx of traffic that we've never had out there before,"
Blackburn said. "If they leave it as it is, we'd be better off."
Gable is an independent energy and environmental writer in Woodland Park, Colo.
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