COLORADO SPRINGS–As the first snows of winter blanket Colorado and launch ski season, ski industry leaders are facing a difficult challenge: a finite number of years left for people to get out and ski powder. The industry draws 56.5 million people, who spend $8.4 billion a year, to ski resorts around the United States, according…
COMMERCE CITY–Surrouded by a city undergoing a population boom, the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge is a place for both wildlife and people. It may also be the birthplace for the next generation of conservationists. The refuge plays a key role in the conservation of wildlife including migratory birds and endangered black-footed ferrets. It’s…
SUMMITVILLE – The massive scar gouged into the side of a mountain on the western rim of the San Luis Valley is an environmental disaster that will cost Colorado taxpayers $2 million a year indefinitely. In the 1980s, a subsidiary of Galactic Resources Ltd., Summitville Consolidated Mining Company, Inc. established a massive open-pit gold…
GREAT SAND DUNES NATIONAL PARK – The sun glints off of a long line of cars sitting outside the entrance of Great Sand Dunes National Park. It got so congested that park officials even went as far as to place an outhouse along the road for guests as they waited to enter. The park simply…
COLORADO SPRINGS–Sitting in the heart of the coal-fired Ray Nixon power plant, a giant blue General Electric generator, spinning at 3,600 revolutions per minute, churns out 225 megawatts of electricity for residents of a growing city. This was state-of-the-art electrical generation when the plant opened. Three decades later, the generator stands out as a relic…
DENVER–Tucked into a maze of federal brick buildings west of Denver, the National Ice Core Laboratory stores some of the most important data in the world. Air bubbles trapped in the ice samples give scientists a glimpse of Earth’s climate stretching back 450,000 years. This ice is crucial, scientists say, for analyzing and addressing climate…
COLORADO SPRINGS–When push comes to shove, Colorado College students take the path of least resistance. Consider the case of “The Preserve,” a popular campus eatery typically packed around dinner. Students devour much of their loaded plates in a rush. But they leave plenty, and then they dump it, failing to sort it properly for recycling…
