News

For National Invasive Species Awareness Week, Feb. 24 - 28, we are highlighting different noxious weeds each day to bring education to our community and receive support to protect our environment from invasive weeds. Today, we bring awareness to the purple loosestrife, a highly invasive plant that takes over wetlands, forming dense monocultures that degrade wildlife habitat and water quality. Once sold as an ornamental plant, it can still be found in older gardens and easily spreads to nearby waterways.

Today, we bring awareness to the leafy spurge noxious weed midway through National Invasive Species Awareness Week to educate our community so we can work as a team to stay protected from this harmful weed. The leafy spurge contains a milky latex that causes burns and rashes when in contact with human skin and is toxic to livestock.

Health First Colorado (Colorado's Medicaid Program) is a health care benefit program for residents who meet income and resource eligibility guidelines established by the State of Colorado and the federal government.

At the Feb. 25 public hearing, the Board of Mesa County Commissioners unanimously approved Ordinance 008(D) to adopt and update eight building and construction codes to modernize them to the recent editions — keeping up with current construction methods, technology, materials, techniques, and state requirements and creating a balanced and thoughtful approach to localizing the updated codes. The approval came after Chief Building Official Darrell Bay gave a second reading of the Ordinance. The first reading of Ordinance 008(D) took place during the Commissioners’ Feb. 11 public hearing, followed by a request for public comment to ensure our community's approach to building and construction codes reflects our collective values.

Today, we are highlighting the flowering rush noxious weed for National Invasive Species Awareness Week so our community can help identify and report this weed to keep it out of our waterways and minimize its damage to our environment. The flowering rush invades wetlands and streambanks and is a host plant to the organisms that cause “swimmer’s itch.” Leach Creek in Grand Junction is Colorado’s only known location of flowering rush infestations, making eradication possible.

Mesa County Public Health (MCPH) is now accepting residential burn permit applications on March 1, 2025.