Grand Junction area ranchers ruminate Dominguez, Escalante proposal

At least two Mesa County ranchers aren’t very happy with U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar’s proposed Dominguez Canyons Wilderness Area and Dominguez-Escalante National Conservation Area. Legislation to create the 210,000-acre designations was approved last week in the U.S. Senate; the House is expected to consider the issue this week. “It’s definitely going to affect our ranch,” said Massey, who runs 1,200 head of cross-bred cattle and whose family has run cattle in the area for more than a century. Miller owns thousands of acres of land within the National Conservation Area. His cross-bred cattle graze on the proposed wilderness. Most of the work done now on Miller’s ranch is done on horseback, and that won’t change, Miller said. He’s most concerned about the future ability for the ranch to hire people willing to work from the back of a horse. “As times change, we’re seeing the era of the horseback cowboy diminish. It’s diminished a lot in the last 20 years,” Miller said. Also, Miller’s permit is short on water, he said, and without the ability to drive to the area where his cows need to graze and drink water, he may not be able to build the needed stock ponds....