OLATHE — It’s 10 minutes after 2 early Thursday morning and Kerry Mattics inspects a thermometer hanging on a deer fence that surrounds his family’s fruit orchard. Twenty-seven degrees. “It’s go time,” he says. “The bottom just fell out.” The mercury had dropped a full three degrees in just a few minutes, as a thin […]
Western Slope
Posted inNews, Outdoors, Outsider
Record high calls for help are stressing Colorado’s mountain firefighters, emergency responders
There are more people living in their vacation homes in Colorado’s resort communities. There are more people visiting and staying in short-term rental homes. “But it’s a challenge to quantify any of this,” said Jake Andersen, deputy chief of operations for the Aspen Fire Protection District. Fire chiefs like Andersen can gauge one impact of […]
Posted inBook Excerpts, SunLit
SunLit Excerpt: “Killer Chardonnay” leaves bitter finish for wine critic
My success or failure hinges on a glass of chardonnay. I’ve poured everything into opening my own winery—my savings account, the better part of my twenties, my social life. If this doesn’t pan out, I’m not sure who I am anymore. Just a wannabe entrepreneur with an overfondness for wine on the fast track to […]
Posted inSunLit, SunLit Interviews
SunLit Interview: Kate Lansing fulfilled her winery dream by writing it
Kate Lansing is an award-winning short story author. She lives in Denver with her husband, daughter, and a chair-napping tabby cat named Maple. Tell us this book’s backstory. What inspired you to write it? Where did the story/theme originate? My husband and I have enjoyed tasting wine together for nearly a decade, and at one […]
Posted inEconomy, Growth, Housing, News
“It’s scary”: The housing shortage has reached a crisis point in southwest Colorado
DURANGO — Pagosa Springs paramedic Matt Robison was living with two friends in a 1,200-square-foot house until this summer — when his rent would have leapt 60%, to $2,400 a month. Robison hit the road, working wildland fires and living out of his truck. Sixty miles west, professor Rebecca Clausen has heard from faculty at […]
Posted inNews, Politics and Government
Colorado redistricting commissioners mull big changes to latest draft of congressional map
Blowback on a proposal that would place northwest Colorado and Boulder in the same congressional district has Colorado’s Independent Congressional Redistricting Commission considering significant changes to the latest draft of the state’s U.S. House map released Friday. That map, the first plan based on 2020 census data, would also create a southern district and draw […]
Posted inBusiness, News, Newsletters, Outsider, Transportation
An upgraded Grand Junction rail yard could accelerate Western Slope economic development
What if something as simple as getting freight trains to stop for a moment in Grand Junction could keep businesses and jobs on the Western Slope, support Grand Valley economic-development and reduce truck traffic on Interstate 70? “It would be huge; an absolute game-changer for the Western Slope,” if rail owners Union Pacific and Burlington […]
Posted inBusiness, News, Outsider
Five Western Slope startups collect more than $3 million in pitch contest
GRAND JUNCTION — The founders of five Western Slope startups walked out of the second-annual Greater Colorado Pitch Series with more than $3 million in funding on July 16. Eight rural innovators — gleaned from more than 100 contenders — were vying for $1.3 million in capital from four different investors as part of […]
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 inClimate, Environment, News, Outdoors, Water, Wildfire
Northwest Colorado under “extremely critical” fire warning for first time in 15 years as Western Slope drought worsens
As drought conditions worsened on the Western Slope, the National Weather Service has issued its first “extremely critical” fire danger warning in 15 years for northwest Colorado. The warning, in effect through midnight, covers parts of Moffat and Rio Blanco counties that also are in a state of “exceptional drought,” according to the weekly U.S. […]