A 47-year-old woman was found dead Sunday, April 6, in Cortez’s Centennial Park, according to Police Chief Roy Lane.

Ann Margaret Wing of Towaoc was found Sunday at about 7 a.m., not far from the duck pond.

“She was in an area where you couldn’t see her from the street and she was down on her face,” Lane said.

He said the cause of death was believed to be hypothermia.

By Gail Binkly and

David Grant Long

County Administrator Ashton Harrison resigned on Monday, April 8 – the same day that the Montezuma County commissioners had an unusual meeting with District Attorney Will Furse, possibly in violation of state sunshine laws.

At the end of their regular meeting that day, the commissioners met in a closed-door session with Furse after asking staff members and the public to leave the commission meeting room.

Asked by Free Press reporter David Long whether this was an executive session, Commissioner Keenan Ertel said no, but that they did not want staff or the public present.

“We’re going to meet informally with the DA,” he said.

Whether the closed-door session had any connection with Harrison’s resignation is unknown.

The Free Press contacted Harrison at the county administration office shortly after the board and Furse went into their private session. Harrison said he did not know what the officials were discussing because he, too, had been asked to leave.

Later Monday evening, Furse told the Free Press that the meeting was “just a very informal casual discussion” that had “nothing to do with policies or county matters.” He said it was “a time to have all the commissioners together” and that what they discussed was of a “sensitive nature – nothing to do with anything agendized.”

He said the meeting did not violate Colorado sunshine laws because county business was not discussed. He declined to give any more specifics about the topic of the meeting, saying that it was “an opportune time for us four to chat briefly.”

Word of Harrison’s resignation spread on Tuesday, and that evening he confirmed to the Free Press that he had resigned effective Monday. He declined to give his reasons for doing so.

Harrison – who had been county administrator for nearly seven years, since May 1, 2006 – said he had enjoyed working with the staff.

“I’ve had a remarkable staff – both my staff and my department heads,” he said. “I’ve enjoyed a great relationship with them. I think we’ve made a lot of progress on several fronts and I couldn’t have done that without having good department heads and a good team.

“I’m going to personally miss some of my employees.”

On Tuesday, Commissioner Larry Don Suckla said that Harrison’s resignation “happened out of the blue” and indicated that it was “an ongoing issue” that had not been entirely decided and would be discussed at the board’s next meeting.

Regarding the closed-door meeting with Furse, Suckla said it involved “a sensitive subject.”

“It’s a personal thing, yes – that’s all I can say or do till the other two commissioners are present,” he said.

However, he said the meeting should have been announced. “I feel like it needs to be done a different way from now on.”

Suckla also said that the topic was “a very important issue.”

“That’s all I can say,” he stated. “It will get out – just not yet.”

Suckla said of the last day, “It was an eventful past 24 hours I would like not to relive.”

Colorado law (CRS-24-6-402) states, “All meetings of a quorum or three or more members of any local public body, whichever is fewer, at which any public [italics added] business is discussed or at which any formal action may be taken are declared to be public meetings open to the public at all times.”

All three commissioners were present Monday.

Local public bodies may discuss certain matters privately by going into an executive session, but under the law they are first supposed to announce to the public the topic of the executive session and cite the specific part of the law under which the topic qualifies for an exemption from the open-meetings requirement.

Executive sessions can be called to discuss the sale or acquisition of property; matters required to be kept confidential by federal or state law or regulations; details of security arrangements; positions related to negotiations; or personnel matters (if the person involved wants the matter to be discussed privately).

An executive session can also be called in order to confer with the board’s attorney (not just any attorney) “for the purposes of receiving legal advice on specific legal questions.”

Executive sessions are supposed to be recorded, either electronically or by taking minutes. No formal action is to be taken during executive sessions.

The commissioners are in the process of hiring a new county attorney after deciding not to renew their contract with longtime commission attorney Bob Slough in January. In the interim, they have been represented by different lawyers from the Durango firm of Goldman, Robbins, and Nicholson.

On Monday, when the board had the meeting with Furse, the attorney, Michael Goldman, had already left for the day. Other staff members, including Clerk Carol Tullis, who was recording the regular meeting, were also asked to leave.

Other than reporter Long, the only other audience member at that time was Bud Garner, a former commission candidate (he lost the Republican primary race to Ertel in 2012) who frequently attends commission meetings.

He told the Free Press on Tuesday that he had been somewhat surprised by the request to vacate the room.

“I thought it was a little odd,” he said. “I’ve not seen it before.”

“Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don’t feel I should be doing something else.” — Gloria Steinem

On Saturday, March 23, the Sideshow Emporium & Gallery in Dolores hosted an opening “Rural-Gothic: Music, Art & Video.” Featured on the walls were graphic prints by Hardison Collins, photographs by Ole Bye and Dustyn Lyon, dimensional art by Rosie Carter and oils depicting the Hollywood Bar by Lara Branca. A video by Sam Lyons was projected on the wall, along with slides of rural America.

Most of the visual artists are also musicians. The Holy Smokers feature Rosie Carter and Chuck Berry, Kustom Fronts is Hardison Collins’ solo act, and Ole Bye and Lara Branca both perform solo.

The event was jam-packed. It was standing room only inside, and a large huddle of folks milled about on the porch. Even though it seemed like everyone was chatting, a substantial number of people were listening intently to the music, watching the video, misting up with memories triggered by Branca’s oils, and examining the intricate details inside Carter’s frames filled with flying birds, stars, wires and clouds.

On that same night, the Dolores River Brewery had a full house dancing to the Damn Quails’ brand of bluegrassy rock, and the Cortez Chamber of Commerce hosted a speakeasy with a room full of costumed, feathered, suspendered and frilled gamblers.

Over in Durango, Oliver Mtukudzi filled the Fort Lewis Community Concert Hall with his African beats, and a group of Montezuma County musicians – the MoeTones – headed to Utah to play at Frankie D’s in Moab.

A chocolatier put the finishing touches on her tray of hand-dipped morsels for Easter. Hand-made metal vultures hung over Belt Salvage in Cortez.

Earlier that week a muralist asked the town board if she could paint some art on a wall in Dolores, and children drew all over the sidewalk with colored chalk in Cortez. Mancos has been rocking for weeks with the Millwood Follies, the Mancos Hoedown and Mancos Melt activities, and in Farmington, N.M., there are weekly concerts at San Juan College throughout April.

It seems spring has brought out all kinds of artists. Whether they work with scrap metal, gemstones, fiber, movement, paint, or musical instruments, the Four Corners region is alive with creative people. What motivates them? Especially here, far from the so-called centers of art and culture?

Musician Chuck Barry of The Beautiful Loser Society, who had their first local show in over a year on March 30 in Cortez, answered: “It certainly isn’t for the money.” But if it isn’t the quest for the almighty dollar that moves artists to make art, then what is it?

Singer-songwriter Deb Hilton of The Porchlights, a Dolores duo specializing in original acoustic music, said, “It lets me break through walls in my mind I don’t think I otherwise would.”

Silvia Pina, creator of Bootylicious, explained: “I’ve been a dancer and painter all of my life. But, at this very point, dance is my art. When I hear good music, I tap in. I get that inexplicable feeling of connecting to the source. . . .

“From that creativity, anything is possible. It’s that creativity I feel when I dance. When I feel that urge to dance, I express. I rejoice. And, if there are others around me, I wanna rejoice with them. And I wanna spread the love!”

Lara Branca took her loss and turned it into beauty. When she locked the door of the Hollywood Bar in Dolores last August on her way home from a bartending shift, she had no idea she’d never return. The fire that devastated the Hollywood and the Fusion Art Gallery & Studio also took a heavy toll on the lives of the people who worked there.

But Branca was able to find healing through her oil paintings. When asked why she makes art, there is one simple answer: “Because I have to.”

Jaime Nicole Becktel paints bright and bold. The Mancos artist displays her work locally and regionally, participating in group shows. She is also a face painter, frequently seen bringing smiles and color to children’s faces at local fairs and festivals.

Like Branca, Becktel said being an artist isn’t a choice. “Why do I do art? Because I’m compelled. . . . One might say that I get high on doing art. That I have a subtle kind of addiction, socially normalized, like Splenda. I’m okay with that.”

This is not uncommon – to be compelled and to have some kind of desire to share with others. Linda Robinson, a landscape architect and visual artist, explained, “A great product of creative people is the creative products put into the world. Art performances or objects communicate visions and truths and aesthetics (sometimes beautiful, sometimes ugly, always demonstrating an inherent value about something) to the rest of the society. It adds a dimension to human material culture and to the development of culture as a whole, even pedagogy. Just as science adds, or history adds.”

Most artists believe art is necessary to human culture, and that they are the ones who have been given a vision and a mode of expression. Some artists are inspired by where they live, but others feel they would be an artist no matter where they happen to be.

Art is a lifestyle, an orientation that shows artists how to belong in the world. Most of the local artists said there really wasn’t a moment where they decided to be an artist. Instead, it’s just who they are – an extension of self that they’re willing to share.

“You just hope to be in the zone,” said guitarist Wild Billy Kneebone, “to go deep and feel the connection, no matter who is there or where you are.”

Robinson agreed. “Creating is just how some people are geared to explore reality, to explore possibility, to create a vision, to communicate all those things that come through creating.”

Do yourself a favor this month and get out and see what an artist is up to. You may be educated, inspired, and uplifted. Just what spring is all about!

“Trail Canyon: 6 Miles Long, 10,000 Years Deep” is available for $28.95 at Books, 124 N. Piñon Drive in Cortez; at Maria’s Bookstore, 960 Main Ave. in Durango; and on Amazon.

Bud Poe has a promise for anyone who buys the book he co-authored, “Trail Canyon: 6 Miles Long, 10,000 Years Deep”: “If I ever write another, you can get your money back.”

This isn’t to say that he didn’t enjoy working on the book or that he isn’t happy with the results. It’s just that it was a long and winding road to completion, one that involved working with three other original authors and another who was brought in later. “It was like having to manage cats,” Poe said.

“Trail Canyon” tells the story of the sixmile- long canyon, which runs north from McElmo Canyon west of Cortez, Colo. The rugged, scenic gulch has been home to Ancestral Puebloans, Utes, and a variety of cowboys and homesteaders.

Originally from the Midwest, Poe and his wife, Jeani, moved to Durango in the 1990s. They became friends with a real-estate broker, Sam Hoffmann, who later told them that a large ranch in the canyon was for sale and proposed that the Poes partner with him in buying a portion of it. Eventually they did so. (Hoffmann has since moved away.)

During the time he was considering the purchase, Poe attended a lecture in Durango by Gary Matlock, an archaeologist who had worked on the ranch when young and had written an overview of Trail Canyon as part of an archaeological-survey report.

After the lecture, Poe approached Matlock, and they became friends. They later agreed it would be good to expand on the overview he’d written.

“He became my first recruit in the Odd Quad,” said Poe. The Odd Quad is the term the four original authors had for themselves, a term that reflected their different backgrounds and interests.

In 2002, the Poes purchased another parcel of land in Trail Canyon that was home to the Rock House, a 200-square-foot sandstone dwelling built on the original Howard Baxtrom homestead. Trying to learn more about the house, Poe contacted local historian Fred Blackburn, who was able to put him in touch with the Baxtrom family. Harold Baxtrom, who was born in the Rock House, became the third member of the Odd Quad, and Mary Jane Schott, who had bought 80 acres in Trail Canyon with her husband, completed the quartet.

However, Schott and Matlock later moved out of the area, so Poe hired Ann Butler, a writer for the Durango Herald, to help finish the book.

“Ann was born in Cortez,” Poe said. “The book is basically Ann’s foundation throughout. I contributed portions in my language, so to speak. She did quote me, as well as Gary and Harold. The one whose work is pure is the four or five poems of Mary Jane’s. I critiqued them but they were her idea and her inspiration.”

Assembling the book was a major effort, but Poe said he enjoyed it. “Part of the fun of writing this thing is how much I learned in the process and the people you meet.”

“Trail Canyon” rambles along in an entertaining, readable fashion, hitting the high points of local history, focusing on interesting facts and stories rather than trying to give a comprehensive account of the area. The 153- page book features numerous maps and photographs, many in color.

Anecdotes give a clear picture of what life was like for the canyon’s residents, including homesteaders. There are quotes from writings by Harold Baxstrom’s mother, Blanche, who lived in the tiny Rock House with her family. In one place she mentioned that mail carriers going into the canyon often delivered groceries as well because it was such a long trip into town on the bumpy, dusty road. The book quotes her:

“One of the worst problems was when kerosene and flour were ordered on the same trip,” she wrote. “They didn’t mix well, and it seemed like a year before the kerosene-seasoned flour was used up.”

There are entertaining tales of murders and tragic deaths, cattle drives, outlaws and odd characters.

Over time, many parcels in Trail Canyon have changed hands and ownership has been consolidated among three private parties. “We’re one of the three,” Poe said of his family.

What will happen to Trail Canyon in coming decades is, of course, unknown, but Poe hopes much of it can be preserved to resemble its current state.

“The long-range plan is a work in progress,” he said. “I recognize my mortality, and my family’s kids are a distance away, so the logical thing is to sell my piece, put it in new hands. My motivation is to try and find like-minded people with a conservation orientation because I would like to keep it in a preserved mode. Not that there couldn’t be another house, but developments come in all kinds of ways.

“I don’t know what kind of buyer is out there, but I really would like to keep it the way it is now.”

Poe said he would like to see the canyon remaining in the hands of people like Ann Rilling, one owner, and David and Pati Temple at the southern end, who have placed much of their land in conservation easements.

Pati Temple died in February after a long battle with cancer, but she had seen the book and enjoyed it, Poe said.

“When I talk about her, you can tell my voice kind of chokes up,” Poe said. “She did get to see the book before she died. We did get it published in time. I knew the sands were running out on her. She wrote me a beautiful thank-you.”

Poe said “Trail Canyon” has sold well in the Cortez/Durango area. All net profits to the authors are being donated to local nonprofits; Poe said $400 has been given to the Montezuma County Historical Society so far.

Everyone who has lived in Trail Canyon seems to have found it a magical place. The book quotes Leslie Malles, who with her husband Reece lived in Trail Canyon for decades before moving to Nebraska:

“Each inhabitant leaves a positive mark on Trail Canyon and in turn is left with a longing for its beauty and tranquility. . . . The canyon seems to keep its abundance and magic alive knowing that more is yet to come, and others will need to live here. All will be better for the time spent sheltered by its cliffs, nourished by its waters and plants and then preserved in its history.”

A total of 1,790 felines, many abandoned by their owners, have been given a new lease on life by the Feral Cat Project of For Pets’ Sake Humane Society over the past four years.

A woman near Cortez, Colo., feeds a colony of about 20 strays. For Pets’ Sake has worked with her to get them all spayed and neutered. Photo courtesy of For Pets’ Sake

The project’s work of trapping, neutering and releasing feral cats is resulting in colony attrition, fewer cats coming into the Cortez Animal Shelter and less euthanasia, said project coordinator Marian Rohman, who also praised the shelter for its cooperation with For Pets’ Sake in placing kittens.

In 2008, a total of 810 cats of 884 that came into the shelter were put down; by contrast, 250 (of 529) cats were put down in 2012, according to For Pets’ Sake statistics. That’s a drop from 92 percent to 47 percent.

So, what does the Feral Cat Project need? Money, yes, and volunteers — but for now, also more cats.

Publicity about the project spread slowly, via word of mouth, Rohman said, yet it led to a waiting list of colonies in need of attention.

“Now that we don’t have a waiting list, we want everyone else to know that we’re out there, so we can start helping them too,” she said. “Of course, once we start calling them, we’ll have a waiting list again — but that’s good.”

Volunteers work with property owners that have colonies of ferals — everywhere from farms to trailer parks. The efforts are labor-intensive, as trappers cannot expect to catch all cats on the first go.

“Everywhere out there, there are cats, generally cats that have been abandoned. They figure out how to make a living. They start having kittens. What we are trying to do is make sure they don’t have kittens,” Rohman said.

“We work with whoever is feeding them, or start feeding them ourselves. We go in and start doing trap-neuter-return. It’s done internationally, where a group goes in, traps cats and puts them back where they came from. They don’t get killed. They don’t get hurt.”

Most property owners are already caring for the cats by the time the Feral Cat Project is called in, she added. “We make sure they can keep feeding the cats.”

In addition to spaying/neutering, the cats are given a rabies shot and a quick exam by a veterinarian who addresses whatever ailments can be remedied during a single visit (few ferals are ever trapped twice). Problems have included abscesses, rotten teeth, fleas, ticks and tapeworms. “They’ve gone through the trauma, but they should come out healthier than when they went in,” Rohman said.

For Pets’ Sake pays for the care. The group is funded through donations and grants, some of which come with rules about how the money is spent. For instance, while one fund may help pay for spay and neuter, it might not allow the money to be spent on other expenses, or food. The Feral Cat Project last year furnished 18,400 pounds of cat food to more than 30 colonies.

“A large part (of funding) is donations. We have people donate directly to the Feral Cat Project and to For Pets’ Sake in general,” Rohman explained. “Of anything that comes in not specifically earmarked, 30 percent goes to the Feral Cat Project. This is one of our biggest programs.”

The trapping work takes at least one person per colony visit and ideally, two or three. “Right now, we’re particularly low on people for trapping,” Rohman said, attributing the shortage to volunteers’ other commitments.

“If people are comfortable and want to, we will provide them with traps and training so they can trap their own ferals and bring them to the vet and work though our program. A lot of people are taking us up on that,” she said.

The project’s goal is ambitious: 100 percent spaying and neutering of ferals.

“The only criterion we have is that the cat has to be outdoor-only. If it’s indoor-outdoor, we consider it a pet. If they live outdoors only, we consider them qualified for our programs,” Rohman said.

However, if there is a colony where owned pets are hanging out with the group and they are not fixed, “we treat them, too.”

Each cat taken in has its ear notched to show it has been spayed or neutered. If the owner of an outdoor-only cat doesn’t mind that, Feral Cat Project volunteers will treat that cat, too. In trailer parks, volunteers post door-to-door notices about trapping activities.

The project has addressed 187 colonies in the past four years and the number of colonies waiting to be addressed is down to 8, from 26. There are usually 40 or more colonies where work is ongoing. A colony can range from a single cat to many more; Rohman has seen colonies with at least 60 cats.

“Our policy is 100 percent spay/neuter. We keep going back until we’ve gotten every cat. We’re always adding in new colonies. If someone has a stray cat living under their porch, that’s fine too.”

Ear-notching comes in handy for tracking purposes. Rohman told of a property owner with about “a dozen” barn cats who contacted the project. Volunteers rounded up 40 cats in three trips. Each one was black and white, so the property owner didn’t realize she had more cats than she thought.

In another case, project volunteers stepped in to help a woman with 20 cats on her property. The woman was no longer able to afford to feed them, but when told For Pets’ Sake would trap them and help with food, she was thrilled, Rohman said in a newsletter.

“Every colony is a story. That’s one of our good ones. We got all the cats on the first try,” she told the Free Press.

Still another property owner, “fed up” with the number of kittens he was seeing, called Rohman and told her to come get the cats. She found 60. So far, volunteers have sterilized 43 cats in the colony, in eight visits.

“He said, ‘Eleven years ago, I just had three cats.’ I said, ‘Yes, this is what can happen’,” she recounted.

The reason the man didn’t have even more cats is because mortality rates are high among ferals. “Only 10 to 20 percent of kittens survive. It [the feral-cat population] doesn’t go up in those exponential numbers that people talk about, because of the low survival rates.”

Feral cats face threats from hunger, each other, disease, the elements, predators and the actions of humans. That’s a tough environment for a cat, let alone a kitten.

While trap-neuter-release programs have spread around the country, not everyone favors them. Groups such as the National Audubon Society and the American Bird Conservancy are bitterly opposed to any attempt to keep feral cats alive, even when they’re neutered. They say ferals kill birds and other wildlife and even pose a threat to humans, because they may carry rabies or other diseases. They maintain that all cats should be kept indoors.

Cat advocates say the whole purpose of the TNR programs is to reduce feral populations and make sure the animals are all vacci nated for rabies. They say ferals pose little if any danger of transmitting disease so long as people don’t try to pick them up. Cats keep rodent populations in check, they say as well.

In March, National Audubon Society writer Ted Williams drew fire when, in an Orlando Sentinel column, he appeared to advocate poisoning feral cats with Tylenol and criticized TNR efforts. Williams cited a Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute/ U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service study that estimates cats kill 2.4 billion birds yearly.

The National Audubon Society briefly suspended Williams, but reinstated him on March 26, the New York Times reports.

Per the Times, the reinstatement prompted further outcry from cat advocates, who dispute the accuracy of the study. Many of the comments posted to the NYT’s website criticized the study, blaming any wildlife depredations on the underlying cause of feral-cat colonies: people who dump cats.

Rohman expressed similar sentiments. She said the cats do not kill anywhere near the number of birds and small mammals for which they are blamed. Ferals are happier as pets than living on their own, sick and hungry; if they are hunting, it is because of hunger — and it’s not their fault they were abandoned, or born to an abandoned cat.

“People think of them as disposable. When they’re convenient, they keep them; when not, they toss them. That’s what we’re fighting,” she said.

“We’re never going to get them all, because there’s always people abandoning them.”

Not every feral-cat colony story has a happy ending. There are places in Cortez where the colonies simply cannot remain, and there are limited alternative sites for colony relocation. Also, For Pets’ Sake is not able to take many adult pet cats for fostering, because they have such trouble placing them.

“At the shelter, they get exposure; people can see them and get them adopted. We take in very few now. What we’re doing is taking more kittens in general and making sure they’re healthy,” Rohman said.

“We’ve got the money to take care of medical bills more than the shelter does. We’re trying to work to get them a good supply of healthy kittens. But we rarely take in adult cats, which is too bad.”

Grown cats have a very slim chance of being adopted and will likely be euthanized. “We get calls regularly from people with quite-old cats. The shelter is going to have an amazingly hard time finding homes for older cats.”

But cooperation with the shelter is bringing positive results. In 2008, 306 cats that came into the shelter were ferals. The number of feral intakes for last year was 117.

“The staff at the shelter is working really hard to find homes for cats and kittens. They have started transfer programs to areas where they don’t have enough cats and kittens.”

For Pets’ Sake began working with the shelter last fall. The shelter now takes kittens found in feral colonies, socializes and vaccinates them, and puts them up for adoption. Kittens are rarely put down.

The number of domestic cat intakes is declining too, she said.

“They try really hard. They will keep the cat as long as it takes, even adults, for months, if they need to,” Rohman said.

The sun glitters off a plethora of glass shards in the blackened soil on the steep north slope of McElmo Creek just outside Cortez. Rain and wind uncover rusted tin cans and other durable debris scattered throughout this modern-day midden, which holds fascinating clues to the local culture of the 1970’s and 80’s, when city residents regularly discarded household trash there.

Partially filled with air and water, a capped water bottle stays inflated through the 3000-psi pressure of the trash compactor that bales refuse at the Montezuma County Landfill. Plastic water bottles are taking up increasing amounts of space in landfills everywhere. Photo by Sonja Horoshko

Today, according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Solid Waste, the average person in the United States generates 4.5 pounds of garbage per day, more than twice what was produced when that site was the unofficial city dump.

And the content of that trash has also changed, infused with much more plastic – bags, bottles, and other packaging. Additionally, there is a huge amount of electronic waste, including old televisions, computer monitors, and cell phones.

Tightly regulated

Deborah Barton, manager of the Montezuma County Landfill, bristles when anyone calls the current waste depository a “dump,” because it is definitely quite different from a place where trash is simply discarded with no regard to its content.

Ever since a decision by some forward-looking Montezuma County commissioners to purchase a state-of-the-art baling machine for the landfill in the 1990s, its operators have worked hard to stay abreast of new methods of recycling or disposing the various materials that are brought to the site south of Cortez.

Barton, a certified instructor of landfill-management classes in North America, said the landfill is tightly regulated by EPA requirements regarding liners, water control, dust and greenhouse gases.

“We have to document everything we do and plan for maintenance for 30 years after it shuts, after the last piece of the trash it put on the site,” she said during an interview with the Free Press.

The landfill is an enterprise business, meaning it does not rely on taxpayer subsidies, Barton said, with a million-dollar annual budget. “We have to earn our way with balance sheets, profit and loss. What is earned is spent on operating the business. It is not funded by taxes or mill levies.”

Tim Bates, operations manager and foreman, said when they needed a new $35,000 dozer, they borrowed the money from the county, “and paid it back with interest. The county made money from the landfill.”

Barton said she believes the landfill is well-run. “We’re in the black. Our books balance. No personnel turn over and we’re well-run under environmental rules.”

Barton has also served on the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Solid Waste Association of North America Board of Directors since 2002. In 2005, she received recognition as the outstanding SWANA member for Colorado.

A well-managed landfill with services that are up-to-date under environmental law helps attract companies looking to relocate. If the EPA ever finds cause to assess fines against the landfill for violating laws, the cost would go back to “every single person that put an ounce of trash in the landfill,” Bates said, “but, really, they’re going to go after the companies that can pay.”

Barton said that’s why it’s important that the companies “feel comfortable with us.” “Our industrial clients, like Kinder Morgan, Williams Energy, Waste Management, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, and many more actually audit the landfill (and we have always passed,” she said.

“As an example, an inspector from one company said we were well-organized and have all the services and equipment,” she added. “ He gave us a 5A rating, which, he said, was rare for him.”

Oodles of bottles

Trash is America’s biggest export, according to Edward Humes, author of “Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash,” He writes, “Wastepaper and scrap, plastic bags, napkins, paper, plastic utensils become instant trash the minute we buy it. It’s then exported as trash from our landfills to China, where it is re-cycled into new products, shipped back to the US and it begins again.”

The high cost of such throw-away consumerism hides in landfills, said Humes. “But it doesn’t disappear. It drags down our economy, our environment, and our future.”

Calling the bottled-water industry the grandfather of wasteful industries, he notes that on an average day, Americans toss out 60 million water containers — 694 a minute.

Bates is well aware of the problem of plastic water bottles. He began working at the Montezuma County Landfill in 2002. In his second year he was operating the industrial-scale equipment that crushes an average 22 bales of compacted trash per day, each weighing 1.2 tons, from the loose refuge brought into the bays by individuals and contract haulers.

One day, he recounted, as a bale came extruding out of the bin, he noticed an egg sticking out of a corner edge on the bale and reached for it, thinking it must be hardboiled to have survived 3000 psi of pressure and 11-gauge galvanized strapping.

“I pulled it out of the bale but it slipped from my hand and crashed on the floor, splattering raw egg all over my boot,” he said. “I thought to myself that if a raw egg could survive that pressure then how many near-empty plastic bottles with the lids screwed back on will go through the whole cycle, pressure, strapping and all, and remain inflated? I knew it was a lot. It takes up a lot of space and time before that bottle breaks down.”

Money from sewage

Worldwide, another enormous problem of waste managers is dealing with human sewage. In 2010, Barton and Bates finished and passed intense courses in Landfill and Biosolid Compost Management certification. Soon after, they began a collaboration with the Cortez Sanitation District to manufacture biosolid compost on-site, using the “grit” (biosolids) from the district and carbon sources (wood chips) stockpiled at the landfill.

According to the Northwest Biosolids Management Association, modern treatment processes and strict controls on discharges to sewers contribute to high-quality, recyclable biosolids. A typical treatment process takes the water from homes, businesses and industry to a pre-treatment source and from there to a treatment process during which the grit/biosolids are collected and stabilized by beneficial organisms that decompose, then digest the solids.

The stabilization reduces odor and destroys harmful pathogens contained in the biosolids, which can then be recycled directly onto soils in the forest or on agricultural land. The material can also be composted for landscaping and gardening. Environmental and public health is ensured through monitoring of the biosolids application site and extensive research.

In a statement, Alan Rubin, senior scientist with the Water Environment Federation/ U.S. EPA explained that, “the EPA’s 503 regulation concerning biosolids use is based on sound science and supported by twenty-five years of research, operating experience and an extensive risk assessment. The regulation provides for the safe recycling of biosolids and is fully protective of human health and the environment.”

Barton said the training she and Bates received “is really more a white-collar application of waste-management biology, microbiology and mathematics – an essential application of formulas and environmental, biological sciences to understand the microbial processes that qualify the finished compost for sale to the public.”

Now that training is being put to use, and Bates has designated a location for the composting on the top tier of the landfill where sanitation-district trucks dump the grit/biosolids. In the first step of the process the grit will be mixed with carbon material and laid in wind rows, exposed to sun (and rain if there is any) to assist in the decomposition.

The recipe is one-fourth grit/biosolids to three-fourths carbon material. “I need more carbon,” Bates said. “It’s a desert climate and carbon is harder to get here,” he said as he pointed to three small mountains of chipped wood and branches accumulated over the past year.

“I am looking at 1,760 tons of biosolids per year, which means I need 8,280 tons of carbon material to work the material into a product that the consumer can safely use.”

The compost is destined for four markets – landscaping and gardening, forestry, soil improvement, and agriculture. In oil and gas country such as Montezuma County, the microbes in compost can degrade some toxic organic compounds, including petroleum, and therefore the compost is often used to restore oil-contaminated soils.

The process takes only four months from the initial mix to the finished product and Bates is cautiously optimistic since this first batch will also be his steepest learning curve.

“I expect the actual ready date to be in October,” he said, “and that I’ll have no problem selling what we make.”

The batches will be sold only in cubic yards at a price far lower than bagged compost sold at retail outlets. “It’ll be a lot less expensive than the bagged compost, but a buyer needs a truck or trailer to haul it,” Barton said, adding “Customers are already asking to be put on a waiting list.”

Electronic debris

Consumers don’t consider the eventual disposal of an electronic device at the point of purchase, but the waste-management industry does. A recent National Safety Council study predicts that over 300 million personal computers will need to be recycled over the next four years. The EPA estimates that 80 percent of all discarded computer systems find their way into landfills. Personal-computer equipment, which is as much as 6.3 percent lead, is hazardous waste that can poison and overwhelm landfills. Proper computer-recycling procedures are essential because computer equipment also contains cadmium, mercury and precious metals.

Beginning in July, Colorado state law will prohibit haulers from taking e-waste.

The state already bans these items from the landfills if they come from commercial, industrial or institutional sources.

“That’s the law we have complied with for 10 years since the Colorado Office of Energy Management helped fund a special turnin event for Southwest Colorado in 2002,” said Barton. “We implemented this program knowing that it would become law for everyone someday.”

Since then, Montezuma County Landfill hosts two e-waste events per year during which electronic trash can be turned in for a modest disposal fee.

In 2012 the e-waste program collected nearly 12 tons of material, which included 266 commercial/residential monitors and TVs and 184 scanners/printers. The e-waste is then shipped to Natural Evolution in Tulsa, Okla., for recycling. That business is reportedly dedicated to recycling with a minimum carbon footprint.

Rebates for refrigerators

All material disposed of at the county landfill is solid waste. However, some materials are handled differently. Appliances containing freon or ammonia must be disposed of by a licensed/certified technician.

Freon, which creates holes in the ozone layer of the earth’s atmosphere, is banned from improper release to the atmosphere. In order to comply with federal and state laws, the landfill requires a completed certification statement be provided.

A few years ago, Empire Electric saw an opportunity to work with the landfill by creating an appliance turn-in event that targets refrigerators and freezers.

Bobbe Jones, assistant member-services manager, said any member of Empire Electric may turn in up to two appliances at the landfill. Each appliance requires a certificate that can be picked up at the Empire Electric offices in Cortez, Monticello or Dove Creek and brought along with the appliance. Co-op members also get a $50 credit per appliance (up to two only per year) applied to their electric bill. The landfill then contracts with a local firm to remove the freon from the old fridges and freezers.

Money credited back to Empire Electric co-op members participating in the program over the last six years totaled $56,550, or 1,130 units. The high point was 2010 when 298 units were turned in.

The event begins in Montezuma County on Earth Day, April 22, running all week until April 27, during regular business hours at the Montezuma County Landfill and at Bob’s Place, an appliance-repair business located at 804 S. Broadway in Cortez.

The turn-in program is also available at the San Juan County Fairgrounds on Saturday, April 27, in Monticello, Utah, and help will be available to unload appliances.

Barton noted that both Empire Electric and the landfill have received national recognition for this program. “It’s four efforts for the price of one,” she said. “Energy conservation, metal recycling, hazardous refrigerator safety and illegal dump clean-up where people are taking the refrigerators and freezers off of illegal dumps on public lands.”

Another spring event coordinated by the landfill and the city is the Cortez Clean-up Week, May 6-11. Trash haulers will take yard and disposable household trash for no additional charge. Information will be posted on the city web site, cityofcortez.com.

Solutions to some landfill issues remain elusive. Such problems include hazardous household waste (such as paint, turpentine, and strong cleaning fluids), and prescription drugs. Both require emergency responders on site and in the case of prescription drugs, disposal requires coordination with local law enforcement and the Drug Enforcement Agency.

“If somebody drops off a glass jar and nobody knows what’s in it, we call on the emergency responders to get us through it. That’s expensive,” said Barton.

Mesa County, Colo., has a household hazardous- waste facility that costs $500,000 annually to operate. “That’s half our budget,” she said.

Commissioners debate the ethics of using grants to improve private tracts

A discussion about cleaning up possibly contaminated properties in Montezuma County has prompted concern among the county commissioners over any use of grant funds to benefit private landowners. At a meeting March 18, Commissioner Keenan Ertel raised strong objections to using taxpayer dollars on blighted properties.

“Spending money on a derelict piece of property and a derelict owner and getting his property fixed up so he can sell it and make money off it. . . I think there’s a fundamental wrong and a fundamental break in what’s right,” Ertel said.

At a later meeting, the board did decide to approach the owners of two such tracts about a clean-up, according to County Administrator Ashton Harrison, but the fate of some other properties remains uncertain.

Ertel’s comment came during a discussion with Mark Walker, project director with the Colorado Brownfields Foundation. The non-profit foundation helps municipalities and local governments that want to clean up sites that may be contaminated, such as old junk yards, dry-cleaning businesses and gas stations. It does not actually clean up the sites, but provides technical support in assessing the degree of contamination and then in helping the entities find funds to pay for the clean-up.

Earlier this year, the county planning commission prioritized six sites as having a high priority for clean-up because they are on the gateways to municipalities.

Two of them are the former M&M Truck Stop and restaurant complex at Highway 491 and County Road G south of Cortez; and the former Wild Wild Rest convenience store and Sinclair gas station on Highway 160 between Mancos and Cortez.

Others were:

• The former Novotny junkyard on Highway 491 north of Cortez;

• The Mesa Oasis RV Campground on Highway 491 south of Cortez;

• The old dump for the town of Dolores on Highway 184;

• A drilling-equipment yard on Highway 491 just north of Cortez.

On March 18, Planning Director Susan Carver was seeking permission from the commissioners to approach the landowners to see if they are interested in help getting their tracts improved. The effort would be voluntary; the county is not trying to force the owners to take action.

Funding to clean up “brownfields” comes largely from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which began a program in 1995 that provides grants for such projects. The agency defines a brownfield as “a property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant.”

Walker, who has visited with the commissioners several times, said some of the six properties prioritized by the planning commission may not be contaminated but are perceived as being so, making them difficult to sell. “The perception about these sites has prevented them from being redeveloped,” he said.

“The purpose of brownfield [assistance] is for the community to say, ‘This is a priority site. We believe it’s worthy of assistance.’ You attempt to level the playing field, either remove those perceptions by finding out there’s no contamination or you quantify what the clean-up is to be so the buyer knows the cost of the clean-up.”

In the case of the M&M and the Sinclair, Walker said, it is known that old gas storage tanks have leaked underground; however, there may be a misperception that the contamination is more widespread than it is. He said he had talked to a woman at a local bank who told him, “We don’t lend down there any more[the M&M area] because everybody knows the contamination goes all over.”

“It’s not true,” Walker said, “but as a bank they don’t want to take the risk.” The Brownfields Foundation can help owners get technical assistance from the state or EPA in the form of a two-phase assessment of a potentially blighted property.

The first phase ascertains if the property is contaminated; the second phase determines the extent and estimates the cost of clean-up.

Walker said an example of how the program might work is the Novotny junkyard.

“It was 60 acres of dead cars at one time,” he said. “It could be a relatively easy cleanup if they never crushed cars out there, but who’s going to risk the $30,000 to $50,000 for an assessment to find out?” He said the ground could contain lead from batteries, chrome, gasoline, or oil, but if cars were crushed, that location could contain antifreeze, hydraulic fluids, and more.

As another example, he said, the Mesa Oasis Campground is covered in graffiti and “looks awful,” but a Phase I assessment might clear up the perception that it’s contaminated from an inadequate septic system.

But Ertel raised the question of whether it was right to spend taxpayer money to help a landowner who might then realize a profit from selling the property.

In the case of the M&M, he said, “Let’s say it’s $600,000 to clean it up, and the property owner has gotten $450,000 in grant monies from somebody to do that. Then the Hilton Hotel pays him $1.3 million for that property. Is he not responsible to refund that grant money?”

Walker said old gas stations are different from the other cases because they have paid into an insurance fund, the Petroleum Storage Tank Fund, and can access that fund to recoup the costs of a clean-up.

However, if time goes by and the property owner doesn’t remediate the property, he or she is penalized by losing access to some of the funds.

Ertel said he would like to see gateway areas improved, but only if the property owner would not realize a net gain from the use of grant monies.

“It’s 100 percent benefit to the community, but I cannot tolerate irresponsible landowners that have let 25 percent of their insurance erode away and now John Q. Public has to come in and clean it up,” Ertel said.

Commission Chair Steve Chappell agreed. “No, I don’t think taxpayers should pay for issues the owners created,” he said. Commissioner Larry Don Suckla was absent that day.

Walker said in some cases, property owners may not have the money to do an assessment, especially if they fear learning that an expensive clean-up might be required. In other cases, projects may be hampered by ongoing litigation.

“There’s no question in my mind those sites need to be dealt with. Everyone knows they’re eyesores,” Ertel said. “I just want the property owner to be fully involved… If he’s going to make a buck off of it I’d like to have some way to not let him come out of there with a pretty little net gain.”

Walker said, “If there’s a Phase 1 and 2 done at $60,000 expense and you find out you have a $250,000 cleanup, a smart buyer will knock down the price $250,000. Are you comfortable with that scenario?”

Ertel said no, because the owner would still have received a $60,000 grant he did not have to pay back.

“The potential buyer won’t risk that $60,000 to find out he might have a milliondollar cleanup,” Walker said.

The commissioners asked whether the owner could be required to repay the costs of the initial assessment, but Walker said the grants are from a non-revolving fund and are designed to be “disappearing.”

“The county will benefit from the redevelopment,” he said.

But Ertel said that was not his primary concern. He and Chappell mentioned the federal bank bailout in 2008 and 2009 and the problem of the burgeoning federal debt.

Ertel said he would be much more comfortable if the county were able to get title to the blighted properties; then it could utilize the grant funds and return them to its own coffers when a property was sold.

“That’s fairly aggressive on the part of the county,” Walker said, adding that most counties don’t want the title to a contaminated site “because they’re afraid of walking into a godawful mess.”

Cortez resident Bud Garner objected from the audience. “Where does it stop? Under what conditions can a county own land?” he asked.

“Once you start down this slope the grease just gets thicker,” Garner said. “When do we quit using government to bail out business in the private sector?”

“There is another wrinkle,” Chappell said. “A lot of people would like to see the economy improve and things be cleaned up. When things fail, it’s a blight on the whole community. That’s just another perspective – I’m not saying I agree.”

Chappell mentioned the past clean-up of old uranium mines with radioactive material.

“The danger of those uranium tailings is largely overblown,” Garner said. “Yeah, they do pose a risk to some people.” But paying for those clean-ups was acceptable because the mines were operated under contract with the Defense Department, he said. “The county government did not contaminate the M&M.”

Harrison later told the Free Press that the commissioners had decided to allow Carver to approach the current owners and/or potential buyers of the M&M and the Wild Wild Rest about a clean-up because the source of the monies would be the Petroleum Storage Tank fund rather than taxpayer- funded grants.

Walker told the Free Press it would benefit the community to have eyesore sites redeveloped, and grant monies not used here will be spent somewhere else.

“I think there’s a solid majority out there that would like to see these sites addressed and they have not made that representation to the commissioners,” he said. “It’s time to hear from those who are in favor.”

The future of Colorado’s forests, farms and open spaces will be determined in part by the usual culprits associated with climate change – the pine-beetle plague and wildfire. But the future is also being influenced by strange bedfellows like bindweed and prairie dogs, according to a presentation given by Tim Seastedt, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology with the University of Colorado.

Marmots such as this one near Silverton, Colo., have been emerging from hibernation an average of 38 days earlier than in the past. Photo by Gail Binkly

Researchers are documenting how climate change – in the form of warmer average temperatures across the West – is contributing to different ecological patterns in the natural world. In addition, the warming trend’s impact on Colorado agriculture could alter historic growing seasons, Seastedt explained to a packed auditorium at Fort Lewis College in Durango on March 26.

“Southwest Colorado’s temperature has [on average] risen two degrees Fahrenheit over the last 30 years. The irrefutable pattern of warming is evident and believable,” Seastedt said. “The real question is, how much control do we have during this change process?”

Precipitation levels are expected to stay the same for Southwest Colorado, but the hotter weather will likely result in a more arid climate overall due to increased evaporation.

Scientists at CU are documenting changes in climate, wildlife populations, and natural and invasive vegetation patterns throughout Colorado.

More fires, worse fires

Warmer weather reduces snowpacks earlier, which contributes to disturbances such as wildfire. And the effect seems to occur even during heavy-snow years.

“Two years ago we had some extreme snows, but in spite of the heavy precipitation at high elevations, the bottoms of the mountains were on fire very early in the year. Already we’re seeing fires this year, so it is worrisome,” Seastedt said.

Last year on June 24, there were eight fires burning at once in the state. Firefighters are bracing for another extreme fire season.

“Historically, the major fire seasons of 2010 and 2012 are not off the record, but they are outliers,” he said. “A new phenomenon is Colorado joining California in being unable to defend subdivisions from fires starting in adjacent forest, as was the case in Colorado Springs last year.”

Climate models using the continuation of the two-degree warming trend predict a startling fire-return interval that is six times greater than it is now.

For wildlife, changes are also happening. The rapidly melting snows and drier conditions have prompted marmots to come out of hibernation on average 38 days earlier than in the past. Bears in the San Juans mountains are reportedly emerging from their dens earlier as well.

Beetle proliferation

The huge forest die-back in Colorado caused by the ravenous pine beetle is a result of prolonged drought. Pine trees defend against the beetle by pushing out sap, but a water-stressed tree runs out of defenses and is overwhelmed by the bugs.

Disturbingly, the longer warm season has created a new life cycle for the beetle, Seastedt explained. Beetles now emerge earlier than before and have time to complete spawn two generations rather than the usual one. One female produces 50 eggs and 50 offspring in one generation. Add a second generation, “and the math gets scary,” he said, with 2,500 larvae being produced.

The result is a more-destructive forest dieback from beetle kill over a shorter period of time.

“This kind of violates the rules of what we have seen as to how these outbreaks work in the past,” Seastedt said. “Historically, they would be watershed-specific. Now it is a severely stressed landscape over an amazing spatial scale and the regional change is in turn amplifying other changes.”

Meadow creep

The result: more meadows, fewer forests. This is not necessarily a bad thing from a biologic-diversity standpoint.

What is happening is a lesson in ecology and dendrology, the study of trees. For millions of years forests have bounced back after beetle kills and fires, but because they are getting hit two or three times in a short time frame, that is not happening. The reason is lack of seeds, plus the fact that the hotter, drier soils prevent the establishment of seedlings that do exist.

“Immature forests are getting hit before they produce their propagules (seed banks), then the system essentially lacks a seed source and becomes a herbaceous system,” Seastedt said. “This is becoming the common model.”

The new norm within a forest matrix is expected to go from forests with occasional meadows, to meadows with occasional forests. This favors many “generalist” (nonspecialized) animal species, Seastedt said, but is a disadvantage for others.

“Lodgepole forests have less biological diversity. It is a monoculture with no understory and they have the lowest species richness in Colorado. To be honest [damage by fires and beetle kill] has opened up these areas and we have seen a more interesting landscape.”

But there could be a downside. How this new system will impact snowpack, snowmelt, regional climate, and water-partitioning is poorly known and needs more study, he said.

Keystone species

And now the prairie dog is playing a surprising role in climate change because its unique relationship with bindweed is creating an unexpected destructive force.

Bindweed is the bane of many weekend yard warriors. The invasive weed with its pretty flowers thrives in the drier, hotter temperatures. It is not expected to outcompete native plants overall; however, in and around prairie-dog colonies the weed is proving problematic.

Bindweed contains an alkaloid that is poisonous and most animals, including prairie dogs, ignore it. In a colony, the weed becomes dominant as the prairie dogs select other plants to forage on.

But over winter, bindweed loses its poisonous potency, and it becomes a convenient stored food source for the prairie dogs in spring. The result is a lunar landscape, devoid of vegetation, made worse by hotter, drier weather that hampers the growth of native grasses in spring.

The outcome – once spring winds arrive – is huge dust storms, stripping the topsoil and changing the landscape.

“Dust storms caused by prairie dogs are a fairly new phenomenon, and it is changing the rules of what vegetation is going to exist there,” Seastedt said.

The spread of shrubs is a probable result, he said, with more sagebrush, but the exact effects are unclear and little-studied.

Simply exterminating prairie dogs isn’t the answer, he said. Having fewer prairie dogs (in the Four Corners the species is the Gunnison prairie dog) means less biologic diversity. This charismatic rodent is considered a keystone species, meaning its presence and colonies attract dependent species such as the burrowing owl, mountain plover, and predators like hawks.

More growing time, but not more water

The hotter conditions have researchers forecasting a longer growing period of three weeks for domestic crops and other vegetation. But the precipitation is expected to stay constant, meaning the same amount of moisture is getting spread out over a longer period, Seastedt said, increasing evaporation. This affects dryland farmers more than irrigators with a predictable water supply, although more evaporation is expected to impact the whole region.

Farmers could grow earlier, but drier conditions spell out less production overall. Plus there is the risk of frost if crops are planted too early.

Non-native plants are more adaptable to the drier conditions, which is changing the competitive matrix of vegetation, Seastedt said. For example the non-native cheatgrass is greening up earlier, stealing nutrients and water from those native species that evolved to green up later to avoid frosts.

Cheatgrass is especially insidious because it not only fuels wildfires, it benefits from them afterward, returning to the burnt landscape with more vigor.

Seatsedt said protecting the public against wildfires and preserving water sources are the main social needs of a warmer climate.

“A longer growing season is in play, and the more-arid conditions are setting us up for more-radical changes,” he warned.

The Mountain Studies Institute, headquartered in Silverton, Colo., is a leading research group studying the impacts of climate change on the Southwest. They conduct research on alpine and desert environments in the Four Corners area. Here are some highlights from a comprehensive study called “Climate Change Assessment for the San Juan Mountain Region, Southwestern Colorado”:

• A consistent warming trend in Colorado since 1970 is projected to have significant effects on snowpack, even without a decrease in precipitation. From 1978 to 2004, snowmelt shifted two weeks earlier on average on Colorado’s Western Slope.

• Between 2040 and 2069, decreases in snowpack below 8,200 feet are expected to be between 20 percent and 60 percent. Above 8,200 feet the reduction is expected to be 10 to 20 percent.

• Predicted warming and drying will expand the range of many exotic species including cheatgrass, spotted knapweed, yellow star-thistle, red brome, and leafy spurge.

• Canada lynx may lose habitat following large-scale wildfires, which are predicted to increase as a result of climate-induced warming and drying.

• Warming trends could impact alpine areas as lower vegetation moves to higher elevations. The American pika, a high-elevation species, has limited upward movement from its habitat and may be vulnerable.

• Stream flows for the Upper Colorado River Basin are expected to diminish 10 to 25 percent, compared to flows from 1900 to 1970.

For more, see www.mountainstudies.org.