Montezuma County commissioners took on a variety of topics at a recent meeting. Highlights follow:
Boat inspections
Forest Service officials are asking McPhee boaters to keep the reservoir free of the invasive quagga and zebra mussels by utilizing only boat launches that have inspection stations.
McPhee is free of the pests that have infested other lakes, clogging irrigation structures and water-treatment facilities.
The mussels have been reported at Lake Powell, said District Ranger Derek Padilla, and there is a risk they could inadvertently arrive at McPhee.
"There has been an issue of boats launching at the Old Cemetery in Dolores," he said.
Boaters should only launch from the McPhee boat ramp or the House Creek boat ramp where Colorado Parks and Wildlife contractors are stationed for inspections.
Road closures
Forest users should be prepared to see some boulder road closures in the Boggy-Glade area of the forest as part of the implementation of a recently passed travel management plan for that area. Unauthorized roads in the Salter Y, Dolores Road, and Little Bean Canyon areas will be signed as closed and may include positioned boulders to prevent access.
Marijuana hearing planned
Montezuma County is unfazed by Colorado voters' decision to free the forbidden foliage for the masses under Amendment 64. On June 30, at 10:30 a.m. the commission will have a public hearing on a proposed ordinance to ban marijuana and testing facilities and retail marijuana stores within unincorporated parts of the county.
The proposed ban would add to a previous prohibition of medical marijuana commercial grow operations and sales.
The ban wouldn't prohibit adults 21 and over from growing and using marijuana in the county for personal use.
Beetle threat
The Forest Service will be treating 120 to 180 acres of spruce forests in Narraguinnep Canyon this summer to control beetles. Crews will use thinning and mastication on the edge of a remote section of forest ravaged by the spruce beetle in an effort to stop their spread.
Every year, the U.S. Forest Service and Colorado State Forest Service conduct aerial surveys to track the spread of various infestations of the state's trees.
Pine beetles have killed more than 5,000 square miles of lodgepole and ponderosa pines since 1996. But last year, the aerial survey found them active on just 150 square miles.
Another 338 square miles of high-altitude forests in Southwest Colorado fell to the spruce beetle in 2013, according to an aerial survey.
