Montelores Coalition launches Strike Team for local conservation work

The Montelores Coalition approved its first three Strike Team projects, sending a Southwest Conservation Corps crew to Hawkins Preserve in Cortez, County Road 39 southwest of Mancos and abandoned fence lines near Rico. The pilot is the coalition’s first on-the-ground implementation effort under its Outdoor Recreation and Conservation Plan, and the crew will spend about three weeks of total time on cleanup, restoration and hazard removal.

The first round drew five proposals, and the coalition used a ranking matrix tied to its conservation plan to choose the projects. Cara Gildar, the coalition’s executive director, said the idea grew out of priorities identified through the coalition’s roundtable and community planning process, which brings together land managers, local governments, agriculture, outdoor recreation, community organizations and resource conservation interests.

At Hawkins Preserve, the work could include litter cleanup, trail maintenance and weed control depending on conditions. The 122-acre property sits within Cortez’s southern city limits, was donated by Jack Hawkins to the Cortez Cultural Center in the 1990s and was placed in a conservation easement in 2004 to protect public access, natural resources and archaeological resources.

The Mancos River project is expected to support wetland and riparian habitat restoration through pole-assisted log structures and possible native plantings. The County Road 39 site southwest of Mancos gives the coalition a chance to turn a planning priority into visible fieldwork along a corridor where river health, recreation and land management overlap.

Near Rico, crews will remove about one-and-a-half miles of abandoned barbed-wire fencing. The coalition says that project made the cut because it can improve wildlife movement and landscape connectivity in important elk and deer migration and calving areas while also making the terrain safer for people who work and play there. Colorado Parks and Wildlife says elk and deer migrate seasonally and usually move from higher to lower elevations as winter approaches, and old fence can pose risks to wildlife, horseback riders, cattle permittees and recreationists.

The coalition says Montezuma and Dolores counties receive more than 1 million outdoor visitors each year, making the condition of trails, waterways and access routes a local issue as much as a conservation one. The Strike Team is being carried out by Southwest Conservation Corps under a state-supported outdoor recreation and conservation funding system, with the first projects now moving from plan to the ground.