Category: The Roundup newsletter

Recently at Aspen Journalism, we published Water Desk Editor Heather Sackett’s report on the conclusion of two studies looking at backup-water-supply options for the Crystal River, where late-summer low stream flows threaten water availability for some residential subdivisions with junior water rights.

A three-part series on the history of the Northern Utes, this region’s indigenous peoples, from Aspen-based history writer Tim Cooney.

As someone who has lived my entire life in the American West — between a childhood in Portland, college years in Montana, and the time since in the Roaring Fork Valley — I’ve grown to be shocked and saddened over how little we as a society understand and acknowledge the extent of what took place […]

Why are water managers, whose operational lives are now dominated by making and planning for adaptations in response to climate change, so notably absent from climate-action discussions?

Recently at Aspen Journalism, we brought you a story (“The outsized impact of REMP residences,” May 27) born of Data Editor Laurine Lassalle’s curiosity about what could be learned by examining permit data for homes subject to the city of Aspen and Pitkin County’s Renewable Energy Mitigation Program, or REMP. For more than two decades, […]

Putting together our announcement post, linked below, was a great trip down memory lane, revisiting the stories and reflecting on all that went into each of them. See which of AJ’s stories from last year the judges from SPJ chapters in Chicago and Ohio chose as among the best journalism in a four-state region. 

Water Desk Editor Heather Sackett has been on a roll lately, with her three most recent stories taking you to distinct corners of the beat. Sackett posted breaking news in recent weeks on basin-by-basin runoff forecasts, which are looking strong; a bill up for debate in the state legislature that would establish a task force […]

Aspen Journalism’s work since our last edition of The Roundup highlights something I’ve been thinking about regarding our structure of providing coverage under a series of “desks,” or focus areas.  Since AJ’s first story in spring of 2011, we’ve categorized our reporting using more than a dozen such desks. That list has included wealth and […]

Three years after the first COVID-19 case was reported in Colorado and Pitkin County, this week’s update of “Tracking the Curve” will be the last.  Over the past few months, the data has become less reliable as people rely more on at-home testing, resulting in fewer cases and positive tests being reported to the state […]