County commissioners lift fire ban effective Wednesday morning
The board voted unanimously Tuesday to rescind the ban that has covered unincorporated Montezuma County since late May. Cities and towns set their own rules.
Montezuma County’s fire ban is coming off. The county commissioners voted unanimously at their Tuesday meeting to rescind it, and the resolution takes effect at 6 a.m. Wednesday, KSJD reported.
Graphic: Cortez Current. Source: Montezuma County commissioners, reported by KSJD
Chairman Jim Candelaria, who was authorized to sign the resolution, said the county had received a steady stream of requests to lift the ban. Commissioner Gerald Koppenhafer said the county has taken in substantial moisture and that conditions no longer carry the drying risk of the summer months.
The ban took effect on May 28 and had already outlasted the restrictions on most of the public land around it. The San Juan National Forest and the Bureau of Land Management’s Tres Rios Field Office both dropped their restrictions on September 16, as did unincorporated Dolores County, and the Southern Ute Tribe lifted its own the next day. The county’s ban held through the rest of September; our earlier story on where the restrictions stood has the fuller picture.
A county fire ban covers unincorporated Montezuma County. It does not set the rules inside a city or town, and it does not govern federal, state or tribal land, each of which decides its own restrictions. Anyone planning to burn should check what applies where they are standing before lighting anything.
Inside the Cortez city limits, a free burn permit is still required for burning yard waste or a large bonfire, a rule the city restated on October 5. Permits are issued by phone at 970-565-3402.
The vote was reported by KSJD, which also covered the commissioners’ work on the county land use code; our story on that is here.