Part 2: Who speaks for the land?
West End residents voice concerns over creation of Dolores monument

(Editor’s note: The following is the second installment in a two-part series by Mancos-based reporter Ilana Newman focusing on the reactions of residents on the proposed creation of the Dolores Canyons National Monument. The monument would cover about 600 square miles in an area of western Colorado stretching from Nucla and Naturita to close to Grand Junction.) 

Historically, the West End has been a boom-bust region. From uranium to coal, the communities have gained and lost economic traction over the years. In 2019, the coal-powered Tri-State Generation plant in Nucla closed three years ahead of schedule, halting the coal mining and power industry. The region has been in economic transition ever since.

The Dolores River traverses what is known as the Uravan Mineral Belt, an area full of deposits of uranium, vanadium and radium. The former company town of Uravan, now a Superfund site, supplied uranium for the Manhattan Project in World War II. In the 1980s, the town was razed, as much of it was built with or on radioactive materials. 

With uranium prices rising and interest in nuclear energy growing, the potential for renewed mining in the Uravan Mineral Belt is on the minds of community members in the West End.

For Templeton, mining and ranching are a key piece of the West End, and a national monument feels like it would threaten this tradition – the opposite of protecting the land that he grew up on. 

The WEEDC is already working to transition away from coal and create more economic diversity. Gordon, the executive director, said that the economy is currently “very small-business driven.” Outdoor recreation is a seasonal industry, with highs during hunting season and during summer holidays. 

“Outdoor recreation, while it is very productive and it has a lot of sales-tax generation and a lot of spending in it, it doesn’t always relate to high-wage jobs,” Gordon said. “Mining could assist with some of those higher-wage jobs that don’t always equate to sales-tax development.”

Scott Braden, the executive director of Colorado Wildlands Project and a member of Protect the Dolores, agrees that mining is an important industry for the West End. “That’s why it’s so important to get the boundaries (of the monument) right, which we can do by coming to the table and having these conversations,” Braden said.

Community Connected to the Land

Later that Tuesday afternoon in May, in Nucla Town Park, former mayor of Nucla, Richard Craig, wandered over to join a conversation with Katey Herland. Craig wore a tie-dye shirt and switched back and forth between his family’s barbeque and the conversation with Herland.

Herland’s family bought the ranch that would be surrounded by the proposed national monument in the 1980s. Now she worries that a national monument designation could lead to being forced into selling her property. 

Forcing a landowner to sell part or all of their land that is surrounded by public land is known as an inholding acquisition. It is primarily done in wilderness areas (to maintain continuity of land management), which the area surrounding Herland’s property is not. 

Herland has other concerns about the national monument proposal, but not because she’s “opposed to conservation and environmentalism. We’re talking about the principles of how things like this need to be done. These movements need to be locally led.”

She would rather just have the resources to take care of the area locally. “This is a community that is very much connected to the land,” Herland said. This connection is exemplified by the way community members showed up for firefighters on the Bucktail fire, which started on Aug. 1, 2024, northeast of Nucla. Residents, including some interviewed for this story, came together to make tacos and other meals and deliver it all to the firefighters – showing up for the land they love. 

“We need to be having a different conversation about conservation and environmentalism, which is how do we better support local communities in these efforts?” Herland said. “We have probably … two dozen people that would willfully want to be involved in maintaining this area. If we need to come up with an improved management plan, we have the boots on the ground here that are willing to do that.

“When you have people who are not connected to an area coming into an area, whether they like to recreate or not, that doesn’t mean that they have the area at heart. They don’t have an affinity for the area the way that the locals do,” Herland said.

Scott Braden lives about two hours from Nucla and Naturita in Grand Junction, the “big city” of the Western Slope of Colorado (population 68,000). Braden is the executive director of Colorado Wildlands Project, a nonprofit that works to protect and advocate for Bureau of Land Management land in Colorado. Braden and Colorado Wildlands Project is a part of Protect the Dolores, the coalition working to do just that – protect the Dolores River and the land surrounding it. 

In May, Mesa County, home of Grand Junction, passed a resolution opposing the national monument, because it “did not adequately consider local needs and input.” A survey of Montrose and Mesa County residents found that 60% did not support a national monument. 

In July, Mesa and Montrose counties proposed an alternative to Dolores Canyons National Monument in the form of a National Conservation Area (NCA). The proposed NCA would be 29,806 acres, less than a 10th of the currently proposed size. Proponents of the national monument say that the NCA is not enough protection for the land around the Dolores River. 

Speaking for the coalition, Braden sees a national monument as a way to protect the future of the region by getting ahead of future issues like over-visitation – which Braden sees as an inevitability whether or not the monument designation goes through.

“I really think a national monument is a way to get ahead on that and make some intelligent choices around building out infrastructure on the public land as appropriate, and just making sure that this landscape is well positioned to most resiliently face that future,” Braden said.

Dolores Canyons National Monument would border the proposed National Conservation Area if Congress approves the NCA. The conservation area legislation was introduced by Sen. Michael Bennet and Sen. John Hickenlooper, both Democrats, to Congress in 2023. In July, after community meetings in the West End, Bennet and Hickenlooper released a joint statement on the proposed monument that supports many community concerns.

For the Protect the Dolores coalition and Braden, cohesive land management through a monument designation would protect the region from future development and protect biodiversity while supporting outdoor recreation including hiking, camping, hunting, fishing, off- highway vehicles and more. 

“Monument designation is specifically intended to protect those resources,” Teal Lehto, who advocates for land and water protection through her platform Western Water Girl, said. “The folks that are working toward that protection have the same goals in mind. They want to make sure that that place stays the same way that it is right now. As the current management stands, that is not necessarily always going to be the case. There is a possibility of those lands being disposed of, leased or developed in the future.”

“Accessible, Protected & Beautiful”

Members of the Protect the Dolores Coalition and community members in the West End said repeatedly they want the same thing: for the landscape around the Dolores River to remain accessible, protected and beautiful for future generations.

Braden with Protect the Dolores said that community input would be necessary for future resource management plans for a potential monument, and that no decisions have been made about future management. He wants to connect with the community and make sure that everyone’s definition of “protect” is met. “We’re really happy to talk to anybody about their concerns,” he said.

But Herland would rather leave that discussion up to the locals. “What we need to be building on and empowering is the small, locally led, community-driven groups that want to protect and preserve this for future generations,” she said. “They have everything invested in this.”

This story was produced with support from the LOR  (“Livability, Opportunity and Responsibility”) Foundation. LOR works with people in rural places to improve quality of life. ?