A proposed expansion of a national monument in Colorado could create a new national park adjacent to the Utah border.
Public meetings to discuss a draft boundary evaluation study for Colorado National Monument will be held Nov. 14-16 in Glade Park, Fruita and Grand Junction, Colo.All four major alternatives under study include land on both sides of the Colorado River, starting at the Grand County, Utah, border and going eastward into Colorado. Three of the four alternatives envelop I-70 in Colorado also. All alternatives studied include a Bureau of Land Management "scenic river withdrawal" for the Colorado River.
Jim Taylor, superintendent of Colorado National Monument, said the Black Ridge Canyon Wilderness Study Area adjacent to the monument "is a very special area that should receive a higher degree of protection."
Four alternatives are being studied for the wilderness study areas, which are BLM property and which reach the Utah border. Two of the proposals involve management of the region by the Park Service and the other two call for the BLM to continue managing the land.
The land is nationally significant and certainly worthy of national park status, Taylor said. However, the Park Service will not make a recommendation to Congress that it take over the BLM land.
"We just want to go on record as to the values that the geological, paleontological, archaeological, historical and scenic resources have," he said.
Congress asked the Park Service to study the area, which was originally considered in a park proposal in the early 1900s. Since that time, it has been proposed from time to time as an addition to the monument.
If the land were added to the national monument, it could qualify as a new national park.
If the monument were expanded and then designated a national park, Taylor said, there would not be a great deal of new development. The long-use management concept of the area would change from the BLM idea of multiple use to one based on preservation of natural and cultural resources.
Grazing, hunting, mining, mineral development and off-road vehicle use are ordinarily eliminated when Congress sets aside a park, unless the legislation specifies otherwise.
Fossil flowers found in the area are so rare they have caused scientists to rethink the history of flowering plants, Taylor said. Archaeological sites dating back 12,000 years are found there, as well as remains from the 1850s Colorado gold rush.
All four alternatives being studied would designate special protection to the Utah border. The four proposals include:
_A 77,230 boundary expansion of the national monument, under Park Service management.
_An 83,600 acre boundary expansion under the Park Service.
_A 70,000-acre BLM wilderness study area.
_A 116,000-acre BLM National Conservation Area.