Durango Film Fest takes new shape

The financially beleaguered Durango Film Festival has decided to move in a new direction. The festival’s board of directors is recreating the annual festival and doing it without Executive Director Sofia Vansurksum. The newly formed Durango Independent Film Festival (DIFF) is set to take place March 1-5 of next year.

Last month, the original festival went public with its financial woes and at that time, Vansurksum announced that the 5-year-old festival could cease to exist. That was not an option for a group of board members, staff and longtime supporters of the original film festival. They had operated for the last five years as the Durango Film Society and recently founded the DIFF group.

“Independent film and a March film festival have become an important part of Durango over the last five years,” said Michele Malach, a DIFF group member. “Not having a film festival in Durango at this time in 2006 is not an option for our group of 20-plus who are working very hard to make the event happen.”

The group aspires to match the artistic and cultural successes of the past film festival, while making the Durango Independent Film Festival financially sustainable for years to come.

“The Durango Independent Film Festival’s focus will be on screening entertaining, challenging and innovative independent film, on inspiring and supporting independent filmmakers and on film education, particularly in the region’s schools,” stated Shan Wells, another DIFF member.

Pulling the new festival together by early March will prove to be a challenge for the group. However, DIFF is up to it, according to Scott Stewart, another of its members.

“We certainly have our work cut out for us in striving to put on a film festival in March 2006,” he said. “We have an extremely short period of time to get an executive director, local and national sponsors, an experienced board of directors, an advisory board, complete our organization set-up, put out our notice for a call of film entries and most importantly, get the funding necessary to keep a film festival operating in Durango without taking a year off.”

DIFF will be looking to the Durango community for help with the funding. The group is currently soliciting donations and support and is not interested in repeating the history of the past festival.

“Operating in a fiscally sound manner from the get go is extremely important to all the DIFF staff,” Stewart concluded. “We’re members of the Durango community as well as advocates for the film festival and we want to be responsible caretakers for this event and good community members in regards to how we’re running this event.”

Fort Lewis launches masters program

A graduate education program is coming to Fort Lewis College courtesy of an $873,000 grant. In partnership with the University of Northern Colorado, the local college has established a master’s degree program in Native American leadership.

The project is called “Native American Innovative Leadership Project: Master of Arts in Administration Dual-Licensure Preparation Program,” and its goal is to train students from the Ute Mountain Ute, Southern Ute and Navajo tribes for certification as a special education director and school principal.

“The grant will allow Fort Lewis College graduates from the three tribes who wish to become school administrators to pursue that degree program while staying in the Four Corners,” said Farren Webb, an FLC administrator. “Increasing the number of Native American school administrators will increase the opportunities for Native American teachers and in the long run provide a better education for Native American students.”

The three-year program will be supplemented with a one-year mentoring period following program completion. Curriculum for the program will include materials that specifically address Native American student learning styles, language and culture.

Since it became a boarding school for Native Americans in 1891, Fort Lewis has offered tuition-free education to qualified Native American students. Nearly 17 percent of the college’s current student body is Native American, with 117 American Indian tribes and nations represented.

Colorado Trail cleared of debris

The Colorado Trail is finally cleared and ready for business. Courtesy of recent efforts by Trails 2000 volunteers, hikers and cyclists can now travel the legendary trail unimpeded by avalanche debris and overgrowth.

Trail users have been recreating on the Colorado Trail, which stretches nearly 500 miles from Durango to Denver, all summer, but have been hindered by snow and debris at numerous slide paths courtesy of the big 2004-05 winter. The snow in the paths melted only recently so Trails 2000 tackled the major project last weekend.

Ten volunteers met at the Dry Fork Trailhead for the 11-mile uphill bicycle ride to the slide paths with some towing chainsaw equipment loaded on the bicycle trailers. A horse carried the rest of the hand tools, including pulaskis, mcleods, hand saws and loppers.

“All of us knew we were in for a big day when we felt exhaustion even before we started working,” said Bill Manning, Trails 2000 executive director.

The biggest slide path had buried the trail under logs, rocks and bushes so high it was difficult to tell where the trail was. Slowly, pieces of the existing trail were uncovered. In some places, the trail had been completely wiped out by the slide and had to be rebuilt. At the same time, the lopper crew was up the trail working for several hours to trim all the branches and brush blocking the path.

At the end of the day, the crews returned to the trailhead, having logged 12 hours. “We were all beat, but felt great that all tasks had been accomplished,” said Manning.

Division gets grip on elk numbers

In the early 1910s, fewer than 2,000 elk roamed the entire State of Colorado as the result of over-hunting. After elk were transplanted to the state, hunting regulations were carefully enforced, the population began climbing again. Now, there are too many elk in many parts of the state in spite of record harvests in 2002 and 2004. As a result the Division of Wildlife will continue to sell over-the-counter elk tags and issue cow licenses in an effort to bring the population down.

This year, the Colorado Wildlife Commission added 4,376 cow and either sex licenses to the 148,246 issued last year. On the flip side the number of licenses for antlered elk was dropped by 5 percent, reflecting hunter success last year. Regardless, the post-hunt elk population last year was estimated at 275,000, well above the DOW’s target of 189,000.

Bruce Watkins, the DOW’s big game coordinator, commented that the Division needs more help from Mother Nature. More winter mortality will be necessary to bring the numbers into line.

“Our hunters have been killing more of them, but still not enough,” said Watkins. “Colorado will set record harvests for quite a few years, given the right weather conditions.”

Wild horse adoption set for Saturday

Local residents have an opportunity to adopt a wild horse this Saturday. The Bureau of Land Management has wild horses gathered from the Spring Creek Basin herd northeast of Dove Creek available for adoption. The adoption will take place at the Montezuma County Fairgrounds.

Roughly 40 horses, including stallions, mares and yearlings, were recently gathered from the Spring Creek Area, in Disappointment Valley and will be offered by silent auction to the highest bidder. Most animals are 5 years of age and younger.

Registration and viewing for the adoption will be held from 5-7:30 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 26, and from 8-11 a.m. on Sat., Aug. 27 at the Montezuma County Fairgrounds. In addition, a horse trainer representing the National Mustang Association will conduct wild-horse training demonstrations at the Fairgrounds from 1 - 5 p.m. on Friday. Bidding is scheduled for 10-11:30 a.m. on Saturday, with a minimum adoption fee of $125 per horse.

Once an adopter has had a wild horse for 12 months, the federal government will transfer title, upon receipt of documentation that a veterinarian or BLM official has inspected the horse, and it is in good condition.

For more information, call 882-6847 or log onto www.doi.gov/horse.

– compiled by Will Sands