By Ken Ritter, The Associated Press LAS VEGAS — The federal government is pledging $401 million in grants and loans to expand the reach and improve the speed of internet for rural residents, tribes and businesses in remote parts of 11 states from Alaska to Arkansas. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told reporters Wednesday, ahead […]
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Posted inClimate, Environment, News, Outdoors, Water
Yes, it hasn’t snowed yet in Denver. But it’s Colorado’s meager snowpack that should worry you.
Snowflakes began falling in Denver on Dec. 1, 1913, and didn’t stop for four days, leaving the city blanketed under 45 inches of snow. Some mountain towns saw even more snowfall, with 86 inches recorded in Georgetown, 53 in Estes Park and about 44 in Boulder. The anniversary of Denver’s biggest blizzard comes amid a […]
Posted inClimate, Economy, Environment, News, Opinion, Outdoors, Water
Analysis: As Colorado River Basin states confront water shortages, it’s time to focus on reducing demand
By Robert Glennon, University of Arizona The U.S. government announced its first-ever water shortage declaration for the Colorado River on Aug. 16, 2021, triggering future cuts in the amount of water states will be allowed to draw from the river. The Tier 1 shortage declaration followed the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s forecast that the water […]
Posted inClimate, Coloradans, Economy, Environment, News, Outdoors, Politics and Government
Hard-right rooted group has made inroads in Colorado opposing Biden’s vision for public lands
Land grab or precious-resource preservation? The battle over where the truth ̶ and where Westerners’ hearts ̶ lie on that matter is rumbling through Colorado counties as a federal government initiative nicknamed 30×30 gains momentum, and opposition. Colorado has become the beachhead in a Texas-based group’s efforts to use local governments to thwart the Biden […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: How Tom Vilsack can be a champion for school food as USDA secretary
Dear Tom Vilsack: You did it once; we think you can do it again. It’s time for school food to rejoin the national discussion. With incoming President Joe Biden having chosen you to once again serve as secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, this is an opportunity to tackle some of the most pressing […]
Posted inBusiness, News, Technology
Gigabit internet coming to more rural southwestern Colorado communities
Bit by bit, southwestern Colorado is cobbling together fiber-fast broadband service to get its residents up to speed, or at least to 2015 internet standards, when the Federal Communications Commission updated its benchmark to 25 megabits down and 3 Mbps up. The latest bit came this week as three Colorado counties learned that Utah-based Emery […]
Posted inBusiness, Coloradans, COVID, Health, News, Politics and Government
Colorado growers face “risk like we have never faced before” as coronavirus puts up labor walls
Like nearly all farmers, David Harold is well used to uncertainty. He grew up in his family’s Olathe-based business, Tuxedo Corn, steeped in the inevitable risks tied to weather, shifting markets and labor problems. But he is rattled to his roots by the risk posed by the novel coronavirus pandemic. “The amount of risk we […]
Posted inBusiness, Coloradans, Environment, News
Lost for decades, the Colorado Orange apple variety has been found — officially
Over the past two decades, apple preservationists Jude and Addie Schuenemeyer have identified more than a thousand apple varieties that once grew in Colorado’s orchards and backyards. But pinpointing one very rare and possibly extinct apple had eluded them – until last week. “We are 98% sure, give or take 3%, we have found the […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: Colorado FARMS project grant could help address climate change, make agriculture more sustainable
The High Plains of Eastern Colorado is an unforgiving place to farm. Most farmers in the region practice dryland farming, relying only on rainfall and using no irrigation whatsoever. Here climate disruption is felt keenly — there is no backup water to tap into when the rains don’t come. Many farmers worry about the disrupted […]
Posted inBusiness, Coloradans, Culture, Education, Environment, News, Outdoors
An apple revival near Four Corners is restoring hundreds of historic fruits — and the local ag economy
MCELMO CANYON — The apple orchard on Jude and Addie Schuenemeyer’s farm in a squiggle of a canyon in far southwest Colorado is a wild place. Turkeys gobble around on the hunt for bugs in native grasses that grow nearly as high as the gnarly limbs of the apple trees. Those trees are set hither […]