Wilderness watersheds and wildfire risk. Murky legal territory around river access. Increasing immigration enforcement netting more people without criminal records. In this edition of The Roundup, we bring you a trio of in-depth features all unique in the topics they cover, but united in their fidelity to analyzing complex issues of deep cultural, economic and […]
Author Archives: Curtis Wackerle
Curtis Wackerle is the Editor and Executive Director of Aspen Journalism, where he guides the nonprofit’s mission to deliver in-depth, independent reporting on environmental and community issues in Colorado’s mountain regions. He has extensive experience in journalism and editorial leadership, including 14 years at Aspen Daily News, where he covered city hall and, from 2016 until joining Aspen Journalism in 2020, served as editor in chief. Under his direction, Aspen Journalism has grown as a trusted source for nuanced coverage of water, land use, public policy and socioeconomic issues in the West. He grew up in Portland, has a journalism degree from the University of Montana, and lives in Woody Creek.
The Roundup | Sustaining the lifelines we share
Across the Roaring Fork Valley, change is testing the systems and values that define our communities. Recent reporting from Aspen Journalism featured in this edition of The Roundup touches on themes ranging from insurance-company-hired fire crews protecting homes in the face of wildfire to the loss of another high-level leader at the White River National […]
The Roundup | Rights on the line: Pay, water and community
A canceled party didn’t stop local community from planting roots “Latino Conservation Week” saw families planting trees and rafting, though this year’s event was scaled back and did not include the White River National Forest’s official participation amid federal DEI rollbacks. In addition, safety concerns over increasing immigration enforcement led organizers to hold smaller gatherings […]
The Roundup | Confronting our urgent climate and environmental challenges
As summer turns to fall, Aspen Journalism remains focused on reporting the most urgent challenges and opportunities shaping Aspen and the Roaring Fork Valley. Seven recent stories trace a common thread: the effects of climate change are intensifying, our institutional capacity is stretched, and yet our community continues to search for innovative, collaborative solutions. Drought, […]
Aspen Journalism recognized with six awards in 2024 Better News Media Contest
Aspen Journalism recognized with six awards in 2024 Better News Media Contest AJ claimed three first-place awards, including best news story and best public service project Dear friends of Aspen Journalism, Aspen Journalism received six awards in the Colorado Press Association’s 2024 Better News Media Contest. The awards, announced on Aug. 24 at the Local […]
The Roundup | Crisis of the commons: Public lands and the human story
You can’t make sense of where you’re going without an understanding of where you’ve been. That’s the idea behind the three-part series recently published by Aspen Journalism from Paul Andersen, examining the “crisis of the commons” on the American continent and in our backyard, across the arc of history.
The Roundup | Residents’ offer accepted, mussel source found, a river that flows free
Thank you, as always, for reading and supporting the valley’s only nonprofit, investigative news origination, as we share the latest of our summer reporting below. And please check our website or pick up the Aspen Daily News Saturday through Monday for a new three-part series from Paul Andersen exploring the historic legacy of public lands across […]
The Roundup | Lift One impacts, dam problems, mobile home protections
Here at Aspen Journalism, we’re having a great summer season, with a diverse array of in-depth and investigative news highlighting our region’s most significant issues — our water infrastructure and planning for a hotter, drier future; tenuous housing security facing many mobile home park residents; the impacts of Aspen’s massive Lift One corridor redevelopment coming […]
The Roundup | Staking out the Aspen billionaire landscape
The Aspen 80 The influence of ultra-wealthy homeowners in the Aspen area is inescapable. The building and maintaining of palatial residential developments, and catering to their occupants, forms the bedrock of much of the local economy, but this sector often plays as an enigma in its local-culture footprint. Seldom do we get to know who […]
The Roundup | A date circled on the calendar
Local journalist Kaya Williams had June 9 circled on her calendar, as the date that the pending sale of the 3,739-acre St Benedict’s Monastery property in Old Snowmass was scheduled to close. But as she reported this week in collaboration with Josie Taris of Aspen Daily News, the deal, which we first reported this spring, […]
