Two wilderness areas proposed for remote BLM lands within Montezuma County are too impractical because of the designation’s restrictions on multiple use and a lack of community-wide support for creating them, the county commissioners said last week.

A resolution was passed expressing opposition to wilderness designations sought for Weber and Menefee mountains southeast of Mancos, and for Cross/Mares Tail Canyons near the Utah border. The commission said they would not support a wilderness designation for the approximately 45,000 acres, especially after the 164,000-acre Canyons of the Ancients National Monument was created here with what they perceive as limited community input.

"We have already been hit down here enough, we have never been contacted about this, and I have not heard community support for what is being proposed," said Commissioner Gene Story. "As far as Mares Tail Canyon, I’ve never even heard of it, and I wonder how valid (the claims) for wilderness really are."

The commission also questioned whether Cross Canyon would qualify under the strict criteria for pristine wilderness because of its numerous roads and scattered development. And, they warned, highlighting new wilderness areas on maps is risky because it could bring unneeded attention leading to increased impacts, threatening the intent of the preservationist designation.

It was noted that part of the Cross Canyon wilderness proposal actually sits within the Canyons of the Ancients, which the commission thought was overkill.

Describing the monument as "imposed by the recent Clinton Administration" and expressing "dismay at the process with which wilderness areas including national monuments are designated, "the commission asserted that the proposed areas" be forever left out of any wilderness designation on behalf of the Federal Government," as stated in the resolution.

The targeted sites in the two-county area are among dozens in southwest Colorado and the Western Slope being proposed for wilderness under a bill sponsored by U.S. Representatives Diana DeGette, D-Colo., and Mark Udall, D-Colo.

In all, the bill — known as the Colorado Wilderness Act — would designate 1.35 million acres of mostly BLM lands as wilderness. The federal designation forbids mining, new trail- or road-building, grazing, large-scale logging, and motorized or bicycle travel.

Advocates of the bill say that it represents a mere 2 percent of the total Colorado land base, protects untouched wildlands for future generations, and preserves natural corridors wild animals rely on to safely travel between summer and winter ranges.

At the urging of Colorado Counties, Inc., DeGette has held off on including in her bill 13 counties with wilderness proposals, including Montezuma and Dolores, in order to allow time for public hearings on the issue to take place. The commission did not indicate that hearings would be held, and were skeptical whether local input would really matter since DeGette said earlier this month that she plans to include those areas left out when the bill is amended July 1 at any rate.