The Roundup | Highlighting stewardship challenges and suing ICE’s landlord

Recent reporting from Aspen Journalism highlights stewardship challenges from different perspectives — the identity of a community, the management of a treasured landscape, the future of a river system under increasing strain. 

We also broke the news when the city of Glenwood Springs filed an anticipated lawsuit going after a private landlord renting to the federal government — specifically, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has an administrative office in a West Glenwood commercial center that contains a temporary holding cell for detainees. Eleanor Bennett reports on how detentions that went on for 20 years without much fanfare became more controversial with a spike last year in holds for more than 12 hours — a violation of the facility’s special use permit with the city. That led to the permit being revoked. When the detentions continued, litigation commenced, though the city has sued the landlord, not ICE directly, believing that strategy has a better chance of success.

Tim Cooney’s exploration of Herbert Bayer’s legacy asks what Aspen has retained — and what it has left behind — as the simplicity and restraint Bayer championed meet a modern culture of excess. The reporting from our history desk also includes a breakdown of the latest exhibition from the Resnick Center for Herbert Bayer Studies in Aspen, compiling works spanning the artist and designer’s long career and highlighting the “recurrent dialogues” that emerge.

Elizabeth Stewart-Severy advanced the reporting on a proposal for Pitkin County to assume daily operations at the Maroon Bells Scenic Area in response to declining federal capacity, in a move that raises larger questions about precedent. Shortly before a critical county vote moving the plan forward, local and regional environmental groups asked for more time to evaluate the hand-off, and were granted an additional two weeks. 

Heather Sackett had a report on a major breakthrough in Colorado’s effort to conserve water while limiting harm to agricultural lands and rural communities, with the approval of a new state program that will pay water users to cut back. Sackett also shared the latest on the surprisingly controversial practice restoring degraded riparian areas by enticing beavers to return. 

We are also reflecting on our Sept. 11 event where I had the pleasure of interviewing Al Letson, the host of the investigative news program Reveal, before a crowd at the Hotel Jerome Grand Ballroom. We were fortunate to be visited by Al and some of his colleagues from the team that brings Reveal to hundreds of public radio stations and all your favorite podcast platforms; his passion for good story telling and a deeper exploration of the big issues shaping our communities was infectious. See a recording of the talk from Grassroots TV here. 

Thank you for reading and supporting independent, nonprofit journalism.

– Curtis Wackerle
Editor and Executive Director
Aspen Journalism

Glenwood Springs is suing JG Housing Solutions, alleging the landlord allowed ICE to detain 27 people at the Midland Center after its permit was revoked in April, according to Aspen Journalism’s data analysis. The city seeks an injunction halting detentions and fines of $1,000 per day or per violation. Anticipating a supremacy-clause defense, the complaint argues ICE could continue administrative work and immigration enforcement while using alternative Colorado holding facilities.
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Colorado’s 2023 Senate Bill 270 cleared a legal path for certain minor stream-restoration projects to proceed without water-rights administration. Early efforts use porous, beaver-like structures to slow water, trap sediment and reconnect degraded floodplains. But a proposed Four Mile Creek project has raised concerns from downstream water users about evaporation and water consumed by wetland vegetation. With limited research and state oversight, the projects are testing how Colorado balances watershed recovery with its prior-appropriation system.
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As the Resnick Center for Herbert Bayer Studies presents a wide-ranging retrospective of Bayer’s work, Aspen Journalism’s Tim Cooney examines the Bauhaus artist and designer’s enduring influence on Aspen. The story traces Bayer’s complex history, creative legacy and “form follows function” philosophy, contrasting his ideals of simplicity and restraint with the community’s modern turn toward sprawling mansions, luxury amenities and architectural excess. Bayer’s work and ideas offer a timely lens for considering how Aspen’s identity has changed—and what principles the community might carry forward.
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Pitkin County could begin managing daily operations at the Maroon Bells Scenic Area in 2027 as Forest Service staffing and budgets decline. The federal agency says the heavily visited site operates more than $300,000 in the red annually, while the county already manages the road and supports staffing and facilities. Federal ownership and ultimate authority would remain unchanged. A 15-day public-comment period will open after county commissioners approve the special-use permit and before the Forest Service signs its categorical exclusion. Advocates welcome public input but question the limited review and potential precedent.
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Colorado’s water board unanimously approved criteria for a one-year conservation program that would use $100 million in federal funding to pay Upper Basin water users to voluntarily reduce use in 2027. The program aims to broaden participation beyond agriculture and discourage multiyear fallowing, which can harm fields and rural economies. Proposed projects must protect water rights, avoid negative community impacts and build drought resilience. Final implementation depends on an agreement ensuring Colorado receives credit and retains control over water saved and stored in Lake Powell or other Upper Basin reservoirs.
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