Public lands surrounding the Lower Dolores River comprise one of the largest unprotected wildlands complexes in Colorado. Though the river is impounded upstream by McPhee Dam, wild places and outstanding values surround the river along its remote course through the rugged interior of the Western Slope. These lands are the homelands of the Ute people, forcibly removed in the 1880s, and still living on three nearby reservations. The Dolores, like much of Colorado, is facing rapidly growing recreational demand and capacity issues, with boating, trails, climbing, hiking, and mountain biking opportunities.
In addition to growing threats from unmanaged recreation,and impacts of climate change, there is renewed interest and speculation in uranium mining that has unleashed a flurry of new mining claims, proposals, and other industrial developments from foreign interests. Conservation of this rich biodiversity will help increase the resilience of the watershed in the face of climate change. Protection of the landscape’s integrity will ensure high quality recreational values persist, and that new recreational infrastructure will be thoughtfully planned in the context of protecting the area’s other values.
