drought

Seasonal forecasts point to a warm and dry spring. It’s not good news for a region that saw record heat and dry conditions last autumn.

The Four Corners saw a little more moisture than usual falling from the sky last month. But the area remains in moderate drought. There’s hopeful news, though. Snow has fallen in the mountains for the past few days, with at least a foot reportedly dropping on Wolf Creek Pass, Red Mountain Pass, and Coal Bank Pass in southwestern Colorado.

President Donald Trump froze billions of dollars from the Inflation Reduction Act that was designed to protect water supplies for cities, farms and tribes.

“You can look at a piece of brush and just yell ‘fire’ and it will start.” That’s how Montezuma County Sheriff Steve Nowlin described current drought conditions to the county commissioners at their workshop on Monday.

Following a lengthy executive session with their attorney, the Montezuma County commissioners on Tuesday delayed the continuation of two public hearings on applications for after-the-fact variances. And it’s warm and dry in the Four Corners, and those conditions are likely to continue for some time.

It’s drier than normal in the Four Corners area and it will probably remain that way at least until the summer monsoons.

Spring in Cortez has been drier than usual

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is taking an all-hands-on-deck approach to the cross-species outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza that is now infecting cattle as well as poultry, the CSU Montezuma County Extension has announced their 2024 Land Management Workshop series, and a look at how irrigation water is valued in the Midwest versus the West.

A new Farm Bill from Congress seems to still be a long way off, the Senate Agriculture Committee Chair outlines key farm bill programs, the American Farm Bureau Federation wants a new farm bill to address agriculture's labor challenges, John Deere partners with Elon Musk’s Starlink to provide satellite-based high-speed internet for its machines, and drought continues to hamper the number of ships that can traverse the Panama Canal.

A group of senators is encouraging consideration of a farm bill that provides support for projects that address drought, the Colorado Master Irrigator Program kicks off on January 18th, cattle markets are starting 2024 in a much better position than they were a year ago, and meteorologists predict that we’ve likely reached the peak of the El Nino weather pattern this winter.