Latest federal cuts affect firefighter cancer research efforts by Riva Duncan / Writers on the Range
Ear to the ground:
“We’ve all heard of a wedgie, but what about a veggie?”
– Use your imagination
Mad moms
The moose is loose, and don’t mess with her.
CPW discusses why they decided to take down wolf in Pitkin County by Sam Brasch / Colorado Public Radio 10 June tunes
Busy musical month includes old time, Nordfest, YOPE and more... by Stephen Sellers
8 Riparian revivalists
Beaver Festival calls attention to sub-aquatic superheroes by Missy Votel
Feela, Riva Duncan, Stephen Sellers, Jeffrey Mannix, Jesse Anderson, Lainie Maxson, Rob Brezsny & Clint Reid
On the cover What we’re pretty sure is a white marsh marigold embarking on its fleeting but beautiful life in the Colorado high country. / Photo by Alex Krebs
E-MAIL: telegraph@durangotelegraph.com
This week, Colorado Parks and Wildlife issued a warning about potentially aggressive cow moose as they protect their young during calving season. The warning was issued in the wake of three recent attacks, which occurred in Park, Grand and Routt counties. Folks are advised to be extra vigilant near water with thick vegetation, where moose often hide their young and be forewarned: nothing pisses them off more than furry four-legged hiking companions.
The first moose attack occurred Fri., May 30, when two women walking four dogs offleash were charged by a cow moose along Fourmile Creek Road, in Fairplay. After being trampled multiple times, the women eventually were able to climb onto a nearby roof, and a neighbor hazed the moose away with a fire extinguisher. Neither woman sought medical treatment.
The following day’s incident did not end so well. A couple was returning from a walk with their (leashed) dog in Grand Lake, when a cow moose charged, knocking the woman to the ground. The woman managed to crawl under a storage area, but the moose continued to charge and show aggression. When it showed no signs of leaving, the boyfriend shot and killed the moose.
The woman was treated for injuries, and CPW did not cite the man, as it was determined he shot in self-defense.
Unfortunately, the calf, which was bedded out of sight, had to be euthanized. “The decision was not easy to make,” Area Wildlife Manager Jeromy Huntington said. “Taking it to a rehab at such a young age would not be in the best interest of the animal's long-term survival in the wild.”
The third incident happened on Sun., June 1, when a woman walking two dogs on leash at River Creek Park, in Steamboat Springs, was attacked by a cow moose. A man on a paddleboard found her on the ground, and when he helped her to the parking lot, the moose returned and kicked him, too. The woman was taken to the hospital with serious injuries and later flown to the Front Range. The man was evaluated at the scene and released
SCOOPS MCGEE telegraph@durangotelegraph.com
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Although CPW says the likelihood of moose conflicts are low – since 2019, there have been 22 reported injuries from moose attacks – if you spot a calf, get the eff out of there (not their exact words.) If a moose charges, get behind objects like trees or boulders. And, if you must recreate in riparian areas, make noise and keep dogs on leash.
LaVidaLocal opinion
Best if used by...
It’s not as if my life is without headaches, but upon reaching into the bathroom cabinet and noticing my extra-strength pain reliever had expired two years ago, the ache just vanished. I’d stopped living in the uncomfortable moment and laughed out loud, surprising myself by how the passing of time can work like a pacifier.
The next day, shopping at the market, I discovered a pain reliever sale, so I grabbed a couple bottles, then walked to the cooler, selected a dozen golden eggs and gently nestled them into my basket. Things were going well until I stopped before the checkout to take a peek at the items in my basket.
I was stunned. Both packages of new and unopened painrelievers had been stamped “Best if used by December 2024,” in other words, five months ago. Out of curiosity I picked up my egg carton: “Sell By June 1.” That was today.
I wasn’t laughing anymore. Medical experts assure the public there is little inherent danger in using expired overthe-counter medication, but they also warn that the full effectiveness of these products may be compromised. I guess accountability checks out with the shopper. The supermarket already knows when to stop sitting on its eggs.
Returning to the pain-relief shelf before paying, I found a more expensive name-brand promising full strength until 2027. I switched them for the discounted goods. As for the eggs, more omelets were on the menu.
Expiration dates can’t be avoided. Even the word “expired” leaves a dusty taste in the mouth. It impersonates a sledgehammer with a militia of nasty sounding synonyms, like run out, invalid, void, lapsed, ceased, obsolete, ended, finished, stopped, concluded, terminated and worst of all, over. The word possesses the power to diminish any spark of confidence.
The late George Carlin at some point during his performance career surely had been diagnosed with a comedian’s early onset sarcasm condition by some humorless critic. Still, he managed for 71 years to keep us laughing. Living with a history of heart problems, he crossed that great divide seven days after his last performance in Las Vegas. I can still hear him asking this question: “If no one knows when a person is going to die, how can we say he died prematurely?” Expiration dates are just reminders that a timeline doesn’t always run straight or true.
Thumbin’It
Another successful, safe and fun Animas River Days – with great flows, even! – is in the books. Thanks to the ARD and 4 Corners River Sports crew for making the annual party happen!
Longtime Bank of the San Juans employee Tami Duke was tapped as Chairman of the Board, replacing outgoing Chairman Tom Melchior. You go, girl.
The state of Colorado is offering free breakfasts and lunches for kids throughout the state through July 31. Local kids can fuel up at Needham Elementary Monday – Friday, 8-8:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. -1 p.m.
Inevitably, when encountering my older friends we end up sharing our latest medical evaluations, as if they might be jokes. One friend told me that often, when she arrives for an appointment, receptionists glance at her as if she’s a carton of sour milk after she’s repeated her date of birth. She takes her medicine, but the sweetness of her laughter helps it go down for all of us standing and listening. I remember as a teacher when I first introduced Shakespeare’s “masterpieces” to high school students. A majority of my conscripted audience only gasped or groaned as I assigned the reading.
“Romeo and Juliet” is a good example. My students should love to read the play. There’s so much common ground (and raging hormones) between a modern 14- to 15-year-old and the play’s two teenaged star-crossed lovers, but the play might as well be stamped “obsolete.” It’s not the story – it’s the Elizabethan language that discourages so many students’ appreciation.
Then I had an inspired idea. Why not try a comedy to resolve this staged rebellion? Comedies in general tend to be more popular with audiences due to their lighter themes and humorous elements. There is medical support, however, for the role humor plays in everyone’s health: “One powerful yet often overlooked tool for boosting mental well-being is humor. From reducing stress to enhancing social connections, laughter offers a variety of benefits.”
If you don’t remember your Shakespeare, I found a measure of the old bard’s language updated and abbreviated by his admirers, who, like Shakespeare, endured the ravages of time, shuffled off their mortal coil and reached their expiration date. Chiseled on one tombstone, “I’ve gone to that place where the IRS can no longer audit me.” And another by a lady named Penny J who opted to use archaic language for her final words:
“Reader, if cash thou art in want of any, dig four feet deep. Thou wilt find a penny.” Graveyard humor is not that common, because graveyards will always be sacred places. The tragic loss of a loved one is commonly accompanied by shock and sorrow, as it should be. But after the hurt has softened, I’ll always be astonished when that unexpected spark of laughter illuminates a painful moment, reminding me that humor is always “Best if Used” before its expiration date.
– David Feela
Antisemitism has reared its evil head again, this time in the horrific attack on peaceful protestors on Boulder’s Pearl Street Mall – an incident and a place that are close to home for many of us.
Massive wildfires in Canada are spewing unhealthy smoke levels across the upper Midwest and as far away as Europe.
It’s been a rough go lately in the wolf reintroduction. Another wolf died over the weekend in Northwest Colorado, the second killed in that part of the state in less than a month. In all, eight wolves –including one killed by CPW last week in Pitkin County and five of the 15 British Columbia wolves released in January –have died since December 2023.
SignoftheDownfall:
Handmaiden’s Fail I like big baths and I cannot lye … Starting June 6, you’ll be able to buy “Sydney’s Bathwater Bliss” for $8, which is soap made with Sydney Sweeney’s actual bathwater. Sweeney, of “Handmaiden’s Tale” and “Black Lotus” fame, said that men have been asking to buy her bathwater, which is “weird in the best way,” so she decided to partner with Dr. Squatch to start selling it in soap form. This soon-to-be washed-up actress probably got the idea from porn-star Belle Delphine, who sold her bathwater back in 2019. Sweeney’s soap also contains sand for “medium grit” and pine bark for a “manly scent,” yet it still doesn’t do anything for the stink of desperation.
WritersontheRange
A punch in the gut
Latest federal cuts drop protections for those who protect us
by Riva Duncan
You probably don’t see wildland firefighters on the job, because they usually work in remote areas. But with wildfires moving from the backcountry to backyards, the public is becoming more aware of the men and women who do this dangerous work. At the same time, people probably don’t know much about the very real health risks of the job. Now, it’s getting harder for anyone to know.
On April 1, the Trump administration began laying off most of the staff working on the National Firefighter Registry for Cancer. The registry was proposed in a bill in 2018, so researchers could study why firefighters –structure and wildland – suffer from certain types of cancers at much higher rates than the rest of the population. The bill was passed unanimously by Congress and signed into law by President Trump in his first term.
The registry was open to all U.S. firefighters – career, volunteer, wildland, active or retired. Participants completed a confidential survey about their service history, with data linked to state cancer registries to spot trends and risks.
It was groundbreaking for the National Firefighter Registry to recognize and include the unique job hazards posed by those who fight fires. You might assume wildland firefighters protect themselves with breathing masks, but that is not the case.
This kind of personal protective equipment is unworkable because wildland firefighting includes hiking for
Federal firefighters dig a fire line. Firefighters – structure and wildland – suffer from certain types of cancers at much higher rates than the rest of the population. The National Firefighter Registry was created in 2018 to study why this is but has since gone dark under Trump’s federal cuts./ Photo courtesy National Interagency Fire Center
miles and digging in the dirt for days and weeks at a time. I’ve been a federal wildland firefighter for 35-plus years all over the nation. Too many times to count, I have worked on wildfires and prescribed burns where thick, acrid smoke had us on our knees gagging, tears streaming from our eyes and our noses dripping gunk.
Now I work for an organization that encourages wildland firefighters – especially those who work for federal agencies – to sign up for this cancer registry. I know we’re a challenging profession to study as we’re somewhat nomadic, assigned to wildfires across the West all summer, often in remote places. That helps explain why there has been so much less research on wildland fire-
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fighters than on structure firefighters. And there’s nearly no specific research on women firefighters. To be included was a major step.
More than 23,000 firefighters have signed up for the National Firefighter Registry since it went live in 2023, and thousands more are eligible to join. But with all the layoffs of federal workers, the registry website went dark. The National Institute of Occupational Health and Safety confirmed that the website was shut down because no support staff were left to manage it.
The International Association of Firefighters, a powerful union that represents many municipal fire departments (but not firefighters in the Forest Service, BLM or Park Service), went directly
to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to fight for restoration of this program and several others. Kennedy promised to bring them all back and kept his promise.
But he did not address the staffing issue, and he didn’t say whether researchers who were let go would be rehired. No one knows what will happen to the data already collected.
A related firefighter health issue is “presumptive health.” It presumes that firefighters diagnosed with certain cancers and cardiovascular diseases got those illnesses as a result of their work. Before 2022, it was nearly impossible for a federal wildland firefighter to prove to the Labor Department’s Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs that they had become ill because of hazards faced on the job.
But in 2022, the Labor Department declared that federal firefighters are at increased risk of certain types of cancers and cardiovascular diseases. Congress codified this declaration into law in 2023 and established a special claims website.
Now, that website is also down.
A Forest Service firefighter I spoke with called the staff cuts just another “punch in the gut.”
He added, “We’re getting ready to go into what looks like another challenging fire season with yet another distraction to worry about. But, when the fire call comes, we’ll respond like we always do and worry later.”
It should not have to be this way.
Riva Duncan is a contributor to Writers on the Range, writersontherange.org, an independent nonprofit dedicated to spurring lively conversation about the West. She spent 30 years with the U.S. Forest Service in wildland fire and forestry and is vice president of Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, www. grassrootswildlandfirefighters.com. ■
Duncan
CPW must stem wolf hostility
In the wake of multiple wolf deaths in Colorado, including one just this week, wildlife advocates are calling on Colorado Parks and Wildlife commissioners at their June 11 and 12 meeting to be moral leaders and stem the hostile climate created by anti-wolf activists in order to prevent more horrific killings of a federally protected and ecologically valuable species, and to foster a new order of nonlethal coexistence.
Since reintroduction began December 2023, multiple wolves have died – the vast majority with serious wounds and/or fatalities at the hands of humans.
On Monday, there were news reports that a wolf had died in northwest Colorado.
In addition, this past week, a young male wolf pup of the Copper Creek pack was killed in Pitkin County after officials say they were forced to relocate the pup away from Grand County, where a rancher reportedly operated an open carcass pit of livestock serving as an attractant to predators.
In March, officials killed a Colorado wolf that crossed into Wyoming.
In September, in Grand County, a male gray wolf with a GPS collar that had a gunshot injury to its rear leg was found dead.
In January, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service asked for information about who shot a gray wolf that was captured in Grand County last August. There has been no follow up offered to the public.
CPW leadership must set the right tone to protect wildlife, because a hostile climate toward wildlife is a human problem and presents the major obstacle to non-lethal coexistence.
Examples of sound leadership must include:
• A swift rebuke of the anti-wildlife activist crowd that erupted in applause to a comment supporting running over wolves with snowmobiles at a public meeting in Grand County that was held by CPW prior to the most recent reintroduction of wolves in Colorado. This was recorded at a public meeting with local media present and dozens of wildlife agency staff in attendance. The support for cruelty and killing wolves by snowmobiles for fun was in reference to Cody Roberts, a hound hunter who ran over a young wolf in Wyoming, then paraded her in a bar before shooting her dead.
• A stark condemnation of anti-wolf activists who obstructed and diverted an airplane carrying wolves to Colorado. As reported in the news, activists brandished AR15s, trespassed and threatened citizens and government workers, all while an airplane carrying wolves to Colorado was set to land in Eagle County. That plane was diverted to Denver International Airport because of activists, who were against wolves and who amassed on the ground, as detailed in an online anti-wolf group called Wolf Tracker. The plane diversion has been confirmed by administration at CPW and a source present at the time of the event.
– Julie Marshall, Colorado director for Animal Wellness Action
Is your life better now?
Life in America has changed for the worse. Congress has long abdicated its constitutional powers as enumerated in Article 1, section 8 of the U.S. Constitution. Congress was granted the power to declare war (last exercised in 1941) but has stood by impotently, allowing all presidents since to send our military to fight and die in more than 84 countries. The power of taxation and duties was also given to Congress, which has cowardly allowed presidents to unilaterally set tariffs. Now it sits idly by while our lives are upturned at the random whims of an erratic, vindictive, unrestrained, unstable genius.
Does your life improve when millions lose medical coverage? Does it make you feel better to know a bribe of a$400 million airplane and anonymous purchases of personal crypto currency help a self-claimed billionaire and his family expand their private wealth in foreign countries? Is your life better when children born in the United States, citizens per the Constitution, are deported and deprived of life-saving medicine and treatment? Is your life better when armed, masked thugs handcuff the entire staff of a restaurant in search of people with brown skin? Are you comforted when billionaires are given trillions of dollars in tax breaks so they can buy more yachts, million-dollar wristwatches, jets, private space travel and remote islands? Is your life better when starving children around the world are deprived of food that has already been allocated by Congress?
– Rhys Schrock, Durango
A lethal blow
Why CPW killed a wolf suspected of preying on Pitkin County livestock
by Sam Brasch Colorado Public Radio
Colorado wildlife officials killed a wolf in Pitkin County on Thursday night, marking the first time the state has resorted to lethal removal since it began reintroducing the species in late 2023.
The decision came after nearby ranchers reported a string of wolf attacks around Memorial Day weekend. Those incidents left two calves dead and injured four additional cattle, leading livestock operators to call on Colorado Parks and Wildlife to shoot any wolves behind the incidents.
In a press statement released Friday, CPW Director Jeff Davis said their investigation confirmed that wolves were behind four livestock attacks at ranches near Aspen between May 17 and May 25. The wildlife agency also concluded that local livestock operators had implemented all reasonable measures to deter wolves from their properties.
“The decision to take lethal management action was very difficult,” Davis said in the statement. “This action will help ensure that wolves and packs that are targeting natural prey serve as the foundation for a sustainable population. Most of the wolves in the state are sticking to natural food sources and avoiding livestock conflicts.”
The state chose to remove the wolf under a rule adopted earlier this year to guide its wolf management operations. If evidence suggests a wolf—or group of wolves—attacks livestock three or more times in a 30-day period, wildlife officials may consider killing them to prevent further losses.
After an investigation last week, CPW determined the recent events met the “chronic depredation” criteria on May 25 and made plans to remove a wolf as soon as possible. It ultimately killed wolf 2405, a member of the well-known Copper Creek Pack living in Pitkin County.
A spokesperson with Colorado Parks and Wildlife declined to explain how the targeted wolf was involved in the livestock incident and why exactly the state opted to kill it. He said the agency will release a final report about the decision, but didn’t provide a timeline for publication.
A pack with a history of livestock incidents
It’s not the first time the Copper Creek Pack has been at the center of the news around Colorado’s controversial wolf restoration program.
In the spring of 2024, CPW announced two wolves from the initial batch of wolves captured in Oregon and released in Colorado in December 2023 had formed a family group and had a litter of pups, marking a major success for the controversial restoration effort. No other reintroduced wolves had bred to form a pack at the time.
Any celebration, however, was soon overshadowed by reports of lost livestock near the pack’s den site outside Kremmling, Colo. After considering its options, the state trapped the pack and brought all members into captivity. One pup born to the pack in 2024 evaded capture and continued living in Grand County.
A few days later, the breeding male in the pack died, which a federal investigation later linked to an untreated bullet
wound. While it’s illegal to shoot a wolf in Colorado under state and federal law, neither CPW nor the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has released any information about who injured the animal.
Last January, CPW re-released the Copper Creek Pack along with 15 additional wolves captured and relocated from British Columbia. Officials said they were released in Pitkin and Eagle counties, but didn’t reveal the exact locations.
By moving the Copper Creek Pack, CPW disregarded its own recommendation against relocating wolves with a habit of preying on livestock. The state’s wolf management plan warns the practice risks “translocating the problem along with the wolves.”
CPW has said it stands by the recommendation. It decided to make an exception since the Copper Creek Pack represents the only example of reintroduced wolves successfully breeding and helping the state to its goal of building a “self-sustaining” wolf population.
Why the state could end up killing more wolves
While ranchers reported that multiple wolves were involved in the recent string of attacks, CPW opted to kill a single wolf and monitor to determine whether the removal shifts the pack’s behavior.
Tom Harrington, the manager of the Crystal River Ranch near Carbondale and president of the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association, said wildlife managers told him GPS collar data indicated wolf 2405 was responsible for killing a calf at the property over Memorial Day weekend.
He added the individual was one of the wolves born last year, not the breeding male or female pack members.
That means the state could euthanize additional wolves if the pack continues to kill or injure livestock.
Harrington said wildlife officials told him a recently reintroduced male wolf from British Columbia had joined the pack, breeding with the adult female to sire another litter of pups now living in a den in the area.
Meanwhile, the year-old pack members are living and hunting around the Roaring Fork Valley.
“If there continues to be livestock depredations, I was told they would continue removing these pups from last year that are now over a year old, but they will not take out the female with new pups or the male providing for her,” Harrington told CPR News.
If there are further livestock attacks, Harrington said he hopes CPW takes swift action against any wolf involved, no matter their role within the Copper Creek Pack.
Rob Edward, a wildlife advocate and director of the Rocky Mountain Wolf Project, said he hopes the decision to kill a single wolf buys the state and livestock operators time to focus on non-lethal deterrence measures like warning flags and range riders to guard cattle.
He also hopes the state does whatever it can to avoid killing breeding adult wolves or any new pups.
“Given how valuable those wolves are, if they’ve got puppies, then everything needs to be done to help them succeed,” Edward said.
For more from Colorado Public Radio, go to: www.cpr.org. ■
A wolf with a tracking collar sprints across a field on Colorado’s Western Slope after being released by state wildlife agents in December 2023./Jerry Neal, Colorado Parks and Wildlife
LocalNews
Leave it to beavers
Festival celebrates the furry critters that keep our ecosystem flowing
by Missy Votel
If there’s one thing Nichole Fox is passionate about, it’s beavers. (And for the record, for the purposes of this story, we are referring to the semi-aquatic, fur-bearing, web-footed members of the rodent family and not the slang word for female anatomy. So get all your juvenile snickering out now.)
Five years ago, the naturalist and educator with a background in deep ecology founded Give-A-Dam, a local nonprofit dedicated to sharing the stoke about these buck-toothed buddies of the biosphere. Once hunted and trapped to the brink of extinction – and often viewed as a nuisance by landowners – the busy little wetland architects are making a comeback.
And with good reason. Not only are they a keystone species that creates habitat for other animals, from otters to redwinged blackbirds, they also help with fire and flood mitigation while helping to extend, purify and replenish water supplies.
“My goal and mission is to get people to think about how we can partner with beavers to answer a lot of the water riddles we are facing,” said Fox, who has lived in Durango for about 13 years.
“I’m the bridge between the science and the people, to make learning about beaver ecology inspiring and fun.”
To that end, Fox is putting on what we’re pretty sure is the state’s first-ever beaver festival on Sat., June 14, at Rotary Park from 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. The day will
include a costume contest (come dressed as your favorite wetland animal!), information booths, kids activities and live music from Telluride reggae band Niceness. Oh, and there will be Durango Beaver Festival T-shirts, which we expect will be a hot item.
Fox said she was inspired to start GiveA-Dam in the wake of the Gold King Mine spill in 2015. Like many, she sat by and watched as the orange plume of toxic water passed through town, feeling helpless and deeply saddened.
“I felt so much sorrow,” said Fox, who was raising her two young daughters here at the time. “I thought, ‘What in the world are we thinking, that this is OK?’”
From that moment on, she vowed to do something to help erase the damage
that humans have caused. Enter the beavers. Who, it turns out, have always been here.
According to Fox, beavers have historically built dams where the Gold King Mine spill started, and all along the Animas River drainage for that matter. In turn, dams back up water, creating wetlands, which – among other things – act as the earth’s kidneys, filtering out toxins, heavy metals and the like.
“That’s their natural function, but nobody knows that,” she said. “We wiped them to near extinction, making pretty hats, balding creams and perfumes and colognes.”
(As a side note, their pelts also were widely used as merkins in the red light districts, where it is believed the alter-
Nichole Fox, director of Give-A-Dam, examines recent signs of beaver activity at a pond along the Mancos River while an intern from FLC looks on. The giant beaver lodge in the background dates back to at least the 1800s./ Photo by Missy Votel
native definition for beaver came from. If you don’t know what a merkin is, look it up.)
It wasn’t until 10 or 15 years ago that scientists began to really understand the benefit of these social and familyoriented animals. Not only have studies shown that beaver wetlands act as a veritable sponge during wildfires, keeping the land cooler and habitats intact, but dams on ranches were found to extend the rancher’s water season by as much as 40 days.
“These sweet little creatures are epic at what they do, and they really benefit all of us,” said Fox. “Mother Nature knows what she’s doing. Come fall, there’s still water in the system to feed the birds, plants, fish. They create incredible habitat for so many species.”
And in case the baby beaver reels popping up in your Instagram feed (or maybe it’s just me) aren’t an indication, it seems as though beavers are enjoying a moment. Many states have enacted beaver management plans and are incorporating ways to help the beavers help us. Colorado recently formed a Beaver Working Group to come up with a beaver management plan in light of the state’s water and fire worries.
“Up until this point, they were seen as a nuisance,” Fox said. “With water issues, we’re finally realizing that we need to be working with and protecting these animals.”
One practice that has come into use in recent years is Beaver Dam Analogs, or BDAs. These are human-made dams fortified with sod, willows and stakes that give the beavers a leg up during high flows that would typically knock out their less-stout dams. In many cases, BDAs help beavers re-establish on a waterway in one to three years.
True, though, not everyone thinks beavers are cute (maybe they just haven’t seen the video on “how to wash your beaver”). In order to build their safe lodges on the water – beavers are
Fun beaver facts
1. The average beaver life span is 10 years.
2. Beavers are monogamous and mate for life.
3. Beavers are herbivores, eating mostly willows, tree bark and grasses.
4. Castoreum is an anal secretion beavers use to mark their territories. It also happens to smell like vanilla and was once used as a food and perfume additive. Fortunately for the beavers, this practice has fallen out of favor.
5. The tell-tale sign of beaver activity is a beveled edge on branches and vegetation.
6. Beavers slap their tails not because they’re angry but as a warning to family members that there are predators in the vicinity.
7. There are as many hairs in one square inch of a beaver’s coat as there are on the average human head.
8. Although families are close-knit, beavers are kicked out of the family lodge at about the age of 3 to make room for more babies (called “kits.)
like chicken nuggets on land, Fox explains – they will likely take down any and every piece of vegetation in the immediate vicinity.
However, as Fox notes, this is not all bad. When beavers fell trees, they regrow, creating a thicket of new stems from the original stump, something referred to as coppicing. This process, often seen in trees like willow, aspen and alder, can actually be beneficial for the ecosystem, increasing diversity and providing habitat for various species. And in most cases, the forests regenerate, bigger and better than before, in about 10 years – leaving wood for the next generation of dam builders.
“They are the ultimate forestry practitioners,” Fox said. “What if humans were doing the same thing? What if all
our buildings were sustainable for future generations? We can learn so much about being good humans by studying beavers.”
But if folks would rather not see their favorite tree go down or have their house or driveway flooded by a nearby dam, there are ways to coexist. For starters, trees can be protected with metal fencing, which the beavers can’t chew through. And dams can be mitigated with the use of flow devices – usually a system of pipes and fencing that allow the beavers to have their dams and the water to continue to flow.
“There are ways we can partner with beavers and have them not affect human infrastructure,” said Fox. “People just don’t know about them.”
9. Beavers live in every state in the country except ones where alligators are present (for obvious reasons)
10. Beavers are the largest rodents in North America and the second largest in the world, after the capybara.
If you’d like to learn more about living with beavers or are just beaver curious, head on down to the beaver festival June 14. You may learn a thing or three about these little radsters of the riparian and come away with a new appreciation for making our earthly home a better place.
“My hope is to plant seeds. I’m here to give the earth and the beavers a voice,” said Fox. “I love that saying, ‘We don’t inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.” ■
A beaver appears to wave to the camera while awaiting relocation. Although the warning slap of their tails may be alarming and their teeth imposing, according to Fox – who has worked on several beaver management projects –beavers are quite docile and social animals./ Courtesy photo
by Stephen Sellers
GIn full swing
reetings, dear readers! At long last, the river’s running high, the San Juans are calling, and I’ll be damned if we haven’t had a sweet monsoonal tease. On the grid, it’s the season for bluegrass porch jams on Sunday nights. Across town, the river trail is pulsing with a sunset-seeking denizens, eyes glazed from the new Famburger dessert options. Most excitingly, this is finally the season of live music echoing from every one of the Four Corners. So, mark your G-Cals, brush off those Blundstones, and grab a scoop of Cream Bean Berry on the way to the show. As always, see you on the dance floor.
• Robin Davis Duo, Six Dollar String Band, The Subterrain, Sat., June 7, 8 p.m. - Come down for the Robin Davis Duo’s first Durango show since releasing their stunning original old-time album, “Starin’ at the Mountain.” Robin will be wielding his five-string fiddle made from the tooth of a dragon he slayed years ago. They’ll be joined by Six Dollar String Band’s original lineup – plus Jimi Davis sitting in on banjo – as the band continues its 13-year “Old Time is Not a Crime” campaign, bringing high-energy dance heat. While The Subterrain offers a small-room, listeningstyle venue, this will certainly be a night to swing your partner(s) dosido.
• Gay Prom, Baby Del, Bad Goat, Disco Dolly, The Black Heron, Sat., June 7, 9 p.m. - Happy Pride! The Rainbow Youth Coalition invites you to rally and ally with some of the area’s most devastatingly fabulous drag queens for Gay Prom. Drag performances start at 9 p.m., and the DJs take it from there. I personally will be leaning heavily into the Charli XCX archives. Rest up – this one’s going strong ’til close.
• Birds of a Feather, The Powerhouse, Wed., June 11, 5:30 p.m. – The Powerhouse’s free Summer Concert Series continues with Birds of a Feather, featuring members of Durango’s most energetic, dance friendly band, Mojo Birds. Expect feel-good folk and sweet vocals spilling over the riverside courtyard. As always, this is a family friendly, BYOblanket-and-chairs affair, perfectly timed for golden hour on the Animas. Check The Powerhouse calendar for more shows.
• YOPE, Dana Ariel, Animas City Theatre, Fri., June 13, 7 p.m. - YOPE is ready for the big stage, bringing its genre-bending spaceship jam to ACT. Expect tight grooves, psych-funk segues and sick riffs on the best system in town. Opening up: the smoky, soulful stylings of Dana Ariel – a local legend in the making, herself worthy of a headlining night in the not too distant future!
• Nordfest, Mancos Brewing Co., Sat., June 14, 3 p.m. - All hail the Nord! This all-day benefit festival for local cancer support orgs is the brainchild of beloved local musician Erik Nordstrom. It brings together regional rock, punk and indie bands to light up Montezuma County with a proper throwdown. This year’s lineup includes Dirty Chords, Group Shower, Dana Ariel & The Coming Up Roses, The Crags, Farmington Hill and more. Don’t forget to drink some water alongside those delicious Mancos Brewing beers.
• Anarchy Brewing Anniversary Party, Sat., June 14, 6 p.m. - Our Southside refuge throws down for its welldeserved anniversary with a raucous night of punk, garage and DIY grit. The stacked local bill features Codefendants alongside raw sets from The Pawns, Lo Cash Ninjas, Discount Vodka and the ever-unpredictable Jonster. Expect noise, chaos and community in equal measure.
• Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Town Park, Thurs.–Sun., June 19–22 - Do I even need to mention it? The world-renowned Telluride Bluegrass Festival returns with a lineup that demands reverence: Sam Bush, The Travelin’ McCourys, Jason Isbell, Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, Caleb Klauder & Reeb Willms, and so many more. Four days of tunes, views and pure magic. I scored last-minute tickets on CashorTrade – a stress-free, fair-market resale option. May the odds be in your favor!
• Desiderata, The Galentines, Animas City Theatre, Fri., June 20, 7 p.m. - Two of Colorado’s most compelling femme-fronted projects team up for a night of cathartic indie rock and dreamy anthems. Local group Desiderata has been putting in serious work and racking up well-deserved headline spots across the state. And having played with the Boulder-based Galentines myself, I can tell you, they will blow you away. A strong midsummer night at ACT, no doubt.
• Jackson Emmer, backyard concert (Southside Durango), Tues., June 24, 6 p.m. - Acclaimed Colorado troubadour Jackson Emmer brings his songs to a secret Southside spot (nope, not the 8th Ave. Tav). Presented by the benevolent musical tastemakers at KDUR for their 50th anniversary – Liggett looks not a day over 32 – find the exact location on their website, ride your bike and be sure to leave the space better than you found it. Show some love, our music scene would suck without KDUR.
• Dressy Bessy, Alicia Glass, Ska Brewing, Sat., June 28, 2 p.m. - As part of KDUR’s 50th anniversary festivities, this free all-ages show at Ska pairs Denver indiepop icons Dressy Bessy with local rock powerhouse goddess, Alicia Glass. There’s a reason why Glass keeps popping up in this column. She rocks hard. Go find out for yourself.
Desiderata
by Jeffrey Mannix
“KBack to the beginning
‘Kill Your Darlings’ a clever feat of ‘structural magnificence’
ill Your Darlings,” by easygoing Peter Swanson, wasn’t my pick for this month’s Murder Ink. I had requested from Blackstone Publishing of Ashland, Ore., the March 2025 publication of “Hang on St. Christopher,” the latest Sean Duffy police procedural of the battle in Northern Ireland known as the Troubles by legendary crime writer Adrian McKinty.
Then I espied a mention of a 2024 novel that some how slipped by me by Icelandic Ragnar Jónasson, the putative heir to the virtuosic yet recently quiescent Ar naldur Indriõason. I read both of these sensational books one after the other, unable to choose between them and figuring I would offer them both in this month’s “Murder Ink.”
Then I picked up Swanson’s “Kill Your Darlings,” a handy 270-page book to read for myself and knew right away that I had to share this offbeat and fascinat ing story. I still can’t believe I would choose this eccen tric allegory in place of the heavy-hitting dramas I lost sleep reading and herewith highly recommend you seek out.
With Swanson’s “Kill Your Darlings,” we have a book by a seasoned crime writer. Judging by his book titles, casual character sketches and easy-going prose, he doesn’t appear terribly concerned about competing for book sales with the overachievers or crafting his paragraphs for easy adaption to the screen.
Swanson builds this book from back to front. It begins in 2023 and moves backward to 1982, when Wendy Eastman was boarding a bus for a three-day eighth-grade trip to Washington, D.C. Wendy was a reader, almost forced into reading by having already moved three times with her struggling family. She was the first to board the bus, careful to choose a seat in the center which would provide the best odds of sitting alone. The in-crowd nois ily filled up the front and back of the bus as she figured, and the raucous boys scattered throughout the middle seats as she’d guess they would. Then, young Thom Graves came running clumsily across the parking lot banging his knees into his suitcase a moment before the bus driver was about to pull away and blundered into the seat next to Wendy.
Thom went from a serious disappointment to someone of interest when he took out his book. He inched toward being a friend as they discussed the intricacies of Stephen King, “The Exorcist,” “Friday the 13th” and other plot developments and secret meanings in books and films unthought of by most
to holding hands and starting a lifelong friendship by the second of three days together.
We then move to 1984, when the standout feature is their pledge to love each other for the rest of their lives. They steal away into the woods with a blanket and no knowledge of condoms. Wendy becomes pregnant,
consequences ensue, and they part for what appears to be forever. Thom goes onto university to be a writer, and Wendy ships off to Aunt Andi’s cabin in New Hampshire to give birth then give away her unwanted baby to a Catholic charity. She reads books by the sea and begins writing poetry and only occasionally skips a heartbeat for a distant and lost Thom Graves.
Swanson’s story of Wendy and Thom progresses to 1991, when the two coincidentally wind up at an Aspiring Writers Program at Kokosing College, in Ohio, and literally meet across a crowded room. Wendy’s name tag on the sign-in table announced Wendy Barrington, giving Thom pause to think of his first and only love, but he dismissed the jolt when this Wendy was from Lubbock, Texas. With his blood pressure returning to normal, Thom made eye contact with a beautiful woman across the crowded room, and both knew fate would thenceforth fill the holes each had in their hearts since 10th grade.
We spend some time in 1991 as these two connive time together and more in 1992, when Wendy’s rich husband, Brice, falls into their swimming pool in Lubbock and drowns on one of his habitual, inebriated evening strolls. Wendy is conspicuously in the Berkshires at the exclusive Tinhook Literary Festival at the time of this unfortunate accident, while Thom is staying in the next town over in a dilapidated inn beginning the day after Brice’s misstep into the deep end of his pool.
“Kill Your Darlings” begins at the end in 2023. Thom and Wendy, now wealthy thanks to Brice Barrington, have been married for decades. He teaches literature at a third-tier college, drinks too much, flirts with every skirt that will fall for his eighth-grade charm and gets lucky with some. And Wendy pushes him down the grand staircase one night.
Ask Maria’s Bookshop for their generous 15% discount for “Murder Ink” books and buy this respectfully short 270-page hardback. Danya Kukafka, author of the bestselling “Notes on an Execution,” blurbs that it is a, “feat of structural magnificence – the instant I turned the final page, I flipped straight back to the start to put it all together again. Exhilarating and exceptionally clever … zings with a singular sense of tension.” ■
Thursday05
Walk & Wonder, a walkers meetup, 11 a.m.-12 noon thru Aug. 31, White Rabbit Books & Curiosities, 128 W. 14th St., Ste C-2
Data Driven Business Coaching, 12 noon, Fort Lewis College Center for Innovation, 835 Main Ave.
Ska-B-Q music by Warsaw Poland Bros, 5 p.m., Ska Brewing, 225 Girard St.
Blue Moon Ramblers play, 6-9 p.m., Diamond Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave.
Ben Gibson plays, 6-9 p.m., Office Spiritorium, 699 Main Ave.
Monday09
Darryl Kuntz plays, 6-9 p.m., Diamond Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave.
Terry Rickard plays, 6-9 p.m., Office Spiritorium, 699 Main Ave.
AskRachel Car wars, black eyes and pet peeves
Interesting fact: The kitty-litter industry claws through 5 billion tons of clay each year. Pretty sure half of this ended up on my college roommate’s kitchen counter.
Dear Rachel,
My wife and I share a one-car garage as a two-car family. Which means she gets the garage, and I get the driveway. My car is older and generously patina’d, so this is fine. Except it means we never take her car anywhere. “Oh let’s just take yours since it’s in the driveway,” she says, and my beloved beater takes all the mileage driving around to the social engagements, while hers sits pristine in its shelter. How do we make this fair and save some miles on my poor old wagon?
– Taxed Taxi
Dear Uber Under,
I see only one solution: You have to get your car in the shop. I don’t care if
Durango Chamber Music Festival “Romantic Interludes,” 7 p.m., Roshong Recital Hall, FLC
Comedy Open Mic, 8 p.m., Starlight Lounge, 937 Main Ave.
Tuesday10
International Day of Play celebration, 9 a.m.-3:30 p.m., The Powerhouse, 1333 Camino Del Rio
Downtown’s Next Step Meeting for Downtown Employees, 2-4 p.m., 11th Street Station, 1101 Main Ave.
Storytime with Author Daniela Ramirez “Welcome Home Esmerelda/Bienvenida a Casa Esmerelda,” 2:30-4:30 p.m., The Reading Room, 145 E. College Dr.
Locals at Leplatt’s Pond Family Fun, music, food trucks, fishing and family fun, 5-9 p.m. every Tuesday through July, LePlatt’s Pond, 311A CR 501, Bayfield
Current Conversations with LPEA CEO Chris Hansen, 5:30-7 p.m., Ska Brewing, 225 Girard St.
it’s actually in the shop or if it’s “in the shop.” Drop it off at your buddy’s for a week. Maybe even start foreshadowing. “Let’s take your car, babe. I need to take mine to the shop.” Turn it into an impending disaster, and she’ll start volunteering the Mercedes more and more. (I’m imagining it’s a Mercedes. Don’t tell me otherwise.)
– Step on it, Rachel
Dear Rachel,
I see that you used cheap eye liner and your eyes went black. So how about making two little eyes, a nose and a big smile. We miss the smile in your eyes. It only takes a stroke of the pen. Will keep an eye out for the eyedropping new look.
– Eye Bro
Dear Makeup Department, Be careful what you wish for. I will paint on a smile to wake you up in the night, shaking with terror. You think the Joker had a good one? Just wait
Darryl Kuntz plays, 5:30-8:30 p.m., Diamond Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave.
Drag Makeup 101, 6-8 p.m., Durango Public Library, 1900 E 3rd Ave.
Black Velvet plays, 6-8 p.m., Lola’s Place, 725 E. 2nd Ave.
Folkadelic plays, 6-9 p.m., Durango Hot Springs, 6475 CR 203
Randy Crumbaugh plays, 6-9 p.m., Office Spiritorium, 699 Main Ave.
Wednesday11
Wednesday Morning Bird Walk, 89:30 a.m., meet at the Durango Library Botanic Gardens, 1900 E. 3rd Ave.
Environmental Education Volunteer Training with MSI, 9 a.m.12 p.m., Durango Public Library, 1900 E. 3rd Ave.
Great Garden Series “Plant Exploration: The Passion and the
until you see Rachel, smiling at the dude who tells her to smile, on top of all the other dudes who have ever told women to smile. You want to see a woman out of effs to give? Because there’s no smile like the smile after breaking an “eye bro” like you.
– Say cheese, Rachel
Dear Rachel,
The delivery driver screwed me over. He left a new shipment of kitty litter on the porch, and it got soaked. Not enough to clump the whole box but enough to soggy up the cardboard and bust the corner of the box. Now I have kitty litter everywhere. And I’m out my order. Do I have a legal case here?
– Litter Bugged
Dear Seeking Repurrrrations, What’s a delivery driver supposed to do? They’re tracked these days and punished for taking too long to pee. They don’t have time to finagle your
Insanity,” 4:30-6 p.m., Durango Public Library, 1900 E. 3rd Ave
Birds of a Feather featuring Mojo Birds + Friends play for Summer Concert Series, 5:30 p.m., The Powerhouse, 1333 Camino Del Rio
Writers & Scribblers Writing Group, 6-8 p.m., Durango Public Library, 1900 E. 3rd Ave.
Chuck Hank plays, 6-9 p.m., Office Spiritorium, 699 Main Ave.
Darryl Kuntz plays, 6-9 p.m., Diamond Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave.
True West Pro Rodeo, 6:30 p.m., La Plata County Fairgrounds
Durango Chamber Music Festival “Music for Strings,” 7 p.m., St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 910 E. 3rd Ave.
Open Mic with Leigh Mikell, 7 p.m., EsoTerra, 558 Main Ave.
packages. You need to provide a safe –and convenient – space for them to stash your goods. Like, say, under the car up on blocks in your front yard. I think I know a guy who needs a place to park his car for a bit. Maybe you can come to an arrangement.
– Damaged, Rachel
Ongoing
“Voices Inside My Head: Echo,” interactive art exhibit featuring augmented reality, paintings by Tad Smith and poetry by local and national poets, thru July 12, Durango Art Center Gallery, 802 E. 2nd Ave.
Kathryn Waggener’s “High Desert Hazards,” thru June, The Recess Gallery at Studio &, 1027 Main Ave.
“Walk & Wonder” a walkers meetup, Thursdays and Sundays, thru Aug. 31, 11 a.m., White Rabbit Books & Curiosities, 128 W. 14th, Ste. C-2
Durango Farmers Market, Saturdays thru Oct., 8 a.m., TBK Bank, Parking Lot, 259 W. 9th St.
“From the Fringes: Dine Textiles that Disrupt” exhibit, thru Nov. 13, Center of Southwest Studies at FLC
60-year celebration “A Legacy of Gifts,” thru Nov. 13, Center of Southwest Studies, FLC
June 5, 2025 n 13
FreeWillAstrology
by Rob Brezsny
ARIES (March 21-April 19): You have had resemblances to cactuses in recent days. It hasn’t always been pleasant and cheerful, but you have become pretty skilled at surviving, even thriving, despite an insufficiency of juicy experiences. Fortunately, the emotional fuel you had previously stored up has sustained you, keeping you resilient and reasonably fluid. However, this situation will soon change. More succulence is on its way. Scarcity will end, and you will be blessed with an enhanced flow of lush feelings.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): I foresee abundance emerging from modest sources. I predict breakthroughs arising out of your loving attention to the details of the routine. So please don’t get distracted by poignant meditations on what you feel is missing from your life. Don’t fantasize about what you wish you could be doing instead of what you are actually doing. Your real wealth lies in the small tasks that are right in front of you – even though they may not yet have revealed their full meaning or richness. I invite you and encourage you to be alert for grandeur in seemingly mundane intimate moments.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): It’s time for your Uncle Rob to offer you some fundamental advice for living. These tips are always worthy of your contemplation, but especially now. Ready? Being poised amidst uncertainty is a superpower. You may attract wonders and blessings if you can function well while dealing with contradictory feelings, unclear situations and incomplete answers. Don’t rush to artificial closure when patience will serve you better. Be willing to address just part of a problem rather than insisting on total resolution. There’s no need to be worried or frustrated if some enigmas cannot be explained and resolved. Enjoy the mystery!
CANCER (June 21-July 22): Cancerian poet Lucille Clifton published 14 books and had six children. Having helped raise one child myself, I know how consuming it is to be a parent. Where did she find the time and energy to generate so much great literature? Judging from the astrological omens, I suspect you now have access to high levels of productivity comparable to Clifton’s. You will be able to gracefully juggle competing demands and navigate through domains. Your efficiency will stem not from stressfully trying too hard but rather from good timing and a nimble touch.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): One of the seven wonders of the ancient world was the Colossus of Rhodes, located on a Greek island. Symbolizing power and triumph, it was a towering statue dedicated to the sun god Helios. The immediate motivation for its construction was the local people’s defeat of an invading army. I hereby authorize you to acquire or create your own personal version of an inspiring icon. It will symbolize that the coming months will stimulate lavish expressions of your leonine power. It will help inspire you to showcase your talents and make bold moves. PS: Be alert for chances to mobilize others with your leadership. Your natural brilliance will be a beacon.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): The Great Barrier Reef is the world’s biggest structure built by living things. Lying beneath the Coral Sea off the east coast of Australia, it’s made by billions of small organisms, coral polyps, all working together to create a magnificent home for a vast diversity of life forms. Let’s make the Great Barrier Reed your symbol of power for the next 10 months. I hope it inspires you to manage and harness the many details that together will generate a robust source of vitality for your tribe, family and community.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): One of my favorite poets, Arthur Rimbaud, wrote all of his brilliant work before he became an adult. I suspect that no matter your age, many of you Libras are now in an ultra-precocious phase with some resemblances to Rimbaud from age 16-21. The downside of this situation is that you may be too advanced for people to understand you. You could be ahead of your time and too cool for even the trendsetters. I urge you to trust your farseeing visions and forward-looking intuitions even if others can’t appreciate them yet. What you bring from the future will benefit us all.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Blacksmiths still exist. They were more common in the past, but there are many 21st-century practitioners. It’s a demanding art, requiring intense heat to soften hard slabs of metal so they can be forged into intricate new shapes. The process requires both fire and finesse. I think you are currently in a phase when blacksmithing is an apt metaphor. You will need to artfully interweave passion and precision. Fiery ambition or intense feelings may arise, offering you raw energy for transformation. To harness it, you must temper your approach with patience, restraint and focus.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): JeanPaul Sartre and Simon de Beauvoir were two feisty, independent, strong-minded French writers. Beauvoir was a trailblazing feminist, and Sartre was a Nobel Laureate. Though they never officially married, they were a couple for 51 years. Aside from their great solo accomplishments, they also gave us this gift: They proved that romantic love and intellectual equality could coexist, even thrive together, with the help of creative negotiation. I propose we make them your inspirational role models for now. The coming months will be a favorable time to deepen and refine your devotion to crafting satisfying, interesting, intimate relationships.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): More than 2,600 years ago, Babylonian astronomers figured out the highly complex cycle that governs the recurrence of lunar and solar eclipses. It unfolds over a period of 18 years and 11 days. Analyzing its full scope required many generations of researchers to carry out meticulous record-keeping with extreme patience. Let’s make those Babylonian researchers your role models. In coming months, I hope they inspire you to engage in careful observation and persistent investigation as you discover meaningful patterns. May they excite your quest to discern deep cycles and hidden rhythms.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): I invite you to try this visualization exercise: Picture a rosebud inside your body. Imagine its gently opening, filling your body with a sweet, blissful warmth, like a slow-motion orgasm that lasts and lasts. As the rose fully blooms, you become aware of a gold ring at its center. Imagine yourself reaching inside and taking the ring with your right hand. Slip the ring onto your left ring finger and tell yourself, “I pledge to devote all my passionate intelligence to my own well-being. I promise to forever treat myself with tender loving respect. I vow to seek out high-quality beauty and truth as I fulfill my life’s mission.”
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): I foresee the arrival of a living fossil, Pisces. An influence you thought was gone may soon reappear. Aspects of your past could prove relevant to your current situation. These might be neglected skills, seemingly defunct connections or dormant dreams. I hope you have fun integrating rediscovered resources and earmarking them for use in the future. PS: Here’s a lesson worth treasuring: While the world has changed, a certain fundamental truth remains true and valuable to you.
The most fun outdoor Sunday brunch in Durango!
10 a.m.-1 p.m., featuring a new DJ every week and brunch dishes from all our food trucks
Deadline for Telegraph classified ads is Tuesday at noon
Ads are a bargain at 10 cents a character with a $5 minimum.
Even better, ads can now be placed online: durangotelegraph.com
Prepayment is required via cash, credit card or check. (Sorry, no refunds or substitutions.)
Ads can be submitted via: n durangotelegraph.com
n classifieds@durango telegraph.com
n 970-259-0133
Announcements
Edible/Medicinal Alpine Plant Walk Sat., June 7, $35, 4 hours. Call for details: 970-759-9287
Lost/Found
Cid Come Home
Last seen in Durango on July 21, 2024, by St. Columba Church. He is chipped, missing left canine tooth, white, big black spots, green eyes. Reward. 970-4036192.
ForRent
For Lease: Two Professional Offices in Downtown Durango. Prime location in the 500 block of downtown Durango. Bright, private offices in a quiet, professional setting. Ideal for therapists, consultants or small businesses. Walkable, central and full of charm. Call/text (970) 844-4184 or email Dave@AspenGroveLaw.com for details or a tour.
ForSale
Reruns Home Furnishings
Time to spruce up your outdoor space. Multiple patio sets, bistros, vintage patio sets and yard art. Also looking to consign
smaller furniture pieces. 572 E. 6th Ave. Open Mon.-Sat. 385-7336.
Wanted
Books Wanted at White Rabbit
Donate/Trade/Sell 970 259-2213
BodyWork
Massage by Meg Bush LMT, 30, 60 & 90 min., 970-759-0199.
Services
Residential Fabrication
Planter boxes, gates and fences and other outdoor property enhancements. North Shore Fab. 970 749 6140. Jon
Chapman Electric
Colorado licensed and insured. Residential and commercial. New, remodel and repair. Mike 970-403-6670
Boiler Service - Water Heater
Serving Durango over 30 years. Brad, 970-759-2869. Master Plbg Lic #179917
Animal Shelters Available!
Protect your livestock with our durable shelters. Free delivery within 50 miles from RockyMountainSheds.com!
Mountain Studies Institute needs volunteers for the San Juan PikaNet Project, a citizen science initiative to collect data on the American pika. Learn about identifying and monitoring pikas at our volunteer training June 27, 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. at Velocity Basin outside Silverton. Data collected will become part of a larger effort to monitor pika populations in Colorado and across the Southern Rockies. Register or make a donation at: www. mountainstudies.org/pikanet.
Four Corners Gem and Mineral Show needs volunteers. The show is happening this July 11-13 at the La Plata County Fairgrounds. Volunteer receive free access to the show! Visit durangorocks.org.
HaikuMovieReview
Dog Fosters Needed
Parker’s Animas Rescue urgently needs foster families to provide temporary homes for rescued dogs. We supply all necessary items and cover vet visits. Join our mission: parkersanimalrescue.com.
Workshops for Nonprofits
The Community Foundation Serving Southwest Colorado is hosting two leadership trainings this June. “Beyond Governance: Building a Thriving Board-Staff Relationship,” Tues., June 17, 1-4 p.m. at TBK Bank, 259 W. 9th St. “Board Leadership Bootcamp,” Wed., June 18, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. at same location. To register or learn more, visit: swcommunityfoundation .org/cna-june-trainings/
Engaging Volunteer Opportunity
Alternative Horizons needs volunteers to staff our hotline. Training provided. For info., visit alternativehorizons.org
‘Brothers’ Cliché crime caper, comedy with consummate cast but nothing else – Lainie Maxson “I saw it in the Telegraph.”
Read by thousands of discerning eyeballs every week. (*And a few that just look at the pictures.)
