{"id":51249,"date":"2020-10-02T09:55:56","date_gmt":"2020-10-02T15:55:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/exceptional-drought-now-plagues-parts-of-western-slope\/"},"modified":"2020-10-02T15:55:56","modified_gmt":"2020-10-02T15:55:56","slug":"exceptional-drought-now-plagues-parts-of-western-slope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/exceptional-drought-now-plagues-parts-of-western-slope\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Exceptional\u2019 drought now plagues parts of Western Slope"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Parts
Parts of Mesa County is now experiencing exceptional drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Delta, Garfield and Pitkin counties are also seeing the same dire conditions. These areas could see widespread crop and pasture losses and water-shortage emergencies, according to the monitor.<\/span>Stina Sieg\/CPR News<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Colorado\u2019s drought conditions have worsened this week.<\/p>\n

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, nearly 90 percent of the state is in a severe drought, and more than half is considered in extreme drought. Parts of Kiowa County in the Eastern Plains continue to struggle with the most severe category of exceptional drought.<\/p>\n

This week, the monitor reports that parts of Mesa, Delta, Garfield and Pitkin counties are now also experiencing exceptional drought. These areas could see widespread crop and pasture losses and water-shortage emergencies, according to the monitor.<\/p>\n

The Drought Monitor rates the extend of drought on five levels from \u201cabnormally dry,\u201d at level D0, to \u201cexceptional drought,\u201d at D4. Montezuma and La Plata counties currently are at level D3, \u201cextreme drought\u201d.<\/p>\n

Gov. Jared Polis has expanded the second phase of the state\u2019s drought response plan to all Colorado counties. This phase means a drought task force assesses initial damages and impacts of drought and recommends mitigation measures. The Agricultural Impact Task Force is also activated, which will conduct an assessment on physical and economic impacts, as well as recommend mitigation opportunities.<\/p>\n

Polis sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, asking for emergency relief for Colorado producers.<\/p>\n

\u201cFarmers and ranchers in Colorado are suffering deep financial losses due to persistent drought conditions, extreme weather events, and compounding disasters,\u201d the letter reads. \u201cOur state\u2019s producers report significant barriers to accessing financial relief from multi-year (2018 drought, 2019 freeze, 2020 drought), multi-faceted (economic, environmental, and public health) disasters.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The
The Drought Monitor rates the extend of drought on five levels from &#x201c;abnormally dry,&#x201d; at level D0, to &#x201c;exceptional drought,&#x201d; at D4. Montezuma and La Plata counties currently are at level D3, &#x201c;extreme drought&#x201d;.<\/span>U.S. Drought Monitor<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Dustin Stein, a first-generation ranch manager west of Durango in Mancos, Colorado wrote, \u201cI\u2019ve been in the business for a decade and, in my 10 short years, have gotten whiplash from how extreme all of our weather events have become.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOverall, I think we need to change the semantics and management around drought. Drought tends to carry a notion of impermanence. We are essentially in our third year of drought, which, feels more permanent and requires a different mindset and management of our beautiful resources,\u201d Stein wrote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

for emergency relief<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51250,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[94,21,402,28,83],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-51249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado-state-government","tag-cortez","tag-drought","tag-headlines","tag-mancos"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51249","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=51249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51249"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=51249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}