{"id":128832,"date":"2026-05-13T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/barking-at-court-montezuma-county-explores-addressing-prairie-dog-overpopulation\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T21:30:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T03:30:17","slug":"barking-at-court-montezuma-county-explores-addressing-prairie-dog-overpopulation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/barking-at-court-montezuma-county-explores-addressing-prairie-dog-overpopulation\/","title":{"rendered":"Barking at court: Montezuma County explores addressing prairie dog overpopulation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A prairie dog at the American Prairie nature preserve. 22nd Judicial District Court officials told Montezuma County commissioners during an April 13 meeting that prairie dogs have overtaken roughly 6 acres surrounding courthouse grounds. \u201cWe\u2019ve all lived in the county long enough to know that prairie dogs are prairie dogs, but we are becoming overrun,\u201d Chief Judge Todd Plewe said. (AP file photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

From bears wandering Dolores streets in daylight to burrowing beavers, officials say some wildlife in Montezuma County is increasingly becoming a burden.<\/p>\n

The issue is big enough the county commission is planning for solutions. In a meeting April 13, court officials told the board prairie dogs have overtaken about 6 acres at the Montezuma County Combined Courts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have infiltrated the sally port area in the back, so you can imagine what it sounds like for our juries, judges and staff to hear all the prairie dogs barking,\u201d said Eric Hogue, 22nd Judicial District court executive.<\/p>\n

\"A
A prairie dog village sets up shop across from the Cortez Recreation Center in 2021. (Journal file photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s not an easy one, because to eradicate prairie dogs, I don\u2019t think we\u2019ll ever be successful anywhere, however, this has been an ongoing conversation for four to five months,\u201d responded Commissioner Jim Candelaria.<\/p>\n

At a workshop Monday, Candelaria also pointed to addressing vector control with prairie dogs overcrowding the landfill to comply with Colorado Public Health and Environment regulations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve all lived in the county long enough to know that prairie dogs are prairie dogs, but we are becoming overrun,\u201d said Chief Judge Todd Plewe.<\/p>\n

Candelaria said Monday that beavers are pestering the road and bridge department. And while a few bears mosey around the landfill, they are known to frequent trash cans within Dolores.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am thinking about our sheriff and chasing bears in the town of Dolores all the time,\u201d Candelaria said. \u201cWe have better things for our deputies to do besides chase bears.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a response, county officials invited employees from U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s Wildlife Services and Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service program to Monday\u2019s meeting for a discussion on contracting services. The federal agency program specializes in wildlife management and often works alongside counties to deal with a range of animals: bears, wolves, elk, wild or loose-domestic swine, vultures, geese, and wild horses.<\/p>\n

\"Bears
Bears having a picnic in the dumpster. (Courtesy of Colorado Parks and Wildlife)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

John Callon, eastern district supervisor for the Colorado Wildlife Services program, said the work is described as essentially a \u201cgovernment trapper,\u201d with visions of improving coexistence between people and wildlife.<\/p>\n

Strategies include non-lethal trapping, non-lethal wolf damage management, livestock protection, depredation investigations, and bear and lion management. These are done in partnership with Colorado Parks and Wildlife using hazing tactics, ATVs, drones and hound dogs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would suggest we come up with a number you are comfortable with and we can put together an agreement for you,\u201d Callon told the commission.<\/p>\n

Callon and another colleague, Western District Supervisor Jon Moore, provided a presentation to the board.<\/p>\n

Cost-sharing with the program is sometimes available or funded through federal appropriations while counties are billed for labor costs, such as the specific employee hours, miles driven, and equipment or materials used.<\/p>\n

In this case, the commissioners noted the funding will be drawn from the county budget of three different sources: the Enterprise Fund for the landfill, the General Fund for the courts and Sheriff\u2019s Office, and the Road and Bridge Fund.<\/p>\n

Callon said paperwork can arrive sometime next week provided a number was in mind. The next step was for both supervisors to take a tour of the problem areas assessing the extent of issues. The tour will include the landfill, Sheriff\u2019s Office, the 6-acre site at the combined courts, and a specific area dealing with active beaver problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the town, we are starting to see an increase of our four-legged hairy friends. \u2026 They are back,\u201d Sheriff Steve Nowlin told the Dolores Town Board about bears returning on Monday evening.<\/p>\n

Nowlin said the seasonal bear problem is not going away and that securing trash remains the most important step.<\/p>\n

awatson@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wildlife Services possible partnership may address conflicts with critters, including bears and beavers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":128833,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[28,60,109,29,6419,76,603],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-128832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-montezuma-county-commissioner","tag-newsletter","tag-tj-trueanthem","tag-u-s-22nd-judicial-district","tag-wildlife"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128832","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=128832"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":128949,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128832\/revisions\/128949"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128832"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=128832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}