An unusual controversy has arisen over the presence of a golden eagle’s nest on BLM land east of Cortez. The land has been proposed for an expansion of the Phil’s World bike trail system, but biologists say the trails need to be routed around the protected bird’s nest. Recently, Montezuma County Commission Chair Larry Don Suckla, who supports the expansion, has questioned the validity of those concerns. At a commission meeting in September, he said he had information that someone had moved the nest to its current location. Suckla first blamed Colorado Parks and Wildlife for moving the nest, but a spokesperson for the agency told KSJD the claim was “ridiculous.” Then Suckla pointed to a passage in the BLM’s environmental assessment for the Phil’s World expansion. It reads as follows: “prior to building housing on their property, the nest was on the landowner’s property, but moved its current location on BLM land following construction of the home.”
The passage didn’t make sense to KSJD or to the commissioner, so KSJD's Austin Cope decided to talk to the landowner about it directly. Where were these nests? Had anyone moved them? He went to the landowner’s property to find out more.
