NATIONAL MONUMENTS: Interior chief, House Republican clash over Colo. designation
Phil Taylor, E&E reporter: E&E News
Thursday, March 5, 2015
Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) was wrong to suggest that the Obama administration failed to seek public input before declaring a 21,000-acre national monument protecting Browns Canyon, according to a Colorado conservationist, a mayor and Interior Secretary Sally Jewell.
At a budget hearing today before the House Natural Resources Committee, Lamborn claimed President Obama last month designated the canyon in central Colorado without "any solicitation of public input."
The claim was patently false, Jewell said.
"There was public input, congressman, and we are committed to continuing to get public input," Jewell said. "I value public input."
In fact, Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell and Bureau of Land Management Deputy Director Steve Ellis came to Salida, Colo., in early December to take the public's pulse on a monument. They heard strong support from residents, business owners and conservation groups (Greenwire, Dec. 8, 2014).
The meeting was hosted by then-Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.), whose bill -- on which the monument proclamation was based -- received a hearing last July before the Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
Keith Baker, who leads Friends of Browns Canyon, and Joel Benson, mayor of Buena Vista, Colo., which is north of the monument, also challenged Lamborn's claim.
"I am disappointed that Representative Lamborn continues to be out of touch with his district and insists on making false claims about the long history of community input into the Browns Canyon National Monument," Baker said in a statement. "Chaffee County residents have had dozens of public comment opportunities on Browns Canyon, including most recently in a public hearing in December, and have expressed overwhelming support time and time again."
Baker said the public has had ample opportunities to weigh in on the monument, as evidenced by a timelineof events compiled by The Chaffee County Times.
In addition, there was a 2012 meeting at Mount Princeton Hot Springs Resort that included elected and appointed officials, motorized recreationists, rafters, ranchers and hikers, and an April 2013 public hearing hosted by Udall and attended by Lamborn at Noah's Ark Whitewater Rafting in Nathrop, he said.
Buena Vista and Salida, which bookend the monument to the north and south, unanimously approved resolutions supporting the designation prior to its being declared.
Lamborn, whose 5th District encompasses the Browns Canyon area, warned last month that presidentially designated monuments don't receive adequate funding and are generally viewed as "orphans" in the nation's vast public lands system.
"This is because they are created outside the normal congressional process and without local consensus, robbing the people of fair and open input," Lamborn said then. "Browns Canyon does not deserve this kind of second-class status."
