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 than 1,100 in-depth and investigative stories written by just over 40 of the best journalists serving our communities, charging nothing for the work while raising over $3 million from our audience and generous foundations that support us. We do this because we believe that good journalism is the air we breathe in a free society, the building block of democracy — and a balm that combats fear and hate, simply by bearing honest witness to what is taking place around us.
It’s no secret that the local and rural press has taken a big hit in the last two decades. A growing number of Americans live in places without a newsroom of local journalists working on their behalf, with many more in communities where that newsroom has been diminished and is facing existential threats. Aspen Journalism was set up, and continues to act, as an antidote to those trends. Through the support of readers like you, we are able to backfill some of the contraction seen in local news, particularly when it comes to coverage of specialized beats and investigative angles. It’s why we attend countless and often obscure public meetings each year, resulting in stories like our recent breaking news about tribal efforts to be compensated for their vast-but-often-untapped water rights that prop up use in the Colorado River basin; or why we spend months digging through complex data sets in order to bring you journalism like our recent reporting on the Aspen-Pitkin County Airport layout debate or Aspen-Pitkin County Housing Authority ownership lotteries.
At Aspen Journalism, we are proud to be part of a community full of dedicated individuals and organizations working overtime to make our mountain valley home a better place; we are honored to be part of a news industry standing strong against the headwinds as we seek creative ways to ensure we can continue to bring you the news you need.
If you are looking for a way to make a difference, supporting the communities of the Roaring Fork watershed and all who depend on the headwaters basins of the Colorado River, this is a great time to join us. We are one week into our eighth-annual NewsMatch campaign, where donations of up to $1,000 are matched dollar for dollar through Dec. 31, while larger gifts are matched by a philanthropic giving pool.
We are also excited to share that on Dec. 12, we are co-hosting an event with the Glenwood Springs-based nonprofit Community Builders, offering the chance to gather at Morgridge Commons at the Colorado Mountain College campus in downtown Glenwood Springs. Save the date for an evening event will feature a panel discussion jumping off from the 10-part In Search of Community series from Paul Andersen published by AJ earlier this year, examining how we approach a collective sense of belonging in the Greater Roaring Fork Region. Look for more details and an official event announcement soon.
With that, we share below our recent editorial production, including the aforementioned airport story and critical insight on the push to secure one of the most environmentally critical water rights on the Western Slope, which flows through the operationally challenged Shoshone hydropower plant in Glenwood Canyon. And in the latest piece produced under our social justice reporting collaboration with Aspen Public Radio, Eleanor Bennett dives into why Garfield County commissioners may again play a larger role in appointing new members to the county’s library board.
Thank you, as always, for reading and supporting the valley’s only nonprofit, investigative news origination.
– Curtis Wackerle
Editor and Executive Director
Aspen Journalism
This journalism is available for free to all who want to read it. That’s possible because some of you, with only thanks in return, donate to fund this work.
New openings on the Garfield County Libraries’ board renew debate over book restrictions and government oversight
County commissioners again will step up role in appointment process
By Eleanor Bennett
November 4, 2024
“There’s enough controversy about this that my perspective is we want to see some diversity of opinion on the library board, where there’s discussion back and forth, instead of what I would call, I guess, ‘like-think,’” Garfield County Commissioner Tom Jankovsky said in an interview.
Forecasting what will fly if runway is moved animates airport debate
Data suggests a relatively little demand for older and larger aircraft, but newer generation private planes are more popular
By Laurine Lassalle and Curtis Wackerle | November 2, 2024
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.
Extended Shoshone hydro plant outages add urgency to water rights campaign
Outage protocol not as reliable as water rights permanency
By Heather Sackett | October 31, 2024
When the Shoshone plant is offline, the instream flow right would be activated to continue pulling water downstream, making ShOP obsolete and solidifying a critical water right for the Western Slope.
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