Final Recreation Recommendations
for Canyons of the Ancients National Monument

Goal: Manage and enable access to the Monument for recreational activities while protecting cultural and natural resources, assuring compatibility with other existing and permitted uses, and considering effects on adjacent landowners and the local community.

Visitor Access Areas: Resource Management Plans for other monuments have lead to the establishment of management areas. Descriptions of these Areas provide a framework and guidance to help identify, define, and manage permitted and excluded activities for each Area. The Areas are a component of the tools that guide decision-making on visitor access within the Monument; however, they are not designed to limit other permitted uses (i.e., livestock grazing, fluid minerals exploration and extraction).

• VA-1: Visitor Access Areas are expected to be the focal points for the most visitations, containing most of the developed interpretive and use facilities.
• VA-2: Visitor Access Areas include travel routes that are not main roads, but are used to access recreational and other permitted destinations throughout the Monument. VA-2 Visitor Access Areas may include rudimentary facilities for interpretation and to enhance safety.
• VA-3: Visitor Access Areas provide recreational opportunities that include limited mechanized and motorized travel, while enabling access to largely undeveloped, self-guided adventures. Facilities will be rare and provided only when essential for resource protection.
• VA-4: Visitor Access Areas enable self-guided adventures that do not include mechanized and motorized travel (except in very limited instances for administrative and emergency purposes) in regions with no developed facilities. Dispersed, primitive camping is allowed.

Objective 1: Obtain information needed to identify and assess the impact of existing and potential recreation activities.

Management Action 1.1: Gather, interpret, and present data to measure existing recreation and other activities.

1.1.a Periodically sample the types and amount of recreational activities being enjoyed in the Monument.

1.1.b Document the needs associated with the various activities and the expectations of the people who participate in them.

1.1.c Develop a series of overlaying maps that visually describe the Monument and depict interfaces among uses and the landscape; include Monument resources and uses, topography, grazing allotments, oil and gas leases, roads/trails/routes, boundaries for private in-holdings and lands controlled by other governmental agencies, and Visitor Access Areas (refer to Management Action 2.1.a).

Management Action 1.2: Establish studies and provide reports to identify the impacts of existing and potential recreational activities.

1.2.a Document the historical recreational activities

1.2.b Document the impact of recreational activities on cultural and natural resources and on other existing and permitted uses.

1.2.c Document the impact of recreational activities on adjacent landowners and their properties.

1.2.d Document the impact of existing and permitted uses on recreational activities.

1.2.e Document the economic and social impact of recreational uses on the community.

Objective 2: Clarify and enforce the permitted uses and restrictions as they pertain to various regions within the Monument.

Management Action 2.1: Implement a Visitor Access Area system.

2.1.a Establish Visitor Access Area boundaries using natural topological features, to include VA-1, VA-2, VA-3 and VA-4 designations.

2.1.b Avoid including designated Wilderness Study Areas and especially sensitive riparian areas within VA-1, VA-2 and VA-3 Access Areas.

2.1.c Conduct planning on a site-specific basis within each Visitor Access Area.

2.1.d Create criteria for activities, transportation, and development within each Area, and transportation among them. Permitted activities and valid existing rights (i.e., oil and gas leases) will not be restricted by the creation of Visitor Access Areas.

2.1.e Establish recreational activity criteria and access so as to minimize impact on cultural and natural resources, to minimize conflict between recreational activities and other permitted activities, and to minimize conflict among the various recreational activities.

2.1.f Install signage designed to control damage to and trespass onto private lands that are adjacent to the Monument.

2.1.g Initiate planning that leads to location and development of a recreational trail system that appeals to various potential users of systems, with attention to the various expectations of potential users.

2.1.h Establish a rating system for trails to enable visitors to select outings that match their interests and abilities in terms of challenge and remoteness.

Objective 3: Create opportunities for education and alliances that lead to inter-agency and community involvement in the stewardship of the Monument and its resources.

Management Action 3.1: Involve established citizen organizations, interested individuals and recreationalists in the day-to-day stewardship of the Monument.

3.1.a Work closely with the Site Stewardship Program that is currently operational, for methodical monitoring, training, and education by qualified volunteers.

3.1.b Work with regional youth groups and educational institutions and programs to involve them in stewardship and educational programs.

3.1.c Develop training and educational materials and presentations and make them available, via BLM personnel and volunteers, to interested organizations and to groups of interested individuals and recreationalists.

3.1.d Establish and implement plans for formal, periodic, consistent communication with adjacent landowners and commercial operators to assure that they are aware of issues and decisions that might impact them, to solicit their comment, and to encourage their active participation in Monument stewardship.

3.1.e Identify and publicize contact information for reporting vandalism and infractions of regulations.

3.1.f Establish and publicize response time goals for responding to reports of vandalism and infractions of regulations.

3.1.g Diligently and consistently monitor the Monument to detect vandalism, damage, trash dispersal, and illegal use of Monument resources.

3.1.h Diligently, effectively, and consistently enforce rules and regulations that are designed to protect Monument resources, ensure safe operations for permittees, and ensure safe experiences for recreationalists.

Management Action 3.2: Develop and implement plans with other governmental agencies to achieve efficiency, effectiveness, and consistency in managing recreational activities and resources and in dealing with the various stakeholders.

3.2.a Work with managers within the National Park Service and at Hovenweep National Monument so that the visiting public views the Anasazi Heritage Center and the Hovenweep National Monument Visitor Center as seamlessly representing both agencies.

3.2.b Assure that in the case of the two Monuments, management practices are consistent and similar for recreational activities.

3.2.c Develop complementary interpretative programs at the Anasazi Heritage Center, Lowery, and the Hovenweep Visitor Center.

3.2.d Assure that, where practical, personnel associated with the two Monuments are encouraged to share functional responsibilities such as monitoring, enforcement, and interpretation.

3.2.e Work with the Colorado Division of Wildlife (DOW) to assure that wildlife management practices and hunting regulation privileges are applied within the Monument in a manner that is consistent with their application outside the Monument and with the hunting provisions of the Brunott Agreement.

Objective 4: Encourage opportunities for private enterprise to provide services for recreational activities, maintaining a local presence and flavor and contributing to the local economy.

Management Action 4.1: Establish clear policies and procedures that enable private operators who are providing on-site services such as guiding, outfitting, and interpretative and educational programs to successfully provide their services.

4.1.a Involve existing operators and other interested parties in establishing clear and practical policies and procedures for obtaining and retaining permits and for running their operations.

4.1.b Establish and publicize "carrying capacity" for commercial recreational activities within the Monument and stick to it.

4.1.c Encourage commercial recreational facility development outside the Monument.

4.1.d Do not allow commercial recreational facility development to take place on public lands within the Monument.

4.1.e Allow permittees in good standing to continue their commercial outfitter and guide operations.

4.1.f Educate commercial outfitters and guides on research and education activities in the Monument and resource stewardship opportunities through an annual workshop and other appropriate mediums (e.g., letters, permit stipulations).

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