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On Thursday, a coalition of local government agencies and nonprofits is dedicating a park bench to those in the Cortez community who have died in the area while experiencing homelessness. The Montezuma County Homelessness Prevention Coalition is a collaboration between groups like The Piñon Project Family Resource Center and the city of Cortez to help unhoused residents of Montezuma County. Lucia Bueno-Valdez is the homelessness prevention coordinator for The Piñon Project and a key member of the coalition. She says one of the problems the group faces in assisting unhoused people is a lack of available data on how many have lived in Montezuma County, historically. And Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold is speaking out against a proposed merger between grocery store giants Kroger and Albertsons.

Fallow sugarcane plantation fields may have fueled the devastating fires in Maui, a California law that sets confinement standards for pigs and poultry gets push back amid calls for changes from animal advocates, the 2023 Farm Bill is languishing in Congress, and sales of plant-based meat alternatives are slipping.

Environmental groups that work to protect the Black Mesa region in northeast Arizona say that Peabody Energy has not done a sufficient job of reclaiming the now-defunct Kayenta coal mine, and shouldn’t be refunded millions of dollars in bond money. Recently, the coal company Peabody Energy applied for the release of $17.3 million, part of a larger bond held by the Office of Surface Mining, or the OSM, for parts of the Kayenta Mine that have undergone some phases of reclamation. The office is under the Department of the Interior, and is tasked with ensuring coal mines adequately restore land damaged during strip mining. The bonds were posted with the OSM by Peabody to be returned only after the mine lands had been reclaimed to certain standards. In late August, the OSM held a public meeting on the bond release at the Navajo chapter house in Forest Lake where some community members also raised concerns about the long-term impact of mining on local water resources.

A group dedicated to protecting water sources in the Black Mesa region of northeast Arizona has filed resolutions from eighteen different Navajo chapter houses to a federal agency in opposition to proposed water storage projects. Tó Nizhóní Ání, or Sacred Water Speaks, is a Navajo nonprofit that works to protect water sources on Black Mesa from misuse and contamination by energy companies. Adrian Herder, a campaign lead for Sacred Water Speaks, says that his organization has submitted resolutions to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission opposing the three Black Mesa Pumped Storage projects. And more money than ever before is being spent on lobbying in Colorado. The Colorado Sun reports more than $50M went to lobbyists from July 1, 2022 to the end of June this year.

Last Wednesday, Montezuma Land Conservancy, or MLC, was awarded a grant to help protect a 3,000 acre ranch in Dolores County. The grant from the nonprofit Great Outdoors Colorado will help with the costs associated with conserving land like the Ivins Ranch, which is located near Groundhog Reservoir. The conserved land would directly border public lands like the Lone Cone State Wildlife Area and the McKenna Peak Wilderness Study Area. According to James Reimann, the conservation director for MLC, the newly protected area could help provide wildlife like elk and lynx with a corridor to safely travel across.

National Farm Safety Week runs from September 17th through the 23rd, rural areas suffer from a shortage of veterinarians, new research finds that yields for some organic crops are sometimes higher than conventionally produced crops, and a look at the chocolate candy cycle with diary cows.

Earlier this month, a meeting was held in White Mesa, Utah, on the Ute Mountain Ute reservation, to remember the centennial of the town of Blanding’s attacks on the tribal community. From March 22 to April 29, 1923, Mormon settlers and townspeople from Blanding began a five-week assault that included the theft of Ute lands and children, and the murder and imprisonment of many White Mesa Utes. Regina Lopez-Whiteskunk is a former Ute Mountain Ute tribal council member and the cross-cultural programs manager for Montezuma Land Conservancy. According to Lopez-Whiteskunk, the attack on White Mesa was brought on, in part, by the Homestead Act of 1862, which allowed any American to put in a claim for up to 160 free acres of federal land.

Last weekend, a community group held its second annual suicide awareness walk in downtown Cortez. The organization, RISE Southwest, was founded by Cortez residents Derek Streeter and Corin Wolf, who decided to start a suicide awareness walk in Montezuma County after the death of Streeter’s brother. According to data from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Montezuma County has a higher rate of suicide than the state average, with 10 suicide deaths reported in 2022. Streeter says events like the walk on Saturday – which comes during National Suicide Prevention Month – can help remind people that they’re not alone. And ahead of next week’s 2023 United Nations summit on climate solutions, youth in New Mexico will call attention to the state’s challenges related to fossil fuels.

Congress won’t pass a new farm bill prior to the expiration of the 2018 Farm Bill on September 30th, the USDA lowers its forecast for total milk production this year by 400 million pounds, and low water levels are affecting ship traffic through the Panama Canal.

Concerns are being raised in Cortez about how – and when – ongoing emergencies are communicated to residents, especially after recent shootings in town. On September 15, a fight broke out near Empire Street that resulted in one bystander being shot and transported to a hospital. It came after another report of shots fired the week before. However, in that case, nobody was injured. Last week, Cortez Police Chief Vernon Knuckles held a community update in Montezuma Park where several residents voiced concerns about not receiving notifications of the shootings through Montezuma County’s Nixle alert system. Cortez police have issued warrants for four suspects they believe were involved in the shooting, but have only made one arrest in connection to it so far.