All Points Transit Updates Telluride Seniors

Chicken pot pie is on the menu and transportation is on the agenda at this week’s senior lunch in the basement of Telluride’s Christ Church. Lunch regulars go about business as usual, settling in with close friends and enjoying the hearty fare on a grim April day. 

But today’s lunch has a special guest: Executive Director of All Points Transit Sarah Curtis is in town spreading the word about their services.

“We’re based in Montrose but we’re serving communities all over the Western slope. We have services all the way up into rural Delta County and out to the West end of Montrose county and of course happy to help with some transit in Norwood and Telluride,” says Curtis. 

All Points is a non-profit transit service providing low-cost customized rides by appointment, getting its users exactly where they need to go right when they need it. The service comes in handy in all sorts of situations, but one which is particularly common? Medical Appointments, Curtis says. 

“It's a huge challenge to have communities, especially mountainous communities, that are so far from a medical hub, such as all the areas I just spoke of: Telluride, Nucla, Naturita. I mean, it’s hours to get to Grand Junction or Montrose where you need to have your appointment, let alone getting to Denver to see a specialist,” says Curtis. 

Telluride Resident Elizabeth Gick has used All Points for just that reason: accessing medical care which was far afield. 

“I love what we have here in town,” says Gick, “but there are certain special services that especially elderly people need and sometimes the doctors don't want us to drive, even if we feel like ‘Oh I can do this.’ And then, the service comes in really handy. And it comes in handy on a snowy day. There are good excuses for using it rather than our own cars. “

Gick heard about All Points from a friend, called the ride service up, and, she says, she has rave reviews. 

“And it was seamless and very pleasant,” Gick says. 

“We do a lot of work with helping folks access medical care,” Curtis adds, “and we do a lot of work with older adults and persons with disabilities; however, we are open to everyone. Anyone can call for a ride.” 

Curtis hasn't been to a senior lunch since before the pandemic and was happy to return to Telluride to spread the word about All Points and share the news of their recently expanded schedule. For some in the crowd, it was more or less old news. 

“My name is Pam Pettee, and I come to senior lunch almost every Monday. I haven’t had a car since 1987, when I learned it was cheaper to rent cars for what I needed. But now I don't do that either! And I've been using All Points for years to get to medical appointments,” Pettee continues. “They even let me shop after if it works with their schedule, so I appreciate that. I'm a fan.” 

Pettee says she was happy the word was getting out about the ride service. She’s amongst the few in attendance who have used All Points or even knew it existed. 

“But I think we have some new enthusiasts, as of this lunch,” Pettee speculates. 

To find a ride, simply call (970) 249-0128, or visit allpointstransit.com

Poetry Collection Explores both Darkness and Radiance

Last week, poet Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer released her latest work, All the Honey. In the book, Trommer, who lost her teenage son in 2021, explores both the depths of grief, and the joys of life before, amidst and following a period of deep loss. The book has already become something of a bestseller. Trommer spoke with KOTO News, and begins recalling how the publisher Samara Press approached her about the project.

Uravan, CO Celebrates Easter

It’s midmorning in Uravan, CO, on Easter Sunday. The San Miguel River runs thick and brown with spring mud through the desert canyon and the sky is cloudless. Bare trees cast shadows over the earth, which is mottled with sand and thick patches of the earliest wildflowers. Below the canopy of the picnic area a small group is gathering for an Easter Service. 

In the 1980s the federal government declared the Uranium mines in the area, and the town of Uravan itself, contaminated, and embarked on a decades-long clean up that involved relocating the town’s residents and scraping their homes from the earth. Around 10 years ago, the clean up was declared complete, and the old community ballpark was repurposed as a campground and picnic area. 

Gary Reeves, who was born in Uravan, says the Easter service taking place today dates back to the town itself. 

“We had a thing of sunrise services at crosses down at the cliffs above the forks of the river — the confluence of the San Miguel and Dolores Rivers every Easter,” Reeves recalls. “The church here in Uravan would do an Easter sunrise service at those crosses. Once the town went down, it pretty much stopped.” 

Reeves moved to Grand Junction when the Federal Government began its clean-up efforts. But he and his wife visited Uravan often, and at one point, he decided it was time to revive the tradition. 

“We stopped at the old place where the crosses were, and I looked at her and told her, ‘I think I want to get this started back up again.’ So that year I built some new crosses and we were doing it at the old spot down on the river. But so many of us – myself included and my parents at that time were getting older – couldn't crawl across the rocks to get to those crosses. So I think about four years ago we moved it here to the ballpark,” says Reeves. 

The sermon is offered by Pastor Mark Jones of Nucla, and Dan Williams, pastor at the New Hope Pentecostal Church in Naturita speaks as well. Jones says both men have faced medical difficulties in the past years, and the strength of the congregation has gotten them through. 

“Part of the reason that he and I are both here is because you guys pray. So from my standpoint I want to thank you for those prayers. I certainly want to thank God for allowing me to be here today, but I really want to thank all of you.”

The service is followed by a lunch, a long potluck of deviled eggs and beans, potato salad and coconut pies. Jordan Grant was born in Uravan and moved to Montrose. He says any opportunity to come back is a trip into memory. 

“Yeah it's pretty fun to see people you haven't seen for thirty years, forty years. But the terrain never changes. Every rock looks the same. But the town itself has kind of disappeared. It's nice to have this ballpark preserved for everyone to come visit,” Grant says. 

Alongside those from Uravan, the service brings together a collection of congregations from the area. Bonnie Yardley, of Nucla, said she came to see her Pastor speak, but agrees the whole West End is a place rich with history. 

“It’s a lot of memories,”  Yardley says. “My husband and I, we married in 1974. He worked in the mines for Union Carbide till they closed down. We’ve seen Nucla be a thriving town with stores to not very much now. But it’s still home,” she says. 

Amidst lunch, and sparkling blue skies, Uravan marks another Easter. 

Telluride Students Pursue Higher Ed Remotely

For six or seven years, Taka Kondo had been considering Grad School, kicking the decision down the road, and working in the meantime as a guide and a cook in Telluride. Then, in the fall of 2021, he says he felt it was time to decide.

“At a certain point, I thought to myself: ‘I need to just clear my head of thinking that grad school might be a thing that I do, and I need to decide If I'm going to do it, or if I’m not going to do it. And obviously the outcome of me taking some time to think about that was deciding to go back,” recalls Kondo. 

At the same time, Kondo knew he was not ready to leave Telluride, and COVID was opening up the possibilities of remote learning. Soon enough, Kondo enrolled in a remote Masters Program to study Mental Health Counseling. It turns out Kondo was far from alone. 

Telluride is home to dozens of students enrolled in remote higher ed programs. When student Laura Parsons enrolled in remote school, she soon moved to Telluride, embracing the freedom to study from anywhere. 

“When I started, it was the fall of 2020, and — as we all know — there was a lot going on then. So at the start of the program it was mandated that everything be online, and then about a year into my program they announced that it would be practical and possible to remain online for the rest of the degree. So that’s when I decided that I was going to come out to Telluride,” says Parsons.

Similar to Kondo, Parsons is studying to enter the mental health field, focusing on social work. The pattern of students here studying to enter the helping professions, as they’re known, goes deep. Another student, Robin Kondracki, who has formerly worked at the San Miguel Resource Center with domestic abuse survivors, says it might be more than a simple coincidence.

“I think we just see a gap, like specifically in Telluride but more broadly in our country. Working at SMRC I would refer clients to therapists and clients would come to me and let me know that the therapist had a six week waiting list. And, that sucks.

Taking a break from a shift at the Counter Culture Kitchen in Lawson, Kondo adds that Telluride’s connection to the service industry attracts highly social and people-focused residents. 

“A lot of the people that come to work here are people’s people. They’re not getting jobs where they can hide behind a desk. And there are certainly a lot of people working desk jobs here, and that’s fine too. But there are so many people working in service, and that skill-set of wanting to work with people – taking that skill set out of the service industry to working with people in a helping profession [seems natural]” speculates Kondo. 

Working in service is a distinct part of the student experience. Hunter Emmons, who has worked various restaurant and serving jobs for years says when she enrolled in remote school, it brought her new perspective. 

“Because there’s a goal in sight.” says Emmons, adding “I’m grateful to live in a place where I can work three or four days a week and that can pay most of my expenses.”

For Parsons, speaking on the Oak Street Plaza before clocking in to a shift as a bartender in town, there is a distinct connection between her work and her schooling.

“Being in the service industry, especially as a bartender, you talk to people a lot. You have to be able to navigate whatever situations arise. So, there have been a lot of situations where you really have to maintain your calm while trying to calm down someone else who might be belligerent, who might be having a mental health crisis. I think there are a lot higher expectations in social work, and it helps me keep my cool a lot better when working,” Parsons says. 

All of the students spoke of sacrifices — spending less time on hobbies or sport, struggling to balance work, and life and finances and studies. Of being in school remotely, Kondracki says:

“It requires a level of self-discipline I did not know I had. To bring yourself to get all your work done, to meet all your deadlines, to do group work — all of that is made so much more challenging on a remote program,” says Kondracki. 

For these Telluridians, school is a process, part of a journey, one which is full of questions which only the future will answer. Emmons reflects she is one track now, but still feels there are many ways to serve her community.

“It’s totally fine if you don’t go to school…I wonder if there are other ways that I could be going towards these same goals. [School] is just sort of what landed in my lap and made sense at that time,” Emmons says. 

As to the world beyond graduation, many students said they’d like to stay in Telluride, finding ways to give back, and practice what they’ve learned.

Buzz from the Spanish Spelling Bee

By Julia Caulfield

The Palm Theatre is bustling with students, teachers, and parents. Spanish and English floats through the air.

Everyone is gathered for one specific reason. It’s the Intermediate School Spanish Spelling Bee.

The Spanish Spelling Bee functions the same way as the English Spelling Bee – which took place several weeks before. Students come up to a microphone, hear the word to spell, say the word, spell the word, and say the word. They can also ask for things like using the word in a sentence, or asking for a definition.

This year, teachers Vicente Artes Usero and Ursula Cristol read the words out. Artes Usero and Cristol each read all the words. Artes Usero notes he’s from Spain, Cristol is from Peru, so while they speak the same language, it’s a different pronunciation.

And with that, the Bee begins. Twelve students sit in a line on the stage waiting to spell.

The first word is “vaso” or “glass”.

In the first round, one student is eliminated, 3 more in the second round, 1 in the 3rd, 4 in the 4th. Finally, 5th grader Keaton Koenig, and 7th grader Emma Dominguez de la Torre remain.

Koenig and Dominguez de la Torre volley back and forth for rounds, each spelling their words correctly, both missing.

Finnally Dominguez de la Torre spells “frigorífico” or “fridge” correctly before getting to the championship word, “constelación” or “constellation”.

The stars lined up for Emma Dominguez de la Torre, 2023 Spanish Spelling Bee champion.

Telluride Rallies for Climate Justice

By Julia Caulfield

On a blustery Tuesday, several dozen members of the community march with signs down the street.

They’re part of day of protest against big banks – primarily Bank of America, Chase, CitiBank, and Wells Fargo – that fund fossil fuel companies. Third Act, an organization encouraging individuals over 60 to take on action climate and justice, spearheaded the day, with protests taking place across the country.

In Telluride, David Holbrooke is helping to lead the charge.

“We have this brand new Chase bank here, and it just doesn’t feel right,” Holbrooke says. “We have wonderful banks already that are locally run. To have this behemoth come here and keep on poisoning the planet, doesn’t seem right.”

According to the most recent Banking on Climate Chaos Fossil Fuel Finance Report between 2016 and 2021, Chase Bank financed fossil fuels globally to the tune of $382 billion. Holbrooke says it’s past time to act.

“I have no bleeped out patience for people who are not going to look at what’s happening to us. We can go into the statistics, but it’s just all there, and it’s so sad that people are working against this.” Holbrooke says, “It’s hard enough to fix it as it is, and the notion that somehow people think it’s right to actively screw up the planet with these fossil fuel emissions, when we have better options.”

Starting at the San Miguel County Courthouse, Elizabeth Gist, another organizer of the march, shares words:

“If we disrupt the flow of money to the fossil fuel industry, they have to stop. Chase alone lent to the fossil fuel industry $382 billion between 2016 and 2021. Just imagine if that money went to renewables, what a wonderful world it would be,” Gist says.

Then protesters march the one block to the Chase bank, opening next month.

Emily Catron is one of the members at the protest, she says even with a small group, it feels good to be part of a larger movement.

“When you’re small sometimes you’re not a force to recon with. But when you have a lot of small groups all doing the same thing then it starts to become bigger and bigger. You get one voice, and then it turns into a community, and then it turns into bigger and bigger and eventually it makes a very big difference,” Catron says.

The Chase bank in Telluride is set to open its doors on April 4th. Protesters are already making a plan to be there when it does.

Senator Hickenlooper Discusses the New Congress

For the past couple years, Democrats ran the show in Washington, DC, for the most part — holding the white house and both chambers of congress, albeit by a slim margin. But, the balance of power has shifted following the 2022 midterms as republicans secured a majority in the house. Colorado’s Senator John Hickenlooper, a democrat, was not up for re-election and won’t have to run again until 2026. But still, Hickenlooper says the recent shift in Washington will affect his, and his party’s, work.

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“Everything is going to have to be bipartisan. Which isn't a bad thing. If you look at everything we did in the last congress — a congress is two years — The Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, the Chips Plus Science Act, I mean these were big bipartisan bills that were very important,” Hickenlooper says. 

Settling into the first months of the new Congress, Hickenlooper spoke with KOTO News about his current projects. With power in congress split, Hickenlooper says efforts might be less sweeping than legislation passed in 2020 and 2021,  

“But really, small projects — I think the Dolores River NCA, the National Conservation Area, that's a classic example. I mean, I think those are the kinds of things we’ll be able to make progress on, as well as implementing the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill,” Hickenlooper says. “All these bills that to a large extent are gonna deliver resources – money – to counties and municipalities and states all over America.”

Even modest efforts could have a direct impact here in Southwest CO, such as a proposed bill to conserve the Dolores River. And when it comes to capturing those funds from past legislation which Hickenlooper speaks of, the task will fall on area county governments. But, Hickenlooper says, they won’t be working alone.

“Governor Polis is on top of this and is going to hire a couple of staff to help smaller communities access these large amounts of money, and I know my office and Senator Bennet's office are going to train our outreach staff to find what are the best ways to access some of these pools of resources,” Hickenlooper says. 

While Hickenlooper himself did not face re-election, many of his colleagues in the senate did, some decided to retire. Adjusting to the new session, he notes many of the colleagues he is missing were actually folks from across the aisle,  

“It was great to have those older, more experienced republicans, but a lot of them couldn't stand Donald Trump and when the Republican Party divided over President Trump they left. After January 6th they said ‘We won't support Trump, and therefore we think we can't win a primary,’ and that’s a loss. They were really talented people who really cared about not just the Republican Party but the whole country. Their states and the whole country,” says Hickenlooper.

When it comes to looking ahead, Hickenlooper can’t help but dream of congress’s summer recess, when legislators take a break from Washington to meet their constituents back home. The senator notes this is one of the greatest parts of his job, especially when it brings him to Colorado's Southwest corner. 

“You know, when I drive around Southwestern, CO I’m doing constituent services. It's part of my job to get to those communities,” says Hickenlooper. “And again, as you know, spring and summer in Southwest Colorado are one of the most beautiful times of year in one of the most beautiful parts of our country that you could ever have. So we’re going to do Town Hall Meetings and try to get out and meet more people.”

That’s US Senator John Hickenlooper speaking with KOTO News from Washington, DC.

EPA Studies the Grimy Side of Tourism

Some four or five years ago, Virginia Till, a behavioral scientist working with the Environmental Protection Agency in Denver, started to think about isolated mountain resort towns, short-term rental properties, and: trash. She was curious, she says, 

“How an influx of people affects waste. It really hasn’t been measured. I’d been thinking about on over the years and then an opportunity came up with my colleague in the Office of Research and Development. And so we had some money and we started Phase 1, which was baseline, to see how well do people recycle when they're on vacation, basically,” Till explains. 

When it came to choose a location for their ski vacation trash study, Till and the EPA landed at the Franz Klammer Lodge in Mountain Village. That was back in 2019. 

Condo units at the lodge produce a ton or so of trash each day, and for the week-long experiment, sorters combed through every bit of it. The conclusion? Till says nearly ¾ quarters of the waste could’ve been directed towards recycling or compost. 

“75% of materials in Phase 1 had the potential for diversion from the landfill, if compost was an option,” Till reports. “So, we didn't just look at recyclables; we also looked at compost.”

Last week, the study returned to the Franz Klammer Lodge, to follow up three years later, and see if changes made by the lodge after the first phase were showing any improvement in levels of recycling. EcoAction Partners is working with the EPA to carry out the study. Speaking from the trash shed at the Franz Klammer, EcoAction’s Energy Coordinator Sean Hart explains the question behind Phase 2. 

“The Franz Klammer has done more education with their staff, and also has put in each room, [a sign reading] ‘Hey, please recycle,’ and that sort of thing.” says Hart. “And so, we’re hoping to be able to measure more recyclables in the recycling waste stream, and the trash will be more densely trash. 

And what does trash sorting actually entail? Pretty simple: plastic gloves, black aprons, a large table at the center of the shed, and a half dozen sorters carefully picking through bags and bags and bags of garbage. Furnished with EPA funding, the position pays 30 dollars an hour. Telluride Resident and trash sorter for the week Carl Cody explains the wide range of things they’ve found. 

“Everything from the mundane – you know a lot of tissues, toiletries, food waste – all the way up to some pretty wild finds: ski gear, shopping tags, clothing tags, cash in trash, things that are reusable, that you could absolutely found a home for or continue to find a use for, and yet here we are picking through it. I mean you name it, at this point we’ve found it” Cody says. 

A snapshot of trash sorting in progress.

Sorter Ed Watkinson adds what’s been most astonishing to him is simply the volume. 

“It’s not as dirty and nasty as I thought it was going to be, but it’s not pleasant at all. And we throw a lot of stuff away…and this is just one hotel. One week’s worth of trash at one hotel and this is just one resort town,” says Watkinson. 

The shed is out behind the Village Core, and the March day is mellow and drippy. Sorters dissect the bags of garbage into 22 different categories — covering various recyclables, compostables, textiles, and so one. Quite a few things just make a person scratch their head: a pile of ski bindings, a pair of goggles, brand new, an unopened jug of Vermont Maple Syrup. 

Cody adds sorting trash shows close up how unsustainable our existence can be. 

“It's a good reminder of how much crap we get rid of and go through, and also of how much wealth is around here. From a personal standpoint, it's a good reminder for me to do my best to separate this kind of crap out. I don’t know that we have the facilities or the ability around here to manage as much waste as we generate – it's a reality of the human existence – but at the same time, I feel like there gotta be a better way,” Cody says.

Till adds this is the first study specifically looking at short-term rental waste, and how to improve those levels of recycling.  

“So this unique research is really going to help with this type of lodging and with resort areas. Studies like this can really provide the community with future programs they’d like to implement,” says Till. 

Those programs could range from increasing educational materials and labeling to implementing a municipal wide composting system. The findings will be published in journals once the data has been crunched. But, one thing is already clear. Out behind the Franz Klammer lodge, getting dirty in the name of science, and for 30 bucks an hour, it rings true: one condo’s trash is another man’s treasure. 

San Miguel County Braces for SNAP Benefits Reduction

The easing and perhaps even the ending of the pandemic has been a welcome development. But the transition comes with some difficulties, as COVID related government programs are ending. One of those supports expired at the end of February when emergency SNAP Benefits, or Food Stamps reverted to pre-pandemic levels. 

Speaking at the end of February, Director of Social Services for San Miguel County Carol Friedrich explains Food Stamp recipients started receiving extra funds when the pandemic set in.

“All of the folks that were receiving SNAP at the time were receiving two payments each month,” says Freidrich. “So their regular allotment and their Emergency Assistance Allotment. Next month, [March 2023,] there’s going to be a reduction to the amount they’re receiving, and it’s going to go back to their base level allotment.”

While other states have already ended the extra emergency allotments, they remained in place in Colorado and 35 other states. Now, at the beginning of March, they have come to an end everywhere, and Food Stamps are going back to pre-pandemic levels. Friedrich says the reductions are substantial. 

“So the average reduction in benefits is about $95 per person within the household. That’s average. So, for instance, a family of four that was receiving that max allotment, their monthly benefit is going to decrease nearly four hundred dollars a month,” Friedrich explains.

That reduction is even more severe for senior residents who will see a more than $250 decrease in their monthly food stamp funding. 

“We are most concerned about the impact this is going to have on our seniors. They were receiving $281 per month on their max allotment. Once that ends they are going to go down to their base allotment which is $23 a month. For these single seniors they are going to have a significant impact. Again, they’ll go from $281 per month to $23 per month,” says Friedrich. 

Weathering the end of the Emergency Allotment may be difficult for many of San Miguel’s 200 SNAP recipients. The reduction comes amidst high levels of inflation. Food costs increased, on average, 10% between January 2022 and January 2023. Meanwhile, the number of county residents receiving SNAP has increased by 80 individuals over pre-pandemic numbers, suggesting an increase in food insecurity. Friedrich says the county is working to provide a one-time grocery card to residents on SNAP. But, Friedrich says, this won’t be a cure-all. 

“So we know that this is not a long term solution,” Frierich concedes. “Right now there are conversations at the state level to find a more systmeic approach to meeting the needs of these folks, but for now what we are working on is a way to offer folks that are experiencing a hardship due to this decrease, especially that senior population, a one-time grocery card to make up some of the difference in a very short term period of time.”

Area food banks are bracing for the transition. Speaking at the Angel Baskets Food Pantry in Telluride, volunteer Barb Gross says they at the Food Bank are expecting to see an increase in demand, especially from older residents. 

“Our senior population, numbers are gonna go up, because they really haven’t used us since they got that supplement,” Gross speculates. “We are planning to do an outreach to them, and we’ll see how that goes. I’m guessing they needed us before, they’re gonna need us again. 

With the Emergency Allotment most seniors had enough money to cover their food costs. Overall, however, Gross speculates other Food Pantries in the state are likely to see more of an impact. In Telluride, food insecurity is often tied to the seasonal economy, affecting a younger, more transient, population that is less likely to use Food Stamps in the first place, says Gross. 

“It’s going to be a shock to some people, but, you know, we’ve kind of known this was coming. And I don’t know that it’s going to impact us that much except for the seniors. Because here’s what we are: we are very, very tied to the ski area as far as when that stops, jobs in town dry up, and we get really busy. If there’s no snow, and they can’t employee people, we get really busy. For example, I think Norwood will be more impacted,” Gross says. 

Food banks across the region pool resources; Angel Baskets has a location in Norwood as well. They accept donations in money, food, and volunteer time from all those who can give. Looking at the food pantry’s north facing stoop, Gross adds anyone who’d like to come chip ice and shovel snow for a spell would be most welcome. 

Locals Line up for Telluride Bluegrass Tickets

When tickets for the 2023 Telluride Bluegrass Festival went on sale back in the fall, they sold out online in minutes. But, keeping a long tradition alive, Planet Bluegrass set aside an additional 1000 festival passes specifically for locals.

Last week, KOTO teamed up with the Bluegrass Festival for an in-person, locals-only tickets sale. KOTO News was on the scene to report.

Avalanche Class Opens up New Terrain

Conditions are forbidding this Sunday morning in Ophir. The wind is setting off small cyclones of snow along the roadside, and at the end of the Box Canyon, the pale cover of cloud makes it difficult to tell where the mountains end and the sky begins. But inside the town hall a dozen skiers, undaunted, are planning their day’s backcountry tour. 

Projected on a TV screen are different maps of the Ophir Basin marking potential avalanche terrain and crossed over with possible paths for skinning up through the snow. 

It’s the third and final day of an Avalanche 1 Course taught through a collaboration between the Silverton Avalanche School and the guiding service Mountain Trip. Many here are first time backcountry skiers. Student Nick Crosby says he was drawn to the sport, but took the class so he could enter the backcountry more prepared. 

“I’ve grown up skiing on resorts and I realized I could combine the fun of getting out into the off-piste stuff that you do in the summer, but you can ski it — and it's even better skiing! It lit up something inside me,” Crosby says. “I saw this as a prerequisite before entering the backcountry, laying the groundwork now so I can get out into the backcountry this season and seasons to come.”

Dylan May adds the class has been a way of getting a baseline of information before entering potentially dangerous terrain. 

“Really, what this class does is, it doesn't give you access to the gnarliest terrain out there. It does not bar you from getting hurt in any way. It just gives you the tools to make the right decisions about where you go and when you go,” says May. 

Course Instructor and Avalanche Educator Chris Dickson says interest in the backcountry exploded in 2020 at the very beginning of the pandemic

“And that was largely due to the ski resorts closing, but that happened in early March and there was still a lot of snow left on the slopes. And people realized ‘Hey I still want to go skiing and there’s plenty of winter left. How do I do that? Oh, I get a backcountry setup that allows me to skin up the hill and ski down it,’” says Dickson.  

Now, three years later, that interest has held strong. And Dickson says newcomers are reviving the tradition. 

“And, you know, backcountry skiing used to be a thing that a small group of predominantly white men used to do in the sixties and the seventies, and that came from the history of World War II and the Tenth Mountain Division…but, it’s evolved into a sport that’s all encompassing and its growing really rapidly sort of like climbing has. And it’s important to recognize, if you’re skiing in avalanche terrain, your hobby – your leisure activity – is something that is potentially deadly. And that’s where my job comes in, trying to help people stay safe,” says Dickson. 

On the topic of risk, student Indika Young says she was aware of the danger posed by the backcountry when she turned to the avalanche class for guidance. 

“I feel equally as nervous about the terrain and the conditions out there,” Young says, “but I feel like I know when it might be ok to step out and when I should really focus on maybe skiing the resort, or doing something else on a day that has really high avalanche danger.”

The tools used in avalanche safety are extensive, ranging from shovels and probes to radios, mapping software, transceivers, and other technology that can be used to collect information from different groups of skiers, and allow skiers to communicate when they're out in the field. Dickson says all this can be overwhelming, but students catch on quickly. 

“It’s awesome to see the progression from someone on day one, and their level of understanding, and then on day three we go on a full-day tour, and then to see them in action, setting the skin track, making decisions, making observations, talking the talking — and there’s a lot of jargon involved in snow and avalanche world — it's pretty amazing the amount of growth that can happen in a three day course. So that’s pretty cool,” says Dickson. “And I think people walk away thinking ‘Wow, I got a ton of new information and I learned a lot!’ and sometimes that can be almost too much information but inevitably it turns into a good foundation they can build on.” 

Student Mollie Theiss agrees. The class she said has made her feel both more independent, and closer to a growing  backcountry community. 

“Especially here it can be a daunting and dangerous thing, but knowledge is power and I feel excited to have taken it into my own hands and know what to do on my own and be able to contribute; to be an asset instead of a liability,” says Theiss. 

As this is day three of the course, students gear up and head out into the wind towards new terrain, and maybe even some fresh tracks.

Aubrey Mable Shares New Work of Note

Telluride Arts and the Augment Music Project have teamed up to fund area musicians in a whole range of recording and performance projects. KOTO News took the opportunity to speak with a handful of the grantees about their plans and hopes. First up is Aubrey Mable, a Telluride resident who records instrumental music as a solo act, and plays with Kathleen Hooper as the duo act LVDY. Mable’s grant will fund a project she calls “The Open Sea.”

Adam Frisch Looks to 2024 Election Cycle

Last election cycle, Adam Frisch’s campaign for the House of Representatives was written off as a non-starter. He was a Democrat running in a rural district where  less than 25% of voters were registered as Democrat and more than 35% were registered as Republican. On top of that, his opponent was the instantly-recognizable incumbent Lauren Boebert. And yet, expected to lose by a landslide, his bid fell short by only 500 votes. 

“After that, I got hundreds of emails saying how gracious it was that we conceded and that we actually told people, keep your money,” Frisch recalls. “And I’d say about 80% of the feedback actually came from republicans…It was really interesting, and again, it is heartbreaking to lose by that, [especially] when you add up how close the race was in the House and everything. We did put CD3 on the map, there’s no doubt about that.”

The San Miguel Democrats were gathered at the Liberty Bar in Telluride to get organized for 2024 and knock some housekeeping needs out of the way. Frisch offered remarks at the event. He says the democratic party has lost ground in rural America. 

“President Biden in 2020 won fewer than 10% of the rural counties in the country,” says Frisch.  “We have a very-urban centric party. And my joke that’s not much of a joke is the democratic party is 20 big cities, Aspen…Telluride, and Nantucket, and that’s pretty much all that’s left of the Democratic party. 

Colorado’s Third District makes up much of the Western Slope as well as parts of the Southern Front Range, and includes vast stretches of rural, traditionally Republican territory. In his remarks Frisch says he believes voters, even those from the opposite party, are at heart interested in good, pragmatic governance. 

“I’m just laser focused on CD3. It goes back to Colorado water, Colorado energy, Colorado jobs. And I tell people, we don’t care how you voted in 2016 or 2020. I just ask you to think about you and your family, and your business and your community as you fill out the ballot for CD3. Because there are a lot of rational republicans, frustrated republicans who want someone to focus on the district and not on themselves,” says Frisch.

Speaking with KOTO after his remarks, Frisch says the political moment is moving away from Trumpism, a transition which he saw in the run up to the 2022 midterms.

“One of the bets I made was that I think Trumpism has peaked,” says Frisch. “It’s not gonna crash the next day. But, fourteen months later, the biggest loser across the whole country on a macro-result level was all of Trump's candidates — or the vast majority of them — crashed and burned. The Republicans would have the Senate now if they’d run more traditional candidates, and they’d have a lot more of the House than they do.”

What comes next? Frisch says less of what calls the ‘political circus,’ and more humble, focused decision-making. 

“The momentum that should go forward in Southern Colorado is to focus on the nuts and bolts of the job, and put your head down and do the work rather than seek out as many cable news channels as possible, as the current representative does,” says Frisch. 

The question of whether Frisch will run again in 2024 hung in the air at the Saturday event. Eleni Constantine, chair of the San Miguel County Democrats, thanked Frisch for attending the meeting, and floated the possibility of 2024. 

“So, you might’ve gotten an email from Adam recently that asked ‘should I run again in 2024?’ Well, now’s your opportunity to tell him what you think,” Constantine says, to a roomful of cheers. 

At the time of the event, Frisch had not yet declared a 2024 run, but it seems he heard the cheers loud and clear. On the morning of Tuesday February 14th, Frisch announced that he would once again challenge Boebert to represent Colorado’s District 3. 

Below Lift Nine, Skiers Savor a ‘Silver Lining’

Conditions are bluebird, and the midday sun is warming the mountain air high up on the Telluride Resort. On this bright afternoon following one of the biggest dumps of the season, skiers are shouldering their gear and trudging uphill from See Forever to the base of the shuttered Lift Nine. This year, of course, the lift itself has been closed for a high speed upgrade, but the terrain below is open and accessible as a hike-to. Skier David Olsen, catching his breath at the top, says skiing Lift Nine is worth the long trip over. 

“It’s been really cool this year. There’s a different feeling to it, and this hike is pretty quick but working for it just a little bit more keeps people off of it and it keeps it fresh,” Olsen says. “I mean you’ve gotta go from four to five six just to get up here,” Olsen says, referee

Construction to replace the former chairlift with a high speed quad lasted throughout the summer, but various delays hit the construction project and the targeted opening date in Mid-December came and went. Cassidy Craig, who grew up in Telluride, says the closed lift comes with an upside. 

“I mean, we’ve gotta work with the bumps of not having the lift open, but I think it's great, we can still ski, so there’s a silver lining. It looks untracked and amazing, and you gotta earn your turns!” says Craig. 

When I ask skiers Kat Helterline and Ava Halper about the lift’s extended closure, they agree: it’s been no problem at all. 

“It's been absolutely blower! A privilege, honestly. What started out as very annoying news has been a blessing,” says Halper. 

“It's the best I’ve ever skied Nine, and there's no reef on Make’Em. Don’t tell anyone!” adds Helterline.

With the lift closed, skiing down Nine is pretty much a dead end into town at the Oak Street Plaza. Everyone I spoke with at the top was a Telluride resident fitting in their last run of the day. I asked Jake Spaulding if he ended every ski day with a trip down Nine. 

“I mean, I try to,” Spaulding says. “You’d be crazy not to. I’m gonna go over here and ski some bushy trees and find my way. I'm really grateful for the new lift, and if it opens, great, and if it doesn’t…I’ll live!”

Halper adds, with Lift Nine terrain, you can’t go wrong. 

“[I’ll ski] wherever the good snow is. Everything’s been skiing so well because it's very minimally tracked. The Locals know their own spots….the runs that are named are also good,” says Halper. 

Skiers hike to the top of Lift Nine.

The ski area continues to promise that the lift will be open and operational by February. But, from this mountainside poll it doesn’t seem that devotees of Lift Nine terrain are all too anxious for that day to come. Here’s Olsen:

“I mean, I am psyched for it to actually be up and running again. We’ll see if that happens this year, and if it doesn’t, whatever, we’ll be alright.”

Halper and Helterline concur. 

“Thanks, ski patrol, for letting this happen this year. It could’ve easily gone the other way, so we’re grateful,” says Halper. 

“Keep Lift Nine closed forever!” Helterline adds. 

The new Lift Nine, silent and still, though very nearly complete, stands watch, as hikers strap into skis and dive over the edge, into the vast, untrammeled terrain below.

Lawson Dog Owners Speak of Harassment, Discrimination

Bretley Danner has lived with anxiety throughout her life. During the pandemic, she says it came back in a big way.

“And, it's like an electric wire inside your body going the whole time. I’ve always had that, as a kid even, but it kind of went away as I got older, but when I get anxiety it kind of takes over,” Danner says.

Danner is a property manager in Telluride and has lived in Lawson Hill for the last twenty years. When her son was going away to college, and her anxiety was resurfacing, Danner spoke with her therapist, who recommended she get an emotional support animal, or an ESA. 

“She was like: I really want you to have a dog when you’re alone and when your son leaves, besides your anxiety that will only be making it worse,” Danner recalls. “And she’s a little rescue dog and we basically take care of each other.” 

In total, there are over 30 registered emotional support dogs in Lawson Hill, and their owners testify to the benefit these dogs bring to their daily lives. Sofiya Marcheva, a resident of Lawson who deals with anxiety and depression says her therapist recommended she get an ESA dog during a period of life when she was finding it difficult to even get out of bed.  

“Because it's a really good way to get you out of the house, exercise, be more social even, so when the therapist mentioned that I brought it to my doctor and she said it was a good idea. The first thing we did was bring it to the HOA,” Marcheva says. 

Marcheva reached out to the Lawson Hill Homeowners Association, or HOA, because Lawson has a well known dog restriction. The restriction dates back to 1991 when Telecam, the developer of the Lawson Hill Planned Unit Development, or PUD, submitted its application to the county. 

County Attorney Amy Markwell explains Colorado Parks and Wildlife flagged the area around Lawson Hill as elk territory. 

“And their comments and recommendations for wildlife mitigation was that there should be no dogs in the development, and that it should be strictly enforced. So the county's approval of that PUD was  conditioned on CPW’s recommendation,” explains Markwell. 

In order to receive an exception for an emotional support animal, a resident has to apply to the HOA Board for an exception, a process which includes a letter from their doctor. If the application is accepted, having an ESA dog comes with a long list of terms and conditions. Danner and Marcheva say when they first received their dogs they were surprised by the nature of some of the rules, including the requirement they reapply each year.

“Every year I keep having to prove that I have anxiety, and every time they make me prove anxiety, I have another anxiety attack!” Danner says. “They clearly have no idea what anxiety is and haven’t done any research. If you have an anxiety dog, the only person who can walk it to go to the bathroom is the person with anxiety, so if I’m a single mom, and I'm at work, my son can't go out and walk my dog?”

Beyond the rules themselves, dog owners say they face confusion over their enforcement, and over where exactly they are allowed to walk their dog. Even during the course of reporting this story, some of the rules have changed. 

Then, during COVID, Marcheva had difficulty getting a health center appointment because of high hospital caseloads. This delayed her ability to see a doctor and fill out the application. She says that even after speaking with the HOA and the county about the delay, she received a $4500 fine. 

Dog owners also speak of intimidation, harassment, and threatening behavior from other Lawson residents. Here’s Marcheva.

“We’ve been harassed numerous times, to the point that I was getting anxiety just by the thought that I am going to walk on the street. Every time a car drives by, I am looking for my phone because I want to be able to record if someone harasses me because it’s happened so many times. People will just verbally assault you, scream profanities at you, take your picture,” Marcheva says. 

Dog owners acknowledge they have good relationships with many of their neighbors, but Danner says these incidents happen often enough to have led to a culture of fear amongst dog owners. 

“All the dogs owners, we’re afraid. We all walk down with our heads down because you don't want to look at a car, because you never know who might drive by and flip you off and scream at you,” says Danner. 

A sign installed by a Lawson Hill resident.

Melissa Ramponi, who lives in Lawson with her family and has had an ESA dog named Lily for the last several years, says she has been cussed out, received intimidating emails, and felt she and her daughter specifically were under surveillance. 

“So us females get one response, and the males get very little confrontation….because, you know, Dad’s a big guy,” Ramponi says. “But there are people who have been terribly cussed out, just terribly. And they, she — the one I'm thinking of — just can't come out with it, but it's been terrible.”

Last year, Marcheva began to research protections for Americans living with disabilities, and eventually filed a discrimination complaint against the HOA. This led to an investigation by the CO Civil Rights Division. Last December, the investigation concluded that  “there is sufficient evidence to support Marcheva’s claims of discrimination.” The investigation found that Marcheva, has faced “processes unreasonably conditioned, and subjected her to unequal conditions based on her disability.”

The HOA leadership declined to be interviewed for this story, and stated: “It would be inappropriate to speak about a civil complaint that has not been resolved through the process laid out yet.” 

Separately, San Miguel County says they are surprised by the decision, but will work with the Colorado Civil Rights Division to make any needed changes.

Any outright change to the dog restriction in Lawson will need to come from the community itself. Markwell says Aldasoro Ranch, located above Lawson on the Deep Creek Mesa, originally had a similar ban in place, but the community commissioned a new wildlife study in 2015 and eventually reversed that restriction.  Markwell says Lawson Hill would have to go through a similar process. 

“It’s now on the community to decide whether or not they want to move forward and ask for an amendment to the PUD or not," explains Markwell. “The county doesn’t really have much input in that process, now it's completely within the community to do that.”

Lawson Hill has grown significantly since its inception and is now home to roughly 160 residences, a gas station, commercial areas, and substantial vehicular and human traffic. The question of how that growth has affected  wildlife presence in the area would need to be settled by a new CPW study. CPW does not tag animals or monitor herd populations in the area, but District Wildlife Manager Mark Caddy says elk still tend to move out of the Prospect Basin, across the valley floor near Lawson, and up to the mesa  around Aldasoro. 

Caddy says that while elk are still in the area, the threat posed by dogs is not specific to Lawson Hill but is a general concern throughout the Telluride Area. 

“Most of it is just a general concern that comes with living in an area with minimal movement corridors for animals,” Caddy says. “The big thing we always worry about up there is: one, dogs chasing animals, but also [dogs] being chased by other critters that move through, such as bobcats and mountain lions and bears. Those animals could kill a domestic dog, easily. You know, those are some of the issues we run into everywhere where we have humans and their pets.”

Marcheva says whatever happens with her case specifically, her main hope is ESA dog owners have some peace of mind, and are treated with respect. 

“I would like for people with disabilities, or people with disadvantages, to be allowed to live their lives. And the harassment of people with disabilities should not happen, anywhere,” Marcheva says. 

Conciliation between Marcheva, the HOA, and the County is still in its early stages.

Local Editor Buys West End Newspaper

The San Miguel Basin Forum newspaper has been a West End institution for some four decades under the local ownership of publisher Roger Culver. The paper is deeply rooted in Nucla, Naturita, and the surrounding communities, reporting on local government, youth sports, and famously printing the price of Uranium at the top of each issue. Recently, Culver sold the paper to Regan Tuttle, longtime editor of the Norwood Post. Tuttle sat down with KOTO to talk about taking over the business, and begins by recalling how she got her start in the Newspaper business.

Remembering a Landmark of Labor History

San Miguel County has been working to update and reinstall signage on a historical site in the reaches of the San Juan Mountains. The signage is for a small camp and a machine gun nest occupied when the state declared martial law to quell labor strikes. KOTO News took the opportunity to retell a colorful piece of local history. Parks Supervisor for San Miguel County Rich Hamilton begins.

“If you go up and over Imogene Pass and you go towards the Ouray County side of the pass, there’s another little spur that goes up to a bench where people can park and view Red Mountain. From there you can look up to your right, to the ridge, at 13,365 feet, and that’s where Fort Peabody is located,” says Hamilton. 

“So Colorado Tourism promoters extol our scenery, our fall colors, our snow capped peaks — but no one mentions our historic machine gun nest at the top of Imogene Pass between Telluride and Ouray — a machine gun emplacement and a small wooden fort survive as silent testimony to worker struggles,” says Andrew Gulliford, a Professor of History at Fort Lewis College in Durango, who has written extensively on the American West. The oddly placed machine gun nest they speak of has its roots in a labor revolt during Telluride’s mining era. 

“In Telluride in 1903, the miners went out on strike and Governor James Pebaody in collusion with the wealthy miners called in the Colorado National Guard. And running the National Guard was Bulkeley Wells, a captain,” recounts Gulliford. 

“He organized mass deportations kicking people out of town on special trains, he filed false criminal charges, there were bearings. There was no due process! There's no judge, there's no jury, they're just thrown out of town,” Gulliford continues. 

“As illegally deported miners trickled back into Telluride over Imogene Pass, National Guardsmen under Wells’ command built a wooden sentry post or redoubt complete with a small stove, a flagpole, and a stone sniper or machine gun nest with a Colt rapid-fire machine-gun.” 

That Fort was named Peabody, after Colorado’s Governor. Soldiers stationed at the pass were on constant watch for union organizers who, kicked out of San Miguel County, would risk their lives and attempt to sneak back in, in order to continue their labor action. Hamilton says the remote location of the fort testifies to the way of life at that time.

“The military was up there year-round, but they had a little fire place, and I'm sure life was harsh, both for the miners and for everyone at that time,” Hamilton says. “I think it is a very important site for Labor History in the West. There was turmoil with all kinds of violence as miners were dissatisfied and mine bosses were, basically, greedy.” 

“So it's really an attempt by the mine owners to stop unionization,” Gulliford says, “but the mines were terribly dangerous — coal mines were dangerous, gold and silver mines were dangerous — so, yes, [the miners] wanted better wages, but they also wanted safety, and they wanted an eight-hour workday. And thanks to them, we have it.”

“There were big, big boarding houses close to the mines,” Gulliford continues, “and most of those have all collapsed and fallen in, although there are a few scattered around near Silverton and Ouray. So housing was a problem then; it's certainly a problem now. But the mine owners knew they had to build housing. And they also had food at the boarding houses. So the most important person in the mines wasn't the mine superintendent, and it wasn’t the miners; it was the cook! Because miners would simply quit if they didn't like the food.”

Hamilton leaves listeners with a final piece of advice. 

“I would encourage everyone to go visit that historic site up on top of the ridge there. Not only do you learn a little about labor history in the West, and visit and look around and see where that machine gun would have, and walk down the ridge towards Telluride and see the sniper's nest, but then you can go bag Telluride Peak,” Hamilton says.  

Roving Rabbis Light Up Mountain Village

By Julia Caulfield

Reuven Tanny lights the menorah in Mountain Village (Julia Caulfield/KOTO)

Across the globe Jews are lighting menorahs and celebrating with their families. But in Mountain Village, Colorado a group of “Roving Rabbis” are doing things a little differently. KOTO’s Julia Caulfield has more.

The sun is setting on the shortest day of the year in Mountain Village.

Blasting over loudspeakers is a pop dance beat, but it’s not a song you’re likely to hear on a Top 40 countdown.

It’s the 4th night of Hanukkah and a group of rabbinical students from New York City – the Roving Rabbis – are in town for a menorah lighting.

Over 100 members of the community and visitors brave the cold temperatures to celebrate and partake in the lighting. Rabbi Mendy Hirsch speaks to the gathered crowd.

“Tonight we join millions of Jews around the world who are making the fourth night of the Festival of Lights, Hanukkah,” Rabbi Hirsch shares with the crowd, “Families all across the globe are gathering together to kindle these incredible flames.”

The Rabbis are on a whistle-stop tour of Utah, Colorado, and Texas lighting menorahs and celebrating Hanukkah.

“Each one of us has the spark of God within us. We all have our menorah, we all have our light, and the goal that we came here tonight for, is to ignite that light, to make sure that light is revealed, to make sure we have that light, and that light stays with us,” Hirsch says, “We know that when we have a candle in a dark room, if you light even one candle, the entire room gets lit up. The same is with our soul, with our Godliness. When we add in light, and we awaken our Neshama – our inner soul, the light of God inside of us, that lights up our surrounding, that helps us through our challenges. That is how we celebrate Hanukkah.”

After a few words from Mountain Village Mayor, local resident Reuven Tanny gets up to light the first four candles of the Menorah, as Rabbi Shmuly Wudowsky leads the blessings.

The lighting complete, dance music returns, the rabbis serve latkes and donuts, someone’s dressed up as a dradle and is dancing.

For Tanny, the lighting is a beautiful expression of community and the joy of the season.

“It makes me love Telluride even more, to just see the holiday spirit. I know a lot of people don’t really know much about Hanukkah, and it’s great for everybody to get together and celebrate,” Tanny says.

The celebration continues as the sky lights up in a brilliant sunset…but soon, the Roving Rabbis will leave Mountain Village…heading to Crested Butte, then Texas, spreading the light and love of Hanukkah with more small communities across the West.

Congress Considers Homegrown Dolores Bill

This is the second part in a two part story on the Dolores River. Listen here to the first.

A piece of legislation now before congress would preserve Southwest Colorado’s Dolores River as a National Conservation Area. The proposed bill is the product of fifteen years of negotiations between stakeholders in Southwest Colorado. 

Amber Clark was involved in the conversations as director of the Dolores River Boating Advocates, and remembers how they began. 

“And I always laugh about it because, you know, we’re all sitting around the table, there’s a blizzard, it's the middle of winter, and we’re all kind of sizing each other up and trying to figure out what the other people at the table wanted,” Clark recalls. “And what started happening was a little bit magical, in that people started getting over their own ego or whatever they had involved around [feeling like] ‘this is my stake in this,’ and [we[ really started listening to each other and hearing each other.”

Jeff Widen of the Wilderness Society also remembers how delicate the negotiations could be. 

“We developed a lot of respect for one another, and for one another’s values and livelihoods. And this process could have broken down a dozen times, literally, and it didn't, and the reason it didn't is that we all developed so much respect for each other, and the desire to work together to find a solution,” says Widen. 

The process was contentious because of the presence of water – that ever precious and increasingly scarce resource. Widen explains how it became an issue.

“Water becomes a central focus because there’s a lot of fear that if you designate a National Conservation Area or a Scenic Area or a Wilderness that gives the federal government more power to claim water,” Widen says. 

All of the water in McPhee Reservoir is already spoken for — it’s already owned by farms and other entities. In some years, the river below the dam is a mere trickle. Bob Gleason, who sits on the board of the Dolores River Boating Advocates, explains that the conservation bill respects those agricultural water rights. But, he adds, it does not put more water into the river for boaters, fish, and wildlife. 

“Farming and ranching are historic rights, and this bill is recognizing those rights,” Gleason explains. “The reason this bill has such a high probability of passing is because all the parties were brought to the table to talk about this thing, and they’re all getting the things they need out of it. So it's not just exclusively about the river, it's not so much about water rights, but it's about protecting the lands around the river. Its first step to protecting the river and in the future we can keep working on getting more of the water into the river and getting that recreational resource to a higher level than it is right now.”

Cattle rancher Al Heaton says that this conservation effort takes into account the humans who live and work alongside the river. 

“In my opinion, we live in a world where a lot of people that hide behind the term environmentalist  tend to dream of some world that’s imaginary and they fail to put the people factor in. They want to leave the people factor out and pretend we’re going to go back to this perfect something that was here before anyone knows what it was,” Heaton says. “And of course I value the river. I've been here all my life and enjoy it. I've probably spent more time in the river canyon than just about anyone, because we grew up playing in it as kids; I’ve been in and out of it all my life.”

The grassroots coalition working on the NCA believes in it fully. Widen says that although the process was long, everyone involved will stand behind the agreement. 

“I think the process we've gone through with this legislation is about as good a process as I’ve ever seen,” says Widen. “If other forces within congress try to make real changes to it we’ll go to bat for it and we'll stand together and say ‘No. This took a decade and half and it's a delicate balance and you need to respect that.’ I guarantee you no one around that table will say: “Oh, so the house Natural Resources Committee is looking into making some changes, maybe I can get a little more of this now.” 

This summer, Senator Michael Bennet introduced the bill to congress this summer, and Congresswomen Lauren Boebert followed shortly after, giving the effort a bipartisan seal. Although as recently as last week it looked like the bill might pass this year, tides change quickly, and chances now seem low. 

Senator Bennet says in a written statement: “Farmers and ranchers, conservation groups, and local and Tribal leaders spent nearly two decades hammering out a compromise to secure the future of the river.”  

He goes on to say that while the bill was not passed this session, he will reintroduce it in future sessions “to protect the Dolores River Canyon and the communities that thrive from their connection to the river.”

As Al Heaton sees it, the people of Southwest Colorado have done their part. The future of the Dolores is in the hands of congress now. 

It is, it is. It’s in the hands of congress…We’ll see,” Heaton says.

For those who worked so long to preserve the river, the wait continues. 

Dolores River Conservation a Decades-Long Effort

The Dolores River starts high in the San Juans southwest of Telluride, passes through Dolores, CO where it fills the Reservoir at McPhee Dam, and from then on trickles north through hundreds of miles of desert, meeting the San Miguel and feeding eventually into the Colorado. Those who have boated it say it’s a river like no other. 

“You start below the dam and you head into the Ponderosa Gorge with these big canyon walls and amazing majestic Ponderosa Pines, and you start to see more and more of this red rock coming out. Then you transition down into less trees and more red rock canyon walls, and the Wilderness Study Area, and at different places it opens up more…and it's kind of this ever-changing landscape, but the majesty of it never diminishes,” says Amber Clark. 

Clark is the director of Dolores River Boating Advocates, of DRBA, which promotes stewardship and recreation along the river. Bob Gleason of Telluride sits on the Boating Advocates Board and speaks of the serenity of boating the Dolores.

“If you get down beyond the sections that are typically run, you’re there completely on your own,” says Gleason. “When you’re going from Slickrock to Bedrock, you’ve got all these huge meanders in the river with these gigantic cliffs and the horseshoe bends in that section right in there are so unique and so untouched. You could do that for four or five days and never see another person.”

Here’s Clark again:
“It’s just a really special place, and — I don’t know — it's one of those things if you’ve been down there you kind of know and understand that feeling. But it’s a landscape and place that grabs you and doesn't let go,” says Clark. 

The DRBA is one of dozens of stakeholders who have been working to protect the Dolores as a National Conservation Area, or an NCA. Some rivers are protected by Congress under The Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, but protection as an NCA is less controversial, especially amongst agricultural interests. Al Heaton, a cattle rancher in Dolores involved in the conservation effort explains his view. 

“Wild and Scenic comes with some…what would you say…some rules and regulations — some laws — that are pretty dramatic and would affect a lot of things, private property and things down the river,” Heaton says. “Of course, grazing could continue in a Wild and Scenic setting but it could also be restricted, so I felt there had to be a better way.” 

For conservation groups, giving up the Wild and Scenic designation to pursue an NCA was a compromise, but it came with lasting protections, says Clark.

“You know, it is a compromise where Wild and Scenic suitability will no longer be looked at. But it does maintain no new impoundments on the river, no new dams,” says Clark. 

Jeff Widen is a longtime conservation advocate based in Durango with the Wilderness Society. He explains how the ban on new dams on the Dolores goes even farther.

“One of the significant things: there is language [in the legislation] that says that if there is something proposed even outside the area — outside the NCA — that would, the wording is ‘unreasonably diminish the values within the area,’ then it wouldn't be allowed. In other words,” Widen explains, “if someone wanted to build a dam above the NCA which would dry up all the water in the NCA or would otherwise harm the natural values, they wouldn't be allowed to do it.”

The NCA would also prevent new mining operations and road building in the area. But to understand the significance of preventing new dams, you need to understand how they change rivers. In 1985, a dam was completed on the Dolores forming the McPhee Reservoir, which irrigates area agriculture. Rancher Al Heaton remembers a time before the dam. 

“The dam controls the river now,” says Heaton. “You know, it isn't like it used to be. I could remember the dam before the river was in and completed, how it had the heavy runoff in the spring. But that’s all more controlled now.”

Hattie Johnson, with the recreation and conservation group American Whitewater says water in the Dolores River is now determined almost entirely by releases from McPhee. 

“The river is more or less — it has a few other tributaries coming in — but it's more or less completely regulated by McPhee and the presence of water depends on releases from that dam and that only happens when the reservoir behind McPhee is pretty much going to overflow,” says Johnson. 

Given the drought conditions in the West, boaters as well as native fish and plant species have seen less and less water in the river over the years, says Johnson.

“Actually in the past two summers we have seen gauging stations on the Dolores hit 0 CFFs, totally dry, no water on the river,” says Johnson. “We haven't had releases sufficient for boating since 2019. And with our extreme drought conditions we’re seeing right now, to get the conditions to boat the Dolores…it's feeling further out of reach, I would say.”

The protections would do little to release more water from the reservoir. Between drought, historic agricultural water rights, and the dozens of interests involved, coming to an agreement on how to conserve the Dolores was often contentious. Here’s Widen:

“It's incredibly complex trying to crack this nut, trying to figure out how can we protect the river, and not hurt agriculture, and do things on a voluntary basis, and the legislation we came up with is about as close as you can get in my opinion. But it took a decade and a half to get there,” Widen says.  

Continuing coverage will follow the fate of the legislation as it’s taken up by congress.

Listen here to part two of this story.