Posted inCOVID, Health, News

Tourists are flocking to Colorado this summer — and they’re bringing COVID with them

In the fight against the coronavirus, Pitkin County has a lot going for it.  The county, home to well-heeled Aspen, has one of the highest vaccination rates in the state. Among all its residents, of any age, 63% are fully immunized. So, when the county’s coronavirus infection rates soared in recent weeks, health officials in […]

Posted inCOVID, News

Why are Colorado’s rural counties vaccinating people faster than urban ones?

Across much of the Front Range and Colorado’s other biggest counties, securing a coronavirus vaccine remains an arduous endeavor. Overloaded websites. Lengthy wait lists. Hair-pulling frustration. But, in southwest Colorado, the state’s smallest county has a different problem: It’s run out of people to vaccinate, at least for now. Barely two months after shots started […]

Posted inEnvironment, Growth, News, Outdoors

Conservationists cap 30-year preservation effort with protection of Banded Peak Ranch in southern Colorado

With the conservation of the Banded Peak Ranch in the southern San Juan Mountains, a 30-year, $37 million effort concludes with the protection of 10 different ranches in the Navajo River Watershed.  And with the Great American Outdoors Act promising full funding of $900 million a year in the Land and Water Conservation Fund, these […]

Posted inCOVID, Environment, Health, News, Outdoors, Politics and Government

Warnings are working (for now) to keep visitors out of Colorado’s high country. But tickets, legal battles loom.

Police in Colorado’s mountain communities are doing a lot of educating and even issuing written warnings to violators of local and state health orders designed to slow the spread of the coronavirus.  But if mask mandates, closures, restrictions and locals-only access rules linger for months, warnings will soon turn to tickets. And that worries Western […]