Colorado officials want to reduce proposed conservation efforts around the famed Dolores River, penning a draft proposal to shrink protected land in the area by 90%. The proposal by Mesa and Montrose county officials is now spurring anger and action from conservation groups, according to a report by the Colorado Newsline.
What's happening?
Last year, environmental advocates unveiled a proposal to designate 391,000 acres of public land centered around the Dolores River as a national monument. The Dolores River is a 241-mile waterway running through six Colorado counties — including Mesa and Montrose — and across the border into Utah. The goal was to protect a large swath of the region's impressive desert landscape, portions of which already have some protections under Bureau of Land Management designations.
In reaction, Mesa and Montrose officials recently drafted an alternative proposal to shrink the proposed protected area to just a narrow corridor along the riverbed — just under 30,000 acres. The new proposal also wants to protect this smaller area as a "national conservation area" rather than a "national monument," which is a less restrictive — and less protective — designation.
Mesa County told Colorado Newsline that the draft proposal was "another starting place for conversation." County officials say their plan protects existing water and grazing rights while still allowing access to "critical minerals necessary for meeting energy, carbon, and national security goals."
But Dolores River Boating Advocates, a local conservation group, told Colorado Newsline that the counterplan is "grossly inadequate." Protect the Dolores — a coalition of more than a dozen local, state, and national conservation groups — also told the news outlet that the proposal falls "woefully short" of needed protections.
Why is conservation near the Dolores River important?
Advocates told Colorado Newsline that the Dolores River and its surrounding watershed canyons are the state's "largest and most biodiverse stretch of unprotected public lands." The Protect the Dolores coalition says the area is degraded due to "long-term impacts of climate change, mining exploration, unplanned recreation, and development pressures."
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Protecting the Dolores River and surrounding areas as a national monument would help curb some of these impacts and pressures.
Advocates tell Colorado Newsline the new plan would also fail to protect vital wildlife habitat, fisheries, historical and cultural sites, and other important areas surrounding the riverbed.
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Mesa County also cites "energy needs" as a reason to limit protections around the Dolores. Fossil fuel and uranium mining in the area has long threatened the Dolores River, polluting the area with dangerous runoffs, as detailed by High Country News.
While protecting the Dolores as a national monument wouldn't stop mining in the area, per Protect the Dolores, it would prevent new leases in the protected land area, helping to mitigate planet-warming pollution and further harm to native ecosystems.
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What's being done to protect the land near the Dolores River?
An unrelated bill to establish protections for the southern portion of the Dolores River — in three Colorado counties outside of Mesa and Montrose — has won bipartisan support in Congress.
In reaction to the Mesa and Montrose counter-proposal, the Protect the Dolores coalition called for the federal government to step in.
"We shouldn't wait another year to see it protected, much less risk decades more of inaction," Anna Stout, a Grand Junction city council member, said in a statement by the coalition.
If you live in Colorado, you can comment on the counter-proposal online and express the need for more protections.
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