{"id":103082,"date":"2017-10-21T18:31:01","date_gmt":"2017-10-22T00:31:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortezs-geer-natural-area-may-get-a-new-trail-next-year\/"},"modified":"2017-10-21T18:31:01","modified_gmt":"2017-10-22T00:31:01","slug":"cortezs-geer-natural-area-may-get-a-new-trail-next-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortezs-geer-natural-area-may-get-a-new-trail-next-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Cortez\u2019s Geer Natural Area may get a new trail next year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Keith
Keith Evans points out one of the spots where his proposed perimeter trail in Geer Natural Area would run.<\/span>Stephanie Alderton\/The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

On Friday, Cortez parks and recreation advisory committee members toured the land they hope to turn into a new Geer Natural Area trail next year.<\/p>\n

Keith Evans, who owned much of the Geer and Carpenter natural areas, plans to sell the city 50 acres of his property, to be used for a new trail around the park\u2019s perimeter. Evans said a new trail could make Geer more friendly to hikers and give all users a more direct route across the park. Parks and Recreation Director Dean Palmquist said the city has tentatively budgeted about $50,000 for the purchase in 2018.<\/p>\n

Evans said the different people who regularly visit Geer \u2013 primarily hikers, dog walkers and cyclists \u2013 have different needs when it comes to trail routes. Walkers in particular, he said, have approached him asking for a quicker path through the park.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, if you obey the rules of the park and stay on the trail and don\u2019t cut, you\u2019re locked into going several miles of windy, twisty trail to get to the other side,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said the new trail could also make it easier for visitors with different interests to share the park. Palmquist reported that after the advisory committee gave permission to the Montezuma County Sheriff\u2019s mounted patrol officers to use the park in September, some people complained the horses were tearing up the plant life by straying from their designated routes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the deputies can take their horses perpendicular to the trails, they\u2019ll eventually damage those trails,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s concern about the plant life, too, that they\u2019ll trample the plants.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he has spoken to the deputies about the problem. In the future, Evans said he hopes the new trail will be a better alternative for the mounted patrol, as well as any other equestrian visitors who might come to the park.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think, if they have their own trail, then everybody will be happy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In order for the trail to be completed next year, though, Evans said the city will need to do some work on the land. Several fences around the park\u2019s perimeter are several yards away from Evans\u2019 surveyed property line, he said, so they need to be moved to reflect the park\u2019s actual boundaries. He also suggested the city put up signs to mark where the new trail begins and ends.<\/p>\n

Evans showed the advisory committee members his planned route for the trail, which would go around the northern and eastern boundaries of the park. The land is part of a conservation easement he was granted in 2016 in cooperation with the Montezuma Land Conservancy, and it includes the newly opened third entrance to Geer, near North Mildred Road.<\/p>\n

Although a walking tour of the proposed trail took up most of the committee\u2019s meeting on Friday, the members also approved a letter of support for the city\u2019s proposed Great Outdoors Colorado grant application. The grant would allow the city to purchase the old Montezuma-Cortez High School site in order to turn it into a park. The City Council will vote on the application on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

This article was reposted on Oct. 24 to remove incorrect information about the city\u2019s planned purchase of Keith Evans\u2019 property.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

officials plan to buy more land<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":103083,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[21,318,13,1982],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-103082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-cortez","tag-cortez-municipal-government","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-parks"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103082"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=103082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}