Garfield County continues support of conservation districts – Garfield County, Colorado
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A lush farm field in Garfield County.

Garfield County continues support of conservation districts

Bookcliff, Mount Sopris, and South Side Conservation Districts outline 2025 successes

PRESS RELEASE
February 6, 2026

Garfield County is applauding the continued hard work by the Bookcliff, Mount Sopris, and South Side Conservation Districts in promoting positive land stewardship in the area. District representatives presented their 2025 accomplishments to the Board of County Commissioners, highlighting efforts to combat noxious weeds, bolster soil health, and improve irrigation and cattle grazing management, and more in Garfield County.

The conservation districts partner with Garfield County Vegetation Management to offer the noxious weed cost share program, which treated more than 2,800 acres in 2025. Conservation district staff completed 64 noxious weed maps while helping local landowners mitigate the invasive vegetation.

“We were down a little bit in cost and applicants this year but maybe that’s a good sign that we’re doing good work in the county,” said Jeff Nieslanik, president of the Mount Sopris Board, to the Board of County Commissioners.

Soil health is key
The conservation/irrigation cost share program completed nine projects in Garfield County, helping landowners with needed projects and saving them more than $34,800. Working with the Colorado Department of Agriculture’s Soil Health Program, the districts’ efforts helped complete 73 soil tests for 54 landowners last year, covering 993 acres and saving landowners more than $54,100.

Raymond Langstaff, president of the Bookcliff Board, told the commissioners that planting cover crops is an integral part of ensuring soil health.

“Say you’ve harvested barley in August, we try and put a cover crop on the land to get them through the fall, so that when they re-till, the vegetative matter is put back into the earth,” he explained. “It also includes grazing management, such as putting manure back on the fields and spreading it out. It increases production; if you can improve the soil health, you improve production and it makes the water go farther, too.”

South Side District Board President Brett Jolley added that the soil is tested each year to determine what nutrients are needed.

Grants secured for wolf conflict mitigation, virtual fencing
The conservation districts apply for grants to help cover the costs of projects that benefit Garfield County landowners, in areas including modernizing irrigation infrastructure, wolf conflict mitigation, and grazing management.

Two such grants have helped local cattle producers utilize virtual fencing for better grazing management practices in Garfield County.

“They can move their livestock around on their property and utilize pieces of ground that aren’t normally grazed upon,” Langstaff said. “They can force the cattle to utilize that ground and adjust their pastures based on water sources. It’s really effective for that kind of use.”

Nieslanik told the board that the conservation districts utilized a $35,000 grant in 2025 for wolf conflict mitigation, covering carcass management (hauling dead animals to the dump so they don’t attract predators), range riding, and record-keeping, which has increased greatly since wolf reintroduction efforts began in 2023.

“This wolf reintroduction has tripled their time. You need to know the weights, really everything you possibly can going back years for proof,” Jolley said. “While the wolves don’t necessarily kill the cows, they can definitely make them abort. It stresses them and they can drop weight by 30 to 50 pounds a calf. That’s a lot of money when you’re going to the sale. It forces the ranchers to be better bookkeepers.”

The districts have applied for another $25,000 matching grant from the Colorado State Conservation Board (CSCB) for wolf issues in 2026, as well as a $20,000 grant for grasshopper mitigation.

“Grasshoppers were a big problem last year and I think they will be again as we’re heading into a pretty severe drought,” Nieslanik said.

Ditch upgrades planned
South Side Conservation District is planning to modernize several ditches in the Divide Creek drainage and has lined up a $336,751 collaborative grant from the Colorado Water Conservation Board and Farmers Conservation Alliance.

“Sprinklers don’t work well up there because it’s dirty water. Even gated pipe will clog up, and the ditches are all 100 years old,” Jolley said “We gave them a $10,000 match, and they’re going to put in $330,000, and it could go as high as $450,000, to start replacing some of these headgates and fix some of these big ditches, some of which are six or seven miles long up there. It’ll be a huge upgrade for Divide Creek.”

District Manager Emily Schwaller added that phase one of the process included landowner engagement, prioritizing projects, preliminary engineering, and conducting studies before applying for federal grants.

The conservation districts also awarded two $1,000 scholarships for Rifle High School students in 2025.

“One of the reasons we always support you is that you have so many members who are willing to get things done unselfishly,” said Commissioner Mike Samson. “Thank you for all you do.”

“We are committed to agriculture,” added Commissioner Tom Jankovsky.