Monument dominates RAC topics

Monument dominates RAC topics

Sept. 16, 2000

By Janelle Holden
Journal Staff Writer

The newly proclaimed Canyons of the Ancients National Monument west of Cortez was one of the top items of discussion at the BLM’s Southwest Colorado Resource Advisory Council meeting on Friday.

LouAnn Jacobson, the monument’s interim manager, gave the 12 out of 15 members who attended an update on the monument’s status. She said she plans to submit a draft charter to Washington, D.C., by the end of the month to establish the monument’s local advisory committee.

The group, charted under the Federal Advisory Committee Act of 1972, would be composed of nine to 11 local citizens representing a broad range of land-use interests. The committee must apply for renewal after two years.

BLM officials said that although the monument will still be within the council’s region, they are chartering a new, local group to advise the BLM on monument planning issues.

"Our intention would be that the local advisory committee’s function would be about the planning process," said Cal Joyner, manager of the BLM’s San Juan field office. "They would be the focal group, but there would be nothing that would prevent the RAC from commenting on the monument, just from a different perspective."

Joyner assured landowners who attended the meeting that the local advisory committee would be composed of varied interests. "We will try to get people that represent the diversity of opinions of how the land will be managed and the resources will be managed," said Joyner.

Jacobson said it would likely take two months for the charter to be approved by Washington, D.C., officials.

She also reported that the BLM’s state director, Ann Morgan, has approved four new positions to begin managing the monument. Jacobson and Joyner are currently developing job descriptions for a monument manager, planner, archaeologist, and law-enforcement officer.

On Monday they also submitted an organizational plan to the Washington, D.C., office that included 10 additional monument employees. Jacobson said that, if the plan is approved, the BLM would employ natural- and cultural-resource specialists, a recreation planner, and a visitors’ services specialist to help manage the monument. However, she said they most likely wouldn’t be hired until some time next year as funding becomes available.

A temporary law-enforcement officer arrived on Monday to help the current law-enforcement officer, Lanny Wagner, during the busiest time of the year.

Jacobson told the board that so far there hasn’t been a significant increase in the number of tourists wanting to visit the area, but that could change this fall.

Mark Stiles, manager of the Southwest regional BLM office, said that although Congress has not finalized the annual appropriations for BLM next year, they expect to be able to run the monument with their annual appropriations.

Joyner said that the monument is likely to become a line item in the next budget. "Whether there will be special monies or not, we’ll see. It does look good at this point," said Joyner.

Mike Preston, Montezuma County federal-lands coordinator, expressed the county’s interest in moving forward with the local advisory group.

"There is definitely going to be a concerted effort to develop the relationship between the more formal BLM process with citizen participation," said Preston on Friday.

The county has been working with the BLM to synchronize their GIS maps of the boundaries of federal and private lands lying within the 164,000-acre monument, Preston said.

Jacobson said that the BLM would be making every effort to involve the public in helping to protect the monument’s resources. The BLM is helping to sponsor the Southwest Colorado Cultural Site Stewardship Program, a new program developed by the newly merged San Juan Mountains Association and Southwest Outdoor Volunteers.

Amy Wise, the program’s director, briefed the RAC on the program. She said the program would teach volunteers how to monitor historical and archaeological sites. These volunteers would then submit their data to the appropriate land-management agency, and be equipped to educate others about how to "respect" the site.

Wise said the volunteer training would begin in November, and she hopes to have volunteers in the field starting in January 2001.

In response to questions by board member Andrea Robinsong, from Hotchkiss, Wise assured the board that the volunteers would not act as volunteer law-enforcement officers, but rather as educational stewards who report damages to the sites.

The council, which serves as an adviser to the BLM, also discussed several other topics of interest.

Chip Marlow, resource adviser for the BLM Southwest Center, presented a video on the BLM’s recommendation to Congress to declare 400,000 acres of BLM land in Colorado as wilderness. Currently 1.2 million acres of BLM are wilderness study areas, but BLM cannot release them from de-facto wilderness designation until Congress acts on their recommendations.

Rep. Diane DeGette (D-Denver) is currently proposing that all of the study areas be designated wilderness, including some lands that haven’t been studied.

At the end of the meeting, Erin Johnson from Cortez was re-elected co-chair of the council, and Roy Johnson from Montrose elected to share the position.

Johnson, County Commissioner Kelly Wilson, and Carl Knight, the Ute Mountain Ute tribal representative from Towaoc, were at the meeting to represent interests in the area. M.B. McAfee from Lewis was recently appointed to represent environmental interests, but could not attend this meeting.