Conservation - The Durango Herald

Colorado’s tree-eating pine beetles are surging back after a prolonged dry spell

The 2013 floods gave state trees the water they needed to fight off the mountain pine beetle and other forest pests, but a dry 2024 restarted some pesky threats

DATE: Apr 22, 2025 | CATEGORY: Regional News

White House to reverse rule promoting conservation on BLM land

Public Lands Act put restoration on equal footing with ranching and drilling

DATE: Apr 21, 2025 | CATEGORY: Outdoors

Landowners in Chicken Creek permanently conserve 720 acres outside Mancos

The easement is on land that’s a ‘transition and gateway to public lands,’ landowner says

DATE: Apr 14, 2025 | CATEGORY: Local News

You have the power to help our public lands

Here in the San Juan Mountains, we have an amazing community of public lands supporters from all walks of life. It’s part of what makes our corner of the world unique. It’s not for everyone,...

DATE: Apr 11, 2025 | CATEGORY: Stewards of the Land

What Trump’s ‘emergency’ logging declaration could mean for Colorado’s U.S. Forest land

Order comes on heels of a separate directive to expand American timber production by 25%

DATE: Apr 10, 2025 | CATEGORY: Regional News

Wolf from Canada released in Colorado shot and killed in Wyoming after it killed multiple sheep

Wolves are managed differently in Wyoming, and state officials said the wolf was legally shot after finding evidence of depredation

DATE: Mar 21, 2025 | CATEGORY: Regional News

Feeding deer in Colorado is illegal. Here’s why it’s also dangerous

‘They’re not tame or pets, and anytime you put dogs in close contact with wildlife, conflicts are going to happen’

DATE: Mar 11, 2025 | CATEGORY: Regional News

The magic is always there

Winter seems to come and go in lower elevation communities like Durango and Cortez, but our snowpack (although low for the year) at Andrews Lake Winter Recreation Area keeps sparkling with l...

DATE: Mar 5, 2025 | CATEGORY: Stewards of the Land

Colorado forests are releasing more carbon than they’re storing

Authors of a new Colorado State Forest Service report say forests naturally cycle between carbon “sinks” and “sources”

DATE: Feb 26, 2025 | CATEGORY: Southwest Life

Legislation removes public from forest management

Ill-named legislation that would take a wrecking ball to the public’s involvement in management of our public forests has recently moved through the House of Representatives, and is now unde...

DATE: Feb 17, 2025 | CATEGORY: Thinking Green

Rep. Lauren Boebert wants wolves off the endangered species list

It won’t end Colorado’s wolf program

DATE: Feb 7, 2025 | CATEGORY: Regional News

Southwest Conservation Corps hiring high school students for summer conservation work

There will be two four-week sessions offered, and no experience is necessary

DATE: Jan 29, 2025 | CATEGORY: Education

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Photos: Durango High School boys golf competes at stateDemons finished 14th after two rounds at Fox Hill Club in Longmont

Demons finished 14th after two rounds at Fox Hill Club in Longmont

Photos: Cowboy Gathering Social and Parade

Photos: High County Cattle Auction

High Country Cattle Auction brings top-notch stock and country charm to Southwest ColoradoFamily run, generational business dates back to 1940s

BREEN – The family-owned and operated High Country Cattle Auction is “in the bones” of the Cugnini family, said third-generation owner Chris Cugnini. The business was founded by Chris’ grandfather, Pat Cugnini, in the 1940s. Pat then passed the business down to his son, Duane Cugnini, who then turned the business over to daughters, Becky Hawkins and Chris Cugnini, whose daughters plan to take over the family business one day. The auction, which takes place once or twice a month from April to January at 13062 La Plata Highway (Colorado Highway 140) near Breen, attracts ranchers, farmers and those in the cattle industry from far and wide.

Former Durango resident Steve Greenburg has been attending the High Country Cattle auction for more than 40 years, and continues to travel to Breen all the way from Arizona, where he now lives. He attended the September auction last week, where around 1,200 animals were up for sale. Greenburg said effective bidding takes concentration and a practiced hand. “You want to make sure you don’t pay too much,” he said. “And if you do, you want to buy the business.” Amber Belvin, employee of 15 years and Chris’ operations “sidekick,” said bidders are most often looking for signs of good health in an animal, like a plump, filled-out body. If bidding on a herd, a look of uniformity among the animals is key to a good purchase, she said.

Despite Greenburg already having a handful of filled out bidding cards marking the cattle he had won within an hour of the Sept. 23 auction, he said the day was young. One sale day last year culminated in Greenburg taking home 22 semi-trucks worth of cattle, he said. Chris said Greenburg is one of the auction’s longest-term and most generous supporters. “(Greenburg) pays top-dollar,” Chris said. “And (that) makes me feel good, because we’re giving back to (the sellers). I know these people around here, and they’re the hardest working people on the planet. If I can get them 10 or 20 cents more per pound, then that makes us happy.”

Cattle auction prices have gone up in recent years, both at High Country and nationally, Chris said. This year, animals are going for $2,500 to $3,000 a head – double and triple the average prices from last year. The increase, Chris said, is in part because of a screw worm making the rounds in cattle in Mexico, which has lowered the number of cattle coming in from the south, along with people subdividing and selling cattle branches, and local cattle herd numbers diminishing, which has increased demand.

Chris called the price increase “good and bad.” “It’s great if you’re a seller, because there’s prices that you’ve never seen before,” she said. “Older men come in, (and they) can’t believe the prices. Some of them do this for a living, and they count on that, so they’re so happy.” Belvin said some smaller farmers opt to buy less cattle during price surges like this, but echoed Chris’ sentiment about sellers being ecstatic about the unprecedented profit.

Local cattle farmer Lawrence Martinez entered 59 steers and 95 heifers in the auction Tuesday. Martinez has been involved in the High Country Cattle Auction “pretty much forever,” but recent years have been especially fruitful for sales, he said. “These last few years, we’ve been coming here to sell, because this is the place to go,” he said. “I wouldn’t sell anywhere else. (The market here has) been so good.”The auction’s community roots and generational touch doesn’t stop at the Cugnini family: Shane Hatch, the auctioneer, took over the job after his father’s death, Belvin said.

The auction serves as an opportunity for community members to get together and bond, Belvin said. “When we do have an auction, it’s a great place where local farmers and ranchers can get together and talk,” she said. “They come to the cafe, and they talk about the hay, and the drought situation, and I think it’s a good connecting point.” Chris and Belvin both expressed feeling glad the auction can supply so much generational value to the local farming and ranching community. “I mean, what other business can you think of around here that’s the same, right?” Belvin said. “We’re fair, and we’re very meticulous at our jobs. We take it very seriously, because this is (some peoples’) livelihood.”

For the Cugninis – and long-term employees like Belvin, who have become an honorary part of the close-knit High Country Cattle Auction family – the heart of the business aligns with the heart of the local farming and ranching community. “We’re just good, hard working people – Americans – that want to make a good living, and live off this great land,” Belvin said. epond@durangoherald.com

Family run, generational business dates back to 1940s