Noticias

• Valley Floor Day Sparks Curiosity and Wonder
• Planet V Brings Together Culture, Community, and Creativity
• Cat Movie Fisher with Risho Unda

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Valley Floor Day Sparks Curiosity and Wonder

It’s the perfect day to explore the Valley Floor. The sky is bright blue, the sun is warm, and the wind tussles the trees and grass.

“Who do you think owns the Valley Floor?” asked Sarah Holbrooke, executive director of the Pinhead Institute.

“You?” replied a group of children.

“We all do, because the Town of Telluride bought the Valley Floor so nothing would be built on it. It would remain natural,” Holbrooke said.

On Monday, kindergarteners through second graders tromped through the Valley Floor as part of the annual Valley Floor Education Day.

“There are five different stations that you’ll be at today,” Holbrooke said. “The first one is the pond, where you’ll learn about all the weird things that live in the pond. The second station is the river, so you’re going to learn a little bit about water flow and what lives in the river. The third station is snack!”

Station four is the forest station, and station five is the willow station.

The Pinhead Institute — a local STEM education nonprofit — hosts the day in collaboration with Sheep Mountain Alliance, the San Miguel Watershed Coalition, EcoAction Partners, and the Telluride Historical Museum.

Trang Pham, program manager at the Pinhead Institute, said she hopes the day inspires young people to be curious and observant of the land they live on.

“A lot of times when the kids are just wandering, they might not know what they’re looking at,” Pham said. “So, to have experts to say ‘Oh, that’s a caddis fly you’re touching right now,’ to be able to understand the environment they see is great.”

Over at the pond station, students discussed the difference between vertebrates and invertebrates.

“My name is Banks and I’m in first grade,” said Banks Carter, who was out on the Valley Floor with his class.

He said his favorite part had been learning about the bugs.

“I got to see bugs and I got to learn about the ecosystem,” Carter said. “There’s a bunch of animals that live here and there’s a lot of animals that like the Valley Floor.”

For Carter’s father, Chris Carter, the hope is that spending time on the Valley Floor will help instill the importance of taking care of the natural world.

“I have three boys and one of the things I teach them that my job is, is to provide, protect, and prepare them for their future,” Chris Carter said. “When I think about what we need to do for the environment, we need to teach them to do the same. They need to be good providers, protectors, and prepare the environment — leave places better than they found them at all times.”

At the willow section, representatives from the Telluride Historical Museum spoke about the original stewards of the land.

“Native Americans, specifically the Ute people, were the people who lived on the Valley Floor and all around the region,” said Charlotte Lynch, with the Telluride Historical Museum.

Nestled back in the forest, Ruthie Boyd, program director for Sheep Mountain Alliance, said she hopes the day brings wonder and curiosity.

“I think it just fosters curiosity and care for the places they’re growing up,” Boyd said. “I can only hope it turns them into climate activists or environmentalists in whatever way that looks to them, and inspires joy and belonging of this home in Telluride.”

The Valley Floor is approximately 570 acres of land at the entrance of Telluride. It was placed in a conservation easement in 2009 to be permanently protected as open space.

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Planet V Brings Together Culture, Community, and Creativity

Amongst cottonwood trees, Camp V rests above Highway 141 just outside of Naturita. While Camp V may be new to some, it’s a continuation of the bustling mining days that once defined the West End.

Natalie Binder, owner and founder of the modern Camp V, has poured her heart into restoring and reimagining the former mining camp. Today, the site features modern cabins, interactive art installations, and buildings for retreats and gatherings—an homage to the transformation of the Western landscape.

“Camp V is a historic mining town that was built in 1942 to house the engineers who worked in the nearby mill,” Binder said.

In 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic limited in-person gatherings, Camp V hosted a small event that would later grow into what is now known as the Planet V festival.

“We were restoring the cabins during COVID but had the camp open,” Binder said. “When Burning Man was canceled, a lot of people in our community contacted us and said, ‘Because it’s rural, and it’s outdoor, and it’s able to do social distancing—can we please get together?’ A lot of people in urban areas didn’t have that opportunity to connect like we did, having access to so many trails and being outside.”

Planet V has since evolved into an annual gathering focused on art, music and community reconnection.

“Very impromptu, I think it was two weeks before we threw together a group of 75 people,” Binder said. “And it was really special. For us, we hadn’t seen a lot of these people. For a lot of other folks that came, they really hadn’t connected with anyone in a while. So we were never planning on throwing a large-scale event like this, but that weekend was special. We were encouraged by the people that came who said, ‘This is not only a really special community but a special project, a special place in the state. You have to keep going with this.’”

Now in its fifth year, Planet V is expected to draw more than 600 attendees from across the Southwest. Binder said the growth has been “a really beautiful accident.”

“I wish we had a better word for festival than what we do,” she said. “I spent a lot of time researching these smaller gatherings that do incorporate more than music. Really, the English language doesn’t have a word for it.”

She added, “But yeah, we do some really unique wellness workshops. We just created two new gathering spaces—the pavilion, which we call the Vortex, and then this upper space that we call V-Trove. So we’ll have a wellness center that’s open. It can be a space where people can come and wind down or meditate.”

This year’s event also includes a kids zone, sponsored by Citizens State Bank.

“We’re very grateful for that,” Binder said. “So we’ll have flag making, a talent show and a kids-of-all-ages parade because we really want to celebrate the child in all of us. You know, Planet V is for everyone, so there’s just really unique programming in terms of the art, classes, [and] offerings.”

The festivities begin on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend, with themes throughout the event such as Velvet Galaxy and Cosmic Creatures. Musicians range from established local acts to up-and-coming performers from the Denver and Santa Fe areas.

“What’s so interesting about rural places in the West is that there is this sense of freedom,” Binder said. “And I think as humans we really need that opportunity to sit around a fire and connect if we need to—and not have this last call, ‘It’s time to go to bed, you gotta be quiet.’ We want to encourage these spaces for meaningful conversations. Or, I think, people need to howl at the moon. Also, if they need to rest—going to bed when they need to go to bed. It’s just less structured in that sense. Whereas in more populated areas, you do have to have more restrictions and more limitations because there’s just more people to think about.”

She added, “When you’re in a more rural setting, you have that opportunity for more freedom. And I think as humans, we need that opportunity—not only to have that freedom but to have that space to connect.”

Planet V begins Memorial Day weekend and showcases the West End and the rarity of true freedom. For more information, visit planetvfest.info.

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Cat Movie Fisher with Risho Unda

On Cat Movie Fisher, Telluride High School’s Risho Unda chats with members of the community about what they’re reading, watching, and where they’re traveling. This week, he spoke with fellow student, Perry Robinson.

Story beings at 9:08.

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Norwood Awarded BEST Grant for New School

After two failed ballot measures a new Norwood School may still be happening. The Norwood Public School Board was notified yesterday May 15^th that it was awarded the BEST Grant from the State of Colorado. While details are forthcoming, past grant requests from Norwood were upwards of $60 million dollars. The grant will be used to construct a new public school near the Lone Cone Library, an upgrade from the current school which suffers from aging infrastructure.

The school board will release further details which includes a likely ballot measure in November for final approval from voters.

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CDOT to Conduct Road Work on Highway 145 Next Week

The Colorado Department of Transportation will begin road work on a five-mile stretch of Colorado Highway 145 between Redvale and Naturita next week.

Crews will perform surface treatment between mile markers 112 and 117. The project is scheduled to run from Monday, May 19, through Friday, May 23, with work taking place from 5:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day.

Drivers should expect single-lane, alternating traffic, reduced speed limits and delays of 10 to 15 minutes.

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CPW Launches Inaugural Range Rider Program

Colorado Parks and Wildlife has wrapped up a four-day training for its inaugural range rider program.

Thirteen contracted employees with CPW and the state’s Department of Agriculture will monitor livestock on horseback or in vehicles around Western Colorado to deter wolf attacks. The riders have experience in livestock behavior, land management and animal husbandry. They provide their own trucks, trailers, horses, ATVs and other necessary gear for on-range patrols.

At an information session earlier this year, Rae Nickerson, a Ph.D. student at Utah State University, said the goal is not to prevent all wolf attacks, but to decrease those losses by intimately getting to know their herds.

“Chasing wolves around an allotment all day is not your job. Your job is to know your patterns so well—of your livestock, your landscape, and your individual predators—that you can catch a problem happening,” Nickerson said. “Because if you’re off chasing wolves ten miles away, you might be missing something that’s happening in your herd.”

The program is estimated to cost roughly $500,000 per year and is funded by the Born to Be Wild license plate. Livestock producers interested in hiring their own range riders may be eligible for funding through the USDA.

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Republicans Push States for More Food Aid Investment

House Republicans want states to pay more for federal food aid.

From the Colorado Capitol News Alliance, Caitlyn Kim reports on what that could mean for Colorado.

Story beings at 13:57.

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Queer Prom Offers Support and Joy for Youth on the Western Slope

A prom with a difference took place on Colorado’s Western Slope last weekend.

The annual Queer Prom is part of an effort to support the mental health of queer youth in the Roaring Fork Valley. This is the second year the event has been held. It was organized by two local nonprofits: Cook Inclusive and AspenOUT. Despite policies enacted during the Trump administration that many viewed as harmful to queer youth, students remained joyful and nearly undeterred.

For Rocky Mountain Community Radio, Aspen Public Radio’s Regan Mertz reports on how the event is evolving and how the local queer community is continuing to persevere.

Story beings at 14:42.