For nearly 50 years, communities in western Colorado have tirelessly worked to protect the outstanding wildlife, breathtaking canyons and world-class outdoor recreation opportunities of the Dolores Canyons. These remarkable public lands, located just outside Grand Junction, hold immense value for our communities, something the majority of Coloradans on the Western Slope understand and appreciate.

However, recent plans put forward by representatives in Mesa and Montrose counties are out of touch with the majority of people I’m so proud to represent. These plans fall woefully short of providing the comprehensive protection these lands, our communities and future generations deserve.

It’s time for Colorado leaders to step up and take decisive action.

As a Grand Junction City Council member and the city’s former mayor, I am acutely aware of the benefits the Dolores Canyons provide to our city and western Colorado. The Dolores Canyons are an unrealized, yet vital, economic asset, attracting visitors to experience the natural beauty and recreational opportunities they have to offer.

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This tourism generates revenue for local businesses, supporting jobs, livelihoods and needed community infrastructure. What’s more, visitors pay an outsized proportion of the sales and lodging taxes that help underwrite the high quality of life we enjoy. Access to protected public lands is a key factor for residents who choose to call this place home and an asset to local businesses looking to attract talented employees.

The Dolores Canyons offer residents and visitors alike opportunities to hike, camp, hunt, fish, mountain bike, off-road, whitewater raft and more. Studies have shown spending time in nature can improve mental and physical health, reduce stress and boost overall well-being. Protecting these shared outdoor experiences is essential to the overall quality of life in our communities — not just for now, but for the future.

I commend the commissioners of Mesa and Montrose counties for proffering a proposal, and it is real progress they also now agree we should permanently protect lands in the Dolores. Regrettably, their national conservation area (NCA) proposal would protect only 7% of this precious landscape. That leaves 93% of the extraordinary public lands proposed in the Dolores Canyons National Monument vulnerable to the threats of new mining outside of the existing protected claims, habitat destruction and unmanaged recreational growth. The counties’ meager proposal is a disingenuous starting point for negotiations to say the least, that seems to prioritize short-term (and relatively unlikely) future economic gains over the long-term health and well-being of our communities and the environment.

In contrast, the community-led proposal for a national monument offers a comprehensive and balanced approach to conservation. This proposal, drafted by Western Slope stakeholders and refined with input from leaders, community groups, businesses and other stakeholders, has garnered widespread support with more than 100,000 people signing petitions in favor of its implementation.

The national monument designation would ensure the protection of the most biologically and culturally rich public lands in the northern Dolores Canyons region. It would safeguard critical wildlife habitats, preserve important cultural and historical sites, and support the region’s promising outdoor recreation economy. This is all while preserving traditional uses, like the region’s multi-generational ranching tradition and world-class hunting and angling opportunities. It would also contribute to the long-term economic resilience of our region by creating new opportunities for local communities and businesses to leverage the natural beauty and recreational opportunities the Dolores Canyons have to offer to attract visitors.

Though I appreciate how county leaders are taking baby steps toward conservation of the Dolores, it is disheartening Mesa and Montrose counties have failed to present a serious plan. Proponents have attempted to engage county decision-makers in conversations about an NCA for decades, only to be stonewalled. Now, the counties embrace legislative action precisely when we have a Congress that demonstrates its dysfunction almost daily and has failed to deliver on any meaningful conservation legislation. I worry the true intent is to delay yet again, to let the current ripe moment of opportunity and momentum slip away.

Coloradans who care deeply about this landscape should not have to wait any longer for our elected leaders to fulfill their responsibility to protect our public lands, which belong to all Americans. We cannot afford to risk further degradation or exploitation of these irreplaceable natural and cultural treasures.

The Dolores Canyons National Monument is the best path forward to ensure the long-term conservation of this extraordinary landscape. It is a solution carefully crafted by the community, it enjoys broad public support and it would provide lasting benefits for generations to come.

It is time for our U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper to act. The Dolores Canyons, and the majority of Coloradans, are depending on them.

Anna Stout was elected to the Grand Junction City Council in 2019 for District C. She served as mayor and mayor pro tem from 2021 to 2024. Anna has lived in Grand Junction since 1989 and is a graduate of D51 schools and Colorado Mesa University. She is chief executive of the Roice-Hurst Humane Society and has almost 20 years of nonprofit and business experience