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It’s a stormy spring day out in the desert, the kind of blustery weather which might usually keep folks close to home out in the rural west end of Montrose County. But not so on this particular Friday: the gym at the old Natarita High School is packed with residents who have turned out to address US Senator John Hickenlooper.

The Senator’s visit is prompted by a growing campaign asking President Biden to name a National Monument along the Dolores River as it carves north through stunning red rock canyons in Montrose in Mesa counties on to the Utah border.  

Earlier this month, conservation groups delivered a petition to Washington, D.C. with over 100,000 signatures calling for a protection of some 400,000 acres of land along the Dolores.

But the tenor out here in the West End is different. Robert Crane says he lived in Dove Creek all his life and has never felt the need to bring protections to the area. 

Put simply, he says “when the government can tell people what to do, it’s very tyrannical and I’m against that. So I’m just here in support of halting the Monument. Because we need grazing, we need mining, everybody needs a job, and we need common sense to take care of the planet, not things that we don’t have infrastructure for.”

Crane’s not alone. Everywhere you look are stickers, signs, and t-shirts calling to “Halt the Dolores.” Making rounds as we await the Senator’s arrival I hear concerns that protections would restrict access to these landscapes, rob the area of opportunities for mining and economic growth, and as Nucla resident Lorraine Garvey says, attract a flood of tourists.
“And I truly believe that if it’s designated a monument.  That’s what we’ll get, is a lot of people coming and going on the highways. And we need some people here, and it’s not like we’re anti-people,” Garvey says. She adds, laughing, “it’s just that we’re anti too many people! Because we see that as a detriment to the country[side].”

But what I hear more than anything is that these communities were not consulted on the conservation groups’ plan. “Nobody came to us in this country where the Dolores River is and asked us if we wanted a monument, ” explains Mark Templeton. 

Dove Creek resident Bill Hampton adds conservationists who have organized to protect the River “keep saying there’s tons of local support. And they’re talking about people in Durango, people in Steamboat, Boulder. It’s not locals supporting it.”

With a flash of fanfare and a bright smile, Hickenlooper arrives and takes his seat at a fold out table covered with a bright yellow cloth in the center of the gymnasium floor.  

The Senator and crowd heard from roughly 50 speakers over an hour and a half expressing their concerns over, opposition towards, and exclusion from the Monument proposal process. 

Sean Pond, a Nucla resident who has organized much of the opposition to the Monument offered opening remarks. “Nobody came to the ranchers, to the miners, to the stakeholders of this community,” he says. “For all the people you see in this room, Sir, I want you to Halt the Dolores National Monument.”   

Only two speakers, it seems, speak in favor of the protections. 

Hickenlooper keeps his comments brief. In both opening and closing, he emphasizes again and again he wants to hear from the community. “I’m going to listen,” he says. “I’m going to come out here, I’m going to spend as much time with you as you’ll give me, and we’ll work to the best of our ability to try and find common ground.”

At the session’s conclusion, the crowd packs up and disperses into the spring afternoon. 

Senator Hickenlooper moved on to a listening session in Grand Junction, where the City Council has unanimously endorsed the conservation effort. Conservation groups making up the Protect the Dolores Coalition hope to see Biden name a monument before November’s election.

But common ground between those calling for protections and those calling for a halt to the monument may be a long way off.