By Larry Don Suckla | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice
I’ve spent most of my life in the saddle. I was born and raised in Southwest Colorado. I’ve worked the land, ranched cattle, and served my neighbors as both a County Commissioner and now your elected representative in the Colorado State House.
My family owns one of the largest ranches in the region, tens of thousands of acres built by my grandfather and worked by my father before me. Today, I still help run that ranch with my own children. It sits squarely inside the proposed boundaries of the Dolores River National Conservation Area. And nobody from the federal government or Senator Hickenlooper or Senator Bennet’s office ever asked us a single thing about it.
Not one phone call. Not one visit. Not even a letter.
The Dolores NCA bill introduced by Senators Hickenlooper and Bennet affects over 50,000 acres in Dolores, San Miguel, and Montezuma Counties. It’s being sold to the public as a “locally driven” designation. But that’s not true. I represent the area, and my family is the largest landowner impacted, and we weren’t even told it was coming.
This is not how representative government is supposed to work. The ranchers, miners, and families in Southwest Colorado are the backbone of this land. They don’t spend their days scrolling social media or refreshing political headlines. They’re out working, feeding America and raising their kids right. And yet, it’s their land, their water, and their future on the chopping block.
They’re always the last to know. And they’re never invited to the table.
What’s worse, I’ve watched how this game is played over time. Environmental lobbying groups push and prod for years. They wear down county commissioners. They shift the narrative. They change out elected officials until someone finally gives them what they want just to shut them up and make them go away. But that’s not leadership. That’s surrender.
They’ll say, “We’re protecting this land.” But protected from who? The same ranchers who’ve stewarded it for generations?
They’ll say, “This will stop a monument.” That’s a lie. A National Conservation Area doesn’t prevent a monument. It invites it. The President still has full power under the Antiquities Act to designate a monument at any time. They also claim these designations won’t affect private property, but they know that’s not true either. Ask any rancher what happens to their water rights, ditch access, cattle rotation, or grazing permits after a federal designation takes over. Ask them about timber permits, road closures, trail removals, or the bureaucratic maze they have to navigate just to keep doing what they’ve always done.
Now let’s talk about the GORP Act.
The Gunnison Outdoor Resources Protection Act proposes to lock up over 730,000 acres across Gunnison, Delta, Ouray, Hinsdale, and Saguache Counties with similar wilderness style restrictions. The trickle down impact to surrounding counties like Montrose, Mesa, will be devastating.
These designations affect more than land, they affect families, jobs, and entire local economies. The GORP Act will restrict motorized access, including ATVs, side by sides, and snowmobiles. It threatens grazing allotments, timber permits, and future water development. It risks triggering Federal Reserved Water Rights claims that could upend the delicate water balance we rely on to farm and ranch. It undermines wildfire mitigation efforts by limiting fuel reduction and forest thinning. And it would directly harm the timber industry and lumber yards that power rural economies, including some of the largest suppliers in Montrose County.
When you tie up 730,000 acres with permanent federal strings, it doesn’t just impact the people living within the boundary. It hurts everyone who depends on the multi-use industries those lands support oil and gas, mining, agriculture, hunting, outfitters, power co-ops, and tourism.
We’ve seen this before. This is not conservation. This is conquest.
To the County Commissioners supporting these proposals, I say this: You took an oath to defend the Constitution, not to serve the loudest activists or the smoothest lobbyists. The ranching families of Southwest Colorado didn’t get a voice in this process, but we’re speaking now.
This wasn’t collaboration. It was ambush by legislation.
Enough is enough.
I stand in full opposition to both the Dolores River National Conservation Area and the GORP Act. I urge every resident of rural Colorado, every rancher, logger, outfitter, and taxpayer to stand with me.
If we don’t speak up now, we won’t have a voice left to raise.
Rep. Larry Don Suckla represents House District 58 in the Colorado State Legislature, covering parts of Delta, Dolores, Gunnison, Hinsdale, Montezuma, Montrose, Ouray, and San Miguel counties. A lifelong rancher from Cortez, Suckla previously served two terms as Montezuma County Commissioner and was named Colorado Commissioner of the Year in 2017. He is known for his plainspoken defense of rural values, private property rights, water access, and limited government. Suckla lives on a farm outside of Cortez with his wife Julie and his daughters, where they continue the family ranching tradition.
Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in commentary pieces are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the management of the Rocky Mountain Voice, but even so we support the constitutional right of the author to express those opinions.