Plants charred during the Stone Canyon fire in Lyons poke through ash along Stone Canyon Drive on Aug. 5, 2024. (Tri Duong, Special to The Colorado Sun)
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Good morning! Every four years, the Olympics, the general election and back-to-school prep all seem to collide in August.

And this year, thanks to the “flash drought” that dried out northern Colorado (more on that below), we’ve added fire season to the mix this time. So here’s hoping that you’re staying safe, cool and sane as we hit the home stretch of summer — and if you need a little inspiration on what to do, check out our “What’s Happening” section at the end of the newsletter.

Now let’s dive into the news, shall we?

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Drought conditions in northern Colorado worsened between April 30 and July 30. (U.S. Drought Monitor, Contributed)

January through April was a good time for water in Colorado, with a typical snow year followed by a favorable bump in precipitation in May. So how did the state dry out fast enough to fuel a series of wildfires? Shannon Mullane digs into the “flash drought” that left parts of northern Colorado experiencing their driest summers since the 1890s.

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A ribbon of two-lane road winds through the prairie in Larimer County. (Ed Kosmicki, Special to The Colorado Sun)

The largest community mental health center in Larimer County abruptly announced layoffs last week, requiring counselors to turn over phones and laptops on the spot, denying them a chance to say goodbye to patients. Jennifer Brown reports on how a number of factors — from a massive change in how clinics are reimbursed to hundreds of thousands of Coloradans being kicked off Medicaid — led to a financial crisis.

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This photo of Aurora Reservoir was taken from an elevation of about 7,500 feet in 2005, as the Beacon Point neighborhood was just beginning to take shape. (denver_flyer, Creative Commons license)

Crestone Resources received approval to drill up to 166 oil and gas wells yesterday with one caveat — electrify the drilling equipment. Mark Jaffe has more, including the reactions from neighbors opposed to the plan and what steps remain before drilling can commence.

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The main stage at the Planet Bluegrass festival grounds in Lyons in 2021. The grounds weren’t affected by the recent Stone Canyon fire, which torched more than 1,500 nearby acres on the ridge above. (Molly McCormick, Provided by Planet Bluegrass)

Rocky Mountain Folks Festival. The ‘S’ at the end of “Folks” is deliberate. Craig Ferguson, a Denver lawyer who took over the wildly popular but financially troubled Telluride Bluegrass Festival in 1988, came up with the idea for Folks in a Chicago hotel room in 1990. He was coming off one of the biggest crowds to attend Telluride Bluegrass to this day, and wondered if he couldn’t put together something more like a singer-songwriter summit, a festival that focused on the community of musicians, something that stood apart from other folk festivals of the time.

The first Folks Festival was held in August 1991 in Estes Park, and moved down to the banks of North St. Vrain Creek in Lyons a few years later, where it has lived ever since. If you’ve seen us write about Lyons lately, it’s because of the 1,557-acre Stone Canyon fire, which started just north of the town and burned for five days, destroying five structures.

The festival grounds were spared, and the Folks Festival, scheduled for Aug. 9-11, is slated to go on. That close call isn’t lost on Planet Bluegrass, the production company that runs the Folks Festival, so they are offering free admission to emergency responders and firefighters, along with their families, who have worked on Colorado’s wildfires this season. If that’s you, just stop by the special will-call line at the box office with your credentials to get set up.

“In the meantime, our path forward remains clear,” the company wrote in an email Wednesday. “More musical and community experiences on Planet Bluegrass.”

Free-$205; Aug. 9-11; 500 W. Main St., Lyons

Thanks for spending your morning with us, and enjoy that cool front! See you back here tomorrow.

— Eric & the whole staff of The Sun

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