Last week, the Forum reported that a working group — led by commissioners Cody Davis and Sue Hansen, of Mesa and Montrose counties, respectively — is willing to compromise on the establishment of a national monument along the Dolores River Canyon, by instead agreeing to a national conservation area (NCA).
Sean Pond, of Nucla and who’s been leading the opposition to a national monument, is displeased with that compromise.
The Forum spoke with Pond last week to get his insight.
He said the threat of a national monument proposal is winding down and in its final days.
“It will either happen in the next 38 days, or we can say that we won this battle this time, and be ready for the next attack on public lands access,” he said.
He said 90 percent of his issue with the NCA compromise is that it was “hashed out behind closed doors with selected groups who have nothing to lose.”
He said the community leaders standing in support of Davis and Hansen don’t own property on the Dolores River, and the working group isn’t inviting those who do to be a part of their work.
He also said that in public meetings he’s previously attended, most people have been opposed to an NCA, and a recent poll he just conducted online also shows similar data.
Pond is terrified of the legal restrictions NCAs have. He said rancher Bryce Casto deals with the Dominguez-Escalante NCA, and there’s a 473-page rule book that Casto is supposed to abide by. One of the rules is that Casto is supposed to decontaminate his cows’ hooves, should they enter the NCA or leave it. Pond says the ruling document looks like a phone book it’s so thick.
He also said the government regularly adds to it, and this year alone 22 new gates were put up, closing access. According to Pond, that’s what happens with NCAs: roads get closed and managing agencies pass more and more restrictive measures.
He said even more problematic is that when too many people visit, they close access, and when not enough visit, they do the same.
“It’s a double-edged sword,” he said. “The commissioners and working group, they think their strong language will protect it with an NCA. Historically and factually, it doesn’t work that way."
He said the managing agency will interpret the language, and restrictions will increase.
Pond’s stance is that the Dolores River Canyon is already protected.
“It absolutely is,” he said again last week.
He shared predictions of what will transpire in the future, predictions that are only his opinions. He believes the national monument has been halted, “though time will tell.”
As for the NCA, he said there’s a comment period that began at the end of last week, but he doesn’t think it will last long. He thinks the NCA will be presented to legislators who will take it to Congress.
His opinion is that a package deal will be created, one that includes the Gunnsion Outdoor Resources Protection (GORP) Act; the southern Dolores River NCA, which has had bipartisan support the last 15 years; and the NCA to the north, now in question, the subject of a potential monument, and hotly debated the last year.
“Will the working group and commissioners slow down? And can we get together on the same page to protect public lands access, while keeping conservation in mind?” Pond asked the Forum.
He said there’s a strong correlation between land and liberty in the U.S., something he wants the public to think about.
