After four full years of podcasting, we bring you the most important episode to date to kick off Season 5. An interview with Sean Pond, the de facto leader of the Halt the Dolores Movement shares why stopping this National Monument designation in its tracks. Please listen on your favorite podcast app and follow-up with the Call to Action. Sean needs our help.
6:12 – what the Navy doesn’t tell you is that you’ll see a whole lot more water than you will see of the world
11:28 – I worked in building 771 at Rocky Flats, the most dangerous building in the world at the time
15:57 – if my close friends were to describe me, they’d tell you I do two things – I hunt and I wheel
23:11 – if you like to hunt and you like off-road and you like the thrill of the chase, it’s a hard habit to break
24:54 – HALT THE DOLORES – let’s talk about what it is and why it matters!
36:29 – it stifles ranching, mining, outdoor recreation, hunting – it affects so many people, it’s a shame
43:53 – google the 30 by 30 agenda and the America the Beautiful Act; over 100 million acres of public land will lose access to for all time
53:36 – if we were standing around at an event talking about this, you’d think it was a conspiracy theory
1:01:49 – CALL TO ACTION: Sign the petition, call your congressman, Share, Share, SHARE, help fund the fight
Special thanks to 4low Magazine and Maxxis Tires for support and sponsorship of this podcast.
TRANSCRIPT
[00:01:40.190] – Big Rich Klein
On today’s episode of Conversations with Big Rich, I interview an avid outdoorsman, a hunter, an off-road enthusiast, rock Crawler, and a gentleman that worked as an engineer in the mining industry, Sean Pond. Sean is a resident of the western slope of Colorado, and he is in a fight for our lives the way we know it and his own, and that is, he has started a movement called Halt the Dolores River Monument. I’d like everybody to make sure that they listen to this podcast, look for the information about Halt the Dolores River Monument, and sign the petition and help Sean and the people on the Western slope save public lands.
[00:02:27.100] – Big Rich Klein
Well, Sean, it’s great to talk to you today. I’m really looking forward to this conversation, not only to learn more about you personally, but also to find out about the the halt of Dolores Monument that’s coming, that you’re fighting and I’m really looking forward to all this information we can get on you.
[00:02:48.650] – Big Rich Klein
So thank you for coming on.
[00:02:51.400] – Sean Pond
Thank you, Rich. Thanks for having us. And I’m looking forward to it as well.
[00:02:54.750] – Big Rich Klein
Well, let’s get started at the easy part. Where were you born and raised?
[00:02:59.610] – Sean Pond
I I was born and raised in Western Colorado and Grand Junction, Colorado. Okay.
[00:03:05.650] – Big Rich Klein
And how long were you in that area? Because didn’t you move to the front range for a while?
[00:03:12.450] – Sean Pond
I’ve moved a lot, to be honest, but I’ve always came back. I was born and raised there, went to school, graduated there, and then I joined the United States Navy at the age of 18 and was gone for four years during that time. Returned to Grand Junction, got married, got a job, worked for Department of Energy there, and had some kids, and then spent the first part of my career chasing the UMPER programs, which was actually a government-funded program, cleaning up radioactive waste in the form of mill tailings all across Western Colorado and Eastern Utah.
[00:03:49.670] – Big Rich Klein
Okay. Let’s talk about those early years growing up in the Grand Junction area. I would imagine that you spent That’s a great area for outdoor activities, whether it’s horseback riding, hiking, fishing, hunting. What things did you participate in?
[00:04:12.430] – Sean Pond
Everything you just said. I actually was fortunate enough to grow up for a horse in my childhood on a ranch, so spent a lot of years on the back of a horse, spent a lot of years on a dirt bike. I’m old enough, we didn’t have a whole lot of ATVs back then. The three-wheelers were a little bit interesting. I have to watch my brother leave us some teeth on those things. Yeah, I know all of that. Outdoor recreation is a huge part and was a larger part back in those days of any of us out here. I’m, again, old enough to remember when Grand Junction did not have a mall. So there wasn’t a lot of downtown times. It was mostly out in the woods, some form of a hoofed animal in the seat of a pickup truck or a Jeep. READ MORE
