BY DAVID GRANT LONG

The future of 165,000 acres of BLM land in western Montezuma County, which may be designated a national monument unless Congress acts this session to provide an alternative, was a hot topic during U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard’s town meeting in Cortez Thursday.

As he has previously, Allard lambasted the Clinton administration for its ham-handed approach to public-lands issues, which, he charged, neglects to take local concerns into account before making decisions that affect residents’ lives.

"The president and the secretary of the interior go and make these designations without any studies and this is what happens," he said. "We have private lands in there and a lot of what they’re suggesting doesn’t make any sense.

"We’re doing everything we can to possibly to help you," he added. "I’m working with Congressman McInnis and Senator Campbell on strategies we can develop to prevent this from happening.

"The environmental community always gives me a zero because I represent Western values."

Known as the Anasazi Culture Area of Critical Environmental Concern, the expanse of sandstone canyons and sage-covered mesas is dotted with thousands of ruin sites, a designation that covers anything from a small concentration of pottery shards to standing walls of dwellings; however, it also contains numerous CO2 gas wells and is used for grazing by area ranchers who hold federal permits. Recreational users also frequent the area for hiking, biking and horseback riding.

After a visit in May, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt declared the ruins needed more protection and suggested that designating the area as a national monument would be one way of accomplishing this. That possibility sparked a series of BLM-sponsored public meetings in Cortez last summer during which local stakeholders strongly recommended less drastic measures involving more rigorous enforcement of the existing regulations through a major increase in funding. There was widespread concern expressed that national-monument designation would drastically curtail the current multiple uses of the area and result in fees for whatever uses were still allowed.

However, when he returned last fall, Babbitt rejected that notion and said the only acceptable alternative to a national monument would be for Congress to provide additional protections by creating a national conservation area; he said unless this was done, he will ask President Clinton to declare it a national monument before leaving office.

But Allard maintained that Clinton’s use of the Antiquities Act for such designations is unconstitutional, and suggested that the next president, should a Republican be elected, could "undeclare" the ACEC area if Clinton does this.

"We need to make sure we get a president in office who’s going to have some respect for public lands and respect for the Congress and their role in government," he said. "I think the most expeditious way (to counter the proposal) is to change presidents and get the right guy in there who will have respect for some of these Western values."

Although it moves too slowly to block the proposed action, Allard predicted the U.S. Supreme Court will eventually agree with his position that these designations must also be approved by Congress.

"If we go through the Congress, there’s an opportunity for hearings and local people can express their concerns," he said, "and you avoid making some of the silly mistakes that have been made here with this (proposed) designation."

Gene Story, chairman of the Montezuma County Commission, asked Allard if he would support legislation that would designate the ACEC as a national conservation area. Story said the commission preferred this action as the lesser of evils that had been offered by Babbitt.

"A unilateral monument classification is nothing this community wants or feels like it can live with," he said, "mainly because of the impact on the multiple-use concept —60 percent of the revenue for the county comes from that CO2 production."

"Now we’re looking at a national conservation area," he said, "and we heard in the last few days that Sen. Campbell is willing to draft that legislation, which we understand can ensure multiple use.

"Are you willing to work closely with Sen. Campbell in ensuring we get some legislation that will protect what we feel is critical out there?" Story asked.

"The answer is an unqualified ‘yes’," Allard responded.

Commissioner Kent Lindsay said the extensive mapping of the ACEC that would accompany any elevated designation would be "great for pot hunters," since they would be able to locate promising areas that much easier.

"If they want to protect it, I would leave it alone," Lindsay said, with no additional documentation of the mostly remote ruin sites.

Ute Mountain Ute tribal council member Carl Knight also protested the proposed designation because, he said, the ACEC area includes some tribal trust lands that would be affected.

"We, as a tribe, do not want to get sucked in to what’s going on down there," Knight said, explaining that he had informed Babbitt of this during his most recent visit, but the secretary had turned a deaf ear to his concerns.

"(Babbitt) kind of put his head up and put his head down and walked off," he said.

Knight said the BLM "didn’t do its homework" in researching what tribal lands are contained within the ACEC.

However, Mark Stiles, regional BLM manager, said yesterday that after extensive research that involved consulting county records as well as those of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, no evidence of such trust lands could be discovered.

"We’ve just been unable to verify that," Stiles said, "and when we spoke with Carl, he really couldn’t tell us where it was.

"I’ve seen that issue raised several time," he added, "but there’s no evidence whatsoever that we have."