Areas scorched during last year’s historic wildfire season could pose flash flooding risks through the summer as rain picks up speed along steep terrain in the burn scars, sweeping debris onto major roads. While heavy rain is typical of the summer monsoon season, Colorado is seeing “an abnormal year of flooding events,” partly because of […]
Grand County
Posted inCrime and Courts, News
Denver DA’s husband pleads guilty to two counts of attempted arson
The husband of Denver’s District Attorney pleaded guilty Thursday to leaving several slash fires burning unattended near his home in Grand County during a fire ban last year. Christopher Linsmayer, 69, pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted arson, one felony and one misdemeanor, in exchange for a deferred sentence, according to the 14th Judicial […]
Posted inClimate, Environment, News, Outdoors, Water
Bird count examines what happens when high-country Colorado irrigators use less water
By Heather Sackett, Aspen Journalism KREMMLING — In the gray light of dawn, hundreds of swallows darted over a pool of standing water in an irrigated field along the Colorado River. The birds were attracted to the early-morning mosquitos swarming the saturated landscape. Bill Vetter, a wildlife biologist with Wyoming-based Precision Wildlife Resources, methodically counted […]
Posted inBusiness, Housing, News
Survey of Colorado’s high-country residents a “wake-up call” on the devastating implications of the affordable housing crisis
A first-of-its-kind survey of thousands of Colorado mountain town residents has delivered the clearest look at the impact of the pandemic on housing, rentals and lifestyles in the high country to date. And the news is not good. Wealthy newcomers are displacing locals. Businesses are struggling to hire staff. The crowds are growing in the […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: As county commissioners, we see smart ways to close Colorado’s digital divide
Colorado’s digital divide spans both rural and urban areas of our state, but it’s two different divides and two different challenges. The Rural Divide is primarily an infrastructure problem: At least 100,000 Coloradans don’t have connectivity to high-speed broadband networks. In urban areas, it’s an Adoption Divide – world-class networks are available almost everywhere, but […]
Posted inOpinion
Opinion: The Windy Gap settlement is a win for the Western Slope and its waters
The history of Western Colorado’s water is told in stories of hard-fought wins and losses, of lawsuits and government petitions, of tough negotiations and collaboration. In Grand County, the history of Western Slope water — and Front Range demand for that water — is more visible than in other areas west of the Continental Divide. […]
Posted inNews, Outdoors
Arapaho, Roosevelt National Forests to start requiring reservations after 200% spike in recreation
Every weekend last year, hundreds of cars spilled from trailheads, lining forest roads for miles. Wait times stretched for hours just to get inside Forest Service welcome centers at Brainard Lake and Mount Evans. Wildfires scorched more than a quarter of the 1.5 million acre Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests. And still, the easy-to-access forest’s […]
Posted inClimate, Environment, News, Water
Controversial Chimney Hollow Dam project near Loveland moving forward after $15 million settlement
A complex Front Range dam-building project that includes transferring water from the Colorado River will move forward this summer after Northern Water agreed to a settlement putting $15 million in trust for waterway improvements in Grand County. Environmental opponents begrudgingly accepted the mediated settlement of their lawsuit against Northern Water’s Windy Gap Firming Project, which […]
Posted inBusiness, COVID, News, Newsletters, Outdoors, Outsider
Climbing coronavirus cases in Colorado’s high country aren’t tracking back to ski resorts
Colorado’s resort communities are teetering on the edge of increased restrictions as a potential surge in COVID-19 cases from the busy holidays looms. But public health officials in eight tourism-dependent communities have not linked any outbreaks to ski areas. “It’s not the activity of skiing that is the risk but all the things that go […]
Posted inEnvironment, News
How three families that lost their homes in Colorado’s record-breaking 2020 wildfires are coping
The worst wildfires on record raged in Colorado last year. Hundreds of thousands of acres burned, hundreds of homes went up in flames and two people were killed. Though the flames are out, Grand, Boulder and Larimer counties — where the most structural losses occurred — have only just started down the long road to […]