Columbus
Aspen Journalism
PitCo aims to increase childhood vaccination as Colorado immunization rates drop
Well-informed citizens are good for the environment. Proof of vaccination has long been part of the back-to-school checklist, but as the country emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, Colorado’s childhood-immunization rates continue to drop. Pitkin County has seen a decline in vaccination rates at the preschool level over the past several years, while school-age rates have improved or held steady.
Improving resilience to drought
Well-informed citizens are good for the environment. Local ranchers are hoping a soil health experiment will reveal clues about how they can better manage their land under dry conditions as the Colorado River basin continues to struggle under the effects of climate change and historic drought. Four sites are participating...
Data dashboard: High air temperatures on the rise
Well-informed citizens are good for the environment. Aspen Journalism is compiling a data dashboard highlighting metrics of local public interest, updated weekly. At Stillwater, located upstream of Aspen, the Roaring Fork River ran at 32.2 cfs on Oct. 1, or 71.6% of average, down from last week when the river ran at 36.2 cfs and 75.4% of average.
East Mesa Ditch seeking funding for repairs
Well-informed citizens are good for the environment. A Carbondale ditch company is looking for sources of funding after 30-foot-deep sinkholes caused the ditch to collapse in early September, cutting off water to downstream irrigators. The East Mesa Ditch pulls water from the Crystal River mostly to irrigate about 740 acres...
Aspen Journalism recognized with four Colorado Press Association awards
Well-informed citizens are good for the environment. Aspen Journalism was recognized with four awards — three of which were first-place honors — in the Colorado Press Association’s 2022 Better News Media Contest. The awards, announced on Sept. 23 at the 145th annual CPA Convention in Denver, honored...
Data dashboard: Air temperatures get cooler as fall begins
Well-informed citizens are good for the environment. Aspen Journalism is compiling a data dashboard highlighting metrics of local public interest, updated weekly. At Stillwater, located upstream of Aspen, the Roaring Fork River ran at 36.2 cfs on Sept. 24, or 75.4% of average, up from last week when the river ran at 30.9 cfs and 63.1% of average.
Organizing mobile-home owners as investors gobble up parks
Well-informed citizens are good for the environment. Like a lot of his neighbors, John Sullivan looks down his Apple Tree Park street and across the Colorado River toward the small Western Slope town of New Castle and wonders about the future. The 290-space mobile home park where he has lived...
Water managers vote to continue conservation program, with tweaks, in 2024
Well-informed citizens are good for the environment. Colorado River managers on Thursday decided to continue a water conservation program designed to protect critical elevations in the nation’s two largest reservoirs. The Upper Colorado River Commission decided unanimously to continue the federally funded System Conservation Program in 2024 — but...
Data dashboard: Summer occupancy on the downward trend since 2021
Well-informed citizens are good for the environment. Aspen Journalism is compiling a data dashboard highlighting metrics of local public interest, updated weekly. Paid occupancy in Aspen reached 64.4% in August, down from 68.5% last year. Snowmass recorded 46.8% paid occupancy, down from 2022’s 50.4%, according to the August 2023 occupancy report for Aspen and Snowmass lodges, compiled by local tourism officials and reservations tracking firm Destimetrics. August occupancy reached 55.9% for the two towns combined this year, down from 59.8% last year.
Confusion persists about Wolf Creek reservoir in Rio Blanco County
RANGELY — People in northwest Colorado are confused about the purpose, need and size of the Wolf Creek Reservoir. That’s according to a situation assessment report prepared by The Langdon Group as part of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s plan for additional public engagement about the project.
Pitkin County public health turns focus to climate
Well-informed citizens are good for the environment. When Carly Senst, the epidemiologist for Pitkin County, heard in late August that the county probably had its first-ever case of West Nile virus, she wasn’t exactly surprised. “It was more like, ‘Yep, all right, it’s happening,’” she said....
Data dashboard: Streamflows are down
Well-informed citizens are good for the environment. Aspen Journalism is compiling a data dashboard highlighting metrics of local public interest, updated weekly. At Stillwater, located upstream of Aspen, the Roaring Fork River ran at 26.6 cfs on Sept. 10, or 54.3% of average, down from last week when the river ran at 32.7 cfs and 68.1% of average.
Crews working to repair Busk-Ivanhoe transmountain diversion
Well-informed citizens are good for the environment. For the second summer in a row, crews have been hard at work at nearly 11,000 feet, trying to clear a caved-in tunnel that conveys water from Colorado’s Western Slope to Front Range cities. The cities of Pueblo and Aurora have each...
Data dashboard: Local streamflows have dropped since last week
Well-informed citizens are good for the environment. Aspen Journalism is compiling a data dashboard highlighting metrics of local public interest, updated weekly. At Stillwater, located upstream of Aspen, the Roaring Fork River ran at 32.7 cfs on Sept. 4, or 68.1% of average, down from last week when the river ran at 51.7 cfs and 97.5% of average.
D.C. Circuit Court hits the brakes on Uinta Basin Railway, but oil transport through Colorado is still on the table
Well-informed citizens are good for the environment. Uinta Basin Railway (UBR) opponents floated a portion of the Colorado River on Aug. 26 to celebrate a setback to the UBR. Organized by two citizen groups — Colorado Rising and 350 Roaring Fork — a flotilla of about 30 boats and 100 activists put in at Grizzly Creek in the Glenwood Canyon and landed at Two Rivers Park in Glenwood Springs for a rally and picnic. The flotilla was originally planned as a protest to draw attention to the river and what would happen if a train carrying waxy crude derailed in the Glenwood Canyon.
SkiCo-funded methane-capture project no longer generates electricity
Our nonprofit, investigative newsroom is a civic benefit. One morning in mid-August, Christopher Caskey, a Paonia-based scientist and entrepreneur, stood up on a picnic bench outside the post office in Somerset, an unincorporated town of 55 in the West Elk Mountains northeast of Paonia, Colorado. Caskey corralled a group of people in front of him into a caravan to drive up to the Elk Creek Mine, one of several coal mines surrounding the town. Most of them, including this one, have shuttered in recent years as the coal industry has struggled, but Elk Creek Mine has remained active in other ways. A decade ago, a system was installed to capture methane — a potent greenhouse gas that the mine vents to protect workers — in order to both destroy it and to generate electricity.
Colorado River commission reviews lessons learned from water conservation program
Our nonprofit, investigative newsroom is a civic benefit. Cassie Cerise lives on her family’s ranch on Missouri Heights, a mesa above Carbondale named for the home state of some of the area’s earliest settlers. Like her parents and grandparents, she runs cattle and irrigates hay and alfalfa fields...
Data dashboard: Local streams are flowing above average
Our nonprofit, investigative newsroom is a civic benefit. Aspen Journalism is compiling a data dashboard highlighting metrics of local public interest, updated weekly. At Stillwater, located upstream of Aspen, the Roaring Fork River ran at 51.7 cfs on Aug. 27, or 97.5% of average, up from last week when the river ran at 47.6 cfs and 82.1% of average.
Data dashboard: Air temperatures are rising
Our nonprofit, investigative newsroom is a civic benefit. Aspen Journalism is compiling a data dashboard highlighting metrics of local public interest, updated weekly. Local streamflows are slowing down as snowpack is entirely melted. At Stillwater, located upstream of Aspen, the Roaring Fork River ran at 47.6 cfs on Aug. 20,...
Gunnison ranch to loan water for the environment
A Gunnison County family ranch plans to use a relatively new tool to help keep water flowing in a chronically dry section of creek while still irrigating their hay crop. In dry years, the Peterson Ranch will temporarily loan some of the water it diverts from Tomichi Creek to the state’s instream flow program, which is aimed at keeping water in rivers for the benefit of the environment. The agreement was approved by the Colorado Water Conservation Board this year under legislation passed in 2020 designed to make the water loans more attractive to water-rights owners and effective as a conservation tool.
Aspen Journalism
524+
Posts
307K+
Views
Aspen Journalism is a local, nonprofit and investigative journalism organization in Aspen, Colorado. Our mission is to produce excellent journalism, as well-informed citizens make better decisions and journalism is key to a functioning democracy.
Welcome to NewsBreak, an open platform where diverse perspectives converge. Most of our content comes from established publications and journalists, as well as from our extensive network of tens of thousands of creators who contribute to our platform. We empower individuals to share insightful viewpoints through short posts and comments. It’s essential to note our commitment to transparency: our Terms of Use acknowledge that our services may not always be error-free, and our Community Standards emphasize our discretion in enforcing policies. We strive to foster a dynamic environment for free expression and robust discourse through safety guardrails of human and AI moderation. Join us in shaping the news narrative together.