Western Slope residents want the Dolores River area protected and enjoyed as is, not exploited with a national monument declaration from an unpopular president desperate for reelection gimmicks.
A recent poll revealed that 60% of those surveyed in Mesa, Montrose, and San Miguel counties oppose national monument designation and control by beltway bureaucrats.
They want to keep control in local hands, they’re concerned about the negative impact a national designation would have on the environment and local economy, and they see the current restrictions on use are already working to protect the canyon.
As usual, driving this proposal are the outside environmental activists always exploiting our natural resources to raise money for their multi-million dollar “non-profits” and add notches to their belts of power in government.
Abusing the Antiquities Act has been part of the political playbook for Democrat presidential candidates since Bill Clinton, who obnoxiously abused the law 19 times to reinforce his base of environmental voters across the West.
Now these special interest groups are courting Biden to lock up 400,000 acres of canyonland surrounding the Dolores River as their new trophy.
The Mesa County Commissioners this week passed a resolution telling the president thanks, but no thanks, please leave the canyonlands alone.
From Colorado Public Radio:
“Turning the Dolores area into a national monument … is like taking a sledgehammer to hang a picture on the wall. The tool, in my opinion, is far too blunt for the specific and tailored approach that it needs,” Mesa County Commissioner Cody Davis said.
County commissioners in Montrose have also passed a resolution opposing the national designation, which too often is turning into national tourism destinations and doing more harm than good.
Environmentalists insist they are working with stakeholders to address all concerns, but it seems anyone who expresses opposition about the plot is being left out of the discussions.
Biden’s presidency may be an unmitigated clown show that gets more ridiculous by the hour, but the leftist lemmings who have conquered Colorado would sooner vote for climate change than cast a ballot for Trump.
Biden doesn’t need this monument. Let him look elsewhere.