The move to close the boundary, unveiled when the company released this winter’s trail map in August, came in part at the request of landowners of two adjacent parcels, one of which is being marketed as a multimillion dollar real estate investment.
Category: Environment
Aspen Journalism’s “Connie Harvey Environment Desk” is named in honor of the longtime Aspen environmentalist.
Posted inEnvironment
Pitkin County moving to place a cap on exterior energy use
The Pitkin County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) on Dec. 6 approved on first reading a package of code amendments that place a cap on exterior energy use at 200 million British thermal units (Btu) per year and per parcel and implement new “electric-ready” requirements.
Posted inEnvironment
Imminence of CRJ-700 retirement overstated in initial airport expansion studies
Consultants studying the airport for Pitkin County predicted in 2013 that the CRJ-700 fleet would be phased out “sometime in the next decade,” with retirements beginning in 2018. Half the fleet would be retired by 2021, with planes no longer in use by 2025, according to presentations delivered to Pitkin County commissioners in 2013 and 2014. That prediction about the CRJs being well on their way to retirement by now hasn’t borne out in the time frame presented. SkyWest, which operates flights for the three commercial carriers serving Aspen, is flying about 16% fewer CRJ-700s today than in 2018.
Posted inEnvironment
Colorado wildlife officials aim to reduce hunter crowding, sustain elk herds
Although elk population numbers in northwest Colorado currently meet objectives set by the state, those numbers are probably not sustainable. Meanwhile, the state’s hunters have expressed concerns that they see more humans than animals during hunting seasons
Posted inEnvironment
Tension between lethal control and coexistence plays out in wolf-reintroduction efforts
“It’s a perverse incentive to facilitate wolves killing livestock and for more wolves to be killed. The livestock industry, having failed with a big-money campaign to defeat [2020’s Proposition 114], has worked to subvert it through a wolf plan that includes the absence of a requirement for preventative measures.”
Posted inEnvironment
Perceptions vary as Colorado prepares for wolf reintroduction
Twelve of the state’s 64 counties voted in favor of bringing wolves to the state. Only five of those are on the Western Slope, home of the proposed wolf-release sites and the lion’s share of ranchers, hunters and outfitters who spoke up at CPW meetings.
Posted inEnvironment
Plan to donate Castle Creek land for school, hospital housing project faces hurdles
“We’re no different from anyone else in our valley looking for quality employees,” the superintendent said, “and it’s the first question asked on every single application whether it’s a mechanic, a teacher, a bus driver or a school principal.”
Posted inEnvironment
Pitkin County public health turns focus to climate
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.
Posted inEnvironment
D.C. Circuit Court hits the brakes on Uinta Basin Railway, but oil transport through Colorado is still on the table
“When federal agencies are the on/off switches for climate impacts, air pollution impacts, surface impacts of wildlife habitat, they can’t say, as the [STB] did here, ‘Oh, no, not our problem. We don’t control who develops oil in the Uinta Basin. We don’t know where the oil is going. We’re just approving the railway,’” Zukoski said. “The court saw through that.”
Posted inEnvironment
SkiCo-funded methane-capture project no longer generates electricity
Aspen Skiing Co. had provided most of the capital investment for the system, which was generating 3 megawatts of baseload power. But things didn’t turn out exactly as Caskey and the rest of the project partners had hoped,
