{"id":25735,"date":"2024-09-12T16:27:57","date_gmt":"2024-09-12T22:27:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/why-did-montezuma-county-cut-back-its-noxious-weed-department\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T23:26:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:26:06","slug":"why-did-montezuma-county-cut-back-its-noxious-weed-department","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/why-did-montezuma-county-cut-back-its-noxious-weed-department\/","title":{"rendered":"Why did Montezuma County cut back its noxious weed department?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Weed
Weed removal work done by the county\u2019s previous noxious weed department. (Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s Note:<\/strong> This article is the first of three articles about Montezuma County\u2019s noxious weed program. Part 2 on Wednesday considers some of the impacts of the lost program, and Part 3 on Thursday considers the problem of roadside weeds. All three parts are published in Wednesday\u2019s printed edition of The Journal. <\/em><\/p>\n

Part 1<\/div>\n

Montezuma County\u2019s noxious weed program once struggled to meet the bare minimum required by Colorado\u2019s Noxious Weed Act, then with financial help grew for nearly a decade to become the envy of Southwest Colorado.<\/p>\n

Between 2019 and 2022, the program was awarded $352,000 in grants, which were mostly matched by funds from landowners. Bonnie Anderson, the weed department director, was selected as 2022 Weed Manager of the Year.<\/p>\n

That all ended in March.<\/p>\n

Anderson was fired in October. And this year, the Board of County Commissioners approved a weed management plan so unpalatable to its noxious weed advisory board \u2013 made up of six weed experts \u2013 that the entire board resigned.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe county commissioners weren\u2019t responsive to our suggestions,\u201d said Steve Miles, a former advisory board member named Conservationist of the Year in 2008.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur role was to advise, and they weren\u2019t interested in what we were having to say. That\u2019s why we all resigned.\u201d<\/p>\n

The resignation forced the Board of County Commissioners to absorb the role.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny time there\u2019s a board not functioning, the commissioners basically end up having to take over that task. We\u2019ve got so many other priorities, that it\u2019s kind of fallen very low, to the very, very lowest priority that you could possibly deal with,\u201d said County Commissioner Jim Candelaria.<\/p>\n

\"Former
Former Montezuma County Noxious Weed Manager Bonnie Anderson was named 2022 Weed Manager of the Year for Colorado for her outstanding efforts in the field. (Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Before the advisory board resigned, Bonnie Anderson, the former noxious weed department director named Weed Manager of the Year in 2022, was fired.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe had such a terrific program going,\u201d said Brad White, a former advisory board member and farmer in Pleasant View. \u201cWe were hoping we could find someone to step in her shoes and keep it going, but it completely went flat.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new noxious weeds director is James Dietrich. He doubles as the natural resources planning and public lands coordinator.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s one full-time staff dedicated to noxious weeds \u2013 the only applicant for the role \u2013 and he has little to no experience in the field. Dietrich said he holds promise, though.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the biggest milestone right now, because we were just flat no-capacity when everybody left,\u201d Dietrich said.<\/p>\n

In the wake of the department\u2019s exodus, its once successful programs were cut.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were finding that expenses were outpacing revenues,\u201d said Travis Anderson, the county administrator.<\/p>\n

Last year, it spent about $12,000 less than it was expected to.<\/p>\n

As far as individual programs go, in 2023, the Phreatophyte Project got $96,963 in grant funding; its expenses were just under half that. That project even made the Road Department about $10,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfunded mandates from the state of Colorado are just tough to deal with, because where do we get the funds?\u201d said Candelaria.<\/p>\n

The noxious weed department got its funding from three sources: the county road department\u2019s mill levy, the general fund and outside funding such as grants.<\/p>\n

Previous resolutions specify that 1% of the Road and Bridge department\u2019s mill levy is dedicated to the weed department.<\/p>\n

Between 2019 and 2022, the county\u2019s noxious weed department was awarded $352,000 in grants, which were mostly matched by funds from landowners.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Bonnie got in there, she \u2026 got a lot of grant funding and increased the program without a burden on the landowners or the county\u201d said Eddy Lewis, the owner of Southwest Weed Control and an advisory board member for 26 years.<\/p>\n

In March, the county decided to take the program back to what the statute says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s where we\u2019re going with the program,\u201d said Candelaria. \u201cIt\u2019s just to what the statute says we have to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The county has other, pressing priorities to spend its money on. Public safety, for example, ranks higher on the agenda than weeds, said Candelaria.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are the second-lowest-paid agency in the state of Colorado,\u201d said Montezuma County Sheriff Steve Nowlin. \u201cI am 17% behind the number of deputies for the per capita that we have. I\u2019m only running two deputies a shift, and they\u2019re working 12-hour shifts.\u201d<\/p>\n

The board recently cut the public safety budget by more than $1 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they found that Kinder Morgan and other taxes were dropping, and they couldn\u2019t meet the budget with the amount we had to have, they decided to make major cuts,\u201d Nowlin said.<\/p>\n

One source of revenue for Montezuma County is property taxes, which makes up 18.11% of its total revenue. A little over half that 18.11% comes from Kinder Morgan.<\/p>\n