Sneak Peek of the Week
Sen. Bennet wades into Dolores River national monument maelstrom
Residents in the West End of Montrose County are not keen on the idea of a national monument around the Dolores River. Many think increased federal protections would limit economic growth from a possible uranium mining revival, restrict cattle grazing, remove motorized access and draw overwhelming hordes of visitors. But supporters say the crowds are coming to the quiet desert canyons around the trickling Dolores and a national monument designation for about 400,000 acres around the river in Mesa and Montrose counties is the best path for managing and protecting the landscape.
The argument around the year-old monument proposal has inflamed rural enclaves like Nucla and Naturita, which are enduring sustained economic challenges since the closure of uranium mines in the 1980s and subsequent Superfund cleanup work.
Colorado U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet leaped into the fray last week, spending several days meeting with local residents, business owners and elected officials. The Democrat does not have a lot of support in Mesa and Montrose counties, which are solidly Republican.
Bennet, Colorado’s longest-serving U.S. senator, has a long history of increasing protections for federal land. He pushed for national monument designations at Chimney Rock, Browns Canyon and Camp Hale. He also secured national historic protections for Camp Amache on the Eastern Plains. He has spent more than six years fighting for passage of his Colorado Outdoor Recreation Economy Act, which would increase conservation protections on about 400,000 acres across the Western Slope. He worked with President Joe Biden to remove energy and mining development from the Thompson Divide.
Bennet has not taken a position on the Dolores River proposal for a national monument around the river’s remote canyons. At a listening session Sunday in Nucla’s brand new K-12 school, he got an earful from residents who are wary of the federal government taking a larger role in their homelands.
“Nobody locks up land better than the federal government,” said former state Rep. Ron Hanks, to thunderous applause from most of the 500 people packed into the school’s gymnasium.
Bennet took his shots in the freshly lacquered room, where opponents in black “Halt The Dolores” T-shirts outnumbered supporters 3-to-1. The comments went well beyond a national monument. The residents have larger concerns, revolving around the increasing power of urban voters in Colorado imposing things like wolves and monuments on rural communities. They said they didn’t feel heard and are being left behind in an economy that continues to direct gains to the wealthy.
In an interview before the meeting, Bennet bemoaned that disparity and how social media is injecting national political fights into local issues.
“I think social media has become a poison in our civic discourse, and in our political discourse,” he said. “In my mind that’s a way of disempowering local people. If you are spinning conspiracy theories that have nothing to do with the local people whose livelihoods really are going to be affected by the decisions that we make — who are actually going to be affected by the decisions you make — and you are reaching out into the vortex of the social media world to make your case, I think that’s a problem for civic debate and discussion. So that, I think, is what we’re grappling with here.”
>> Click over to The Sun on Monday to read this story
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In Their Words
Steamboat superstar Charlie Reisman plays all the sports, defying the trend toward specialization
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Varsity letters in six sports earned by Steamboat Springs High graduate Charlie Reisman
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS – Charlie Reisman is one of those mountain-town kids who makes everyone he meets jealous.
The nationally ranked Steamboat Springs ski jumper is a gifted skier and mountain biker, reflecting the distinctly diverse skill sets of most kids born and raised in mountain towns. But Reisman has taken multisporting to the next level. He graduated in May from Steamboat Springs High School with 15 varsity letters in six sports: soccer, football, golf, basketball, track and lacrosse.
The teenager says playing multiple sports has helped him develop unique strategic perspectives during competitions. He credits his creativity as a reason why he was tapped for three All State teams — including lacrosse, which he just began playing this season — in his senior year.
“It’s a ripple effect,” he told Sun freelancer Kim Beekman. “Golf can help with your mindset strength, and that can help in any other sport you play. Soccer has helped with my vision in basketball and made my passing better than others. Basketball has helped me in lacrosse to be one step ahead of other defenders who just play lacrosse. Being a football kicker, with those clutch moments, helps with any other clutch moments, whether it’s a golf shot, a penalty kick, or a free throw.”
Luke DeWolfe, the athletic director at Steamboat Springs High School, said kids who play multiple sports quickly hone life skills like leadership, cooperation and grit.
“If kids do three sports, they’re probably not going to be exceptional at all of them,” DeWolfe said. “They’ll have to work through adversity. They’ll have to learn what it means to not be a star athlete and to just be a teammate, which prepares them for the real world.”
There are 60 million kids in the U.S. playing organized sports, many in clubs that push early-as-possible specialization. That means kids as young as 5, 6 or 7 are focused year-round on one sport. That also means that nearly 70% of kids quit their sport by the age of 13, according to a 2024 American Academy of Pediatrics study. Of the kids who stay with their chosen sport, fewer than 2% will play at the collegiate level, and only 2% of those will become professional athletes.
According to statistics website Tracking Football, 90% of 2022 NFL draft picks were multisport athletes in high school. Some of the greatest pro athletes of all time — Wayne Gretsky, Alex Morgan, Tom Brady, Abby Wambach, and Steph Curry to name a few — say their multisport backgrounds fueled their single-sport dominance.
Colleges are noticing Reisman. Several have offered the soccer superstar scholarships, but he’s decided to play one more year of club soccer before joining the collegiate ranks.
“I did a reverse of what these specialist kids are doing,” he told Beekman. “I can now narrow down and focus on one sport and get better. These other kids have been spending 10 months a year on soccer, and I’ve been doing it for four months, so when I go to 10 months, I’ll be able to improve so much faster.”
>> Click over to The Sun next week to read Kim’s story
Breaking Trail
A second-best visit count for Colorado ski resorts in 2023-24
Here are a few statistics revealing the sustained strength of Colorado’s resort industry.
>> Click over to The Sun next week to read this story
The Playground
“Charting new territory” with LLC voting in Mountain Village
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Properties in Mountain Village owned by LLCs and trusts
There are two timeless gripes in Colorado mountain towns: locals bitching about tourists and wealthy owners of second (or third, or fourth) vacation homes whining about their lack of voice in their community because only full-time residents get to vote in local elections.
Except in Mountain Village, the town that incorporated in 1995 on the slopes of the ski hill above Telluride. Mountain Village is the only town in Colorado where nonresidents can vote in local elections. Now the town is weighing a proposal to open its voter rolls to LLCs and trusts that own residential property in the high-end community.
“This is something that no other community has done,” Mountain Village Mayor Marti Prohaska said Wednesday at the beginning of a town council session. “So we are sort of charting new territory here and we want to be conscientious of all the questions that may arise and all the concerns that may arise.”
The proposed amendments to the Mountain Village town charter are meant to accommodate owners who have shifted ownership of their resort properties to trusts and LLCs, which is increasingly common as mountain homes increase in value and especially if they are rented as short-term rentals. The amendments would not allow corporations or owners of commercial property to vote. They would allow two evenly split owners of an LLC — like spouses — to have two votes.
“I see this issue as an issue of voter disenfranchisement,” Mountain Village property owner Peter Mitchell said during the work session Wednesday. He added that the number of people putting their homes under LLC ownership has expanded in recent years.
Mountain Village resident Paul Savage told the council that “residents are the people who care most about this community.”
“We could be ruled by absent owners and tourists who will decide how we all will live,” Savage said. “If nonresidents want to vote in municipal elections, they should move here and understand this community first before trying to change it.”
>> Click over to The Sun next week to read this story
Talking mountain town economics in Crested Butte
Next week — Tuesday, June 18 — I’m moderating a panel in Crested Butte looking at resort town economics. Justin Farrell, the author of the amazing book “Billionaire Wilderness” and Neal Payton, a consultant working with the town of Crested Butte on its new community plan, will discuss how mountain towns and communities can thrive.
It will be a good chat. Mountain towns are richer than ever right now, with tax coffers overflowing. But at the same time, the pressure on amenity-rich communities has never been greater, with real estate prices and tourism impacts rapidly changing small-town vibes. The fight over how to best balance resident desires to protect local culture with shifting economic sands and growing tourism pressures is underway in small, rad communities across the country. How Colorado’s mountain towns find that balance will become a national model as rural communities grapple with conservation, growth and housing challenges.
Come over to CB and check out the Crested Butte Public Policy Forum event at the Center for the Arts.
— j
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