Mountain lion workshop to be held Saturday
Durango Nature Studies will host a mountain lion workshop from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday at Durango Nature Center in Bondad.
The cost is $10 for nonmembers and free for members. DNS board member and former mountain lion technician Laine Johnson will lead the workshop about lion ecology.
Participants will learn about lion natural history, safety and conservation. Johnson has experience radio-collaring mountain lions using hound dogs and leg snares in Wyoming and for the Southern Ute Tribe.
Participants should wear hiking shoes, bring water and have sun protection.
For more information, visit www.durangonaturestudies.org.
Water bugs to be discussed Saturday
The San Juan Family Explorers Series will present “Buggy Water” from 10:30 a.m. to noon Saturday at the Dolores River.
Participants will look for macroinvertebrates in the water, learn what they are and why they live there.
People should meet at the corner of Eighth Street and Riverside in Dolores and bring river shoes and clothes.
For more information, call 759-1170 or email gabi@sjma.org. Advance registration is requested, but not necessary.
Landowners to receive tree farmer award
The Colorado State Forest Service will honor La Plata County couple Bill and Patti Szilva on Aug. 3 with the 2013 Colorado Outstanding Tree Farmer of the Year Award.
The Szilvas are receiving the award for exceptional multiple-objective management of their forested property, which is six miles northeast of Bayfield.
A tree farm is any tract of privately owned land voluntarily dedicated to growing renewable resources, while protecting environmental benefits and increasing public understanding of sustainable forestry.
Under a long-term management plan, the Szilvas are managing the property using forest stewardship practices, with specific emphasis on wildfire mitigation, sustainable wood harvesting, utilization of forest products and community activism.
The property also produces lumber, with trees of sufficient diameter destined for a portable chain-saw mill, and nonsalable wood and milling scraps fed to a wood-fired boiler system, which is used to heat the home.
For more information, call 247-5250 or visit www.treefarmsystem.org.
Public invited to visit sheep camp
Sheep ranchers will hold an “Open Camp” from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Tuesday east of the summit of Engineer Pass on the north end of the Alpine Loop, between the cities of Ouray, Silverton and Lake City.
Participants will learn about producing wool and lamb from sheep ranchers who graze sheep in the high country. Visitors will see and learn about sheep, guard dogs and herd dogs, and they will feel wool on a lamb.
Participants will talk with sheepherding families and learn about a lifestyle that has changed very little in more than a century.
Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management officials also will be on hand.
For more information, call Edna Mason at 944-2500.
Herald Staff
