The Montezuma County commissioners have created a liaison committee to improve communications between federal-land managers and local ranchers.

The Rangeland Stewardship Committee was formed to promote the viability of the ranching and farming community in the county, the commissioners said.

"We needed a group that could act as a go-between the government agencies and the ranchers in the field," said Commissioner Kent Lindsay. "We feel the public in general needs to be better educated on the importance of agriculture here."

They appointed Bruce Tozer, Sheldon Zwicker, Gerald Koppenhafer and John Sutcliffe as committee members.

"It is a good idea because there are a lot of ranchers out there who are so angry they cannot effectively negotiate with land managers on important issues," said Koppenhafer. "So we’re here to try and communicate their concerns at the table because, as it is, now those lines are often closed."

Two-thirds of Montezuma County is made up of federal lands. It is that resource that makes ranching possible, said Zwicker.

"Homestead agreements included the rights to graze these lands, but I do not think the public at large understands that," Zwicker said.

Allowing multiple uses on public lands is important, added Sutcliffe, but there needs to be perspective on how competing uses weigh in on land-use decisions.

"Of course there is always room for recreation in the forest," said Sutcliffe. "But mountain-bikers are not making a living on these lands, whereas ranchers are dependent on them."

Nearly all of the 437,000 acres of public lands in the county are utilized in some way for agriculture, whether it’s forestry or ranching, said Mike Preston, federal-lands coordinator for the county.

This year because of a lingering drought, grazing-permit timetables in the forest were pushed back two weeks to allow grasses a chance to mature. Getting that information out quickly to those affected is critical for cattlemen so they can adjust their schedules accordingly.

"So that is where we can help, and I think this year they did a pretty good job of informing people of the change and what the reasons were, although there is not always agreement there."

BLM and Forest Service range ecologists strictly manage public lands so that cattle are rotated off grazing allotments after a certain time period to allow for rejuvenation. The cattle are then moved further up in elevation to coincide with maturing grasses there.

Within the 180,000 acres of BLM land in the county there are 82 active permits on 109 allotments. Of the 257,000 acres of Forest Service land there are 50 permits representing 55 allotments.