No matter how you feel about the election results, we can all agree on the importance of fact-based civil discourse and an informed public. “Well informed citizens make better decisions” has been our motto since Aspen Journalism’s founding in the wake of the Great Recession. In our almost 14 years in business, we’ve published more […]
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.
Posted inEnvironment
Forecasting what will fly if runway is moved animates airport debate
Data from other airports in the Western U.S. that serve mountain-resort destinations where such planes can land suggests there is relatively little demand for private Boeing 737s that are currently too big for Aspen.
Posted inThe Roundup newsletter
The Roundup | Water workgroups, mobile home park activism, collective recreation management
Happy Halloween! Can you imagine how frightening it would be to live in a world without local, independent, in-depth journalism? Let’s be sure that spooky story never happens! Tomorrow, November 1, we launch our end-of-year campaign with the goal to raise $190,000 by December 31. It’s an ambitious goal, but it is one that allows […]
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The Roundup | Midvalley’s aging demographics and a new ownership opportunity in Glenwood Springs
This week in The Roundup, two new stories from Aspen Journalism shedding light on the Greater Roaring Fork Region’s socioeconomic conditions. In her first piece for the Aspen Journalism Social Justice Desk in partnership with Aspen Public Radio, Eleanor Bennett goes under the hood of a significant new affordable housing venture led by Habitat for […]
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The Roundup | Aspen Journalism and Aspen Public Radio launch multimedia Social Justice Desk
Editor’s note: This special edition of The Roundup is being sent to all contacts to share an exciting announcement from Aspen Journalism and Aspen Public Radio. If you haven’t yet, please consider subscribing to our weekly letter from the newsroom bringing you the best of local, nonprofit and investigative reporting. Multimedia Social Justice Desk staffed […]
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The Roundup | Infrastructure includes trails and turbines
This week from Aspen Journalism, two stories that strike a chord, for different reasons. Elizabeth Stewart-Severy brings us a piece that resonates with the salience of recreation access as a binding community issue, especially when such access has a particular impact on youth. Another issue that affects almost everyone, central to the story, is the […]
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The Roundup | What’s in the water?
Test results show high iron and aluminum when Lincoln Creek and the Roaring Fork ran orange In September 2022, Aspen Journalism reported on a local, state and federal agency investigation into what was fouling the waters of Lincoln Creek. By November 2023, findings pointed to elevated heavy metals concentrations that were naturally occurring, and in […]
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The Roundup | AJ honored with statewide awards for collaboration and environmental reporting
This past weekend, I had the pleasure of attending the Colorado Press Association’s annual convention. The Local News Solutions 2024 gathering held Aug. 22-24 in a hotel conference center in a north Denver suburb delivered on its thematic premise — that strategies exist to strengthen and sustain local journalism. Chief among them is collaboration. Despite […]
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The Roundup | Wildlife, compost, clean water and conservation tracking
Aspen Journalism water and environment desks ponder critical questions this summer.
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The Roundup | Housing reporting grounded in data, rooted in lived experience
In January 2023, Aspen Journalism published a two–part investigative analysis of the 1,650 or so units making up the ownership inventory of the Aspen Pitkin County Housing Authority, from AJ data editor Laurine Lassalle and longtime freelance collaborator Catherine Lutz. The idea behind the project was to take stock of the component parts of what […]
