Letter to Barack Obama, President of the United States - Take Action on Brown's Canyon

Letter

The Honorable Barack Obama
President
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President:

We write to request that you use your authority under the Antiquities Act to designate Colorado's Browns Canyon as a National Monument. We appreciate that the Administration recently sent several officials to Salida, Colorado, to gauge support for the proposal. Based on the sentiments expressed at the meeting, coupled with impressive attendance, it is clear that the local community and Coloradans across the state support an Antiquities Act designation. We would like to add our voices to the community's sentiment, and hope we can work with the Administration and the state of Colorado as a cooperating agency, to construct a management plan for the area that protects the values of this incredible area while preserving existing uses within the Monument. A Browns Canyon National Monument would ensure permanent protection and commemoration of a rare and ecologically valuable landscape. The designation would serve to both highlight and protect this valuable resource.

In addition to recreation and tourism as key economic drivers in the Upper Arkansas Valley and the Browns Canyon area, the valley's rich agricultural heritage is equally essential to its unique character. A management plan for the monument should ensure that these values - as identified and supported in the "Browns Canyon National Monument and Wilderness Act of 2013" - are protected and maintained. We would like to ensure that the partnership between the state and federal government on managing recreation in the Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area is maintained in any final management plan. Our conversations with local ranchers have also identified key management practices that would protect the community's agricultural tradition, such as providing for the transferability of existing permits to future generations and landowners; using the best available science to determine livestock allocations; continuing reasonable and historic motorized access for maintenance and improvements of permit areas, water rights and relevant structures; and promoting weed control to prevent the spread of invasive species within and surrounding the Monument. We expect that such practices would be permitted within the Browns Canyon National Monument.

We support a Browns Canyon National Monument that boosts the local economy and protects the landscape while providing long-term certainty for existing uses. We encourage you to move swiftly to designate such a Monument.

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