Colorado Drought Plan

Colorado Drought Plan

Maura Bennett
Maura Bennett

Governor Polis has issued an order to activate a state agricultural task force to determine potential crop and cattle damage from drought conditions. Drought is now impacting 40 state counties.

The task force is directed to study the impact and the possible economic fallout for the state’s $8 billion farming industry.

The Colorado Water Conservation Board (Water Availability) Task Force just highlighted the serious nature of the drought.

Becky Bolinger, a climatologist at Colorado State University’s Colorado Climate Center, told the meeting that when spring arrived the “spigot turned off and the heat turned on.”

Bolinger: Most areas of the state have been struggling with dry conditions ever since. Drought has extended in the last month and now 33% of the state is now in extreme drought conditions (D3). We have seen an ET event in June over the eastern plains kind of consistent with a flash drought, except we’re already in a drought so what it’s done is make that drought worse.

The U.S. Drought Monitor reported this week that extreme drought expanded in eastern Colorado and northern New Mexico. The National Resource Conservation Service also reported that reservoir levels are dwindling in southern and southwestern Colorado, including the agricultural San Luis Valley and the Gunnison River Basin.

Previous ReportSilver Lining for Bison
Next ReportColorado Hay Report