Key issues regarding funding for the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument are set for debate as Congress reconvenes this week, with the U.S. Senate poised to vote on its version of 2001 budget appropriations for the nation within the next few days.

On Monday the Montezuma County Commission drafted and then faxed a letter to senators Ben Nighthorse Campbell and Wayne Allard reminding them of the financial burden local governments will have if no funding is authorized for the newly created national monument.

The letter asks Campbell and Allard to support funding for Canyons of the Ancients, noting that "it would be risky to let the management of this area drift on the basis on interim guidelines established without local involvement."

"We need to get the advisory group in place and immediately begin to engage the planning and management of the area," the letter states. "If funding is denied, we will lose this opportunity."

But in June, James Doyle, a spokesman for Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colo.), who sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said Campbell would not support any additional funding for this or other national monuments.

"We don’t have the funding mechanisms in place to properly support our current national parks and monuments," said Doyle.

In June, the U.S. House voted not to fund three new monuments created earlier this year, and if the Senate does the same the commissioners are worried that local governments will be forced to cover costs associated with managing the monument, such as search and rescue, fire suppression and law enforcement.

Monument designations typically result in increased visitation, boosting the need for monies. Visitation to the Grand Staircase-Escalante in Utah increased 250 percent after it was designated a monument in 1996, the commissioners’ letter notes.

Budget allowances for Clinton’s recent national monuments have still not been established, a result of a political debate over the fairness of designating monuments without congressional approval. Clinton has used the 1906 Antiquities Act to create monuments upon his authority alone.

That political backlash against the creation of national monuments had held up the budget in the House for the Bureau of Land Management, the federal agency responsible for managing the new monuments.

However, money to start a local advisory committee for Canyon of the Ancients may be allocated to the BLM through its regular budget, a possibility that is the best hope for getting the public process on the specifics of the management plan moving forward, according to Mike Preston, federal-lands coordinator for the county.

"The planning division in Washington told me that funding for planning the monuments is a priority," Preston said, adding that if start-up money is allocated, the advisory committee could get started by October.

Who will sit on that committee has not been decided, pending the formation of a charter that will screen potential candidates and decide what role the local advisory group will have in the final management plan.

Mark Stiles, regional BLM manager in Montrose, is responsible for any of the BLM’s national monuments or national conservation areas in Colorado. Stiles, along with Cal Joyner, BLM’s San Juan Field Office manager, are heading up the management plan for Canyons of the Ancients and will be writing the first draft of the advisory charter. From there it will be sent to Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt’s staff for final approval.

The commissioners were adamant that the advisory board be up and running before any specific decisions are made on the monument regarding new restrictions outlined in the proclamation.