Cuckoo critical habitat includes local acreage
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has decided to designate a 25-mile stretch of the Colorado River going through Grand Junction and 16 miles of the North Fork of the Gunnison River in Delta County as critical habitat for the western yellow-billed cuckoo. The 3,137 acres in Mesa County and 2,326 acres in Delta County are among nearly 300,000 acres in several western states receiving the designation designed to help protect a bird listed as threatened by the agency. That listing requires measures to help it under the Endangered Species Act. The migratory species travels between wintering groun...