A diverse group of community members that first banded together in October to remove a highly contested fence at Chicken Creek outside of Mancos has formed a coalition.
It’s called the Chicken Creek Coalition, and the group is just as diverse as it was on Oct. 10 when they first went into the woods.
“These are people who would not normally be working shoulder to shoulder. There’s little beefs between the different groups, but we are all working together,” said Howard Kalnitz, one member of the coalition.
“With this common thread, it was so easy and comfortable to come together and work together,” said Brad Finch, another coalition member who lives in Mancos.
The coalition is made up of people from the Mancos Trails Group, the Chicken Creek Nordic and Back Country Horsemen, too. Some are grazing allotment holders, and others are private landowners.
“We are rallying together for our public lands,” one member said. “The coalition is everybody. We just happen to be a few people who are willing to speak up.”
The Free Land Holder Committee, the group that erected 4.5 miles of fence last month on public land, put up new proclamations that say, “To all those with an equal, previous or superior claim, please reply … by Dec. 15, 2024 or be it this claim has been resolved forever.”
“While under land law for the customary 61 days public notice for a lawful land claim, we continue to wait for anyone making claims,” Free Land Holder ambassadors wrote to The Journal in an email.
Most of the coalition agreed they didn’t take the deadline seriously, and that talking to the Free Land Holders before Dec. 15 legitimizes what they’re doing.
“We would like assurance from the Forest Service or the Sheriff that they would act … in case they try to build a fence again,” said Ryan Brown, a landowner and coalition member.
“The way I read it is that on Dec. 15, they consider that land theirs. And as they believe it to be their land, will they defend their land?” Kalnitz said.
Brown noted that they’ve never seen any of the Free Land Holders bearing arms, and all interactions with them have been peaceful.
But just because it’s been peaceful and just because the fence is down doesn’t mean it’s over, said a coalition member who asked not to be named.
“We need people to keep active,” they said.
The coalition now has a website, a stem off the Mancos Trails Group main site. Plus, coalition members put up QR codes leading to that website around Mancos and in Cortez, too.
“We’re trying to make it as easy as possible for people to become aware of information first, and if they want to, they can reach out and help by contacting local officials or the Forest Service,” said John Early, the coalition member who created the website.
At the bottom of the webpage, below elected officials’ contact information, there’s letters drafted to streamline the process in contacting those officials.
“The best way to influence Forest Service is through kind of their purse strings, which comes from Congress,” Kalnitz said.
“If we can get Congress to really lean on the Forest Service, then the Forest Service has a clear mandate to go and do something. If the Forest Service is left alone, they’ll try and pick the least confrontational solution, and they may just back off,” he said.
The coalition set up a table during the Mancos Valley River Film Festival, and community members signed and sent out roughly 70 letters that day.
“We had stamped envelopes and address labels, and copies of letters they could sign or write a note of their own,” said Jen Magnuson of the Mancos Trails Group and coalition.
“We ran out of paper copies midway through and had to go make extras,” a member added.
A few weeks ago, coalition members signed and sent out letters and have heard back from U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper and Sen. Michael Bennet’s office.
The response “was nothing too specific, I’d say,” Brown said.
In a nutshell, they assured the coalition that they’re “closely following” the issue and have been in contact with Montezuma County and Forest Service leadership.
“Our approach is the same as it has been,” said San Juan National Forest District Ranger Nick Mustoe. “We are trying not to escalate tension.”
Mustoe said the U.S. Forest Service is consulting with federal agents, planning the best path forward.
He said the Forest Service has titles of the lands, and the agency is seeking a “conclusive resolution” on the issue through federal courts.
“A lot of this will be dealt with through law enforcement and the courts,” said Finch. “We feel like we could influence that just by letting them know how we feel about it, and … putting the right kind of pressure on folks so they know we care and we’re not going to stand for the land being taken out of public use.”
The coalition is also monitoring new activity because “we don’t want to be surprised by a fence again,” Finch said.
They’re keeping tabs on people recreating at or around Chicken Creek and the disputed area, since a lot of the public doesn’t feel as safe to be there anymore, Finch said.
He added that the 1,460 disputed acres – when compared to prices of 35 acre lots for sale at Lost Canyon Ranch just north of that land – is worth an excess of $10 million.
“It’s so clearly opportunistic, with lands just adjacent to the private lands that they own. It’s suspicious and greedy … in addition to it being totally obviously illegal,” Brown said.
It’s not just public access lost: “We shouldn’t forget these things are valuable,” a member said.
“There’s strength in our conviction,” said Finch. “It’s kind of a dance, because we don’t want confrontation, but we’re also, I think we speak for all of us, that we’re not going to yield to intimidation.”
