The agency’s brownfields program just came into lots of new money. And they want rural and small-town Colorado to help spend it.
Arkansas River
Posted inBusiness, Climate, Economy, Environment, News, Outdoors
Drought and irrigation demands will drain two Eastern Plains reservoirs, killing fisheries and the local economy
It’s open season with no limit on walleye, saugeye, crappie, perch, wiper and catfish at two Eastern Plains reservoirs. Again. As severe drought spikes demand for irrigation water on the plains, Colorado Parks and Wildlife is dropping angler limits at the South Platte River-fed Jumbo Reservoir near Julesburg and the Arkansas River-fed Queens Reservoir north […]
Posted inArts, Business, Culture, Economy, News, Politics and Government
In Florence, pop. 4,000, political upheaval is testing the city’s push to shake off its “ghost town” past
At 8 p.m. on a summer weeknight, the setting sun slants its last warm rays through the trees along Main Street in Florence. The antique stores, bakery and coffee shops are closed, and the nearly empty dinner spots will soon follow. The benches that provide a shady respite during the day are empty. There’s a […]
Posted inNews, Outdoors, Outsider
Colorado rafting outfitters had record traffic, revenue in 2021. Will it be enough to keep them afloat this summer?
Colorado’s rafting industry hosted a record number of rafters in 2021, posting its largest annual increase in commercial raft trips, up 44% over the pandemic-hobbled 2020 season. The Colorado River Outfitters Association counted 619,968 commercial river trips on 20 Colorado rivers last summer, a record 189,793-visit increase from the previous summer. “These are just staggering […]
Posted inNews, Outdoors, Outsider
Colorado’s attorney general wades into murky river dispute that could upend access to rivers, streams
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser wants the Colorado Supreme Court to wade into a murky river-access fight. Weiser this week filed a lengthy brief asking the state’s high court to intervene before a lower court takes up a case involving a fisherman who says he has a right to wade on a stretch of the […]
Posted inNews
Colorado appeals court revives river access, right-to-wade debate
For nearly 40 years, riverside property owners and recreational river users in Colorado have relied on a tenuous agreement when it comes to floating rivers and streams through private property. The deal is this: Stay on your boat and don’t touch the riverbed or you could face trespassing charges. If you wade on those rocks […]
Posted inNews, Outdoors, Outsider
Colorado rafting company sues federal government over minimum-pay rule for guides
Colorado’s rafting industry, typically pretty sleepy this time of year, sparked to life this week after a longtime outfitter sued President Joe Biden and the Department of Labor over a new rule spiking the minimum wage for federal contractors to $15 an hour. “This is not about minimum wage. We already pay our guides way […]
Posted inClimate, Environment, News, Water
Colorado heads into snowpack season with low reservoirs — but a twinge of hope
Drought conditions have eased up a bit from this time last year, but as the calendar turns on Colorado’s water year, worries about a dry winter still loom, the state’s assistant climatologist says. That’s not to say Colorado isn’t parched. Most of the state remains in drought, including the Eastern Plains, which spent much of […]
Posted inEnvironment, News, Outdoors, Outsider
Monarch Pass could serve as a new model for wildfire mitigation in treacherous areas
MONARCH PASS — Sergio Bernal casually flicks his wrist and the towering spruce falls. The Oregon forester presses a button and buzzing saws de-limb the beetle-killed tree and slice it into 33-foot logs. A giant claw swings the tree to the side and the slash falls to the forest floor. The eight-wheeled Finnish machine — […]
Posted inClimate, Environment, News, Water
How water rights work in Colorado — and why severe drought makes them work differently
Whether you’re a kayaker or an angler or a hard-core gardener in Colorado, we get that this water thing is confusing. If the eastern half of the state is getting plenty of water and the western half is literally burning up, why are we still pumping so much water east over the divide to already-green […]