An Ugly Fight Is Brewing Over Public Lands In Colorado

Environmental groups have petitioned the White House to establish a national monument along the Dolores River — and many local residents are fuming.

In mid-February, Sean Pond, a resident of remote Nucla, Colorado, learned from an area rancher about an effort to convince President Joe Biden to establish nearly 400,000 acres of canyonland surrounding the Dolores River as a new national monument.

At the time, Pond had no knowledge of the Antiquities Act, the landmark 1906 law that gives presidents the unilateral power to protect federal lands with natural, cultural and scientific values. Eighteen presidents, Republican and Democrat, have used the law to designate 161 national monuments.

But within days, Pond emerged as one of the most vocal opponents of the monument effort, sounding the alarm about what he described as a looming “federal land grab” in his backyard.

“I had absolutely no idea. But I do now. And I don’t know how to go back to thinking normally,” he said in a video recently posted to Facebook. “Once your eyes are open to the real picture, the real threat, the threat from our own government, it’s scary.”

However, the push is not coming from the Biden administration. Rather, a coalition of environmental groups has petitioned the White House to establish a national monument along the Dolores River, and the administration has not signaled that it is considering the proposal.