CRESTONE– Colorado’s ceaseless efforts to get people outdoors and develop a recreation industry may be ruining ecosystems. In one high mountain valley, San Luis Valley Ecosystem Council (SLVEC) director, Christine Canaly, declares that enough is enough. If ecosystems collapse, Canaly argued in a recent interview, then both humans and other wildlife will be hurt.…
DENVER- At the Rocky Mountain Arsenal Wildlife Refuge, site managers routinely spray pesticides with unknown effects on the site where a $2.1 billion chemical cleanup took place. “We spent billions of dollars to cleanup a chemical and now we are spraying another,” said David Lucas, manager of the Rocky Mountain Arsenal Wildlife Refuge. The refuge…
ALAMOSA- Cleave Simpson, a local alfalfa farmer and general manager of the Rio Grande Water Conservation District, is fighting for the future of farming in the San Luis valley. Agriculture is under threat as water sources dwindle and valley leaders anticipate thousands of acres of irrigated crop land will dry up. “Our community, our culture…
SUMMITVILLE MINE- Located 25 miles north of Del Norte, the old Summitville gold mine now functions as a water treatment facility. Many in charge at the facility hope to open up the land to recreational use. Situated at 11,500 feet, Summitville Mine had a foreboding presence on a recent snowy day. The river running through…
GREAT SAND DUNES NATIONAL PARK- At the Great Sand Dunes National Park, Fred Bunch, the park resources manager, faces a conundrum. He wants to make the night quieter, the skies darker, and increase visitor traffic. The dunes lie in the shadow of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range. They rise out of the landscape between…
COLORADO SPRINGS- The Ray Nixon Power Plant, located on the outskirts of Colorado Springs, exemplifies what it means to be using coal, one of the oldest and dirtiest resources, in the midst of a present day push to shift away from fossil fuels. Driving into the plant, all is calm. Open prairie stretches for miles…
ERIE- Weld County resident Amanda Harper is fighting for her home — increasingly under assault by an expanding fossil fuel industry — and is counting on Colorado voters. On a recent afternoon, she stood tall on a road in front of her yellow brick house, surrounded by acres of misty farmland pockmarked by oil and…
“Tofu stir fry, vegan” reads the sign in front of a dish of steaming tofu, vegetables, and rice on one chilly Tuesday night. Every meal without fail, Rastall’s, the main dining hall on Colorado College’s campus, provides a meat-free option to its many vegetarian students. CC is known for having a socially aware student…
My name is Alex Donahue and I’m a sophomore from Massachusetts. I’m a neuroscience major because I believe that understanding the brain allows us to understand our bodies, our decisions, and our interactions with others. I’m interested in journalism because being a scientist and an effective writer could give me the skills to make complicated…
