Noticias

• Telluride Needs Its Shine Back
• The Good Guys Helping Gunnison Sage Grouse
• Cat Movie Fisher with Risho Unda

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Telluride Needs Its Shine Back

Matt Skinner is worried Telluride, as a resort destination, is losing its shine.

“Conde Nast, Forbes, we’re off of those Top 10 lists now, where we had been, as recent as six years ago number 1 and number two. Those are survey based, and not science, but it’s indicative,” Skinner said.

Skinner is the CEO of Colorado Flights Alliance, a local organization focused on developing economic vitality and sustainability through air service in the region.

“I had a younger skier come up to us and tell us that Telluride isn’t the cool place to ski anymore,” he said.

Skinner provided Mountain Village Town Council an update this week on flight trends in and out of the region. He notes a discussion about flights speaks to a broader conversation on the health of the destination. He says with tourism at the heart of the local economy, and air travel a major player in tourism, if flights are down, it doesn’t bode well for the economy.

Several weeks ago, Skinner says he heard from airlines saying they wanted to pull flights, or larger jets, from the destination.

“It’s basically a lack of confidence that we’re going to be able to fill those seats, and fill those seats at a good rate. They’re going to take that bigger plane and put it into a different market. It was Huston in the spring. It was Dallas. It was United over the holidays,” Skinner said.

Skinner notes that they were able to keep the flights coming in.

“But we need to fill them, and we need to reverse the trend and start moving visitation closer to the air capacity as it had once been,” he said.

Digging into where visitation numbers are dipping, Skinner says summer is okay. The challenge is with winter — specifically January and February.

“That is where the major piece of the leakage has been going on. That time period is group, it’s international, it’s guy/girl trips. That kind of thing. With that then, it leads us back into what we’ve been working with the ski resort on, where most of those resources — along with sales and marketing — have been eliminated. The group product was gone. International was gone. Ourselves and the Tourism Board are trying to carry the load,” Skinner said.

He says this all comes as other resorts in Telluride’s market have their foot on the gas on capital improvements.

“There’s almost like a renaissance of Western ski resorts going on with the capital improvements that are happening and the marketing that’s going on. It’s tough out there when Steamboat puts $250 million into their base area, when Winter Park is putting $2 billion into a master plan including a gondola, you have a $50 million gondola in Big Sky,” he said.

To put it bluntly:

“We’re outgunned out there in the marketplace,” Skinner said.

Where does the destination go from here?

“The solution is collaboration amongst ourselves and with our resort partners to put the shine back on Telluride in a very general term,” he said.

Town Council says it remains committed to supporting the destination, but members share concern for how to move forward.

“The Town will continue to do everything in its power, but there reaches a point when if there’s not investment into the ski resort by the owner of the ski resort, our hands are tied,” said Mountain Village Mayor Marti Prohaska.

“It’s the canary in the coal mine. So, thank you for putting us on notice,” Mountain Village Town Councilmember Pete Duprey said.

According to Skinner, Telluride as a destination is looking to be 5–7 percent down this winter.

The Telluride Ski Resort is scheduled to open for the winter season on Saturday, Dec. 6.

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The Good Guys Helping Gunnison Sage Grouse

For a small bird, the Gunnison sage grouse commands serious attention across Western Colorado landscapes. Years of work have gone into restoring its habitat. In 2014, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the bird as threatened as population numbers declined. Now, a network of federal, state and local partners is working to support the species — from its mating rituals to meadow restoration for foraging and habitat.

The grouse is closely tied to the Gunnison Basin. Of an estimated 3,800 birds worldwide, about 3,000 live outside Gunnison in rolling sagebrush country. The rest — known as satellite populations — are scattered across the Western Slope. Roughly 300 live in San Miguel County.

Most of those birds cluster around the Miramonte Reservoir area, also known as the Dan Noble Colorado State Wildlife Area. For Colorado Parks and Wildlife biologist Evan Phillips and San Miguel Basin Gunnison Sage-Grouse Working Group coordinator Renzo DelPiccolo, the area’s 2,200 acres function as a laboratory for habitat improvements.

Across the West, decades of grazing, wagon trails and general use have left landscapes vulnerable to erosion. Wet meadow habitats that sage grouse rely on are disappearing. DelPiccolo says it doesn’t take much to start the process.

“We have this dam here, right? And you can see the problems that these dams cause. I mean, some of these, what they’re called stock ponds, can be just, they can create a lot of that which is right behind you. They create that unintentionally. They’re just trying to, you know, people trying to stop water. But if there isn’t a good outlet like this, it goes over and it just starts cutting the heck out of that dam, you know, and then all that energy goes into the gully below it, and, you know, start scouring all of that so.”

As we walk into a sea of sagebrush above Miramonte Reservoir, small rock structures begin to appear. Phillips says they work with conservation teams to install these structures to slow water, prevent erosion and improve habitat.

“We’re trying to place these rocks in a way, this one’s called a rock rundown, and place the rocks in a way so that it protects and armors where the erosion is happening in that head cut. And so what it’ll do is it’ll just, it’ll allow the water to come down this grade and not take the soil with it. And so it’ll just take the energy out of the water and stop any further erosion from happening.”

Walking along a depression in the terrain shows how Phillips and DelPiccolo approach habitat work. We move from structure to structure — some the size of a footpath, known as one-rock dams, others as large as a swimming pool, called zuni bowls.

“That’s what we’re worried about. This just keeps moving upstream, because it just keeps cutting it down. So that’s the headcut, and we’ll probably see. You know this, the these head cuts here are a little bit smaller. We’ll probably see some better examples on our trip today.”

For Gunnison sage grouse, wet meadows give young birds places to find insects and offer higher-quality habitat. But that’s only one piece of the puzzle. In the spring, the birds move to leks — open habitat “dance floors” where males display for mates.

The grouse are highly sensitive during mating season, and research shows that roads or oil and gas activity miles away can disrupt entire leks. Phillips says lek sites share distinct characteristics.

“Usually it’s an open area, like a little meadow that has good visibility. And then also, I think there’s some parts of the landscape that are just have good acoustic qualities, because in addition to doing their display, they also make a calling sound, and they so they kind of pick an area that has it’s open so the females can see them, and then also is kind of has the right topography for their call to broadcast out as well.”

Exact lek locations are closely guarded by those working with the species. Phillips says the Miramonte population includes around 40 males — the highest in years. But both Gunnison sage grouse and their close relative, the greater sage grouse, remain in trouble. Drought, climate change and human disturbance continue to put the birds at the forefront of wildlife management challenges across the West.

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Cat Movie Fisher with Risho Unda

It’s Friday and time for another installment of Cat Movie Fisher – where Telluride High School’s Risho Unda chats with members of the community about their favorite movies. This week he’s talking with paraprofessional Anthony Oldani.

Story begins at 9:05.

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Mountain Village, Telski Continue Talks on Snowmaking Water Rates

Discussions surrounding water rates for snowmaking are ongoing.

In October, Mountain Village Town Council had a conversation about raising the water rates on the Telluride Ski Resort for snowmaking.

Town Council planned to continue that conversation at their meeting this week, but are pushing a public discussion to next month. Here’s Mountain Village Town Manager Paul Wisor.

“Council directed staff to have additional conversations with TSG staff. We have been doing that, and I want to thank Marti Whitmore in particular from TSG for her collaboration and hard work as we try to find a path with respect to snowmaking rates that benefits not only the community, the town as an organization, but TSG as well,” Wisor said.

Wisor says they will come back in December with a more thorough report and, hopefully, solutions on the issue.

Mountain Village’s December meeting will take place on Thursday, Dec. 11.

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GMUG Christmas Tree Permits Now Available for the Holiday Season

The holidays are coming, and the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests want you to be prepared. Christmas tree permits are officially available on the GMUG.

With a permit, tree cutting is allowed on GMUG land with the exception of wilderness areas, scenic pullouts, timber sale areas, recreation areas, campgrounds and trailheads. Trees must be a maximum of 20 feet, with a maximum stump height and diameter of 6 inches. Individuals are allowed to select a subalpine fir, Engelmann spruce, lodgepole pine, bristlecone pine, Douglas-fir, ponderosa pine, pinyon pine or juniper — although there may be some local species restrictions.

In addition to a fun tradition, GMUG officials note cutting a Christmas tree can help improve forest health. Removing densely populated small trees helps other trees grow and can open areas that provide forage for wildlife.

Christmas tree permits are available at the Norwood and Ouray Ranger District offices or at recreation.gov.

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Colorado Water Conservation Board to Co-Manager Western Slope Water Rights

The Colorado Water Conservation Board has approved a deal to co-manage one of the oldest water rights on the Colorado River with the Western Slope.

The Colorado River District, which represents 15 Western Slope counties, agreed to purchase the Shoshone water right from Xcel Energy in 2023, with one of the conditions being that the right, located in Glenwood Canyon at the Shoshone Power Plant, be part of the state’s instream flow program.

It’s a program for water rights that help preserve the natural environment.

The approval comes despite objections from utility companies in Denver, Aurora, Colorado Springs and other fast-growing Front Range communities.

Taylor Hawes, who represents the Colorado River’s main stem on the conservation board, spoke during a six-hour meeting on Wednesday. She said she understood concerns on both sides and believes that water court, which has to sign off on the deal, will help determine what’s fair.

“That has been kind of the heart of all of this, and that is the water court’s job and I hope we can all trust that the water court’s process will give us a result where we don’t have to worry about that, that everyone’s concerns will be addressed in that process,” Hawes said.

So far, the River District has raised about $57 million from Western Slope communities to complete the $99 million purchase.

The federal government also committed $40 million for the purchase in 2024, but those funds are currently frozen by the Trump administration.

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Colorado Voters Express Concern Over Political Violence

A new poll finds Colorado voters are more worried than Americans overall about the potential for political violence.

For the Colorado Capitol News Alliance, Bente Birkeland reported on the findings.

Story begins 16:08.

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Poet Crisosto Apache Releases New Book ‘Is(ness)’

Poet Crisosto Apache is originally from the Mescalero Apache Reservation in New Mexico and currently lives in the Denver area.

Their new book of poetry, Is(ness), has just been released.

Rocky Mountain Community Radio’s Maeve Conran spoke with Apache to find out more.

Story begins at 17:00.