{"id":16414,"date":"2025-09-24T15:44:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T21:44:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mesa-verde-projects-feral-horse-roundup-top-land-agency-updates\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:57:30","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:57:30","slug":"mesa-verde-projects-feral-horse-roundup-top-land-agency-updates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mesa-verde-projects-feral-horse-roundup-top-land-agency-updates\/","title":{"rendered":"Mesa Verde projects, feral horse roundup top land agency updates"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Sunset
Sunset view from Point Lookout Trail in Mesa Verde National Park. (Benjamin Rubin\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The Montezuma County commissioners listened in during Monday\u2019s regular workshop meeting as three officials from the region\u2019s prized public lands gave detailed updates. Speakers included officials from Mesa Verde National Park, San Juan National Forest and the Bureau of Land Management\u2019s Tres Rios Field Office.<\/p>\n

The updates gave a broad look at land management efforts and showed what federal employees are working on.<\/p>\n

Visitors down at Mesa Verde, but projects lie ahead<\/div>\n

Since August 2024, year-to-date visitation to Mesa Verde is down by 4%, said Kayci Cook, Mesa Verde\u2019s superintendent. She pointed to a drop in international tourism as a possible reason.<\/p>\n

She said the numbers may rise again next year with several big anniversaries: the 250th anniversary of the U.S., the 150th anniversary of Colorado\u2019s statehood and the 120th year since Mesa Verde was founded.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe park is just now getting started on ideas for events and activities that will nest within all of those anniversaries,\u201d Cook said.<\/p>\n

Many projects are planned for fiscal year 2026, Cook said.<\/p>\n

Seven overlook barriers will be replaced next year, with rotating closures at each site. Several historic houses from the 1920s will be renovated. A waterline will be replaced in the Morefield Campground area, and a new water tank will be built. Roads will be repaired, including a new entryway for Wetherill Mesa road.<\/p>\n

Spruce Tree House, one of the park\u2019s most famous sites, will get an alcove archway stabilization project. This must follow laws about migratory birds, Cook said.<\/p>\n

Some public areas may close during the work, but visitors can still enjoy the park, she said.<\/p>\n

Cook said the park has removed about 60 feral horses since late 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re still working with the National Mustang Association in terms of being able to transfer those animals out for adoption,\u201d she said. \u201cThey go to owners or they go to sanctuary and live their best lives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

The BLM Tres Rios Field Office has also dealt with feral horses.<\/p>\n

Derek Padilla, field manager, said his office once estimated 200 feral horses on BLM land. After a roundup on Ute Mountain Ute land, the number dropped to 120.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still intend to look for opportunities to remove the remainder of those horses,\u201d Padilla said.<\/p>\n

Near Cortez, reroutes in the Phil\u2019s World trail system were finished this summer to meet historic preservation laws.<\/p>\n

The work was expected to take two to three years, but fire crews built the reroutes while not fighting fires, Padilla said.<\/p>\n

Some trail users didn\u2019t like the changes. Complaints about road access led the office to add signs explaining the reroutes.<\/p>\n

The office received more funding for needed projects. Canyon of the Ancients National Monument got money from the Great American Outdoors Act to upgrade the Visitor Center, expand a nearby bunkhouse and restore the historic Lamb House in Sand Canyon, Padilla said.<\/p>\n

Padilla said this year\u2019s fire season was quiet: \u201con BLM lands we didn\u2019t have anything of consequence, thankfully.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some small fires started near BLM lands, but crews handled them quickly. Prescribed burns have now started, he said.<\/p>\n

Prescribed burns and forest restoration in San Juan National Forest<\/div>\n

In the San Juan National Forest, prescribed burns are underway.<\/p>\n

About 3,000 acres have been burned this year, with more planned, said Nick Mustoe, ranger on the Dolores Ranger District.<\/p>\n

Other work will study forest restoration projects that could help snowpack soak into the soil and refill reservoirs, Mustoe said.<\/p>\n

Last, Mustoe told the commissioners that the Free Land Holder group court case<\/a> is nearly wrapped up; the Forest Service has filed for summary judgment and awaits a court decision.<\/p>\n

This article was updated Thursday morning to fix an error. A previous version incorrectly stated that four officials had provided public lands updates, when the accurate number of officials was three. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Commissioners hear from BLM, Mesa Verde National Park and San Juan National Forest<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16415,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-16414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16414","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=16414"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20188,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16414\/revisions\/20188"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16414"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=16414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}