News

• Paulo Munguia is County’s New Poet Laureate
• Dr. Jason Sibold leads Bear Creek Walk and Talk
• San Miguel County Listed as ‘Sanctuary’ in Trump Executive Order

Paulo Munguia Named County’s New Poet Laureate

There’s a new poet laureate in town. After two years as San Miguel County’s poet laureate, Joanna Yonder welcomed Paulo Munguia at the June 18 County Commissioners meeting.

Yonder was joined by former county commissioner, poet and originator of the county laureate position, Art Goodtimes, who introduced Munguia.

“Mr. Paulo Munguia lives in Montrose and has worked as a contractor in Telluride, been a featured performer at Bardic Trails with Wilkinson Public Library, and at Stories and Poems in Norwood, performed poetry at the Telluride Arts headquarters, and exhibited his poems at the Ah Haa School of the Arts, all at San Miguel County,” Goodtimes said.

Munguia said he grew up in the state of Morelos in Mexico and moved to the United States in the early 2000s, where he has remained, running a tile construction business. He said music and love first led him to writing poetry.

“I was in love and I wasn’t sure how to express my feeling and I just start writing. And this started happening more often,” Munguia said. “I did some research about poetry and all these things and I started reading about poetry. So I started writing since then, but I never shared anything with anyone. I started sharing when—there is one lady in Telluride, her name is Ximena Robodello.”

Munguia first read his poetry in Telluride and has since performed throughout the region. As San Miguel County’s newest poet laureate, he said he hopes his work can serve as a cultural bridge.

“So it’s not easy even for me to connect with my people,” Munguia said. “So I think that this is a good chance for me to create—that’s the way to see it—to create a bridge and try and get the Hispanic community a bit more connected with the culture of the Native people.”

He shared a poem at the commissioners meeting, explaining the inspiration behind it.

“So I wrote this one day I worked late and I was just taking a look of all these things that we are surrounded [by] and I just start—I just imagine what could be the life outside, how the animals think,” he said. “The name is Octobre.”

Munguia expressed gratitude for Yonder, Goodtimes, and his friends and supporters.

“I have the feeling that we are losing all these spaces for the arts and we are losing the capacity to show love and show feelings to people—to just like me in the past,” Munguia said.

The San Miguel County poet laureate promotes literary arts in Telluride, San Miguel County, the Western Slope, and around the state. Munguia’s term will last two years.

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Dr. Jason Sibold Leads Bear Creek Walk and Talk

Telluride is nestled between mountains covered in lush, green forests that define the region’s landscape. But if you look closely, you might notice that many trees have lost their needles or vibrant color.

“I have a lot of grief with it. You know, kind of emotional feeling,” said Marie Gamweger, a longtime local.

“I think that’s a totally legitimate response,” said Dr. Jason Sibold, a biogeographer with Colorado State University. “You know, I’m the scientist, I’m not supposed to feel emotions or anything about what I study, but when I made your mortality map, you know, for this area, it was like, ‘Oh man.’ It’s sad.”

Telluride tree lovers met at the Wilkinson Public Library on Friday morning before embarking on a hike up Bear Creek with Sibold, who has been studying forest conditions in the area for more than a decade.

“My name is Jason Sibold. And I am a biogeographer and I focus on the distribution of trees and disturbance ecology, things like wildfires and drought impacts and bark beetles,” he said. “And I’ve been working here in Telluride for just over 10 years, through a collaboration with the town and the county to monitor forest change and impacts of climate change in Bear Creek.”

Though the trail was glowing with greenery and rich with the sounds and smells of the forest, the group was there to discuss the ongoing tragedy of tree mortality.

“And you can see there’re a few dead ones and there are a few dusty red ones,” Sibold said. “That’s Doug Fir beetle. So, I haven’t noticed that these have been defoliated by Western Spruce Budworm, but there certainly has kind of been over the last about nine years a progression from down valley up valley. Now they’re getting up above some of those Doug Fir above the cemetery up here.”

Sibold said Douglas Fir beetles pose a serious threat to Telluride’s forests.

“What we have seen so far is that nothing survives. It takes out everything,” he said. “This is a concern obviously. Those trees are not only pretty and great habitat and sucking up carbon from the atmosphere, they’re also holding a lot of stuff in place.”

As the group moved up the Bear Creek Trail, Sibold pointed out which species are most vulnerable.

“As we walk up here, most of the trees you’re going to see are going to be Subalpine Fir,” he said. “In terms of drought resistance, this is your least drought-resistant species.”

Gamweger said she joined the walk to find community around the loss she’s witnessing.

“Well, I’m a longtime local, I’ve lived here since 1997 full time, and I’ve been watching the trees dying all around me, and haven’t really noticed a lot of people talking about it,” she said. “So when I saw this program at the library, I immediately jumped on it. And I also have personally a lot of grief with the death that I’m seeing, so I kind of need to work through that, and education is one way that could support me.”

Not all hope is lost. After the group searched in an avalanche site for signs of new tree growth, Sibold shared some ways Telluride could responsibly protect the long-term health of local forests, such as starting common garden experiments.

“We have to be adaptable, as adaptable as the forest is,” Sibold said. “We have to be as or more adaptable in our thinking, in our expectations of the landscape, as well as kind of innovative in how we do things and how we live in this landscape, I think, moving forward. I’m a super optimist, but it’s not going to be easy, right? But I think this is what we’re geared for. We’ve done really hard things in the past — amazingly hard things. I think we can do this.”

Though he is extensively knowledgeable about the Telluride landscape, Sibold said it’s not his role to dictate policy.

“What will determine the next steps,” he said, “is culture and values — and that’s up to Telluride.”

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San Miguel County Listed as ‘Sanctuary’ in Trump Executive Order

Sanctuary cities are jurisdictions that deny or limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. The movement began in the mid-1980s, most notably with San Francisco declaring itself a city of refuge and prohibiting the use of city funds to assist federal immigration authorities.

As part of former President Donald Trump’s hardline approach to immigration reform, he issued Executive Order 14287, which directed the U.S. attorney general and Department of Homeland Security to publish a list of jurisdictions that allegedly obstruct enforcement of federal immigration laws. San Miguel County was among them.

“On April 28, the president issued Executive Order 14287, which directed the attorney general and Department of Homeland Security to publish a list of states and local jurisdictions that obstruct the enforcement of federal immigration laws,” said County Attorney Maura Fahey at a June 25 County Commissioners work session.

Fahey said the executive order threatens to withhold federal funding from jurisdictions labeled as sanctuary areas.

“Cities, counties and states that are deliberately obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration laws and endangering American citizens—sanctuary cities—protect dangerous criminal illegal aliens and put law enforcement in grave danger,” she said, quoting the executive order.

Fahey told commissioners that while San Miguel County was named on the list, it has never formally declared itself a sanctuary jurisdiction.

“San Miguel County has never declared or designated itself as a sanctuary jurisdiction. To my knowledge, we don’t have any legal protections for undocumented immigrants outside of state law. We don’t have any restrictions on sharing information with immigration officials outside of state law,” she said.

She added that the sheriff’s office complies with state law in its approach to immigration enforcement.

“The sheriff’s office operates within the confines of state law—that’s what they are tasked with upholding. They do not assist ICE, but they’re also not obstructing federal law enforcement. They do provide limited information to ICE within the confines of state law, and they would consider providing assistance to federal law enforcement if it were a matter of officer safety and support, for instance involving a dangerous criminal,” Fahey said.

Although the list was removed on June 1, Fahey noted it is still being updated. The order threatens litigation and the termination of federal funding, but no specific notice was sent to counties explaining why they were listed.

County Manager Mike Bordogna questioned the accuracy of the list.

“And just to keep in mind, we were listed with 40 other counties. And we learned at the CCI conference, some of those counties that had been named—they believe it was because they had passed resolutions declaring themselves Second Amendment sanctuary counties, to try and further reinforce the protection of the right to bear arms for their citizens,” Bordogna said.

Commissioners and staff agreed to “keep their ear to the ground” for any updates on the order or its potential consequences.

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Plein Air Festival Brings Art and Celebration to Telluride’s Fourth of July

The Sheridan Arts Foundation will host an exhibition and sale on Thursday, July 4, from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Sheridan Opera House courtyard and Elks Park. The event showcases work created during the Telluride Plein Air Festival and includes pieces by local artisans. Forty percent of sales benefit the foundation.

The festival runs all weekend and features 20 to 25 nationally acclaimed plein air artists painting in and around Telluride. The event, now a staple of the town’s Independence Day celebrations, culminates in a three-day art sale and includes more than $15,000 in prizes.

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Pie Contest Returns to Wilkinson Public Library July 7

The annual Pie Contest at Wilkinson Public Library takes place Monday, July 7. Bakers of all ages can register at telluridelibrary.org and drop off pies between 5 and 6 p.m. Judging starts at 6:01 p.m. Prizes will be awarded based on appearance, creativity, and taste.

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Extreme Heat Threatens Rural Areas, Including Western San Miguel County

A new study by Headwaters Economics and the Federation of American Scientists shows that rural areas are as vulnerable to extreme heat as urban centers. Grace Wickerson, senior manager of climate and health at the Federation, says older infrastructure and limited access to cooling systems make high-elevation areas especially risky.

“The way that those communities were built was not for extreme temperatures. You know, they might not have good air conditioning, or they’re built to keep in the heat, and so when it gets really hot, they just heat up and become almost furnaces inside,” Wickerson said.

Western San Miguel and Montrose counties were identified as particularly vulnerable. Ongoing coverage will examine how heat affects the region.

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Colorado’s New Biometric Privacy Law Takes Effect

Colorado’s new law protecting biometric privacy goes into effect this week, marking the first law of its kind in the U.S. Bente Birkeland reports for the Colorado Capitol News Alliance.

Story begins at: 14:42

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Green River’s Melon Days Celebrate Sweet, Small-Town Tradition

The town of Green River, Utah, takes great pride in its watermelons. Each year, it hosts Melon Days, a festival dedicated to the fruit. Molly Marcello of KZMU shares this audio postcard for Rocky Mountain Community Radio.

Story begins at: 15:33