MONTROSE COUNTY, Colo. — A proposed national monument in southwest Colorado is drawing new concerns from the fire chief responsible for covering the district.
The Dolores Canyons National Monument would be the largest in Colorado, stretching roughly 400,000 acres over a sparsely populated area in Mesa and Montrose Counties.
Most of the proposed area falls under the control of the Gateway-Unaweep Fire District, where District Chief Galen Daugherty said they are not prepared for increased tourism.
“We have one fire engine, one ambulance and one brush truck,” Daugherty said. “I honestly do not feel like we'd be able to handle the amount of tourism that a monument would bring in.”
Daugherty said one major problem is the lack of cell service in the region.
He said they installed a handful of emergency call boxes last year after a deadly crash in an area without service.
“You’re looking at a good 40 miles without any cell reception,” he said. “There's actually a couple of houses here where people that have been involved in accidents tend to stop and call.”
It remains unclear how many additional tourists would visit the area if it received a national monument designation.
Grand Junction City Councilmember Anna Stout has been a strong advocate for the monument and believes the necessary infrastructure would follow over time.
“It doesn't exist currently because the demand isn't there for it,” Stout said. “There's nothing that justifies having more infrastructure at this time. Once there is a need for it though, that's when that infrastructure is developed.”
Stout said tourism accounts for about 30% of Grand Junction's sales tax revenue and that money has been used to expand roads, sewers and other infrastructure.
“As tourists and visitors come and spend money in and around the landscape, that puts more money in the community pockets in and around the landscape to be able to invest in infrastructure,” she said.
Stout is worried that concerns about what is needed down the road could impact decisions to protect the landscape through monument designation.
Ultimately, a decision on monument designation can only be made by President Biden or by the winner of the upcoming election.
A White House spokesperson declined to comment on the situation, saying there was “nothing to share” at this time.
Chief Daugherty hopes policymakers consider his district’s situation before moving forward with any sort of designation.
“At the end of the day, our job is life safety and fire suppression, and it makes it really, really hard for two people to serve a community as big as Gateway,” Daugherty said. “Our capabilities are so incredibly limited as a fire department and as EMS providers, and we don't want anybody dying on our watch.”