DENVER – Republican Congressmen Scott Tipton and Cory Gardner cleared up confusion over where they stand in regards to the protection of Canyons of Ancients National Monument Tuesday with a letter addressed to Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke.
The letter, which was released to the public, was a response to President Donald Trump’s executive order calling for the review of national monuments designated by the last three presidents that are more than 100,000 acres in size or deemed to lack “adequate public outreach and coordination with relevant stakeholders.”
Gardner and Tipton expressed their support for Canyons of the Ancients, which was designated by President Bill Clinton in 2000 and encompasses 178,000 acres.
The congressmen wrote, “we believe any review of Canyons should conclude that no changes to the designation are necessary.”
They go on to call the designation of the monument “an example of what the Antiquities Act was intended to do – protect cultural treasures while incorporating the historic use of the land in to (sic) the management of the monument so that communities support and promote the designation.”
Gardner and Tipton also point out an issue with the process of designating monuments by administrations: the lack of proper funding for the agencies that oversee them.
“Existing funding levels are often times not adequate to support the increase in tourism a designation may bring with it; existing infrastructure that is incapable of accommodating the increased tourism; and land management agencies’ resources being diverted from traditional roles, like permitting of oil and gas or grazing leases to other functions necessary to maintain the monument,” the Republican lawmakers write.
A similar letter was issued by Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colorado, and Gov. John Hickenlooper on Monday, but it also asked Zinke to support the designation of Bears Ears National Monument in Utah.
Tipton addressed only the Colorado Monument because he “believes that land designations should be driven at the local level, therefore the letter did not include any monuments that may be under review outside of the state,” Liz Payne, communications director for Tipton, said via email.
Canyons of the Ancients is in Montezuma county, and is known for being inhabited by ancestral Puebloans for 10,000 years with more than 6,000 recorded archaeological sites in its boundaries.
Complete copies of the letter to Secretary Zinke can be found on the Congressmen Tipton and Gardner’s websites.
lperkins@durangoherald.com