Aspen Journalism (https://www.aspenjournalism.org/)
Others agreed about the need to increase the River District’s revenue but expressed doubt a tax measure could pass in western Colorado’s more conservative counties, such as Mesa, Montrose and Delta, especially in a presidential election year with high turnout.
“I’m coming to Aspen mostly because, frankly, it’s where lots and lots of people in the financial industry come to play, and the financial industry — the biggest banks and asset managers in the world — are increasingly the focus of efforts to try and slow down climate change.”
For more than 4½ years, state engineers have expressed concerns that the conservancy district has not proven there is a need for the water, which would be stored in the proposed White River reservoir and dam project between Rangely and Meeker.
The Colorado Parks and Wildlife commission voted Wednesday to open the tract of land — officially called Game Management Unit 471 — for lion hunting. The change gives hunters more flexibility and range, and is designed to push the big cats away from town and reduce encounters with humans.
As Aspen evolved from a bucolic high-mountain meadow to an industrial city, pollution began to flow directly into the Roaring Fork River and its tributaries.
The Gunnison sage-grouse disappeared from Pitkin County in the 1960s; in the 1990s, it was extirpated in Eagle and Garfield counties.
The head of the Colorado River District says any funding must be channeled through the Colorado Water Conservation Board to prevent speculation by private buyers.
In addition to drier soils, aspen forests across the world are under stress from human activities such as mining, logging and urban development — as well as from some of the very wildlife they help support.
The new enforcement is being met begrudgingly by irrigators, many of whom are third- and fourth-generation ranchers and whose families have never measured and recorded water use in more than 100 years.