water is something that shapes life every day on Colorado’s Western Slope It's a critically important topic that can be overwhelming for non-water-geek layperson the Colorado River District is holding its annual State of the River all over the Western Slope including one focused on the Uncompahgre River in Ridgway The events draw packed rooms filled with local leaders and concerned residents — all seeking credible information about the current state and future of water on the Western Slope This episode of Local Motion explores issues facing the broader Colorado River system and how those issues could effect us on the Western Slope Then we bring things back home to our own rivers and creeks where local groups like Gunnison Gorge Anglers the local chapter of Trout Unlimited are working on the ground to preserve clean water and habitat for anglers today and in the future The Colorado River is the lifeblood of the American Southwest Forty million people depend on it — not just here in Colorado we don’t always feel directly connected to the Colorado River we live in the Gunnison Basin — a different watershed The Gunnison River contributes about 17% of the Colorado River’s total annual flow So any decision made about the Colorado River’s future directly affects us — how much water we can use the river has been in a slow-moving crisis and overallocation have pushed the system to the brink the river’s two main reservoirs — Lake Powell and Lake Mead — reached such low levels that hydropower turbines at Glen Canyon Dam were nearly shut down and dam operators were near "dead-pool" where water would no longer be able to pass through the dam General Manager of the Colorado River District has a blunt message: the Colorado River is carrying less water than it used to and the our way of life across the Western Slope could be at risk “The average temperature in March has gone up 4.2 degrees Fahrenheit,” Mueller told the crowd in Ridgway We’re looking at a 20% decline right here in the Uncompahgre Valley over the last 125 years.” These trends are part of a long-term warming and drying pattern That means less water reaches our rivers — and more of it is lost to evaporation or absorbed by plants growing in longer That’s when the seven states in the Colorado River Basin signed a compact to divide the river’s water and Wyoming became the “Upper Basin.” California and Nevada formed the “Lower Basin.” Each side was promised 7.5 million acre-feet of water per year But there was a problem: the river wasn’t carrying that much water — and certainly doesn’t now this over-allocation was masked by big reservoirs like Lake Powell and Lake Mead the states and federal government adopted a temporary fix: interim guidelines to manage the system during dry years Those guidelines are set to expire in 2026 New rules must be negotiated now — and the clock is ticking “There’s a lot of confusion out there,” Mueller said “People talk about renegotiating the Compact — but that’s not what’s happening What’s being negotiated are the guidelines for how Powell and Mead are operated — especially in times of shortage.” the Upper and Lower Basin states have been working — or trying to work — on a new agreement for what happens after 2026 argues that it already lives with the drought every year Water use here is governed by strict prior appropriation law That means ranchers and farmers routinely get shut off — sometimes even if their water rights date back to the 1800s “We’ve never used more than 4.5 million acre-feet in a single year,” Mueller said But we live within our means because we have no choice.” continues to use more than its share — over 9 or 10 million acre-feet annually And it doesn’t have the same self-regulating legal system it relies on massive reservoirs to store and release water on demand Lower Basin states say they’re willing to cut their use — by about 1.5 million acre-feet But they also want the Upper Basin to take mandatory cuts even though the Upper Basin has never used its full allocation “The Lower Basin seems comfortable running the system at the edge of crisis,” he said has warned the states that they must reach a deal soon A full environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) takes years there may not be enough time to get new guidelines in place by the 2026 deadline and Nevada — have until the end of May 2025 to submit a consensus plan the federal government may impose its own solution “We’re talking about guideline negotiations,” Mueller reminded the crowd The Secretary of the Interior has full authority to act That’s an uncomfortable truth for many water managers But the risk of a top-down decision looms large — especially given the new administration’s unpredictability You might think the Front Range — with its newer more junior water rights — would bear the brunt of any curtailment Most of their water rights date after the 1922 Compact But the Colorado Constitution includes a preference for municipal water use cities can condemn agricultural water rights on the West Slope — paying fair market value — and divert that water to meet urban needs “If we get to the point where we’ve violated the Compact,” Mueller warned “we’ll be so far in the hole that every junior right in the state will be shut off for at least three years and Colorado Springs will start buying and drying farms on the Western Slope to make up the difference.” That’s the scenario many fear: a forced shift of water away from agriculture and toward urban use — not through cooperation Local organizations like Trout Unlimited are working to protect water here at home — through advocacy The Gunnison Gorge Anglers chapter is an active group focused on the Gunnison Their mission: protect cold water fisheries and the ecosystems that support them “We like to say that if you can catch fish in it you can probably drink it,” said board member Marshall Pendergrass From reintroducing Colorado River cutthroat trout to redesigning diversions that improve streamflow and fish passage the group partners with agencies like the Forest Service and Colorado Parks and Wildlife to get things done But even Trout Unlimited is feeling the pressure from political gridlock “Funding we were promised through the Inflation Reduction Act has been frozen,” said chapter president John Hamill As the Colorado River’s future hangs in the balance so does the future of life on the Western Slope The Gunnison Basin might feel far from the politics of Phoenix or Washington but our water is on the line — in courtrooms There’s still time to shape the outcome — but not much And what’s decided in the next few weeks may set the course for decades to come As Mueller put it: We’re all in this together and "we need creativity and cooperation among the parties" to find a way through Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Tuesday A Colorado judge has ordered federal immigration agents to stop doing civil enforcement in and around courthouses in three Western Slope counties the first known judicial usage of a Colorado law designed to make courts safe from immigration raids Ninth Judicial District Chief Judge John Neiley issued the previously unreported order for Garfield he wrote that the decision by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to “locate identify and detain individuals” in and around the district’s courthouses has caused “confusion anxiety and fear in what is often already an emotionally charged environment.” people working in the Garfield County courthouse say that ICE has been a steady presence inside the building in downtown Glenwood Springs detaining between five to 10 people since January who were either in the courthouse or just outside of it Criminal defendants who are not lawfully present in the U.S make easy targets for ICE agents under pressure from the Trump administration to increase the number of people detained and deported But district attorneys have said snatching someone going to or from court can upset the criminal system denying victims justice and perhaps making crime victims reluctant to file reports that could lead to deportations of a person they know Neiley’s order said ICE agents have been perusing courthouse dockets and other court proceedings to identify defendants to “effectuate detentions and arrests of these individuals.” All of those detained were defendants in criminal cases Some were detained inside the courthouse and some were detained outside the building said he issued the order because there were some worrisome detentions at the courthouse “We had a few incidents at the courthouse involving ICE/DHS agents detaining defendants who had appeared for various dockets,” he wrote “I issued the order to address these enforcement actions and to clarify the boundaries.” Colorado has a five-year-old state law that prohibits civil enforcement actions by ICE inside or around the perimeter of courthouses But anyone who violates the law is subject to civil action from the state attorney general or a judge’s action like the one Neiley issued Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said he would defend Colorado’s law if ICE challenged it And Neiley said in his order that if a U.S Department of Homeland Security or ICE officer conducted another civil detention in courthouses anywhere in the district stretching from Aspen to Glenwood Springs they could be subject to a contempt of court finding The state law doesn’t prohibit the agents from coming inside courthouses but Judge Neiley’s order reiterated that armed ICE officers entering the courthouses in his three counties must go through a security screening entrance They will have to furnish their names and reasons for being there to the courthouse security They are also banned from using cell phones or other electronic devices in courtrooms Garfield County Sheriff Lou Vallario didn’t have a comment about the judge’s order but a spokesman said it wouldn’t change anything about how they provide security in the courthouse now Vallario said in an earlier statement pointed out by his spokesman that he believes Colorado is a sanctuary state because of laws passed by the legislature to hold inmates at the jail for longer than their sentences because ICE asked them to Vallario said he will hold an inmate for six hours after they’ve posted a bond or completed a sentence if ICE asks Vallario also said he wasn’t enforcing the state law around ICE in courthouses “This is incredibly confusing because I have no idea how to arrest someone for a civil violation!” he said “That violation is NOT a criminal violation … law enforcement has no authority to take any action Nothing in Neiley’s order or state law prohibits any law enforcement officer from making a criminal arrest in an immigration case and is typically handled with a civil detention followed by hearings in immigration court either while the detained person is held in custody or is free awaiting a decision on asylum claims or citizenship petitions followed by possible removal from the country.  Neiley noted that civil enforcement actions “make courthouses less safe frustrate the process of justice and could have a chilling effect on litigants court personnel and other members of the public who have the right and obligation to participate fairly in the judicial system.” Colorado judge orders two Venezuelan men detained in Aurora to stay in the US — at least for nowBen Sollars the elected district attorney for Garfield said he hasn’t personally seen any detentions inside the courthouse but worries overall about his community fearing the criminal justice system “I don’t want victims and witnesses and defendants to be fearful and not want to come to the courthouse I want to ensure that justice is served in any individual cases and we can’t do that without the participation of victims and witnesses of crimes,” he said A representative of the Colorado Judicial Branch said they were unaware of any similar orders issued in other districts in the state An ICE spokesman also said the agency had no comment on the judge’s order there have been reports of ICE’s presence in and around two additional courthouses Raul Velazquez-Mendez was detained outside the Lindsey-Flanigan Courthouse by ICE agents in recent months as he left court he attended a court hearing in Denver on that case late last month District Attorney Brian Mason said a Latino employee of his office reported to him that he was recently followed in the courthouse parking lot by officials wearing ICE uniforms He noted it wasn’t confirmed they were ICE agents and there were reports of imposters that’s just straight-up profiling,” Mason said Mason has been outspoken about ICE interfering with the Colorado criminal justice system He’s had at least one defendant charged with crimes be deported before he finished his criminal case “I'm deeply concerned about the federal government showing up outside the courthouse because of the chilling effect that that has on our ability to seek justice,” he said “If a victim of a crime is afraid to come to court because they think they're going to be arrested by ICE in the courthouse then we can't successfully prosecute our cases If witnesses to a crime are afraid to contact the police or come to court because they think that ICE is staked out in the parking lot ICE detention, deportation can deny justice in local criminal cases, frustrating prosecutorsFederal courts have split over whether ICE has the authority to conduct civil immigration detentions in and around courthouses in jurisdictions where they are barred by state or local laws ICE expanded the authority of their agents The policy was later codified in 2018 as ICE Directive Number 11072.1 The Attorney General of New York and the Kings County District Attorney in Brooklyn sued ICE in federal court in 2019 arguing that the policy “significantly chilled participation” in court hearings citing one case where an undocumented victim refused to testify in an armed robbery case for fear of an immigration arrest U.S. District Court Judge Jed Rakoff granted summary judgment against ICE in that case stopping the agency from conducting civil enforcement in and around New York state courthouses Rakoff cited English common law dating back centuries that barred civil arrests at courthouses to encourage attendance and ensure the proper functioning of the courts Judge Neiley also dipped into English common law in his order noting that Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England noted that “no arrest can be made in the king’s presence nor in any place where the king’s justices are actually sitting.” Blackstone drew no distinction between civil enforcement actions and criminal arrests “Nothing in this section precludes a criminal arrest or execution of a criminal arrest warrant issued by a judge or magistrate based on probable cause of a violation of criminal law,” Neiley wrote recent cases indicate that Neiley’s order could lead to future judicial review of Colorado’s law barring civil enforcement at courthouses That’s what happened in a 2019 Massachusetts case that never reached a resolution State prosecutors in Boston sued ICE over its courthouse civil enforcement policy A federal district judge initially issued an injunction blocking ICE from doing civil detentions That ruling was overturned on appeal and the case was remanded back to the lower court the Biden administration prohibited courthouse immigration enforcement in 2021 and the case was voluntarily dismissed by the plaintiffs Upon taking office again, the second Trump administration quickly issued interim guidance to ICE agents allowing them greater discretion in taking people into custody on administrative warrants at courthouses ICE officers or agents may conduct civil immigration enforcement actions in or near courthouses when they have credible information that leads them to believe the targeted alien(s) is or will be present at a specific location and where such action is not precluded by laws imposed by the jurisdiction in which the civil immigration enforcement action will take place,” reads the directive issued on Jan should be read to preclude actions in and around Colorado courthouses because Colorado’s state law specifically prohibits civil detentions there The ICE policy says to obey state laws around courthouse actions.  Colorado’s law says: “A person shall not be subject to civil arrest while the person is present at a courthouse or on its environs That legislation was sponsored by State Sen she applauded Judge Neiley for reminding ICE that the agency must comply with the law just like every other law enforcement agency but not surprised,” said Gonzales of ICE conducting operations in courthouses She added that she had heard of it happening in other judicial districts in Colorado too “I find it unconscionable that ICE would seek to undermine access to justice.” Colorado Postcards are snapshots of our colorful state in sound. They give brief insights into our people and places, our flora and fauna, and our past and present, from every corner of Colorado. Listen now. © 2025 Colorado Public Radio. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy Historically the most abundant and widely distributed subspecies of cutthroat trout the westslope cutthroat trout (Onchorhynchus clarkii lewisi WCT) occupies less than 5% of its former range in the upper Missouri River drainage It evolved from a common ancestor of the Yellowstone subspecies and shares their food and habitat requirements WCT were nearly eliminated from park streams because of the stocking of competing trout (nonnative brook and brown trout) and interbreeding with Yellowstone cutthroat trout and nonnative rainbow trout have restored WCT in dozens of stream miles and expanded its range to include several historically fishless lakes (High Native species restoration depends on secure brood sources and pose no risk to existing wild populations genetically pure WCT only persisted in one tributary in the Madison River drainage (now called Last Chance Creek) and in the Oxbow/Geode Creek complex where they were introduced in the 1920s Yellowstone began efforts to restore WCT in East Fork Specimen Creek and introduce them into High Lake by constructing a fish barrier surveys conducted throughout East Fork Specimen Creek indicated a naturally reproducing population of WCT Unfortunately research in 2019 revealed that hybridized fish have moved upstream of the constructed barrier threatening the restored portion of the creek The long-term goal for this watershed is to integrate East Fork Specimen Creek into a larger WCT restoration project that includes the North Fork to improve the resilience of this isolated population to natural threats the lower reaches of the East Fork Specimen Creek were chemically treated to remove all hybridized fish from this section of stream A range expansion project was conducted in Goose Lake and two other small historically fishless lakes in the Firehole drainage Nonnative fish removal was conducted in 2011 and staff stocked fry from 2013 to 2015 The long-term project goal is to one day use this pure WCT population as a brood source providing offspring for restoration projects elsewhere within the upper Missouri River system While WCT have been found in Goose Lake in low numbers stocking efforts in the other two lakes have proven unsuccessful Another range expansion project is the upper Gibbon River native fish restoration began on the upper portion of Gibbon River This project encompasses more than 21 stream miles and 232 lake acres (Wolf park biologists have introduced approximately 75,000 WCT and 170,000 Arctic grayling to Wolf Fish removal continued on the upper Gibbon River from 2018 through 2020 between Virginia Cascades and Wolf Lake Removal of nonnative fish in this section was completed in 2020 Future restoration projects for WCT and Arctic grayling are proposed for North Fork Specimen and Cougar creeks native fish will be restored to an additional 61 km of stream waters Implications of cutthroat trout declines for breeding opsreys and bald eagles at Yellowstone Lake Protection of native Yellowstone cutthroat trout in Yellowstone Lake Effects of a century of human influence on the cutthroat trout of Yellowstone Lake Status and management of interior stocks of cutthroat trout Lifehistory organization of Yellowstone cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii bouvieri) in Yellowstone Lake Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 51(S1):298–309 Conservation assessment for inland cutthroat trout Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station Cutthroats and parasites: Yellowstone Lake’s complex community of fish and companion organisms The economic value of a predator: Yellowstone trout Greater Yellowstone predators: Ecology and conservation in a changing landscape: Proceedings of the third biennial conference on the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem WY: Northern Rockies Conservation Cooperative and Yellowstone National Park Nonnative lake trout result in Yellowstone cutthroat trout decline and impacts to bears and anglers Conserving Yellowstone cutthroat trout for the future of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem: Yellowstone’s Aquatic Sciences Program Myxobolus cerebralis in native cutthroat trout of the Yellowstone Lake ecosystem Journal of Aquatic Animal Health 18(3):157–175 Range-wide status of Yellowstone cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii bouvieri): 2001 Native Fish Conservation Plan / Environmental Assessment Managing bears and developments on cutthroat spawning streams in Yellowstone National Park The Yellowstone Lake crisis: Confronting a lake trout invasion: a report to the director of the National Park Service Yellowstone cutthroat trout: Conserving a heritage population in Yellowstone Lake Yellowstone cutthroat trout are the most widespread native fish in the park Making a comeback due to park restoration efforts Lives in rivers and streams with deep pools cold water throughout Yellowstone except the Yellowstone River above Lower Falls and in Yellowstone Lake Suckers are bottom-dwelling fish that use ridges on their jaws to scrape flora and fauna from rocks Be a responsible angler and understand the regulations before you come Prevent damaging aquatic invasive species from reaching Yellowstone Learn how the Native Fish Conservation Program works to preserve Yellowstone Lake cutthroat trout and to restore fluvial trout populations Native fish underpin natural food webs and have great local economic significance Download the NPS app to navigate the parks on the go Apr 24, 2025 | Press Releases co-chair of the Senate Rural Health Caucus Representative Jeff Hurd held a roundtable discussion with rural health providers on the Western Slope to discuss challenges to providing high-quality care in Colorado’s rural communities “Rural health care providers across Colorado are struggling to support their communities as they face growing workforce shortages and increased financial strain,” said Bennet “We must protect and modernize the federal programs that help keep them afloat I’m glad to have the opportunity to join Representative Hurd and our rural health providers to discuss the best path forward.” “Your zip code shouldn’t determine the quality of your healthcare,” said Hurd “Rural communities face serious challenges and I am committed to making sure they are not overlooked Protecting and expanding rural healthcare in Colorado’s Third District is not just a priority “Western Colorado Healthcare is unique in our great state each rural hospital has different challenges,” said Dr “With a shared interest that zip codes should not determine health outcomes Senator Bennet and other western slope healthcare organizations to discuss the economic impact that Medicaid has on our communities.” “Community Health Centers are safety net providers with integrated primary The Medicaid unwind has already put an enormous economic strain on us – substantially increasing charity care and write-offs of bad debt,” said Kay Ramachandran “Potential Medicaid cuts on top of this are alarming and will create unprecedented strain with an increase in the number of un- and under-insured members of our community This will snowball into increased cost of care all around and everyone of us will feel that impact. We are blessed to live and work in a community where our elected officials want to hear firsthand from us. I was glad to have the opportunity to join other health care leaders from the Western Slope to meet with Senator Bennet and Congressman Hurd.” “I am grateful for the attention that Senator Bennet and Congressman Hurd have had on this critical issue and for the opportunity to share Mountain Family Health Center’s story and the stories of the 20,000 patients we serve,” said Dustin Moyer life-improving healthcare has been out of reach for many in our community and for those who are able to receive consistent healthcare this access is often precarious as health coverage is not guaranteed These challenges are exacerbated for many on Colorado’s Western Slope where the cost of living and healthcare is often higher When these dynamics are coupled with disinvestment in the segments of the health care system that consistently improve health outcomes and reduce total cost of care this puts at risk the lives and livelihoods of countless individuals I am optimistic that with Senator Bennet and Congressman Hurd’s collective leadership we can identify an opportunity to ensure access to high quality care for all within our community.” and voted on numerous amendments to the Budget Resolution that would have protected Medicaid Write to Michael Get Help with a Federal Agency Visiting DC ©2024 U.S. Senate. All Rights Reserved.  |  Privacy Policy Colorado’s Grand Junction Jackalopes have finally given in to YEARS of pleading from fans The minor league team will sport jerseys once a week to honor the fish that’s become a mascot of sorts for the mighty river that flows through town Their new shirts are white on the belly and green on the back The Humpback Chub gets its name from the big fleshy hump above its head Chubs were recently taken OFF the endangered list after years of conservation work Their baseball avatars will give half the proceeds from jersey sales to a scholarship program for kids working at a local fish hatchery.  Get top headlines and KUNC reporting directly to your mailbox each week when you subscribe to In The NOCO and how an ice castle and troll are helping towns in Teller County © 2025 Colorado Public Radio. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy. Bureau of Reclamation awarded up to $40 million on Friday to the Colorado River District which advocates on behalf of Western Slope water users to put towards purchasing two water rights from Xcel Energy The state’s largest utility uses that water to generate electricity at its aging Shoshone facility nestled in Glenwood Canyon on the Colorado River.  “Securing the Shoshone water rights has been a priority of West Slope water entities and local governments for over 80 years,” said Kathy Chandler-Henry the board president of the Colorado River District Water cascading through the plant continues downstream municipal supplies and a federal fish restoration project But dramatic equipment failures and rockfalls have shuttered the Shoshone plant for months limiting how much water flows westward.  Western Slope advocates fear that the economy and the environmental health of the river will suffer if the power plant shuts down for good or if the rights are auctioned off to someone else.  “This funding award is a huge step forward in what is a continuing effort and we are thankful for the leadership shown by the Bureau of Reclamation in bringing these critical funds to West Slope communities,” Chandler-Henry said The announcement means Reclamation officials will begin negotiating a funding agreement with the district It could still take years for the money to actually be transferred to the district to complete the deal.  In December 2023, the river district inked an agreement to buy from and then lease back the rights to Xcel Energy for $99 million to use for as long as the plant is operating But they also had to secure the funding to make the deal go through the river district and state regulators would add permanent environmental protection to the Shoshone water rights — known as an “instream flow right" — so that a certain amount of water flows into the Colorado River permanently The $40 million award comes from a funding pool in the Inflation Reduction Act — President Biden’s landmark climate law — meant to mitigate the effects of drought in the upper reaches of the Colorado River basin The river district has also secured at least $56 million in commitments from the state local governments and other water users to purchase the rights.  But one consequential change occurred since Friday’s announcement: President Trump’s inauguration which also funded climate-friendly projects The order is a first step in fulfilling a campaign promise to claw back climate funding from those laws.  On Tuesday, the federal government issued a memo that suggests the pause applies to policies or programs that discourage the use of fossil fuels in cars or for the nation’s energy needs But the order still injects enormous uncertainty for career staff responsible for distributing federal funds “The memo indicates there’s a lot of confusion in the administration about where spending should continue, and where it should stop,” said Martin Lockman, a fellow at the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law The Inflation Reduction Act mandates that agencies spend the money appropriated to them under the law But the president has significant discretion in directing how or when that money is spent we’re worried that the Trump administration has a lot of ability to stall spending even if they can’t redirect it or cancel it entirely,” Lockman said.  even though the Trump administration can delay or obstruct those contracts.  “People who have contracts in place have legal rights that are independently defensible,” Lockman said “The federal government is required to fulfill its contractual obligations under those agreements And there’s little that the Trump administration can do about that.”  Funding for projects that are still negotiating their contracts is much more vulnerable to being blocked or delayed “That doesn’t mean there are no defensible rights here,” Lockman said “Until the agreement is actually finalized there is a lot more flexibility for an administration to negotiate around it in different ways or even potentially block negotiations entirely.”  the Shoshone project has strong bipartisan support from state and congressional lawmakers and it may be politically infeasible to cancel funding that’s already been announced the river district said it had backup plans if their federal funding is cut The district did not comment on the executive order The Bureau of Reclamation did not return a request for comment about whether it is continuing to negotiate its funding agreement 15 other projects throughout Colorado were awarded funding for drought mitigation under the climate law.  “They’ll preserve historical Colorado River flows help manage drought impacts on Upper Basin ecosystems and improve water supply resiliency on the Upper Rio Grande,” said U.S Senator John Hickenlooper in a statement.  Pausing funding injects uncertainty into projects that have begun while it could violate agreements depending on their specific terms That might require recipients to eventually go to court “Just because President Trump has signed this executive order directing agencies to do something that doesn’t require agencies to violate their legal obligations under agreements,” Lockman said.  “But the law only exists when you enforce it The process of figuring out where those boundaries are might take quite a lot of struggle and quite a lot of litigation.”  You want to know what is really going on these days We can help you keep up.  The Lookout is a free daily email newsletter with news and happenings from all over Colorado Sign up here and we will see you in the morning News | Apr 17 With the summer tourism season on the horizon a bipartisan group of Western Slope state lawmakers is warning of “serious risk” to Colorado’s public lands if U.S Forest Service cuts aren’t reversed.  In an April 2 letter to United States Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins lawmakers called for thousands of recently-fired Forest Service staff to be rehired saying the cuts would “severely harm the invaluable services that these forests provide.” The letter was signed by Colorado House Speaker Julie McCluskie The Forest Service oversees more than 24 million acres of land in Colorado which lawmakers say is critical to managing water wildlife and ecosystem preservation.  “A reduction to the (Forest Service) workforce puts all of this at risk at a time when prioritization of our public lands is absolutely critical,” the letter states.  The letter states that mountain snowpack runoff — the majority of which flows from national forest lands on Colorado’s Western Slope — supplies three-quarters of the water supply for the state’s four major river systems.  “The surface water from these national forestlands supports drinking water needs and habitat for aquatic life throughout the West,” the letter states “The potential is great for national forest management to positively or negatively influence the reliability of these water supplies Wildfire management is also a key part of Forest Service staff’s work with the letter listing off several programs and partnerships that support aerial surveys restoration and management projects and field data collection.  Public lands also remain an economic powerhouse.  A report last year found that outdoor recreation generated $65.8 billion in economic output for the state and recreationists in Colorado spent over $52.1 billion on trips and equipment in 2023 outdoor recreation created $11.2 billion in local state and federal tax revenue and over 400,000 jobs representing 12.5% of the state’s labor force.  It comes as public lands face increased pressure from visitation which ballooned during the COVID-19 pandemic The White River National Forest recorded a nearly 50% increase in visitation between 2017 and 2022 going from 12.5 million visitors per year to 18.4 million which runs through broad swaths of the central and northern mountains several 14ers and popular destinations like Hanging Lake and the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness “The maintenance of the White River National Forest and Colorado’s public lands requires significant investment and dedication,” the letter states “We respectfully request the restoration of employment for all recently fired (Forest Service) workers and urge continued support for the (Forest Service) in Colorado and throughout the nation.” Readers around Glenwood Springs and Garfield County make the Post Independent’s work possible Your financial contribution supports our efforts to deliver quality Each donation will be used exclusively for the development and creation of increased news coverage Colorado will have one of the strictest gun laws in place in 2026 requiring people to attend classes before they could purchase most firearms with removable magazines View Results Four local Indivisible groups organized the gathering to voice concerns to Rep including concerns about the rising numbers of children in CD3 who will go hungry and the proposed Republican plan to cut Medicaid which covers roughly 154,000 people in the district Motivated attendees left the meeting chanting “Hurd and Elon Stop the Stealing!” Copyright 2025 KVNF - Mountain Grown Community Radio News | Apr 16 John Hickenlooper didn’t mince words Tuesday on the threat to public lands in the West during a tour of the Western Slope that included stops in Breckenridge “There are a lot of people out there that have never been to the West,” Hickenlooper said during a stop at the Eagle River Park They think government’s too big and they’re just going to cut The way to fight back on that is to bring them lessons from the West in graphic detail Hickenlooper’s tour across Western Slope communities comes as the Trump administration continues to issue orders regarding public lands.  His stop in Eagle was one of several Western Slope stops the senator made engaging in discussions about the Colorado River housing and the economy in neighboring counties and nonprofits joined Hickenlooper at the Eagle River Park in Eagle to discuss the public land impacts in Colorado.  The conversation in Eagle touched on local concerns of increased wildfire risks funding freezes and public land sales.  Hickenlooper said sharing stories would play a crucial role in fighting back against the chaos in Washington.  Individuals from Summit, Pitkin and Eagle counties shared how federal workforce cuts made under Trump’s workforce optimization order to eliminate agency “waste, bloat and insularity,” as well as federal grant funding freezes “I think it’s going to be a war to see who can get their funding and get their people back sooner,” Hickenlooper said.  Dan Gibbs, the director of Colorado’s Department of Natural Resources, shared Tuesday that the state department has 490 employees and 350 grants funded by federal dollars The grants generate $300 million for the department and fund mitigation projects with the State Forest Service Gibbs shared that the department has started to receive some of the updated terms and conditions for some of these programs but that they include troubling clauses that would require it to cooperate with ICE as well as prohibit the department from engaging in diversity and inclusion work while using the funding.  and this is just one example of potentially 350 different federal grants that may be coming down the pike that us as local governments and the Department of Natural Resources are going to have big-time decisions to make and whether or not you sign that or not,” Gibbs said “This is something that we’re grappling with.” According to information shared by Marcia Gilles the director of open space and natural resources for Eagle County and former deputy district ranger for the Holy Cross Ranger District the White River National Forest — the most visited national forest in the country — has 43 permanent employees who are not returning following deferred resignations and voluntary early retirements.  Gilles reported that these losses will gridlock progress and result in large project delays and reductions as well as impacts to maintenance and cleaning on trails and lands.  This reduction in capacity and resources is in direct competition to some of the other asks — including executive orders to increase energy and timber production on public lands — made by the Trump administration adding that this disconnect shows a concerning motive from the administration but it seems like they’re trying to set the government up to fail,” Hickelooper said “This is just making a situation where there’s underfunding and understaffing in a lot of parts of the federal government One of the impacts that the group honed in on was how these staff reductions and federal changes will impact wildfire prevention and response something Colorado leaders have been raising the alarm on since federal staff cuts started.  Frisco’s mayor and the Summit Fire & EMS deputy fire chief said that fire departments are “scrambling again with public dollars to come backfill the federal shortfall” around staffing.  “We feel like no one’s answering the door now and it’s a challenge,” Ihnken said.  In March, Hickenlooper joined other Western lawmakers in introducing two pieces of legislation: the Save Our Forests Act of 2025 and the Protect Our Parks Act of 2025 Both seek to rehire the recently terminated employees and restore staffing at both the U.S Forest Service and National Park Service.  Hickenlooper acknowledged that by the time these bills work their way through the legislation Colorado will already be making its way through the time of year when wildfire risk is the highest.  “We don’t have a lot of tools,” Hickenlooper said “The only top tool we really have is we can organize.” This was a point that Hickelooper returned to on several occasions on Tuesday.  And the only real leverage we have as a Congress is to have people rise up,” Hickenlooper said.  Community members expressed support for the SHRED Act, which, amid cuts, is one piece of legislation that would add resources for the Forest Service by allowing local forests to retain revenue from ski area fees that operate on their land. Hickenlooper and other Colorado legislators reintroduced the bill for the third time earlier this year The act is estimated to bring in up to $27 million for national forests in Colorado would come from the White River National Forest where Vail Mountain Snowmass and Sunlight Mountain Resort all operate.  Another piece of legislation that Hickenlooper and other lawmakers are bringing back is the CORE Act, which would add protections to 420,00 acres of public land in Colorado “The CORE Act is still stalled,” Hickenlooper said that’s just about doing some trading and doing a little bit of work but I think we can definitely get the 60 votes there executive director of the Wilderness Workshop argued that the type of proactive action the CORE Act brings is needed The Wilderness Workshop was a key leader in securing a mineral withdrawal from the Thompson Divide in the last presidential administration.  “Part of this work to make sure that we protect our public lands is just to keep our public land,” Roush said “What I’d encourage you to do even more (have) a good offense If we can have a conversation about protecting public lands then we’re not having a conversation about selling public lands.” The sale of public lands has been floated by Republican lawmakers as part of the budget reconciliation process.   Hickenlooper said any such large sales of public land would happen “over my dead body.”  “Some things just shouldn’t be for sale and selling our public lands which is one of the greatest assets we have as a country “Selling broad tracks of BLM land or National Forest I’ll do everything humanly possible to block that And I’ve talked to enough Republican senators That I can’t imagine that’s ever going to happen; famous last words.”  Colorado has seen five known cases of measles this year View Results News | Mar 19 In the face of growing water scarcity and climate change producers are turning to new practices to increase production The state legislature created a soil health program in 2021 to help producers overcome the barriers to adopting practices that could improve soil quality. The Colorado Department of Agriculture program built upon “pockets of soil health movements across the state,” according to John Miller the department’s soil health program manager.   At Cassie Cerise’s family cattle ranch in Carbondale’s Missouri Heights investing in new soil health practices took their fields from sparse to a cornucopia of plants.  meaning that water was hitting and running off the ground without absorbing into the soil We had a lot of bare dirt,” she said.  She and her husband had already started down the path toward regenerative agriculture investigating ways to improve soil health to increase the efficiency of their water resources when they heard about the state’s program through the Mount Sopris Conservation District She serves as a board member for the district.   The state Department of Agriculture partners with conservation districts and local organizations to find ranchers and producers who are already trying innovative practices or are open to doing so the department provides technical expertise and access to research to support them in trying at least one new soil health practice the department now has four regional coordinators working in the state’s four corners to aid producers in the changes to their operations.  The program uses the STAR — short for the nonprofit Saving Tomorrow’s Agriculture Resources — framework to help ranchers evaluate their soil and implement relevant conservation practices. In March, the Department of Agriculture released the STAR tool for all Colorado producers not just those enrolled in the soil health program.  There are five key principles of soil health: minimizing soil disturbance; soil armoring (or covering the soil surface); increasing plant diversity; maintaining continuous living roots; and integrating livestock.  “The healthiness of soil has a direct correlation to how water infiltrates into the soil and stays there,” Miller said “And when we look at cropping systems in different parts of our state it just seems to be getting drier.”  it’s becoming increasingly important for producers to find new ways to retain water and do more with less.   improving soil health can help with erosion challenges The state has seen the program help increase production and the nutrient density of crops it has been easy to draw correlations between the practices and a rancher’s bottom line.  “These are innovative practices being utilized and sometimes people could have a reduction in yield,” he said “But we’re not so much focused on yield We’re more focused on the fact that it’s costing people less to grow the food that they have.”  the agriculture and natural resources specialist for Colorado State University Extension in Routt County said that even though livestock is the Mountain West’s “cash crop,” that income derives from the soil.  “It’s about grass growth and how we’re harvesting that grass through ruminant animals in order to provide food for a growing population and also make a living from that,” Hagenbuch said “Good grass growth can only occur when we have healthy it’s how we make a living,” said Clayton Gerard a Gypsum producer and board member for the Eagle County Conservation District who has been involved in the state’s program since its inception Gerard works alongside his father and sister on a fourth-generation cow-calf operation in Eagle County they had already been experimenting with soil health and regenerative practices before the program “We’re always trying new things and we never use fertilizer,” he said (the cows) put the nutrients back into the ground.” In participating in the state’s soil health program Cerise and her husband were able to expand their soil health work throughout their entire ranch rather than focusing on “sweet spots” as they had.  The biggest practice they deployed is something called “no-till drilling, no-till seeding,” where crops are planted without disturbing the soil through traditional practices like tilling or plowing. They sought the help of their neighbor and friend, Felix Tornare who brought over his no-till drill and seed mix — which includes common vetch “That field that he farmed for us had not been touched since at least 1998,” Cerise said “It was hugely successful because now we’re growing stuff up here that we’ve never grown before Everything that’s popped up is beneficial and it’s helping to suppress the harmful stuff for us.”  the plants are capturing it and soaking it more efficiently The plant diversification in the field will also likely help guard against stressors like insects and high heat the ranch plays host to a herd of elk that typically migrate to the High Country in the summer she said many of the elk stayed through the summer “because we had set such a fantastic table for them that they didn’t want to leave.”  Gerard was able to use funds from the soil health program to purchase a no-till drill.  “It’s pretty well changed how we plant and rotate crops,” he said “There’s a lot of great things that come from it You’re no longer tilling that ground and letting carbon out of the ground and evaporate into the air It’s always covered; it’s never bare ground and so there’s less chance of weed invasion.” While he said the ranch was always trying new things to improve soil health participating in the program opened the operation up to trying even more and taking bigger risks and nobody’s got a whole lot of time but we’re not necessarily willing to take that leap and to try new things when it’s coming out of our own pocket,” he said “But when there’s some funding to do that it opens you up to taking that leap and trying it it makes you want to continue to do that.” While the program allowed the Gerards to use new practices at their home ranch they are also in year two of a project on land that they lease from Eagle County in Eagle’s Brush Creek Open Space “What we’re trying to do is we’re going to plant some new stuff at that place in Eagle and just try to outcompete the weeds and give it the nutrition that it needs to grow,” Gerard said.  The individuals who enroll in the program receive soil moisture monitoring systems and get annual soil moisture reports from the department It also provides an in-depth soil analysis at the start of the program and again at the end of the three years.  Gerard said that one of the benefits of the program is the consistent interaction throughout the three years His only wish is that it lasted longer.  It started with five research fields and will have 30 this spring Hagenbuch runs one of the fields in Routt County the research at this high mountain meadow in Steamboat Springs is geared toward resilient agriculture and soil health is to help producers figure out how to increase the productivity of their hay meadows and make positive changes to their soil health so that they can ultimately have better economic returns on their hay meadows,” Hagenbuch said.  producers in western Colorado are feeling the effects of a changing climate that includes more and extended periods of drought,” he said “We’re trying to figure out how to get these native grasses to perform better without tilling and creating a more expensive situation that not only releases carbon but also takes a lot of money to try to fix.” The research is uniquely poised to help provide answers for producers without placing the risk burden on them “I could never ask a producer to give up an acre or two that they need to get a profit off of to do this kind of work,” he said “This is a unique opportunity that we have to do it without negatively impacting somebody’s bottom line.”  the extension is also testing drought-tolerant crops that require less water at a different plot on the site.   The research component of the soil health program is only just hitting its stride and will continue to deepen the understanding of Colorado soil challenges The program has grown rapidly since its inception what was expected to be a pilot program with 20 producers ended up having 120 participants Department of Agriculture allowed the program to enroll 270 additional producers The program is on track to have 320 participants this year Nearly half (34) of the state’s conservation districts are working with the state to enroll producers in the program.  It covers a wide breadth of agriculture ranging from small acreage productions in Denver up to 20,000 acre ranches 53,000 acres across the state were part of the soil health program.  “There is a lot of excitement and interest from people about these practices and how they can make the changes on their operation like to fit them into how they work their land,” he said “These producers have to take that risk of trying something new … but we have really just seen a steady increase of people showing interest.”  Readers around Aspen and Snowmass Village make the Aspen Times’ work possible your support is critical to help us keep our community informed about the evolving coronavirus pandemic and the impact it is having locally Best closing day party in the Roaring Fork Valley View Results would have the highest health insurance costs for individual plans in the state Those 22 counties on the western edge of the state — defined by the line down the state from north to south from Jackson County through Grand Hinsdale and Archuleta counties (see graphic) — have the highest health care costs in Colorado according to the Colorado Division of Insurance “It’s important to understand that high health insurance premiums are indicative of high costs for health care what is paid to the doctors and hospitals,” said Vincent Plymell assistant commissioner for communications and outreach at the Colorado Division of Insurance Those counties would continue to have the highest insurance premiums statewide for individual plans if not for help from the Colorado’s Reinsurance Program The reinsurance program functions as an equalizing factor to dampen health insurance cost discrepancies across Colorado state officials estimated the reinsurance program will save Colorado residents $493 million in 2025 Every health insurance customer in Colorado who signs up for individual health insurance is helped by the reinsurance program through automatic premium reductions “Reinsurance works by paying a portion of high-cost claims allowing insurance companies to lower the premiums for individual-market health insurance plans,” Plymell said Plymell said the Colorado program is unique compared to other states’ policies because Colorado has a tiered approach that provides more money to areas with higher health care costs reinsurance covers 74% of costs in Routt and Moffat counties while insurance companies cover 26% patients can easily see the high gross costs of medical services in the Yampa Valley Experts point to various health care cost factors in more rural counties such as the lack of health care vendor competition and fewer opportunities for shared cost efficiencies That is coupled with the high cost of living and thus higher reimbursements requested by providers serving in more expensive mountain communities Other higher costs can include bringing in visiting specialty providers Plymell said the general health level of the population in a county plays a large role in health care costs One rural county may have a less health-conscious population with more risks yet a highly active and healthy population in another county may rack up more costly recreational injuries What might surprise Yampa Valley consumers is that reinsurance assistance led to a smaller increase in premiums in Routt and Moffat counties this year compared to statewide Average individual premiums increased 2.5% in Routt County this year Plymell outlined the insurance premium savings provided by the reinsurance program for the high-cost Western counties in 2025 Experts say health insurance companies can shy away from serving regions with higher health care costs so Western Slope consumers often have one-half or one-third of the insurance service choices compared to urban areas of Colorado according to Division of Insurance county-level information the reinsurance program does not apply to small business or group health insurance costs Division of Insurance information shows health insurance premiums for the small group market with less than 100 employees increased 7.1% statewide for 2025 and that average premium increase was higher at 9.6% in Moffat County and 10.2% in Routt Health Coverage Program Manager Kimberly Fox at the nonprofit Health Partnership Serving Northwest Colorado said some small business owners and their employees might both save if the company offers a stipend for their employees who then buy health insurance with lower premiums through the state’s health exchange marketplace Connect for Health That marketplace allows customers to apply for financial assistance to pay for private insurance Insurance experts encourage families to take the time to put a pencil to the pricing differences for insurance options if an employee is covered by an employer health insurance plan the employee’s spouse or dependents could utilize the Connect for Health Colorado option and potentially save the family money overall Steamboat Springs Chamber CEO Sarah Leonard said many small business owners would like to provide health insurance as a benefit for their full-time employees but are stymied by price “It’s hard to budget to provide health insurance our businesses really want to do that for our employees,” Leonard said She said the chamber is part of a current 2025 Employee Satisfaction and Priorities Survey where she believes employer-provided health insurance will rate as a high employee priority Routt County Public Health Medical Director Dr Brian Harrington believes the cost of health care insurance remains “a big problem.” “People pay large premiums and then have to tack on further costs because they have high-deductible plans,” Harrington said “Drug costs remain a large component in addition to lab costs Plymell said a significant challenge for health insurance consumers “is navigating all the options complexities and terminology” when their tendency is to “look at as little as possible.” If employees have access to their employer’s group insurance generally that is an easier default choice with less mental hassle Jackson and Rio Blanco counties in 2023 had employer-sponsored insurance according to the nonprofit Colorado Health Institute For consumers who believe they are saving money by not buying health insurance at all Plymell disagrees: “If you step off the curb wrong it doesn’t take much to have an emergency It can be so costly in the long run.” This story is the second in two-part coverage about the overall picture of health insurance issues across the Yampa Valley. The first part of the coverage appeared Feb. 4 and is available to read online at: Steamboatpilot.com/news/northwest-colorado-communities-see-shifts-in-medicaid-connect-for-health-enrollment/ To reach Suzie Romig, call 970-871-4205 or email sromig@SteamboatPilot.com Readers around Steamboat and Routt County make the Steamboat Pilot & Today’s work possible News | Nov 1 you’re not imagining it — your grocery bill is more expensive depending on which City Market you shop at If you live in a mountain town where grocery stores are few and far between Kroger’s pricing strategy argues you should be paying more Higher prices for Western Slope stores is one of the reasons why preserving competition has become a big focus for the three separate antitrust cases challenging Kroger and Albertsons’ merger plans The Colorado lawsuit over Kroger Company’s $24.6 billion acquisition of Albertsons wrapped up Oct Oregon and Washington are now deliberating the fate of what might be the largest supermarket merger in U.S Kroger and Albertsons argue the merger would help them compete with large companies like Walmart and Costco, though they later agreed to halt the merger until legal action against the deal was complete. The Colorado case went from Sept. 30 to Oct. 24 in Denver If the merger is approved by regulators, 579 grocery stores nationwide would be sold to grocery store supplier C&S Wholesale Grocers, including 10 on the Western Slope it is unclear when each court will announce a decision Weiser’s argument for preventing decreasing competition for Kroger in Colorado is “when there’s a lack of competition Kroger’s pricing strategy on the Western Slope seems to support Weiser’s point Eight Kroger stores in Colorado were identified as having little to no competition The Summit Daily visited City Market and King Soopers locations for the mountain towns mentioned above and competitive areas in Dillon and Denver to test the difference in Kroger’s pricing for resort mountain towns on the Western Slope Original prices were recorded for the same 19 common grocery items across all seven Kroger stores The items compared consist of a mix of brand products and While the prices for some brand items were consistent across locations Kroger-owned products were most expensive in Glenwood Springs Eagle and Aspen by an average of 6.8% per item The price increase from Vail to Eagle is 4.01% The average monthly grocery bill for a family of two in the U.S meaning a customer walking out of Vail’s City Market with a $470 bill would be paying almost $490 in Eagle for the same items Eagle is considered a low-competition area Although there is one Costco location in neighboring Gypsum the store’s membership requirement separates part of its customer base from Kroger has a Safeway in the same West Vail shopping center as the City Market which is why some fear Kroger’s acquisition of Albertsons would give the company the freedom to raise its prices a Safeway in Denver is 11% more expensive than a King Soopers in the same city When only comparing the eight Kroger-brand items on the list the bill would cost 7.5% more from the Aspen City Market than it would from the one in Vail meaning $470 worth of items for a family of two at Vail’s City Market would cost $505 in Aspen Aspen is considered to be an area with limited competition The closest alternative grocery store is Clark’s Market which is locally owned and lists higher prices than City Market Kroger’s brand of white bread alone costs 10% more in Glenwood Springs Vail and Dillon; followed by 8% for Simple Truth (Kroger-owned brand) one-gallon milk Though some brand products like Horizon milk Eggland white eggs and Perdue chicken breasts cost the same across all seven stores other brand products like Barilla pasta cost up to 10% more in stores with less competition A Kroger spokesperson said during the Colorado trial that the company’s higher prices in the Western Slope exist to offset the rise in fuel and labor costs which makes it more expensive for trucks to go through the mountains Vail’s cheaper prices contradict this claim since the mountain resort town is also located west of the Eisenhower Tunnel Considering that Vail and Dillon — both on the Western Slope — offer prices lower than Denver this suggests Kroger’s pricing strategy is driven by competition rather than fuel and labor costs the Colorado judge must agree with Weiser’s argument that the merger’s elimination of competition would harm consumers by giving Kroger a monopoly in parts of Colorado Kentucky Derby Parties The 151st Kentucky Derby is set for Saturday at 4:57 p.m and here are a few places you can go for watch parties: Lookout Bar at Westin Riverfront in Avon Celebrate the Kentucky.. Easter events in the Vail Valley Church services An Easter tradition that’s been going on for over 30 years is the Vail Mountain Easter Sunrise Service bright and early on Sunday morning Après Madness Championship Party at Avanti F&B The NCAA College Basketball Tournament may have crowned a champion on Monday but Friday is when you can congratulate this year’s winner of Vail’s own form of competition:.. Après at The Amp For its third year in a row Ford Amphitheater has proven that it’s not just a summer venue the Swedish pop band that took the world by storm in the 1970s and early 1980s with its hits “Waterloo,” “Take a Chance on Me” and “Dancing Queen,” will virtually.. Castle Peak Wilderness Study Area in Western Colorado The new plans for the Colorado River Valley and Grand Junction field offices will determine how two million acres of public lands in western Colorado are managed for decades to come The final plans increase conservation-focused management of Areas of Critical Environmental Concern and other sensitive wildlands they only make modest gains on reducing damaging climate emissions by closing lands with no and low potential leaving many sensitive environmental areas open to future oil and gas leasing.  “These new management plans are a significant improvement from the 2015 plans and provide important protections for special places like the Grand Hogback and Castle Peak the BLM missed a critical opportunity to meaningfully address the climate impacts of fossil fuel development on our public lands leaving nearly all of the high occurrence lands in the planning area open to leasing,” said Erin Riccio the Advocacy Director at Wilderness Workshop “The agency can and should do more to address the climate emergency.” The BLM also finalized a statewide amendment to all Colorado BLM management plans to improve protections for big game animals through modern management for oil and gas development That amendment will affect BLM lands in nearly every county in the state.  the BLM made important progress towards protecting critical natural resources cultural areas and wildlife corridors that benefit communities across the West Slope and Colorado This is a marked improvement over the previous plans but much work still remains,” said Jim Ramey Colorado State Director at The Wilderness Society “These decisions demonstrate that extractive industries continue to hold outsized influence on decisions that impact the public lands we hold dear the BLM should prioritize managing public lands to be part of the climate solution According to the 2024 Conservation in the West poll 82% of Coloradans “think more emphasis should be placed on conserving wildlife migration routes than on new development or oil and gas production in those areas.” During the comment period for the draft Colorado River Valley and Grand Junction plans the broader conservation community generated responses from nearly 6,000 community members Nearly eighty-five businesses and over 25 elected officials on the Western Slope signed letters in support of the proposed closures to new leasing and increased conservation management The BLM's supplemental environmental review for the Colorado River Valley and Grand Junction Field Offices is the result of litigation filed by Wilderness Workshop The Wilderness Society and partner organizations in Colorado The BLM’s statewide big game habitat plan amendment covers 8.3 million surface acres and 4.7 million acres of mineral estate extending to every Colorado BLM Field Office and to every corner of the state and is the result of litigation filed by the state of Colorado The final plan aligns BLM management of oil and gas with Colorado’s state rules The new plan amends all existing BLM land use plans in the state and provides guidance intended to protect wildlife habitat by defining limits on high-density development including facility and route density limitations and other lease stipulations that would incorporate conservation measures for important big game habitat Wilderness Workshop works across more than 4 million acres of public lands to ensure their ecological integrity. We have led efforts to designate more than half a million acres of Wilderness and hundreds of thousands of roadless areas in western Colorado. Learn more at www.WildernessWorkshop.org  The Wilderness Society has been working since 1935 on uniting people to protect America’s wild places. With more than one million members and supporters, The Wilderness Society has led the effort to permanently protect nearly 112 million acres of wilderness in 44 states and ensure public lands’ sound management. We have been at the forefront of nearly every major public lands victory.  For joining the movement to save our lands. We were unable to process your request. Please try again. United StatesChevron ColoradoChevron Rebecca StumpfSave this storySaveSave this storySaveAll products and listings featured on Condé Nast Traveler are independently selected by our editors we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links and cables that climbers can clip into and follow all the way up “Nose over toes,” my guide instructs—in other words Near the top we scuttle through an old mining tunnel and traverse a 230-foot-long cable bridge before stopping to take in the scenery below: the 922-person town of Ouray and the butterscotch-colored Uncompahgre River which opened in 1891 during the silver boom and recently underwent a major renovation This was exactly the kind of adventure I was seeking in Colorado's Western Slope My visit to this region was targeted: I'd focus on the higher-elevation 70-mile stretch that runs between Durango and Ouray one of the best (and still somewhat off-the-radar) outdoor-recreation corridors in America Diehards descend in the winter for ice climbing and backcountry skiing more casually outdoorsy types like me come for hiking and cable-assisted climbing—and for the solitude that's become harder to find in Colorado's more accessible mountain towns since the COVID-era outdoors boom The nearest big-name resort to this rugged part of the Western Slope is Telluride an hour or so away even in the best travel conditions exposed ceiling beams) and none of the Victorian overkill of many of the area's other historic hotels The lobby bar at the Rochester Hotel in Durango The place comes by its heritage feel honestly: It's one of the few 19th-century wood-frame hotels left in the West A $15 million overhaul has given it a Nordic spa and an upscale restaurant The juniper-roasted duck breast and a Calvados daiquiri with the perfect amount of rustic apple tang were just what I needed after hiking all afternoon along several of the well-maintained trails that encircle the town Colorado rack of lamb at the Ore House in Durango the owners of the Wyman Hotel in Silverton a 15-room property with minimalist bedrooms a modern color palette of pale pinks and rich blues and greens and a low-key lounge serving craft cocktails and natural wines Having trudged up and down my share of streams and hillsides by now, I treated my sore muscles to an afternoon at the Durango Hot Springs Resort + Spa where my outdoor circuit included a Japanese-style soaking tub and a plunge into 46-degree water the offerings have expanded to 32 mineral pools in a botanical-garden setting 13 of which are adult-only; a Zen garden area with additional pools will open in 2025 a cozy steakhouse below street level that has been around since 1971 I dined instead on lobster panna cotta and mushroom-dusted dulce de leche ice cream Looking into the dining area at the Western Hotel Recent rains had released the scent of mountain juniper and helpfully packed down the clay-rich dirt It was a beautifully winding ride that was over all too quickly—and the perfect finale to a week of high-altitude outdoor adventure that had been just the right amount of roughing it up-to-the-minute voice in all things travel Condé Nast Traveler is the global citizen’s bible and muse We understand that time is the greatest luxury which is why Condé Nast Traveler mines its network of experts and influencers so that you never waste a meal or a hotel stay wherever you are in the world independent bookstores across the Western Slope appeal to readers of all ages and interests helping them find the perfect book to better understand the world they’re in or to escape into a new one.  The Steamboat Pilot & Today spoke to six independent bookstores — Off the Beaten Path Books in Steamboat Springs and Mountain Shire Books in Winter Park — to hear more about the top books and trends of 2024 as well as those things that remain consistent year after year in the world of reading.   For each of the six Western Slope bookstores a different list of titles topped their bestsellers across fiction There was only one book that made it into the overall top five at every store: “The Women” by Kristin Hannah a historical fiction that follows a woman during and after her service in the United States Army Nurse Corps during the Vietnam War While the book was a national bestseller this year — debuting as the No. 1 fiction on the New York Times Best Sellers list in February and remaining on the list for 45 weeks — it also speaks to the consistent popularity of the genre just cannot be stopped,” said Jenna Meier-Bilbo book and sideline buyer at Off the Beaten Path Books in Steamboat Springs.  hypothesized that the genre’s consistent popularity is rooted in the opportunity it presents for readers.  “Authors are able to take liberties and draw readers in which allows readers to get lost in an entertaining story and learn more about a specific time in history,” Roskam said “Readers are a group of people who care about the world — where we came from and where we are going — and tend to want to learn more about the past.” Another historical fiction — and national bestseller — made several of the store’s top fiction lists: “James” by Percival Everett which re-images Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by sharing the story through the eyes of Jim an escaped slave and Huckleberry’s companion in his travels.  “Go as a River” by Crested Butte resident Shelley Read made it on a few of the lists as well with its local hook The historical fiction is set outside of Gunnison and Paonia and tells the story of the lost Western Slope communities and peach orchards during the creation of Blue Mesa Reservoir.  The top young adult reads varied significantly at each store Only two titles showed up on multiple lists: “The Summer I Turned Pretty” by Jenny Han and “A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder,” by Holly Jackson Many of the young adult reads are part of a series and fall into the romantic-fantasy genre or are thriller-mystery reads.  nearly every store’s bestseller list contained some nonfiction reads as well Only Next Page Books in Frisco had fiction books in all of its top five spots Of the nonfiction books topping their lists “A Walk in the Park,” by Kevin Fedarko was one of the most popular titles The book tracks the author’s 750-mile end-to-end traverse of the Grand Canyon.  The popularity of this title follows a consistent and unsurprising trend for mountain booksellers.  “Many of our customers remain interested in books about the natural world: its beauty its imperilment and its resilience,” said Clare Faye the book buyer at Explore Booksellers in Aspen “Our locals and visitors care deeply about their backyard and the bigger ‘backyard’ of the greater natural world They seek out books that will help them better understand this world and the challenges it faces.”  Explore sells titles relating to outdoor adventure Explore Booksellers was the only one out of the six stores that had two nonfiction titles at the top of its 2024 bestsellers After “A Walk in the Park,” which took the No was “Aspen Journey: Past to Present” by Susan Dalton a coffee table book that Faye said has sold well in every season.   “It is both a gorgeous and comprehensive history of Aspen that tells the town’s story from before it was settled up to today,” Faye said.  water and the environment — including on topics of both climate change and recreation — is a prominent topic of interest.  after “A Walk in the Park,” its top nonfiction reads were “Life After Deadpool,” by Zak Podmore about the dropping levels in Lake Powell and “Colorado River: Chasing Water” a photo book by Basalt-resident Pete McBride.  Rafting Western Waters with the Ladies,” by Zan Merill was the top nonfiction seller at Mountain Shire dealing with how roads are transforming Earth also made the Winter Park store’s top nonfiction list.  nearly all of the bookstore’s top sellers were released in either 2023 or 2024.  Off the Beaten Path in Steamboat and Next Page in Frisco had the most exceptions to this.  Three of the Steamboat store’s top five bestsellers were released before 2020: Its third-bestselling nonfiction title was also “Braiding Sweetgrass,” by Robin Wall Kimmerer Meier-Bilbo said the 2020 pandemic “reignited this interest in Indigenous practices in the natural world in a lot of ways and through a lot of disciplines.”  Wall Kimmerer’s book hits all of those notes “The Midnight Library” also took the fifth overall spot at Next Page which had two other 2022 books among its bestsellers in 2024 This included “Horse” by Geraldine Brooks and “Remarkably Bright Creatures” by Shelby Van Pelt Next Page had “The Body Keeps the Score” by Besser Van Der Kolk which was published in 2014 and among its top three this year “Half Baked Harvest Every Day,” by Silverthorne-based author Tieghan Gerard was on four of the six lists Although it hadn’t yet made Off the Beaten Path’s list Meier-Bilbo expected it to be there after holiday shopping concluded.  the top cookbooks varied from location to location Many of them leaned locally or gave nods to ski country including two of Mountain Shire’s top sellers: “Apres Ski” by Cider Mill Press and “Backcountry Cocktails” by Steven Grasse The Winter Park’s store leaned cozy with “Every Season is Soup Season” by Shelly Westerhausen Worcel and Wyatt Worcel rounding out its top three “Apres All Day” by Kelly Epstein was among the bestsellers for Explore Booksellers.   Off the Beaten Path’s top cookbooks leaned local Its top seller was “Damn Good Gluten Free” by Steamboat resident Peggy Curry followed by “Steamboat Entertains Again,” a fundraiser cookbook for the local winter sports club.  The Bookworm of Edwards also had a hyper-local cookbook — “From the Restaurants of Vail” from Park City Publishing — among its best sellers “Mocktail Club” by Derick Santiago took the No a few other trends have stood out to booksellers in recent years.  and are often responding to a larger conversation or situation we are actually living with and storytelling is a reflection of us as a society,” said Izzy Stringham the owner of White River Books in Carbondale.  Stringham noticed a significant shift toward “lighter fiction.” “I think the heaviness of the world around us is pushing people to want entertainment and escape,” Stringham said.  This has included rising sales in science fiction and fantasy for many of the stores as readers seek this “sense of escapism,” as Kai Burner the Bookworm’s assistant manager and kids’ book buyer “With frequent turmoil and unease in the world escaping into a science fiction or fantasy story is ideal,” Roskam said.  “While some people do enjoy reading current events and topics that are directly applicable to the time like reading books with a decent amount of separation from reality.”  The popularity of many of these fantasy and other titles has been driven by social media — specifically Meier-Bilbo now says she follows social media extremely closely to try and predict what the next book to “trend” will be but in other times it’s older releases that are being reintroduced to new generations Meier Bilbo has seen social media create a new seriousness around the romance genre romance books are being accepted with a new openness as they make it into the mainstream online “Social media also causes interest in an entire author’s work all at once — for example Sarah J Maas and Colleen Hoover — rather than single title interest,” said Christopher Green the general manager and adult book buyer at The Bookworm of Edwards.   With social media has also come a new enthusiasm about reading it’s not always about escape as many readers lean into more political topics.  Meier Bilbo said the Steamboat store has seen an increase in readers looking for books on political activism Stringham noted that “Meditations” by Marcus Aurelius and “Silent Spring” by Rachel Carson are consistent sellers for Explore.  “I think some books speak to people on the level of their humanity whether it’s through humor or shared experience and that places it outside of the trend cycle,” Stringham said.  Burner said she’s noticed “more books are addressing current struggles” in ways that are more accessible for kids has led to kids “actually engaging” with these books.  Green said the Bookworm has a resurgence in banned book interest for both contemporary and classic titles as groups across the U.S attempt to pull books from libraries.   PEN America recorded over 10,000 instances of book banning in the 2023-2024 school year. The American Library Association reported that book challenges increased 63% in 2023 over the previous year.  As these independent stores persevere, the diversity of books reflects readers’ openness and desire to sometimes escape.   “It’s encouraging to see our customers reach for time-worn classics, notable nonfiction and new literary breakouts,” Faye said. “Many of our top sellers indicate a readership that is interested in exploring various perspectives, political ideas and experiences.”  Overall, it’s been a good year for books and bookstores. Despite surging book bans, the popularity of e-commerce sites like Amazon and the constant competition for attention driven by technology, these independent bookstores have found their groove in recent years. “While challenges and changes are a constant, this is a great time to be in books,” Stringham said. “People love to roll their eyes and predict my shop’s demise, but nothing has actually killed books.”  On the contrary, reading is on the rise.  “(Books) are being printed at a higher rate than ever before. Hundreds of titles release every single week. More authors from all kinds of backgrounds are getting traction,” Stringham said. “People want to come in and touch and browse and chat about books, not just click online, alone in their houses.”  It’s a commonly-held misconception that reading is a dying form of entertainment, according to Green. “We continue to see strong readership across all ages and demographics, including a strong newer adult market of 20-somethings,” Green said.  To Burner, it’s an obvious sign “that in times of turmoil in the world, books continue to be people’s safe places for escapism or learning.” This extends from books into these independent bookstores, which serve as safe community spaces that give people a place to land and discover, Burner said.  “Indie bookstores are on the uptick, and we’re generally seeing more openings than closings these days,” Meier-Bilbo said.  The American Booksellers Association, which represents independent bookstores, has seen its membership expand significantly since the pandemic in 2020. Between 2022 and 2023, 291 bookstores opened in the country, according to the association. Of these, 230 were brick-and-mortar stores, 34 were pop-ups and nine were mobile stores.  “That’s an energy that has to be maintained in the long term if you want these places to be around for your community,” Meier-Bilbo said. “These places exist because you patronize them.”  Readers around Steamboat and Routt County make the Steamboat Pilot & Today’s work possible. Your financial contribution supports our efforts to deliver quality, locally relevant journalism. Now more than ever, your support is critical to help us keep our community informed about the evolving coronavirus pandemic and the impact it is having locally. Every contribution, however large or small, will make a difference. Each donation will be used exclusively for the development and creation of increased news coverage. Cattle on a ranch in Colorado in July 2023.Two cattle were killed and another injured by gunfire Sunday near the border of Delta and Montrose counties in a crime local law enforcement is calling “reckless” and “sad.” The Montrose County Sheriff’s Office believes the shooting took place between 4 and 10 a.m The area is near a public access road where local ranchers with state permits let their cattle graze “There's a lot of years of breeding and animal husbandry that goes into each of these animals and it's a shame when they're stolen or go missing or are recklessly killed like this,” said Todd Inglee The incident marks the second major cattle crime to happen in the region after ranchers reported in late November and early December that an estimated 187 cattle – most of which were young calves – had gone missing.  “We can’t say they’re connected and we can’t say they’re not,” Montrose County Sheriff Sergeant Chuck Searcy said The missing cattle are collectively valued between $300,000 and $400,000 taking a major toll on local producers.  And then when you have these ranchers who are feeding Colorado and they're taking these financial hits It's hard to keep producing good quality beef when you're losing this amount of money,” Searcy said.  Searcy says the two cattle killed over the weekend would have produced calves in the future marking a significant loss for the rancher’s business overall.  but the value is close to $10,000 and that’s just the cost of the cow right now,” Searcy said whoever shot the cattle will face felony charges including criminal mischief and animal abuse.  it's that people are just killing animals to kill animals And so we need to make sure that that stops,” Searcy said Inglee tells CPR News that livestock killings are sometimes perpetrated by someone the rancher knows or lives close to.  One such case took place earlier this year in Larimer County when 37-year-old Michael Hester shot and killed a group of cattle that had wandered onto his property west of Fort Collins “I get phone calls about fence law issues and people want to take it out on the animals Hester pleaded guilty to several class four felonies including three counts of aggravated cruelty to animals and three counts of animal theft in that case “He was just in a fit of anger and rage that they were on his property and he shot them There's not really any real good explanation behind what makes people do that,” Inglee said.  It’s still too early in the investigation to know whether the Montrose case is similar to Hester’s but Searcy said the community is feeling anxious.  Keeping an extra ear and eye open,” he said it makes you second guess and wonder about your neighbors about people who are running the cattle next to you And so it puts a hiccup in everybody's operation and it's a shame.” The recent crimes won’t impact the upcoming National Western Stock Show but Inglee says the attention does put a spotlight on the ranching industry and provides a chance for education.  “It’s a great opportunity to learn and to see one: why the livestock industry is still important to our state and two: why livestock laws are critical to those producers who own and raise those animals,” Inglee said.  Several agencies are involved in both investigations including local law enforcement If you know something about either the missing cattle or the ones that were shot you’re asked to call the Montrose County Sheriff’s Office You can also anonymously report any information about potential suspects to Crime Stoppers at 970-249-8500 2024A $99 million plan to buy and permanently preserve some of the oldest water rights in Colorado is inching closer to securing all of its funding But President-elect Donald Trump’s promise to gut climate spending could throw a wrench in the deal The Colorado River District, which advocates on behalf of Western Slope water users, submitted a funding application today to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation under a program for drought mitigation The district is seeking $40 million from the federal agency to help purchase water rights from Xcel Energy Xcel Energy owns and operates the aging Shoshone Hydroelectric Generating Plant, nestled on the Colorado River near Glenwood Canyon. The river water that cascades through the plant generates electricity and then continues downstream, where it’s been used for decades for agriculture, drinking water, recreation and a federal fish habitat restoration project Without a permanent guarantee to keep that water flowing Western Slope advocates fear that the economy and environmental health of the river will suffer when the power plant shuts down for good or if the rights are auctioned off to someone else that is why we’re looking for permanent protections for these water rights,” said Amy Moyer Director of Strategic Partnerships for the river district.  the river district and Xcel Energy signed a purchase and sale agreement which allows the district to purchase the water rights for $99 million and then lease them back to the utility so it can continue to generate hydropower at the Shoshone plant.  In the process, the river district and state regulators would add permanent environmental protections to the Shoshone water rights — known as an “instream flow right" — so that a certain amount of water flows into the Colorado River permanently.  the river district and the state of Colorado have committed $56 million to purchase the water rights much of Colorado’s congressional delegation and a bipartisan group of state lawmakers support the plan the river district is banking on money from the Inflation Reduction Act Bureau of Reclamation records show the agency has $450 million remaining under the law to dole out to state local and tribal governments in the upper Colorado River Basin for projects that offset the effects of drought and climate change That stream of federal funding for the Shoshone water deal has not yet been committed and could be in jeopardy a law fellow at the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law President-elect Trump said he would rescind any remaining funds from the inflation law when he returns to office a conservative policy blueprint influential among the president-elect’s advisors has called for repealing elements of the law The river district’s application comes at a time of great uncertainty for the future management of the Colorado River. This week, the federal government released five potential alternatives for how the river would be managed after 2026, which may cut how much water Colorado can use. The entire West is in a record mega-drought The Bureau of Reclamation is not expected to award its grants until spring 2025 Colorado state lawmakers and the district are hopeful their project will receive funding.  “Even if the Trump administration looks at this they’ll see this is a nonpartisan issue,” said State Sen “Securing the Colorado River and its flows is good for the country whether you supported Donald Trump or not.” Water rights in the West are governed by a system known as “prior appropriation” that gives older water rights first priority for water during times of drought or scarcity.  enable over 332 billion gallons to flow through the Shoshone plant every year if it’s continuously operating at full capacity.  Those rights are some of the oldest of their type on the main stem of the Colorado River they are also older than the rights that supply most of the water to the Front Range That means when the plant “calls” for water it trumps many other rights-holders in the state Securing the Shoshone water rights has been a decades-long dream of Western Slope water planners to guarantee the economic and ecological benefits the water provides The water rights will be used to shore up river flows during drought years and provide water for Western slope communities “It’s something that the West Slope has sought for a long time the former general manager of the river district.  Making that dream materialize involved intricate negotiations with Front Range water providers who have also been eyeing the Shoshone rights and are now competing for the same water in an increasingly drought-prone Colorado Denver Water dropped an equal right to buy the Shoshone plant from Xcel Energy Western Slope and Front Range water providers agreed to the Shoshone Outage Protocol which detailed how much water could flow into the Colorado River even when the plant was offline But that agreement expires after 40 years and can be terminated at any time “We wanted a shorter term agreement that would preserve the call to the extent we could,” Kuhn said is the only entity that can hold an instream flow right to safeguard the health of rivers and their ecosystems the river district would seek sign-off from the state to develop an instream flow agreement a set amount of water would still flow into the Colorado River.  Colorado has facilitated dozens of similar water agreements but none this large according to Rob Viehl the head of stream and lake protection for the state.  then the river district would have to plead its case in what’s known as “water court” to determine just how much water can flow into the river The court bases that number on how much water has been historically used by an entity.  The historical use number has been subject to a sharp-elbowed debate by Northern Water a Front Range water utility that supplies eight counties and cities like Fort Collins consultants for the river district evaluated data from when the plant was fully operational from 1975-2003 which estimated the average annual water drawn from the Shoshone rights at about 845,000 acre-feet Northern Water said its own analysis — which included data through 2023 — found that when the plant is offline only a fraction of the water rights flow downstream.  Northern Water declined to comment on the district’s application.  Roughly 40 percent of the Shoshone purchase is relying on federal funds from the Inflation Reduction Act which contains $4 billion for water conservation and drought mitigation in areas including the Colorado River Basin.  Only an act of Congress can withhold money that’s already been appropriated to be spent under the climate law, according to Martin Lockman, of the Sabin Center. But President-elect Trump has maintained he has the constitutional ability to withhold the law’s funds House of Representatives impeached Trump in part for withholding military aid to Ukraine.  The Trump administration could delay spending money that has not been formally committed to states Much of the money under the law has to be spent by 2031.  “If that money has not been fully committed if applications haven’t been fully reviewed the incoming Trump administration would have a lot of ability to slow down that process and generally kick up its heels,” Lockman said “Programs that have not yet been distilled to a binding legal agreement are fairly vulnerable in this change of administration.” The Trump administration could also “reprogram” up to 10 percent of remaining funding in any of the law’s programs The river district said it has backup plans in place if the funding is cut, but would not say what they were. State Sen. Roberts said he thinks the state would be open to providing more cash from a recently passed ballot initiative which uses sports gambling money to fund water projects.  Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert and U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper, who have supported the water deal did not respond to CPR News’ request for comment about whether federal funding could be clawed back by the incoming Trump administration Bureau of Reclamation officials also declined to comment on whether it would award funding under the drought program before the next administration only that it would begin reviewing applications immediately “I think the folks at the Department of Interior are going to be burning the midnight oil,” Lockman said Using data collected through GPS collars and cameras Colorado Parks and Wildlife has “confirmed a robust mountain lion population” present on the Western Slope including in some areas where the figures “exceeded modeled estimates.” A CPW news release announced results from the first two areas of the agency’s 10-year Western Slope Mountain Lion Density Study that began in 2020 The first study area focused on Middle Park between Kremmling and Granby The second study area was located in Gunnison Basin CPW Carnivore and Furbearer Program Manager said the agency was “satisfied to see that our measured estimates of lion density from our winter field seasons are equal to the lion density projections we use when making harvest management decisions.” district wildlife managers and researchers worked to capture collar and then monitor mountain lions while also deploying cameras to track the animals’ movements there are 3,800-4,000 mountain lions in Colorado today The agency said 48 lions were collared in the Middle Park area and just over 50 were collared in Gunnison Basin After two years of collection in each of the study areas an analysis of the data was completed by a CPW staff biometrician a statistician who uses mathematics to analyze biological data Results of the camera-based mark-resight estimates in Middle Park averaged 2.5 independent lions per 60 square miles during the winters of 2021-22 and 2022-23.In the Gunnison Basin CPW observed an average density of 4.2 independent lions per 60 square miles in the winters of 2022-23 and 2023-24 including adult age and sub-adult age animals which typically disperse from their mother at average age of 14-15 months The mountain lion density figures were estimated using “camera-based mark-resight estimates.” In the “mark phase” of the study ear tags and GPS collars were placed on mountain lions who could then be spotted in a “resight phase.” Mountain lions that were not marked and collared were also spotted by CPW staff using the cameras allowing researchers to estimate the total population size in the study area using mathematical modeling “This combination of GPS collars and ear tags on lions paired with trail cameras across large representative study areas is showing us that parts of Colorado appear to have high lion numbers compared to studies of lions in other states,” noted Viera CPW initiated an additional study area in the Book Cliffs north of Grand Junction last winter and plans to begin work in a fourth study area east of Durango this winter Hundreds of thousands of investment dollars from venture capitalists was on the line they tend to think of the tech scene on the Front Range But there’s more to the state’s startup culture the nonprofit that organized the pitch competition “The biggest goal for the pitch competition in terms of investors is really raising the awareness of the businesses that are launching in rural Colorado and try to break down that stereotype that it's only on the Front Range it's only in urban areas that you're going to find a business to invest in,” Hedderman said.  Startup Colorado aims to build out the network of investors mentors and founders in the state’s 53 rural counties which account for a vast majority of Colorado’s land mass Even though rural counties dwarf urban areas when it comes to square miles places like Denver and Boulder suck up most of the venture capital money.  The event in Durango was the first in a series of pitch competitions Startup Colorado is supporting across the state aimed at rural founders The nonprofit casts a wide net to reach all kinds of businesses at different stages of development It’s everybody that’s starting a business,” Hedderman said as well as tech and outdoor recreation.”   More than 70 businesses applied to take part in the pitch competition in Durango.That was whittled down to the six finalists that took the stage Those businesses are a cross section of the kinds of companies in Colorado’s rural communities There’s a software company for dentists out of Buena Vista an online party planning service from Basalt and a children's outdoor clothing designer in Steamboat The companies’ leaders took the stage to share how their businesses came to be – and to convince investors they’re a good bet going forward Georgia Grace of Gunnison is the CEO of Gnara a company that produces pants with a zipper made for women in the outdoors we are on a mission to help everyone answer nature's call quite literally,” Grace explained to the judges Gnara has an interesting origin story from Grace’s time as a glacier guide in Alaska “I was spending eight to 12 hours a day up on the ice “And in comparison to the men who could turn around unzip wherever I found myself having to trek across the glacier carefully avoiding crevasses completely remove three to four layers in freezing temperatures.” He ran a concert production company for 15 years Revenues dried up when the COVID-19 pandemic hit which installs surveillance cameras for people in remote areas “A lot of people were asking for surveillance cameras you can put that in yourself,” Blecha said during his presentation “It was farmers and ranchers saying ‘We need to keep an eye on our cattle in the middle of a pasture the Greater Colorado Venture Fund split $240,000 between two companies awarded $140,000 to an intellectual property company based in Telluride Pitching venture capital investors isn’t the only skillset Startup Colorado teaches Some small businesses get too caught up in the idea that they need to get a big slug of outside cash to be successful “I think a lot of that comes from just the storytelling around startups,” she said so-and-so received a multimillion dollar seed round and so people just have it in their minds and it's like I could just become a huge success overnight.’ ’’ The truth is that taking on investors isn’t right for every business owner Entrepreneurs cede a lot of control to outsiders when investors come on board which can be a difficult adjustment.   venture capitalists are looking for exponential growth to get a return on their investments But that’s not always the best way to run a business it makes more sense to focus on what a business is already doing well rather than trying to get bigger at any cost.  “They don't fully understand all of the different funding mechanisms that are available to them and really how they work,” Hedderman said “Something that we're trying to do through Startup Colorado with a lot of the content that we produce is really just demystifying what's available.” Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct the name of the CEO of Gnara Statewide political groups have spent more than $3.2 million on Western Slope legislative elections so far this year as the organizations attempt to persuade voters in the region.  While roughly two-thirds of those dollars have gone to the closely-watched election for Senate District 5, located south of Interstate 70, significant spending has also happened in Senate District 6, covering the San Luis Valley and Four Corners region, and House District 26 spanning the northwest portion of the state.  The spending is a strong indicator that statewide groups believe they can have a meaningful impact on the races’ outcomes Political mailers and advertisements in Colorado that cost more than $1,000 are required to disclose who paid for them.  More than $300,000 has been spent by independent expenditure committees on the House District 26 election Moffat and Rio Blanco counties and most of Eagle County The race is between incumbent Meghan Lukens which aims to elect Democrats to the Colorado House has spent about $170,000 to support Lukens and oppose Butler The vast majority of that funding went to mailers The group’s largest donations this cycle have come from Sixteen Thirty Fund and Rocky Mountain Planned Parenthood.  including Coloradans for Housing Affordability and Voces Unidas have spent a combined $137,000 to support Lukens.  Lukens won the seat by a margin of 7 percentage points in 2022.  As of Monday, nearly $2 million had flooded into the election for Senate District 5, a toss-up race that could determine whether Democrats will gain supermajorities in both legislative chambers dual supermajorities would allow the party to override vetoes from the governor and make strides toward fundamentally changing the Colorado Constitution Republicans are currently only one seat away from being a super minority in the state Senate With staggered elections and most districts lacking much competition the party has limited opportunities to regain power.  which spans from Glenwood Springs through the Roaring Fork Valley down to Hinsdale County will be represented by either Republican state Rep Marc Catlin or Democrat Cole Buerger.  In support of Catlin, the Senate Majority Fund has spent $1.2 million in the race, according to the Secretary of State’s office. The group, which supports Republican candidates running for state Senate in Colorado, received its largest donation this election cycle from GOPAC Election Fund a federal political organization based in Virginia that aims to get Republicans elected to state legislatures All Together Colorado, the Senate Democrats campaign arm, has spent about $650,000 in support of Buerger. That group’s largest contributions this cycle have come from Rocky Mountain Planned Parenthood and Sixteen Thirty Fund a political nonprofit based in Washington that supports liberal candidates.  About $620,000 in spending from statewide groups often called “independent expenditure committees,” has gone to the Senate District 6 election another closely-watched race that will determine how much control Democrats have in the chamber.  Senate District 6 covers the San Luis Valley and stretches into Montrose County The election is between incumbent Cleave Simpson The Senate Majority Fund has spent $570,000 to support Simpson and oppose Smotherman Other groups supporting Simpson include the Colorado Advocates for Rural Electrification the Coloradans for Housing Affordability and the National Rifle Association which have spent a combined $48,000.  About $212,000 has been spent by political groups in the House District 59 race between Democrat Katie Stewart and Republican Clark Craig Roughly $140,000 has been spent in the House District 13 race to support House Speaker Julie McCluskie against her opponent Ballots have been sent out and Election Day is Nov Readers around Craig and Moffat County make the Craig Press’ work possible Sign up for daily and breaking news headlines Manage Subscriptions View Results News | Feb 27 Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct that Mind Spring’s arbitration case with Rocky Mountain Health Plans was related to claims overpayments not employee allegations and prescription concerns as previously stated West Springs Hospital in Grand Junction will permanently close on March 10 leaving a significant gap in Western Slope behavioral health resources The facility is currently the only inpatient psychiatric hospital between Denver and Salt Lake City Leadership from Mind Springs Health announced the closure on Feb citing West Springs’ financial challenges uncertainty around the future of Medicaid and health care and underutilization of its resources.  West Springs has 48 inpatient beds and a psychiatric emergency department for individuals experiencing a mental health crisis Outpatient services — including outpatient psychiatry services and more — offered at the Grand Junction campus will not be impacted by the closure according to the hospital’s statement.  However, Mind Springs Health announced that its new withdrawal management facility in Glenwood Springs will also permanently close in mid-March.  the hospital held a conditional permit from the state.  About a year ago, the hospital’s challenges peaked as the then-CEO announced it had only 30 days of cash flow and was struggling against reputational concerns Concerns around its closure were suppressed a month later when Mind Springs announced it entered into an agreement with Rocky Mountain Health Plans which administers Medicaid in western Colorado The agreement extended a contract with Rocky Mountain Health Plans for the fiscal year and settled an arbitration case with the company over what Mind Springs owed in claims overpayments The closure of West Springs comes as Vail Health Behavioral Health is a few months away from opening a 28-bed inpatient facility in Eagle County.  The Precourt Healing Center will offer inpatient services for crisis stabilization including seven to nine hours per day of treatment While Vail Health declined to comment on the West Springs closure a spokesperson said the health care system was “excited and focused on opening the Precourt Healing Center in May.”  the chief operating officer for Eagle County Paramedic Services said that having more local beds “will undoubtedly provide some additional relief for this finite resource.” “The entire inpatient mental health system in Colorado typically operates at nearly full capacity,” Vardaman said “Transporting patients shorter distances to an appropriate facility is always more convenient to patients and more efficient for our EMS system.” The hospital’s closure throws uncertainty and concern over many communities on the Western Slope that relied on the psychiatric facility for patients in crisis.   “I think it’s going to be pretty detrimental,” said Dustin Moyer a federally qualified health center serving Eagle “We don’t have a ton of behavioral health resources as it is especially those that are specific as the psychiatric hospital and the community withdrawal management clinic in Glenwood is going to be a huge loss to our community and to our patients.”  Moyer said that Mind Springs is an important referral partner for Mountain Family which offers integrated behavioral health services as part of its service model but relies on the provider for outpatient therapy and psychiatric hospital services “We’re going to have to reassess what those options look like for our patients when those needs arise,” Moyer said.  Members of the UCHealth Yampa Valley Medical Center shared similar concerns about the impact the closure will have on Routt County and the Western Slope “The closure of any hospital providing inpatient psychiatric care contributes to far-reaching impacts on patients our health care systems,” said Anita Becker the chief nursing officer at the UCHealth Yampa Valley Medical Center “Closures often lead to reduced access to care for patients struggling for acute stabilization which may lead to delayed treatments and worsening symptoms.” and the need for acute crisis stabilization These encounters treat the immediate patient need but fall short of connecting patients with long-term support and care,” she added.  the chief community relations Officer for Valley View Hospital in Glenwood Springs said Valley View’s other referring relationships “will grow in importance.”  “For patients needing inpatient psychiatric care it is likely that they will have to travel further for care as there will no longer be an option for care in Grand Junction,” Gavrell said.  This raises concerns for patients who have to travel far from home for care.  “The best care is often closest to home,” Moyer said “And so when you’re required to go to Denver or Salt Lake for those services Most folks aren’t going to be able to access them it’s just another verdict for patients that are in pretty serious need of those services immediately.” patients were already traveling long distances to receive care.  Vardaman said that over the past three years Eagle County Paramedic Services transported more patients to mental health facilities in Denver and on the Front Range than to West Springs Hospital.  “Patient destination is typically determined by the patient’s doctor and is based almost completely on bed availability,” he said “We transported 28 patients total to West Springs since Jan 2022 versus 297 to Denver the Front Range over the same time period.” the public information officer for Summit Fire & EMS reported that the agency has rarely transported people to West Springs in the past few years While Lipsher said the hospital’s closure in Grand Junction will undoubtedly affect bed availability at other facilities in the state he added that the EMS agency’s “out-of-county transports to mental-health facilities are infrequent” and based on providers’ decisions.  What do you think of the nationwide Hands Off View Results News | Jan 10 Colorado House Democrats on Friday chose Glenwood Springs Rep elevating another Western Slope lawmaker to a key leadership position.  The two other House members who ran for the position were Jefferson County Rep Velasco secured a majority of votes from members.  Carbondale and a slice of unincorporated Eagle County she will be charged with lining up votes from House members and keeping party unity on key legislative efforts.  “We want to make sure that the calendar is moving that people are there to vote … to make sure that our priorities are advancing and that we are protecting against hostile amendments,” Velasco said.  Velasco said with the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump it will be crucial for House Democrats to remain unified to protect liberal priorities in Colorado Democrats hold a 43-22 majority in the House “We are ready to protect our communities and defend all the things that we care about like the environment the LGBTQ community and migrant community,” Velasco said.  Velasco is the latest Western Slope legislator to secure a top leadership role.  Dillon Democrat Julie McCluskie in 2022 became the first woman from the Western Slope to serve as Colorado House Speaker whose district includes counties in central and northern mountain regions News | Mar 3 1 winds through 18 miles of rural agricultural farmland and residential backyards.  the Orchard Mesa Irrigation District was promised $10.5 million from the U.S Bureau of Reclamation to pipe the open canal — which has crumbling chunks of concrete and rebar poking out along its sides — and install more-efficient valves instead of headgates In addition to delivering water more easily to the 6,700 users in the district a goal of the project is to improve the irrigation system’s efficiency so more water could be left for endangered fish in a critical 15-mile stretch of the Colorado River.  But the future of the project is uncertain because about $151 million in funding for projects aimed at conservation and drought resilience on the Western Slope has been frozen by the Trump administration “We are on hold ourselves because we don’t have the revenue to move forward,” said Jackie Fisher manager of the Orchard Mesa Irrigation District.  during the final days of the Biden administration Bureau of Reclamation announced it had awarded $388 million in funding through the Inflation Reduction Act for projects throughout the Colorado River’s Upper Basin (Colorado The money was allocated through what the bureau called “Bucket 2 Environmental Drought Mitigation,” or B2E which is earmarked for projects that provide environmental benefits and address issues caused by drought But just three days later, the Trump administration issued an executive order, “Unleashing American Energy,” which said “all agencies shall immediately pause the disbursement of funds appropriated through the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.” Water managers say they are waiting on information from the bureau and have not heard anything about the status of funding since the Jan Most are operating under the assumption funding is still paused and The Trump administration has yet to appoint a new Bureau of Reclamation commissioner.  we have not heard a thing,” said Steve Wolff general manager of the Durango-based Southwestern Water Conservation District which was awarded $26 million for drought mitigation “We’re very happy we were successful but now we are in a no-man’s land.” Officials from the bureau did not respond to questions from Aspen Journalism about the status of the funding Seventeen of the 42 Upper Basin projects are in western Colorado and include things such as almost $3 million for dam removal and wetlands restoration at Fruita Reservoir; $1.9 million for studying the effectiveness of beaver dam analogs in the headwaters of the Roaring Fork River; and $4.6 million for drought resiliency on conserved lands The funding pause also affects six tribal water projects in the Upper Basin including $16 million for the Southern Ute Indian Tribe for drought mitigation on the Pine River a senior manager with Audubon Rockies’ Western Rivers Program said everyone awarded the funding is in limbo now Burk is involved with two of the projects awarded B2E money in the Grand Valley: the Fruita Reservoir dam removal and restoration as well as a project in Palisade that would convert wastewater lagoons into wetlands “We’ve got some great projects that are just hanging in the air waiting for a decision,” he said “We in the environmental community are trying to support our project partners; we are just at a momentary loss There’s just quite a bit of uncertainty.” The uncertainty surrounding B2E funding comes at a crucial time for the Colorado River basin which has been plagued by drought and dwindling streamflows due to climate change for more than the past two decades Representatives from the seven Colorado River basin states (California which comprise the Lower Basin) are in the midst of tense negotiations about how the nation’s two largest reservoirs — Lake Powell and Lake Mead — will be operated and how water-supply shortages will be shared in the future.  Some water managers said that without this once-in-a-lifetime federal funding they were promised, many of these projects probably won’t happen. Southwestern Water Conservation District was awarded the grant, but the district plans to distribute the money to smaller local entities for a variety of projects including invasive plant control through the Mancos Conservation District; to the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe for erosion control and restoration; and to Mountain Studies Institute for restoration of fens we absolutely need this funding,” Wolff said “I certainly hope it does shake loose.” The $10.5 million awarded to the Orchard Mesa Irrigation District would cover the entire cost of the canal piping project “We already run on a shoestring budget so a $10.5 million project is nearly impossible,” she added “We’re pinching pennies all the way around.” The Glenwood Springs-based Colorado River Water Conservation District is the recipient of the biggest B2E award in Colorado: $40 million toward the purchase of the Shoshone water rights The River District is in the midst of a campaign to buy the water rights associated with Xcel Energy’s hydropower plant in Glenwood Canyon for $99 million These water rights are some of the oldest nonconsumptive rights on the Western Slope and help keep water flowing to downstream ecosystems agricultural and recreational water users.  the River District’s general manager “While the timing of federal funding to secure the Shoshone water rights remains uncertain the River District is encouraged by key appointments within the Department of the Interior,” Mueller said “We are prepared to work closely with the next Bureau of Reclamation commissioner to advance this critical effort and other essential water projects that protect agriculture and the communities that rely on it — both in Colorado and across the basin.” This story is provided by Aspen Journalism, a nonprofit, investigative news organization covering water, environment, social justice, and more. Visit aspenjournalism.org News | Dec 12 Officials are investigating the disappearance of 180 cattle after several ranchers along the Western Slope reporting them missing were last seen grazing on national forest land along Uncompahgre Plateau Chuck Searcy with the Montrose County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday “When they bring them down off the mountain for winter that’s when they start counting them and going through,” Searcy said Whether cattle thieves are to blame is unknown. The sheriff’s office is in the beginning stages of its investigation and working to determine if a person or group of people is responsible for the heifers’ disappearance. The Uncompahgre Plateau sits at an average of 9,500 feet in elevation and covers 1.5 million acres, or more than 2,300 square miles.   The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported news organization dedicated to covering the people, places and policies that matter in Colorado. Read more, sign up for free newsletters and subscribe at coloradosun.com. Kentucky Derby Parties The 151st Kentucky Derby is set for Saturday at 4:57 p.m. and here are a few places you can go for watch parties: Lookout Bar at Westin Riverfront in Avon Celebrate the Kentucky... Easter events in the Vail Valley Church services An Easter tradition that’s been going on for over 30 years is the Vail Mountain Easter Sunrise Service bright and early on Sunday morning. This takes place... Après Madness Championship Party at Avanti F&B The NCAA College Basketball Tournament may have crowned a champion on Monday, but Friday is when you can congratulate this year’s winner of Vail’s own form of competition:... Après at The Amp For its third year in a row, the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater has proven that it’s not just a summer venue. Each April a huge crowd comes out – rain, snow,... Mania: The ABBA Tribute ABBA, the Swedish pop band that took the world by storm in the 1970s and early 1980s with its hits “Waterloo,” “Take a Chance on Me” and “Dancing Queen,” will virtually... 2021.Xcel Energy is warning customers in western Colorado that it may preemptively shut off power on Thursday to prevent power lines and other electrical equipment from sparking wildfires across the region The precautionary blackouts could happen in Garfield and Mesa counties and be made through an automated system that de-energizes parts of the grid if it detects safety problems like a tree branch touching a power line The National Weather Service in Grand Junction says dry air moving into the region ahead of an expected cold front could combine with strong winds and dry vegetation to create “critical” wildfire conditions on Thursday Manually shutting off parts of the power grid is a “last resort” to prevent a wildfire and would only happen if conditions are extremely dangerous Xcel Energy spokesperson Tyler Bryant wrote in an email “The company does not believe that conditions warrant such an action at this time but recognizes that conditions may worsen,” he said.  the most destructive ever recorded in Colorado Customers can prepare for potential blackouts by keeping phones and other devices charged and assembling a “blackout kit.” Residents who rely on medical devices powered by electricity should also be prepared for outages and can sign up for extra alerts from Xcel Energy On a cold morning in December 2023, Joanna Lambert found herself surrounded by five gray wolves on Colorado’s Western Slope. For most people, this sounds like the stuff of nightmares. But for Lambert, a professor who teaches animal ecology and conservation biology at CU Boulder I could smell and hear them,” Lambert said “The whole experience was just extraordinary.” Lambert was elated as she watched the wolves bound across the snow-dusted field But as the last wolf disappeared into the Coloradan wilderness she couldn’t help but feel a twinge of anxiety After a decades-long career studying and advocating for endangered species worldwide Lambert knew that releasing these wolves into the Rockies was just the beginning The true test would be whether humans could learn how to co-exist with the wolves — and she had every reason to be worried North America was home to millions of gray wolves whose habitats stretched from modern Mexico into the Canadian north The largest of any dog species — technically known as Canis lupus — gray wolves were despised by settlers who viewed them as a threat to their livestock “Western settlers brought all these myths and legends about the ’big bad wolf,’” said Lambert “There’s something about gray wolves that evokes more fear dread and loathing than any other species I have ever worked with.” Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries settlers systematically tried to exterminate gray wolves in the region Their programs were devastatingly effective and by the time gray wolves were officially listed as an endangered species in the mid-1970s only a few hundred breeding pairs remained in the lower United States Fish and Wildlife Service had recently delisted gray wolves as an endangered species in the Northern Rockies This sparked controversy among conservationists who argued that gray wolf populations were nowhere near the levels needed to justify delisting “Colorado is arguably the best place in the U.S “We have around 20 million acres of protected public lands the most abundant elk population anywhere in the country and a prime location to enable full latitudinal distribution.” The lack of government support particularly troubled Mike Phillips director of the Turner Endangered Species Fund who was previously a state senator of Montana and former biologist with the National Park Service Phillips was cooking up a plan to put the reintroduction of gray wolves in Colorado to a state vote Lambert jumped on board and spent the next five years working with a political campaign team of scientists lawyers and citizen volunteers known as the Rocky Mountain Wolf Project (RMWP) RMWP had enough signatures to get the initiative on the 2020 General Election ballot Lambert herself delivered those signatures to Colorado’s secretary of state She was also a spokesperson for the campaign “Never in a million years would I have thought I’d be in television ads for a political campaign,” reflected Lambert “I’m happiest in wild landscapes running around after animals and there I was in the trenches of a campaign.” which was voted into law by Coloradans in 2020 it committed the state to releasing around ten gray wolves per year for the next three to five years The initiative was a landmark moment for ecological conservation and it passed by the narrowest of margins — 50.9% in favor When considering why some would be opposed to the measure Lambert says that a lot of the opposition stems from concerns about personal safety (though gray wolves almost never attack humans) and impact on livestock producers these concerns echo the fears that once nearly drove gray wolves to extinction “We’ve lived with wolves and other apex predators through virtually all of our evolutionary history,” said Lambert “That’s one thing humans are very good at — we’ve got a big brain and the tools to cope It will just take time to attenuate the inherent fear that many folks have about these predators and to relearn how to share a landscape with them.”  one of Lambert’s major research initiatives is investigating the different evolutionary trajectories of gray wolves and coyotes the closest living genetic relative to the gray wolf coyotes are increasingly co-existing with humans in urban environments and the answer may have a lot to teach conservationists about how to tilt the odds in favor of successfully reintroducing the gray wolf throughout the American West Lambert believes that Colorado taking the reintroduction of gray wolves into its own hands bodes well for future conservation efforts in the state and across the nation Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials announced that two of the gray wolves released last year — along with three of their pups — would be relocated following a spate of attacks on livestock that local ranchers blamed on wolves While Lambert acknowledges this was a blow she doesn’t see the relocation as a setback and says it’s important to keep sight of the bigger picture She says fewer than 0.01% of cattle in the northern Rockies are attacked by gray wolves and that cattle are far more likely to die from eating larkspur weeds or even being struck by lightning than a wolf attack And the majority of the reintroduced wolves “The fundamental reality is that we are living through the sixth extinction crisis and we must learn how to live with wildlife,” said Lambert “We are turning into a state that represents an alternative way of thinking about how to manage wildlife and this should be a source of hope for everyone.”   Submit feedback to the editor editor@colorado.edu University of Colorado Boulder Privacy • Legal & Trademarks • Campus Map University of Colorado Boulder Colorado Democrats won’t gain highly-coveted supermajorities in the state legislature after a Republican won in a closely-watched The Associated Press called the race for Senate District 5 Thursday morning when Republican Marc Catlin had about 52% of the vote and Democrat Cole Buerger had 50% Two-thirds majorities in the Senate and the House would have allowed the party to make strides toward fundamentally changing Colorado’s Constitution It would have also allowed them to override any vetoes from Democratic Gov Senate Democrats would have needed to win three of five competitive races to win a supermajority in the chamber AP News called three of those races for Republicans With several races not yet called in the House it wasn’t yet certain whether Democrats would keep their supermajority in that chamber Democrats held leads in several key races.  Democrats will still hold wide majorities in both chambers.  Catlin’s campaign and outside groups poured money into the race in the final days of the election. While Buerger was initially outspending his opponent, that changed over the past month Catlin spent a total of $123,000 and Buerger spent $76,000 according to the latest report before election day.  The vast majority of spending from outside groups came from All Together Colorado and that group’s Republican counterpart Senate Majority Fund spent $1.2 million in the race while All Together Colorado spent about $500,000.  “I’ve never been in a race this close,” Catlin said before the race was called.  Senate District 5 stretches from the Interstate 70 corridor in Garfield County through the Roaring Fork Valley into Hinsdale County near the southern border of the state and Hinsdale counties and portions of Delta who has served in the Colorado legislature as a member of the House since 2017 He’s developed a reputation as a go-to lawmaker on water policy.  News | Oct 15 Revenue and jobs generated by residents recreating in Colorado’s Western Slope The findings, part of a broader study on the state’s recreation economy commissioned by Colorado Parks and Wildlife show that while both regions see a similar amount of visitor use for some of the most popular activities the Front Range far outpaces rural resort communities in terms of labor income Officials say the main reason will always be the major population difference between the two regions with the Front Range being home for the majority of Coloradans and thus the epicenter of the state’s job market and economy.  the gaps between the Western Slope and Front Range are far larger in terms of economic output than it is for sheer visitor volume It means the Western Slope region is welcoming recreators at a rate closer to the Front Range despite seeing far lower returns in metrics such as workforce income.  and I think it’s something that we should be monitoring as a region,” said Rachel Tuyn Economic Development District Director for the Northwest Council of Governments.  Tuyn’s organization represents Routt, Grand, Summit, Eagle and Pitkin counties, a region where 40% of all jobs are tourism industry related.  She said it’s critical that rural resort areas see strong return on investment from visitors in terms of tax revenue generated in the form of sales and lodging taxes are essential to delivering a swath of community initiatives from maintaining roads to building below-market-rate workforce housing.  Too many people but not enough tax dollars would equal a problem the number of visitors we see has an impact They have a positive impact in that they fuel our economy but they also have a negative impact in that they have a strain on our resources,” Tuyn said “The need to provide those services to the visitation economy requires a sustainable workforce.” Conducted by research firm Southwick Associates in partnership with Colorado State University the economic report released late last month is the sharpest look yet at the landscape of Colorado’s outdoor recreation sector.  It divides the state into three regions: The Western Slope It shows the recreation economy in 2023 had a total economic output of $65.8 billion in 2023 the Western Slope’s economic output was $17.8 billion while the Front Range was $36.3 billion — a difference of 68%.  A closer look at the numbers shows where those regions stand in terms of different economic factors:  The Front Range also saw the most recreation use overall of the three regions with an estimated 3 million Coloradans engaging in an outdoor activity in that region compared to 2.3 million in the Western Slope — a difference of 26%.  The report provides a further breakdown of those activities:  The report only surveyed Colorado residents and does not contain data on out-of-state or international visitors. But another recent economic report from the Colorado Tourism Office signals that overseas visitation to Colorado has not rebounded from where it was pre-pandemic.  day travel from in-state residents has surged meaning resort communities are seeing more daytime traffic and fewer overnight stays To Vail Valley Partnership President and CEO Chris Romer but the day visitors tax our infrastructure and our carrying capacity … in a way that our overnight visitor doesn’t,” Romer said adding that out-of-state visitors who are inclined to book longer stays “carry more economic value — and international visitors carry even more economic value.”  which means more tax revenue for those communities to use on essential infrastructure investments.  Romer said resort communities are aware of the need to renew interest from these travelers in a bid to diversify their tourism market Romer said tourism-aligned groups are pursuing several strategies to lure back long-haul travelers.  Those include rolling out more multiday events, such as the concert series at Gerald R. Ford Amphitheatre, and adding new, low-fare flights in and out of the Eagle County airport And while ski resorts will always be these areas’ anchor destinations Romer said it’s important to diversify the experiences offered in the High Country to keep a wide range of tourists interested year round.  Looking at the economic data included in the recent recreation study Romer said he feels good about where the Western Slope stands.  “I’m not overly pie in the sky optimistic of double digit growth,” he said “but we’re in a very stable growth mode a very stable sales tax environment.” The report also serves as an important reminder of the role outdoor recreation plays in the health of the state’s economy the industry is larger than the state’s construction and education/healthcare/social assistance sectors outdoor recreation represents 12% of the entire labor force in Colorado and produces $22.2 billion dollars in total salaries and wages.  the vast majority of Colorado residents say they utilize the outdoors for recreation purposes with the report estimating that 3.8 million adults — 85% of the state’s adult population — engaged in an outdoor activity last year Seventy-two percent said they recreated outdoors once or more per week “It’s important for the economic side but we of course need to conserve these special places,” said Fletcher Jacobs Colorado Parks and Wildlife Assistant Director for Outdoor Recreation and Lands “You can’t have one without the other”  The data collected from the study will be used to help develop the park service’s latest Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan a guiding document for land management that is revised every five years.  That effort comes on the heels of another statewide plan released by the state tourism office that is meant to provide a 10-year framework for how communities can balance tourism with environmental conservation.  Romer said it represents an ongoing push to develop better responses to tourism growth in a way that upholds quality of life for local communities and protects natural amenities A big part of that is about educating visitors to be good stewards of their areas.   a huge spike in visitation and impact coming out of the pandemic to the point that the community was almost at capacity,” Romer said “We had workforce challenges layered with record levels of visitation … and we found out pretty quickly at that point we weren’t built to necessarily support and maintain all of it.” “I think a focus on stewardship and experiential marketing is a really positive change that will benefit the Western Slope.” The Mesa County Valley School District 51 Board of Education voted Friday to close two more elementary schools for a total of three buildings that will clear out for good at the end of this school year The decision comes amid declining enrollment that’s been seen both in Mesa County and statewide.  “Closing schools is never the preferred path or limited funding and declining birth rates we must steward our resources in a way that serves all students district-wide for years to come,” Board President Andrea Hatiz said following the unanimous vote.  The buildings marked for closure Friday were Clifton Elementary and Scenic Elementary the school board announced the closure of Nisley Elementary which had also been underperforming by state standards in recent years.  The board had planned to make the decision at a single meeting but held off on deciding the fate of Clifton and Scenic after more than six hours of discussion and public comment last Tuesday.  Part of the delay was in order to assess whether or not housing developments in the area could bring in new families that might bolster classroom rosters a demographer who contracts with the district to provide enrollment projections and data said the outlook for new children in the district was low.  “This birthrate thing is not just hurting us It’s hurting every district in the state of Colorado right now,” said Bingham.  In light of community pushback over that decision the district created a subcommittee to evaluate school closures and provide a framework to decide which schools should be closed.  “I didn't get into this business to close schools I've activated probably 200 schools in my career and the last eight years have been a wild ride for me as far as trying to help districts be as financially efficient as possible,” Bingham said.  While Mesa County has seen a spur of new construction in recent years Bingham said declining birthrates projections for the next several years show fewer kindergarteners are on the way “If you're going to do the math in a heartless way with your head down without looking up and watching what's happening around you that's what the math says,” he said.  News | Dec 26 helping them find the perfect book to understand their world better or escape into a new one.  Summit Daily spoke to six independent bookstores — the Bookworm of Edwards Off the Beaten Path Books in Steamboat Springs and Mountain Shire Books in Winter Park — to hear more about the top books and trends of 2024 as well as those things that remain consistent year after year in the world of reading.   a work of historical fiction that follows a woman during and after her service in the United States Army Nurse Corps during the Vietnam War While the book was a national bestseller this year — debuting as the No. 1 fiction on the New York Times Best Sellers list in February and remaining there for 45 weeks — it also speaks to the consistent popularity of the genre Show CaptionsHide Captions PEN America recorded over 10,000 instances of book banning in the 2023-24 school year. The American Library Association reported that book challenges increased 63% in 2023 over the previous year the diversity of books reflects readers’ openness and desire to sometimes escape.   “It’s encouraging to see our customers reach for time-worn classics notable nonfiction and new literary breakouts,” Faye said “Many of our top sellers indicate a readership that is interested in exploring various perspectives political ideas and experiences.”  it’s been a good year for books and bookstores the popularity of e-commerce sites like Amazon and the constant competition for attention driven by technology these independent bookstores have found their groove in recent years “While challenges and changes are a constant this is a great time to be in books,” Stringham said “People love to roll their eyes and predict my shop’s demise but nothing has actually killed books.”  “(Books) are being printed at a higher rate than ever before Hundreds of titles release every single week More authors from all kinds of backgrounds are getting traction,” Stringham said “People want to come in and touch and browse and chat about books It’s a commonly-held misconception that reading is a dying form of entertainment “We continue to see strong readership across all ages and demographics including a strong newer adult market of 20-somethings,” Green said.  it’s an obvious sign “that in times of turmoil in the world books continue to be people’s safe places for escapism or learning.” This extends from books into these independent bookstores which serve as safe community spaces that give people a place to land and discover and we’re generally seeing more openings than closings these days,” Meier-Bilbo said.  has seen its membership expand significantly since the pandemic in 2020 34 were pop-ups and nine were mobile stores.  “That’s an energy that has to be maintained in the long term if you want these places to be around for your community,” Meier-Bilbo said “These places exist because you patronize them.” Project Funway Get ready to be wowed by the fashions at Project Funway which returns to Dobson Arena again this Saturday One of the most creative fundraisers in the Vail Valley Family fun at Beaver Creek Spring break is here and that means that families are enjoying a break from school and hitting the slopes Beaver Creek has a ton of family programming happening through the.. News | Nov 13 Editor’s note: This story was updated to correct the spelling of Mark Vieira’s last name Colorado Parks and Wildlife estimates that the state is home to between 3,800 and 4,400 mountain lions, but officials have been working to get a better grasp on the elusive cat population numbers and density as part of the agency’s 2020 management plan for the Western Slope.  Parks and Wildlife released the first results of the yearslong data collection “These results show that the lion populations in these representative study areas are strong,” stated Mark Vieira the agency’s carnivore and furbearer program manager The studies of Middle Park and the Gunnison Basin — which began in 2020 and 2021 — were aimed at understanding how many independent mountain lions live in different habitat types and areas of the Western Slope Parks and Wildlife staff and researchers captured Trained hounds were used to track and capture the cats.  it was able to collar or mark 48 lions in Middle Park and just over 50 in the Gunnison Basin These collars will automatically drop off of the animals after three winters of study.   results indicate that there were an average of 2.5 independent lions per 60 square miles in Middle Park there were an average of 4.2 independent lions per 60 square miles during the past two winters.  Vieira emphasized that these numbers indicate higher lion numbers compared to studies of lions in other states and are higher than the projections Parks and Wildlife itself has been using to make management decisions In addition to studying population density Parks and Wildlife staff also collected blood and other biological data from the captured lions.  Parks and Wildlife is conducting similar research in the Book Cliffs north of Grand Junction and will start a fourth study east of Durango this winter as well Research on mountain lions on the Western Slope will continue over the next 10 years.  These areas were selected because they are both representative of quality lion habitat and see a range of hunting pressure on lions.  In its lion management plan for the Western Slope Parks and Wildlife suggests that these numbers will help it refine and improve the assumptions it makes about the state’s lion populations These numbers are used to help the agency set annual hunting limits.  While this research was part of Parks and Wildlife’s West Slope Mountain Lion Management Plan, it is preparing to pass the final version of its complementary plan for the eastern half of Colorado.  It will also vote on limits for the upcoming lion hunting season.  These two plans represent a shift in management strategy for the agency around lions the cats were managed by 19 different area plans consolidating these into two plans better represents how the carnivores move around the landscape.  While both plans continue the practice of hunting mountain lions as the primary management tool for sustaining the carnivore’s population could impact the number of hunting licenses issued each hunting season.  This includes a limit on the number of female lions hunted each year — setting it at 22% of the population It also places a cap on human-caused mortality — which are lion deaths outside of hunting including vehicle collisions and livestock conflicts — so it cannot exceed 17% of the population over a three-year average would cause a reduction in the number of hunting licenses issued.  Both of these thresholds are dependent on reliable population estimates.  The East Slope Lion Management Plan would initiate similar density studies of mountain lion populations in the east like the West Slope plan did in 2020 The initial areas identified for these studies include the canyons Highway 50 and east of Interstate 25 in southeastern Colorado as well as a region in the Greenhorns-Spanish Peaks region.  The plans also identified other future research needs for the carnivores, many of which were up for debate in the campaigning around Proposition 127 this summer and fall.   Parks and Wildlife’s two plans suggest researching the public perception of lion management in Colorado studying whether the hunting of adult male lions disrupts social order and leads to more conflict identifying potential impacts of human development on habitat Summit Daily is embarking on a multiyear project to digitize its archives going back to 1989 and make them available to the public in partnership with the Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection The full project is expected to cost about $165,000 All donations made in 2023 will go directly toward this project If you\u2019re looking for a copy of the latest issue, you can track down your vendor by using our new vendor map In the heart of Western Colorado’s agricultural belt there is a one-of-a-kind program being pioneered by the Food Bank of the Rockies Western Slope: fruit dehydration which serves 110 partner organizations and local food pantries in its 13-county service area sometimes gets overwhelmed with fresh fruit and produce during harvest time excesses from local farms and orchards are being dehydrated and turned into healthy treats for kids across Western Colorado The food bank’s dehydration facility is a licensed food manufacturer and turns apples “It’s the only program like this among the 200 Feeding America food banks,” said Sue Ellen Rodwick director of the Grand Junction-based nonprofit “We are even making fruit leathers,” she said “We had tons of peaches last year — more than we could deal with so we froze them and now puree them to make the fruit leathers.” The dehydrated produce is distributed to kids via Totes for Hope and other agencies around Western Colorado They hope to someday produce enough to provide dehydrated fruit snacks to their Denver It shut down during the pandemic in 2020 but restarted in 2023 at the 50,000-square-foot Etkin Family Distribution Center The new facility has three industrial dehydrators with more than double the prior capacity we increased our locally sourced foods by weight four times,” Rodwick said Funding for the increase came largely through the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program Rodwick is hopeful legislation will be passed extending the LFPACAP grants and she is also looking at other avenues of funding A recent pilot program between the food bank and Colorado State University explored the possibility of using the dehydrators as both a potential source of revenue for the food bank as well as a product for local growers’ leftover fruit “We are waiting on the results of that study,” Rodwick said Food insecurity is on the rise in Western Colorado according to Feeding America’s most recent “Map the Meal Gap” study The study also found that the gap between the money people have and what they would need to be food secure is the largest it has been in the past 20 years “Food is the one budget item with the most give and that is where people cut from,” said Rodwick the pandemic helped normalize seeking food assistance.” the Food Bank of the Rockies Western Slope distributed the equivalent of 24,000 meals daily across Western Colorado Western Slope mobile pantry visits are up 190% over the same period “The areas in our region that are the most food insecure are the areas that subscribe to the ‘pull yourself up by the bootstraps’ mentality,” Rodwick said We have to keep getting the information out there Click here for resources for people experiencing homelessness in Denver Sign up with your email address to receive news and updates the Western Colorado Golf Foundation has raised money to assist junior golfers on the Western Slope with financial assistance for post-secondary education.  Steamboat golf professional Luke Brosterhous traveled to Grand Junction for the foundation’s annual cup match at Bookcliff Country Club to raise money for the foundation.  The match pits the top 10 amateurs and professionals in the state against each others to vie for bragging rights and support young golfers in the area the professionals defeated the amateurs in the match.  “The primary aim of the cup matches is to raise money for the Western Colorado Golf Foundation and that foundation provides scholarships to graduating seniors that have played high school golf on the Western Slope,” Brosterhous explained.  The foundation has granted scholarships to 129 recipients since its inception with over $200,000 going to those golfers.  Golfers in Northwest Colorado can apply for the scholarship through wcgfgolf.org/ if they meet the following criteria: The foundation’s scholarship committee takes factors such as SAT and ACT scores competitive golf experience and letters of recommendation into consideration for recipients.  Brosterhous was president of the west chapter of the Colorado PGA board last year and was a major contributor in supporting cup matches and being a liaison to the Colorado PGA which Brosterhous says commits a lot of money to the foundation.  Applications must be submitted by March 1 for scholarships to be awarded in the fall term The scholarship committee will review applications and reach out for interviews by March 31 Recipients will be notified by April 15.  “It’s a great opportunity for anyone who has played on the high school golf team,” Brosterhous said “The application is pretty straightforward they are just looking to support these kids who have played golf on the Western Slope as they move into college.” To reach Tom Skulski, call 970-871-4240, email tskulski@SteamboatPilot.com.