BY GAIL BINKLY

Claiming that federal agencies are overstepping their authority in a variety of realms, a group of landowners urged the Montezuma County commissioners Monday to fight the government on everything from road access to the status of Anasazi ruins west of Cortez.

The commissioners, however, promised nothing, saying they had to mull the issues first.

Chester Tozer, president of the Southwest Colorado Landowners Association, said many owners are concerned about access to "inholdings," pockets of private property within national forests or other public lands.

He said two landowners in the Disappointment Valley received letters saying they would have to sign a special-use permit to have continued access to their property.

Diana Luppi, who is embroiled in a legal dispute with the Forest Service over access to her inholding on the San Juan National Forest near Pagosa Springs, said the federal government is making an example of her as part of a plot to take over all such private properties.

Luppi, repeating her oft-told tale, said the Forest Service is trying to take away her right to use approximately one-half mile of a road within the forest to reach her tract. The Forest Service required her to obtain a special-use permit and sign an agreement to use the road, she said; her refusal landed her in court on criminal charges.

She said she finally signed the agreement under duress but will continue to fight the issue.

"They’re going to use this as a precedent against all of you," Luppi told the 14 or 15 other citizens present.

Closer to home, the Forest Service has implemented some seasonal road closures on roads that go to private land, several citizens complained.

"What we want is for the commissioners to go up and jerk those gates out of the ground and tell them, if they put another one in there, you’ll put them in jail," said one man, praising the commissioners in San Juan County, Utah, for recently having their local sheriff remove some road-closure signs on BLM lands.

The audience also questioned why the commissioners have chosen to support the idea of a national-conservation-area designation for 165,000 acres of BLM land on the McElmo Dome, rather than fighting any change in status for the ruins-rich region.

U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt has been pushing for greater protection for the area and has stated that only a national-monument or conservation-area designation would satisfy his concerns.

The commissioners have said they believe a national conservation area, which has to be designated by Congress, would be easier for locals to live with than a national monument.

The latter designation can be made by President Clinton single-handedly, and could mean stricter regulations than a national conservation area, which is created through legislation that is written specifically for each area.

But Tozer said that, at one national conservation area in California, landowners were promised that uses and access in the area would not change, but soon motorized access was denied to owners of inholdings. He urged the commissioners to say no to any change in status for the McElmo Dome.

Commission Chairman Gene Story said the board is doing the best it can with the options available.

"When all of this started last summer (with Babbitt’s first visit to the area), we were as puzzled as you were why this was coming down," Story responded. "We were told this was a funding mechanism to get additional revenues to address some of the damages (to ruins) that were occurring out there over time."

The commissioners went to Colorado’s congressional delegation, suggesting that revenues from carbon-dioxide and gas extraction in the area could be used to beef up protection for the area.

"But we couldn’t get as much as a whisper in response," Story said. "They felt better going at each other head-to-head and lobbing missiles from one camp to the other."

Meanwhile, the commissioners were getting "strong signals" from Babbitt’s office that he would have President Clinton declare the area a national monument unless legislation was in the works for a national conservation area, Story said, so they opted to support such legislation.

Sen. Ben Campbell’s office is preparing a draft bill, Story said, and the commissioners will ensure that the language includes specific protections for landowners and recreational users.

But Tozer maintained that a national monument might be better because a national conservation area, once created by Congress, could not be "undone."

A national monument could be overturned, Tozer claimed, because it would be declared under the Antiquities Act, and some groups have gone to court to challenge the legality of that process, which was used to create the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah.

"Has one ever been revoked?" asked Commissioner Kent Lindsay. Tozer said he did not know.

Tozer said the commissioners should place a long-distance call to Michael Coffman, a one-world-government conspiracy theorist who lectured in Cortez in May 1998. "He’ll tell you about national conservation areas," Tozer said.

"I don’t put much stock in Michael Coffman," Lindsay responded. "I think he’s akin to a medicine show. He comes to town, gets people all worked up, sells his books and tapes, and leaves town with your money."

Story repeated that Babbitt has made it clear he will have a national monument declared if there is no push for a national conservation area.

"If we draw a line in the sand and say, ‘We don’t want anything,’ we’ll wind up with a monument," Story said. "We can work toward getting it revoked, but there are no precedents there. Or do we try to get some type of legislation you can live with?"

But audience member Gary Shaw said it would be better to stand up to the government. "I think the people would rather go down fighting," he said.

Another audience member, Mike Graves, accused the commissioners of taking payoffs.

"Is someone telling you you can keep your operation if you sell out all of ours?" he asked, a remark that Commissioner Kelly Wilson said he resented.

Shaw suggested an injunction could be filed in federal court to stop any designation "so we could just buy a little time" while the Utah challenge to the national-monument declaration wends its way through the courts.

"That’s our problem," Story responded, saying he strongly believes there will be a change in designation for the McElmo Dome area before Clinton leaves office.

"We’re trying to come up with legislation you can support, that will retain your rights," said Story. "You want us to say we’ll fight anything, we’ll just say no, but it’s not that damn simple. I wish it was."

Story also said he wanted more information on road-access problems before taking action.