Aspen Journalism was recognized with seven awards in the 2025 Top of the Rockies Excellence in Journalism competition organized by the Society of Professional Journalists Colorado Pro Chapter.
Reporting from Heather Sackett, Laurine Lassalle and Paul Andersen added up to three first place, two second place and two third place awards. More than 80 news media outlets and 20 freelancers from Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico entered the contest open to work from any media platform published in 2024, which was judged by the Los Angeles Press Club.
Aspen Journalism’s work was recognized across the categories of climate coverage, public service, investigative journalism, special topic/section, information graphic, and agriculture and environment news. Two of our stories received multiple awards, and in total, 14 of our stories were recognized.
We competed in the medium-sized newsrooms category for newsrooms with 5 to 9 full-time equivalent reporters, despite an AJ editorial staff capacity we calculated at 4.2 FTE in 2024.
Also of note, the first-place award for investigative reporting, medium newsrooms, went to Aspen Public Radio and Kaya Williams for the November story digging into the effort to preserve St. Benedict’s Monastery in the Capitol Creek Valley, with the landmark property’s listing for a nine-figure sale. The deep-dive effort Williams produced as a member of the APR newsroom was supported by Aspen Journalism, with public records research and an interactive map of the monastery and neighboring lands by Aspen Journalism Data Editor Laurine Lassalle, and editing support from AJ Editor and Executive Director Curtis Wackerle. Williams produced a three-part audio series for Aspen Public Radio, and a long-form version of the story — In a ‘sacred valley,’ community partners seek to preserve the legacy of St. Benedict’s — which ran in Aspen Journalism and Aspen Daily News.
Other awarded local newsrooms included the Vail Daily — a sister paper to The Aspen Times — which received 11 honors in the medium newsroom category. The full list of winners can be accessed through SPJ Colorado’s Google Drive or is available for download here.
Congratulations to Heather Sackett, Laurine Lassalle and Paul Andersen for their award-winning work under the Aspen Journalism banner. And as many of these awards are for projects produced in collaboration with colleagues from other news organizations, thank you to Luke Runyon and Geoff McGhee of the University of Colorado Water Desk, and KUNC Northern Colorado radio water reporter Alex Hager for collaborating on this award-winning reporting.
A dual-awarded story asking why the Crystal River runs nearly dry
The Crystal River Mapping Project, from Water Desk Editor Heather Sackett and Data Editor Laurine Lassalle, was twice awarded — first place information graphic for Lassalle and second place in the special topic/section category for Sackett and Lassalle. A year in the making, the investigative project examines water use in the Crystal River basin, questions why the river runs at a trickle in certain years and includes the award-winning interactive mapping feature taking readers on a tour of the basin’s irrigation infrastructure. Of the information graphic created by Laurine Lassalle, the judges commented “Impressive use of interactive design to convey complicated information.”
The story reflects a true team effort: reporting and writing by Sackett, number crunching and data visualization by Lasalle and additional editing and storytelling assistance from veteran Colorado River reporter and editor Luke Runyon as part of Aspen Journalism’s collaboration with the University of Colorado Water Desk. It was based on an analysis of OpenET satellite data, which measures how much water crops consume, and river-diversion records from the state of Colorado. The project comes alive through the voices of topic experts and local water managers. The final product presents the clearest picture of water use on the Crystal that we could assemble based on available information.
The reporting demonstrated that for the most part, the major ditches on the Crystal are exceedingly inefficient, in terms of the amount of water used by crops versus the large amounts diverted from the river needed to deliver that water through miles of dry-land ditches. At the heart of the story, a central question: Is it worth it, given the acute impacts to the river, and how could the system be improved?
First Place | Information Graphic
Crystal River Mapping Project by Laurine Lassalle and Heather Sackett
“Impressive use of interactive design to convey complicated information.”
–SPJ Judges
Second Place | Special Topic/Section
Crystal River Mapping Project by Laurine Lassalle and Heather Sackett
Curiosity unearths an immersive ‘phantom dam’ portfolio
Sackett in early 2024 reported on a dam and reservoir project with conditional water rights dating back to the 1960s for nearly 24,000 acre-feet of storage on Thompson Creek that an oil and gas company was seeking to keep alive. Under public scrutiny that followed, the company abandoned the project, but the circumstances raised the question: How many more phantom water rights are out there, lurking on the books, with the prospect of upsetting the balance of the already over-tapped Colorado River?
To answer the question, Sackett teamed up with Runyon, a longtime Colorado water journalist (and Aspen Public Radio alum) now based at the University of Colorado Water Desk, and they began combing through water court and Division of Water Resources records for districts across the Western Slope, hunting down conditional water rights and corresponding diligence filings.
They found over 90 such potential projects just on the Western Slope, accounting for more than 2.6 million acre-feet of storage or more Colorado River basin water than the state of Colorado consumes in a year. Sackett received second-place honors in the investigative reporting category for the resulting feature, again brought to life through her on-the-ground storytelling.
The piece features an interactive data visualization from Geoff McGhee, a data and infographics correspondent affiliated with The Water Desk, which won third-place recognition for best infographic (first place was for Lasalle’s Crystal River Mapping Project work). The feature maps where each of these projects is located and incorporates additional information on many of them. Judges typically reserve comments for first place awards, but for this visualization, they shared “Impressive use of interactive design to convey complicated information.”
Click to interact with this map in the story.
Second Place | Investigative Reporting
Colorado has big dreams to use more water from the Colorado River. But will planned reservoirs ever be built? by Heather Sackett
Third Place | Information Graphic
Colorado has big dreams to use more water from the Colorado River. But will planned reservoirs ever be built? By Heather Sackett and Geoff McGhee
As officials address Colorado River basin water scarcity, are the costs worth the savings?
The first-place winner in the agriculture and environment news category is a multimedia collaboration between Sackett and KUNC Northern Colorado’s Alex Hagar (another Aspen Public Radio alum) that asks if a controversial program that pays farmers in four states to cut back on irrigation is accomplishing what it set out to do.
“Great reporting on an important topic that touches on communities outside the region and traditional audience. Fantastic use of data visualizations,” noted the judges, referencing infographics created by AJ Data Editor Lassalle. The story was also supported by editing help by from Runyon and the CU Water Desk.
The story started with a conversation between Sackett and Hager at a Colorado River Water Users Association conference — thanks to Sackett for attending 72 water meetings last year — where they discussed the skepticism surrounding the System Conservation Pilot Program, targeting water users in the Upper Basin states of Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico. After interviews with experts, combing through each of the 175 SCPP contracts signed over two years, and traveling to Pinedale, Wyoming to get the perspective of an enthusiastic participant, the story is an engaging presentation of their findings in both written-word and audio formats.
First Place | Agriculture and Environment: News
Using less of the Colorado River takes a willing farmer and $45 million in federal funds by Heather Sackett and Alex Hager
“Great reporting on an important topic that touches on communities outside the region and traditional audience. Fantastic use of data visualizations.”
– SPJ Judges
A local question with regional implications
“The public should be aware the world is changing and there are surprises,” one source told Sackett for her reporting on how warming temperatures are causing melting permafrost to release increasing concentrations of heavy metals into high-country streams. The story, born of Sackett’s ongoing coverage of water quality issues on Lincoln Creek, took home first-place honors for climate reporting and shows how a local situation can reveal much larger issues at hand.
“Who knew that warming temperatures were melting permafrost high in the Rockies and releasing metal contaminants into streams? Reporter Heather Sackett dug into what that means for drinking water in communities downstream,” judges from the downstream LA Press Club wrote.
First Place | Climate Reporting
Climate change causing increase in metals concentrations in streams, study finds by Heather Sackett
“Who knew that warming temperatures were melting permafrost high in the Rockies and releasing metal contaminants into streams? Reporter Heather Sackett dug into what that means for drinking water in communities downstream.”
– SPJ Judges
Landmark series awarded as public service
Paul Andersen was awarded third place in the public service category for the landmark 10-part In Search of Community series written for Aspen Journalism that sought to reexamine the notion of community along the 80-mile corridor spanning from Aspen to Parachute. The project came about following a March 2023 event where we collaborated on the screening of a documentary about Crested Butte’s efforts to preserve the soul of its community and symposium with local leaders talking about challenges facing this valley. Andersen realized he had struck a nerve in seeking a broad and nuanced understanding of the beautiful, spirited, unusual, often troubled and dynamic slice of earth we’ve got here in the Greater Roaring Fork Region. The project was informed by the reality that despite the many differences and conflicts that emerge, there is a cohesive and growing community traversing this urban-yet-rural corridor between Independence Pass and De Beque Canyon.
Andersen, a long-time local journalist and author, worked for six months starting December 2023 evaluating the importance of regionalism as the population swells close to 100,000 and the always challenged socio-economic fabric strains under new pressures. The series includes deep historical context for the meaning of community in the region and looks not only at the many problems facing its citizens, but also the nonprofits, emergent leaders and local programs aiming to improve quality of life and long-term viability. The series was recently compiled into a book. One takeaway is that despite the vast geography, our fates are intertwined and we increasingly rely on each other for basic needs. We hope the work inspires deeper contemplation of our connections to one another and a sense of purpose to meet the challenges ahead.
Third Place | Public Service
In Search of Community series by Paul Andersen