After Initial Hesitation, Montezuma County Commission Decides to Allow Yucca House Land Exchange

A land donation to provide visitor access to a tiny national monument in Montezuma County is back on track after the county commissioners agreed to circumvent their own policy regarding federal land exchanges. In July, the commissioners had balked at giving the go-ahead to a gift of 160 acres to the National Park Service. They cited their resolution, adopted in February, that there should be no net loss of private lands in the county. The tract was first offered by the Karwick family in 2014 to provide an alternate route to 34-acre Yucca House National Monument south of Cortez. The board originally supported the donation, but said in July there would need to be an equivalent exchange of federal land, perhaps from the Bureau of Land Management or Forest Service. But on Monday, BLM Tres Rios Field Office Manager Connie Clementson told the board it’s a long and expensive process to dispose of public lands and it must be in the public interest. Commission Chair Larry Don Suckla, who was absent at the July meeting, said the commission shouldn’t become bogged down in regulations like the federal government. He suggested the land donation could move forward because it had been proposed long before the commissioners developed their policy on not losing more private lands. The board then voted unanimously to support the donation.Aft