- El Niño has been good to Montezuma County, providing 169 percent of normal precipitation over the last 13 months.
- Montezuma County appears ready to go to court to try to prove an RS 2477 claim against the Forest Service over the Dolores-Norwood road.
El Niño has been good to Montezuma County. On Monday, local weather observer Jim Andrus told the county commissioners that the area has seen 169 percent of normal precipitation over the last 13 months. Andrus said the 90-day outlook is promising for more moisture, but the “fly in the ointment” is that the next few weeks are expected to be warm and dry, which will shrink the snowpack. He said at present, local Sno-tels, which measure snow-water equivalent in the mountains, are reading about 123 percent of normal. Statewide, snowpack is at 114 percent of the long-term average.
Montezuma County appears ready to go to court to try to prove an RS 2477 claim against the Forest Service over the Dolores-Norwood road. On Monday, county attorney John Baxter told the commissioners they might want to acknowledge the route as an historic road to bolster their claim that the county owns it because it predates the creation of the San Juan National Forest. The comments came as the board was discussing compiling a list of roads and sites that could be designated as historic to enable them to qualify for possible grant monies. Baxter said the county has notified the Forest Service they will go to court but no time line has been set.
