Reservoirs have turned to dust. Farmers have fallow fields. But don’t expect the skiing to languish. Ski resorts have spent many decades amassing water rights and water storage and continuously upgrading snowmaking systems to make the state’s vibrant, multibillion-dollar resort industry virtually immune to drought — so long as this winter, farmers and ranchers have […]
Jason Blevins
The Colorado Sun — jason@coloradosun.com
Email: jason@coloradosun.com Twitter: @jasonblevins
Posted inColoradans, News, Outdoors
“If I can prevent at least one kid from going through what my kid goes through every day, I will do whatever it takes. I have to.”
SURVIVORS: Part of a Colorado Sun series on close calls in the outdoors and life after a crisis Ian Lamphere was sitting in his home office when he was struck with an idea. He yelled down to his fiancée, Elizabeth. “I don’t know, he’d read something about someone dying, and all the sudden, he says, […]
Posted inEnvironment, Growth, News, Outdoors, Water
Plan to slow creeping Colorado River crisis could drain more water from Blue Mesa, Flaming Gorge reservoirs
Nearly two decades into a pervasive drought that has more to do with a warming climate than precipitation, the seven states that rely on the Colorado River are nearing completion of a seven-year plan to protect water in the West. The Upper Colorado River Basin Drought Contingency Plan — one of the most significant proposals […]
Posted inBusiness, News, Politics and Government
Plan to quadruple property tax rates for Colorado’s short-term rentals is nixed
The committee of Colorado lawmakers tasked with proposing fixes to a financial knot caused by conflicting state constitutional amendments has abandoned a plan to quadruple property-tax rates for homes rented to visitors on the short-term market. The Alternatives to the Gallagher Amendment Interim Study Committee on Wednesday punted a proposal to change the tax state […]
Posted inEnvironment, Growth, News, Outdoors
Colorado’s recreation roadmap makes it one of the only states to fuse outdoor play, environmental protection
Colorado Parks and Wildlife has infused its latest five-year recreation roadmap with a heaping serving of conservation, making Colorado one of the only states to fuse outdoor play with environmental protection as it struggles to manage an exploding population of adventure-ready residents. Colorado needs the 2019 Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan, or SCORP, to qualify […]
Posted inBusiness, Coloradans, News, Outdoors
“This thing is going to change everything”: Crested Butte bike builder, after his own injury, delivers adventure to chair-bound athletes
GAMECHANGERS, a Colorado Sun series on innovators who are changing the way we play outdoors. CRESTED BUTTE — Every so often, Jake O’Connor feels the exhaustion of running his one-man company, designing and building one-of-a-kind mountain bikes that deliver lost adventures. Then he tunes in to his buyers. “I’ll be stressed out and overworked and […]
Posted inNews
Changing the way people access the burliest waters in the country: Mancos’ Alpacka Raft crafts “a new way to see the world”
GAMECHANGERS, a Colorado Sun series on innovators who are changing the way we play outdoors. GUNNISON RIVER — Thor Tingey calls it “a personal first descent.” “We really like showing people places where they can find their own adventure and exploration without necessarily traveling to the ends of the Earth,” says Tingey, who sparked his […]
Posted inBusiness, News, Politics and Government
As TABOR, Gallagher and Amendment 23 clash, lawmakers float a major change to tax status for properties used for AirBnb, VRBO to fund schools
James Reeman is an airline pilot who spends a lot of time away from home. When he’s gone, he rents his house in Denver’s historic Highland neighborhood to vacationers. He’s registered with the city — per the city’s regulations for short term rentals — and pays sales and lodging taxes. That would end, he said, […]
Posted inColoradans, News, Outdoors
“Post-traumatic growth” for five blind veterans kayaking the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon
Steve Baskis got off line while kayaking in House Rapid, the first serious whitewater in the Grand Canyon. He veered left into the maw of a truck-sized hole he couldn’t see. It swallowed his kayak. He rolled up. It flipped him again. He rolled upright again. He heard faint yelling from his friends — “Hup! […]
Posted inColoradans, News, Outdoors
“It was like he was an angel”: How a well-prepared ER doctor on skis saved a boy’s life after a mountain crash
SURVIVORS: Part of a Colorado Sun series on close calls in the outdoors and life after a crisis. His buddy was ribbing him about the big backpack he wore skiing every day. “He was saying, ‘Man that’s dumb. When are you ever going to use that thing?’ ” said Dr. Heston LaMar, a North Carolina […]