About a dozen areas would be considered under Babbitt's proposed system, including Steens Mountain and Soda Mountain in Oregon, an expansion of the Colorado National Monument and the Carrizo plain in California's San Joaquin Valley.

CNN: Nature - Babbitt pushes land protection initiative

For the next six years the case lay dormant, until a rancher found a human skull - later identified as Sabrina's - near Douglas Pass, between Dinosaur National Monument and Grand Junction in Colorado.

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