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In a special episode of The Landscape podcast, host Kate Groetzinger visits the Dolores River Canyon Country in southwest Colorado, along with her colleagues Lauren Bogard and Sterling Homard, to speak with some of the folks supporting efforts to protect the special region as the Dolores Canyons National Monument.
The Dolores River’s riparian zone contains the largest and most biodiverse stretch of unprotected public lands in Colorado. Advocates have called on President Joe Biden to designate the area as a national monument to safeguard the region's wildlife, cultural resources, and outdoor recreation opportunities. There is also a proposal that would establish a national conservation area, which would protect the river corridor south of the proposed national monument. The proposed monument and NCA would together protect important values of the land, including Indigenous cultural sites that document the lives of the Ute and Ancestral Puebloan peoples.
Unfortunately, a few locals have engaged in an effort to halt the proposed monument by spreading misinformation about what it would do. But advocates are working hard to set the record straight.
"This place—you fall in love with it. You kind of can't help it. It's really amazing," said Amber Clark, executive director of Dolores River Boating Advocates. "And so I think that there's that potential for people to come together and to have real conversations—if we could sort of cut through a lot of the misinformation that's been out there."
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It’s a place that’s just far enough away that you get away without having to spend a whole day or multiple days away from home. So it’s a great place to go when you need a minute.”
