NATIONAL MONUMENT: Colo. senators urge Obama to act on Browns Canyon designation
Phil Taylor, E&E reporter
Published: Wednesday, November 26, 2014
Colorado's two Democratic senators yesterday asked President Obama to consider using his executive powers to protect Browns Canyon along a stretch of the Arkansas River popular among anglers and whitewater rafters.
The letter to Obama from Sens. Mark Udall and Michael Bennet marks a turning point in a decadelong legislative push to protect the rugged granite canyon and surrounding wildlife, including black bears, bighorn sheep, elk and mule deer.
The senators said efforts to pass Udall's S. 1794, to designate 22,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service lands along the Arkansas River as the Browns Canyon National Monument, have been stymied by congressional gridlock and that it's time for Obama to act.
"We feel the future economic benefits of a national monument designation are significant for the region, and we should not allow congressional gridlock to deprive Colorado of those benefits," the senators wrote. "We believe it is necessary to begin discussing the possibility of a national monument designation under the Antiquities Act. As part of this process, we hope that administration officials can visit Chaffee County to hear directly from Coloradans about the future of Browns Canyon and its value to their community."
The letter was opposed by Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.),, whose 5th District encompasses the canyon and who has not sponsored a companion bill in the House.
"The use of the Antiquities Act to circumvent Congress is an abuse of executive privilege that robs the American people of a fair and open process and stifles the input of the affected community," he said in a statement. "I am disappointed in Sens. Bennet and Udall for trying to shut out some of my constituent's opposition instead of working to address their concerns."
A Conservation Colorado poll from last summer found that 3 in 4 Coloradans support protecting Browns Canyon as a national monument, according to The Chaffee County Times. The proposal is also backed by the mayors of Buena Vista and Salida, which bookend the proposed monument to the north and south, and two of Chaffee County's three commissioners, according to the senators.
The Obama administration at a July hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee backed Udall's bill, which also calls for more than 10,000 acres of wilderness within the monument, a higher form of protection that only Congress can grant.
The senators' call for White House action was praised by sportsmen's groups, including Trout Unlimited, which touts Browns Canyon as part of the state's longest gold-medal trout fishery. It also drew support from recreational outfitters, who take thousands of rafters down the river each year.
"A lot of people put national monuments on their bucket list," said Joe Greiner, owner of Wilderness Aware Rafting in Buena Vista.
The Obama administration took a cautious approach to national monument designations during its first term but in the past year has shown a willingness to designate larger and more contentious areas.
Obama in May designated the 500,000-acre Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument in southern New Mexico, in spite of opposition from the local congressman, Republican Steve Pearce.
He last month designated the 350,000-acre San Gabriel Mountains National Monument outside of Los Angeles, a couple of months after five House Democrats from California urged him to do so.
A similar move could score political points in Colorado, which is expected to be a key battleground state in the 2016 presidential election. It would be a going-away present for Udall, who lost his re-election race this month to Rep. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.).
Obama has said he plans to continue using his monument powers under the Antiquities Act, but Interior Secretary Sally Jewell in late May told Greenwire that Browns Canyon was not yet on her radar for monument protections.
Republicans have opposed monument designations, calling them a run around Congress. Critics say the 1906 law was intended to protect small areas at imminent threat of development or plunder but that it is being used today for political gain.
The Denver Post in a December 2013 editorial said designating Browns Canyon as a monument is "long overdue," in part because it would prevent new mining claims, though the Post at the time also noted that congressional designation is preferable.
How a presidential monument is managed -- including what roads stay open and which uses may continue -- is determined in large part by what values the president orders protected in the monument proclamation.
Udall has said his bill would maintain existing uses, including river running, hunting, angling, grazing and motorized access on all designated roads in the area. The bill also contains language saying local ranchers can continue to run livestock in the area, as well as a boundary adjustment to clearly exclude cattle watering tanks from the national monument.
