By Ruby Gail Binkly

U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt is still on the verge of designating the McElmo Dome area west of Cortez as a national monument, largely because he feels Colorado’s congressional delegation will not work with him on an alternative measure, according to Greg Walcher, director of the state Department of Natural Re-sources.

"He’s not telling me he’s upset with the locals there or the BLM or the RAC (Resource Advisory Council), but he thinks the congressional delegation is being intransigent," Walcher told the Montezuma County commissioners Monday via a conference call.

Walcher repeated his offer to do whatever he can to resolve the issue, and the commissioners encouraged him to try to arrange a discussion involving Babbitt, Colorado’s congressmen, and county representatives.

Walcher had written a letter to Babbitt on Oct. 14 offering his help in facilitating discussions that might break the gridlock on the question of how to manage the 165,000-acre Anasazi Culture Multiple Use Area of Critical Environmental Concern west of Cortez.

That area, which is managed by the BLM, contains a number of Ancestral Puebloan ruins sites. The vast majority are underground or consist only of crumbled walls and are not noticeable to the average observer.

However, they harbor a number of relics that can attract pothunters, and Babbitt -- who toured the area briefly in May -- has insisted that they need greater protection. Two options for providing it, he noted, would be creating a national monument, which can be done by the president invoking the Antiquities Act, or designating a national conservation area, which must be done by Congress.

After his visit, the BLM’s Southwest RAC created a committee that held public meetings and came out with a report voicing the views of the community, which were largely opposed to national-monument designation. Locals instead urged greater protection through efforts of volunteer organizations, as well as increased funding for the BLM to enforce the laws already existing to protect such ancient ruins.

But Walcher said Monday that Babbitt has not been particularly receptive to that report.

"I frankly did not get the impression from him in the meeting the other day that he was prepared to accept that," Walcher said. "He’s under a lot of pressure from national environmental organizations in Washington to designate a national monument there.

"He stopped just short of doing that. He did make it very clear to me that the status quo is not acceptable, and, for whatever reason, he has the sense that a lot of the local people are not willing to bend from the status quo, and that’s not my understanding."

Meanwhile, senators Ben Nighthorse Campbell and Wayne Allard and Rep. Scott McInnis have all urged Babbitt to heed the voices of the local populace and abandon the national-monument idea.

"We believe that the Southwest Resource Advisory Council (RAC) has been very clear in stating its conclusion that the current management status of the Southwest Region can adequately address the areas’ needs and concerns," the three congressmen wrote in a joint letter to Babbitt dated Oct. 7."Our fellow Coloradans do not want to face an experience similar to the heavy-handed federal action which led to the designation of the 1.7 million acres for the Grand Staircase-Escalante Monument in Utah."

Babbitt, however, maintains that the congressional delegation is unwilling to work with him on an alternative such as a national conservation area, a rare designation that allows Congress to write a management plan specific to the site.

Concerned that Babbitt and President Clinton would soon take unilateral action, the county commissioners wrote Babbitt as well as the members of the congressional delegation recently suggesting a third alternative that would maintain the area’s current status but protect it through stronger enforcement of existing laws. That would require additional funding of approximately $1 million per year, they estimated. The funds would pay for four new full-time BLM employees, a NEPA analysis, a community-stewardship program, and site preservation, including inventories of sites, signage and stabilization.

All this could be done without declaring the area a national monument, a designation that the commissioners fear would draw a huge number of additional visitors without bringing much more funding. "Nobody disagrees that the resource needs additional protections," said commission chairman Gene Story on Monday, "but there have to be some other options there. We came up with a third alternative and we would like to have the opportunity to openly discuss that. If we could get these people in the same room. . ."Walcher said that was his hope as well, that he did not want to repeat the public process that had already occurred through the RAC committee but that he wanted to involve the congressional delegation and Babbitt in some direct talks.

"That’s what I’ve suggested to him (Babbitt)," Walcher said, "and I’m waiting for a response."

Story reiterated that the commissioners’ fear is that the impasse between Babbitt and the congressional delegation will result in a national monument that exists in name only, without any additional funding forthcoming from Congress.