BY GAIL BINKLY

A bill to create the "Canyons of the Ancients National Conservation Area" on 164,000 acres in western Montezuma County and part of Dolores County was introduced in the Senate by U.S. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell late Thursday afternoon.

"The next step will be to have a hearing on it," said Chris Changery, Campbell’s press secretary, on Friday. "This is the very beginning of the process."

U.S. Rep. Scott McInnis will introduce a companion bill in the House in the next couple of weeks, according to his spokesman, Josh Penry.

"Obviously we’ll be working cooperatively with Mr. Campbell to get it passed," Penry said.

The 164,000-acre tract, managed by the BLM and labeled the Anasazi Culture Multiple Use Area of Critical Environmental Concern, has been the subject of continual controversy since last May, when Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt announced during a visit to the area that it needed greater protection.

The tract is replete with Ancestral Puebloan relics, ranging from ruins with standing walls to sites with a few potsherds. It also is home to a carbon-dioxide-extracting operation by Shell Western that provides more tax revenues to the county than any other single entity.

In response to Babbitt’s concerns, the BLM’s Southwest Resource Advisory Council created a subcommittee to hear views of area citizens on what should be done with the area. The subcommittee subsequently sent Babbitt a report stating that locals were largely opposed to a new designation for the area, but wanted stricter enforcement of existing laws protecting the ruins.

Babbitt, however, replied that nothing would satisfy him but having the area designated as either a national monument or a national conservation area.

The Montezuma County commissioners, fearing that a national monument would mean greater restrictions on oil and gas extraction, grazing, and recreational uses of the area, chose to push for the other designation.

"We don’t see another option here, other than saying we don’t want anything, and then we’d end up with a monument," Commission Chairman Gene Story explained Monday to members of the Southwestern Colorado Landowners Association, who had questioned why the board was supporting the NCA designation.

Campbell’s bill states that, not more than four years after the act is enacted, the secretary of the interior must develop a long-term management plan, taking into account "the historical involvement of the local community in the interpretation and protection of the resources of the Conservation area."

The interior secretary also is to establish and appoint an advisory council consisting of 15 members, including one each nominated by the Dolores and Montezuma county commissions and 13 other persons residing in or near Southwest Colorado.

The bill also states that:

Story said Monday that there are just two old uranium-mining claims in the area and this legislation would allow those rights to be retained.

Funding for implementing and managing the NCA would have to be budgeted by Congress. The Montezuma County commissioners had estimated in one proposal that it would take an annual appropriation of $1 million a year to provide adequate staffing and support for resource management, site preservation, volunteer coordination and law enforcement for the area.

"It is imperative we protect these lands now in a reasonable manner to recognize the historical, archaeological and cultural value they hold," Campbell said in a press release. "But, I do not believe we should lock these lands from the public. When public lands are suddenly grabbed away by executive decree, it creates ill feelings and distrust."

The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah was created in 1996 by President Clinton, who invoked the Antiquities Act of 1906 to unilaterally designate the area.

But some groups, including the Utah Association of Counties and the Mountain States Legal Foundation, are challenging the legality of using the Antiquities Act to declare such a large monument and are fighting the issue in court.

In a press release Friday, McInnis said that Campbell’s bill "provides a balanced and thoughtful management approach that both preserves the ACEC’s historic integrity and protects important human uses of the land. . . ."

The Montezuma County commissioners are supporting the legislation, along with state Sen. Jim Dyer, state representatives Mark Larson and Kay Alexander, and acting BLM Director Tom Fry.