By Leah Thayer SALIDA — Perched atop a small bluff, with a perfect view of the Sawatch Range, lies a house at the end of Ridge Road. The beautiful cottage belongs to Jerry Mallett, founder of the nonprofit Colorado Headwaters, and 20-yearlong resident of Salida, Colorado. Just over a month ago, on October 2nd, Mallett’s…
By Leah Thayer SAN LUIS VALLEY, COLORADO Within the San Luis Valley of Colorado lies over 1.3 million acres of agricultural land, spreading amongst 1,739 different farms, and providing 4,687 local jobs. All of which is currently threatened by the onslaught of aridification in the San Luis Valley, resulting from changing climate. “Climate change impacts how…
By Emily Stamper A reporter in my class, Johnna Geick, burst out into tears as Christine Canaly discussed her feelings on climate change and the environment. We had been traveling around the San Luis Valley for four days interviewing people on how climate change has affected their lives. The outlooks we had been hearing on…
By Auguste Voss SAN LUIS VALLEY—Sitting by the fireplace on a frigid afternoon in Crestone, activist Christine Canaly talked about the impacts of climate change. Canaly founded the San Luis Valley Ecosystem Council, and has worked for more than three decades trying to protect water resources and thousands of acres of public land. She is…
By Emily Stamper The San Luis Valley is unbelievably beautiful. It is the kind of place you put on a postcard. The kind of place you wish you could live, but always make excuses for why you can’t. It is 80,000 square miles and only has 50,000 residents…making it a hub for meditation retreats (20,000…
The Great Sand Dunes roll like waves without crests. Seven hundred feet tall, towering before me, their flawlessly smooth surface seemed impossible. Our class of twelve young journalists drove from our temporary home in Crestone, Colorado to Alamosa, hoping to clear our minds amidst the dunes after days of intensive interviewing and article writing. I…
Farmers in the San Luis Valley are working alongside researchers and government officials to maximize their yields of potatoes in a valley that may be undergoing aridification due to Climate Change. The depletion of water in the valley’s complicated aquifer system due to slow downward trends in snowfall could be disastrous for agriculture. Governmental programs…
By Lili Weir A regional trend of increased aridity will decrease the amount of water available to people in the San Luis Valley, and calls into question how residents of the greater area are responding to the economic and ecological shifts. “I don’t want to say bleak” but water levels “look diminishing” Rio Grande Water…
By Whitton Feer – Salida, Colorado The smoke was thickening, illuminated by amber truck headlights. Neighbors packed their belongings before speeding down the road. Homeowners scrambled, passports thrown into boxes, musical instruments shoved through car doors in haste. The sirens blared constantly, as first responders struggled to maintain some order through an event fraught with…
By Whitton Feer – Center, Colorado Facing depleted aquifers and a population opposed to change, farmers in the San Luis Valley must innovate and adapt in order to remain on the frontline of potato production in the US. Rusty, a chocolate lab chased a potato through a dusty patch of Rockey Farms, retrieving it for…
