Posted inClimate, Environment, News, Outdoors, Wildfire

20 years of planning saved Rocky Mountain National Park from the worst of the East Troublesome fire. It will take 20 more to fix the damage.

Early on the morning of Oct. 23, Mike Lewelling stood at the Forest Canyon Overlook on Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park and stared 2,500 feet down into what he called a cauldron of fire and swirling wood smoke.  The East Troublesome fire had Lewelling, the park’s fire management officer for 15 years, […]

Posted inBusiness, Coloradans, Economy, Environment, Growth, News, Outdoors

Off-highway vehicles are revving up locals (in a bad way) in Colorado’s remote mountain towns

When Teri Havens bought two acres tucked in a thick stand of aspen on a hill south of Marble in 1995, it was her bit of backcountry nirvana.  Yes, it sat along a popular jeeping trail  ̶  a county road leading to the historic Lead King Loop. But she could live with four-wheel-drive vehicles jouncing […]

Posted inEnvironment, News, Outdoors

Colorado public land managers rely on education, then enforcement to deal with a crush of long-term campers

One man dashed out of the dilapidated camper trailer as police cruisers rolled up to his encampment in the Arapaho Roosevelt National Forest. The site was trashed, with a newer — and likely stolen — catalytic converter sitting next to a fire pit filled with long stems of a marijuana plant.  Happens that way all […]