The Dolores Canyons is Colorado’s largest and most biodiverse stretch of unprotected public lands. The Protect the Dolores Coalition is proposing a new national monument on approximately 400,000 acres of public lands surrounding the Dolores River in western Colorado to conserve the region’s outstanding ecological, cultural, historical, and recreational resources. A national monument or national conservation area in Mesa and Montrose counties would complement the pending national conservation area legislation in Montezuma, Dolores, and San Miguel counties to protect the entirety of the Dolores River Canyon Country.