Column by Hal Walter
Rural Life – June 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
THE FIRST MORNING BACK from my spring vacation, I was aroused from bed by gunfire at around 7 a.m.
Month: June 2005
About the UAWCD
Sidebar by Martha Quillen
Water – June 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
FOR NEWCOMERS unfamiliar with local politics, the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District was formed back in 1979 to help develop water in the Upper Arkansas Valley before rapidly growing front range communities could purchase it.
In Colorado, special taxing districts can be formed to build water projects or to help manage and develop water. Such Water Conservancy Districts vary greatly in size and purpose, and although they are originally instituted by a vote, boards are subsequently court-appointed.
Just whom does the UAWCD represent?
Essay by Ed Quillen
Water – June 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
KEEPING UP WITH THE Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District could turn into a full-time job, and one that could require considerable travel, even though the district’s headquarters are in Salida.
The major current issue is a proposed expansion to include all of Frémont County. When it was organized by the District Court in 1979, the UAWCD included all of Chaffee County, and the western end of Frémont County – the portion covered by the Cotopaxi school district.
Wildflower photographer blossoms in Salida
Article by Cheryl Tischer
Local Artist – June 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
IT’S NOT THAT FAR from the manicured green neighborhoods of Ames, Iowa, to the snowkissed peaks of Chaffee County. But when measured in creative leaps and personal gains, the change in location has been an incredible journey for Carol Cartwright. For Cartwright, a photographer who moved to Salida from Ames in the winter of 2004, the distance has also unleashed a productive flow and heightened her passion for art.
Confusion and outrage
Letter from Slim Wolfe
Democracy – June 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
Dear Martha,
I enjoyed your editorial and particularly your conclusion about us not being followers. There were, however, a number of confusing items I found there. First, was the assertion that the U.S. is exporting democracy to Iraq and Afghanistan. Maybe that was a bit of sordid humor, but anyone tempted to believe such a preposterous lie should have heard the news show I heard this evening. And check out the civilian corpses in Falluja felled by U.S. nerve gas, and hear the U.N. human rights investigator for Afghanistan explain why his position was terminated by U.S. pressure although there were no alleged grievances against him.
Let’s get past finger-pointing
Letter from Kathleen Curry
Water – June 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
Dear Editor,
Recently, Representative Ray Rose [a Montrose Republican] published an article regarding legislation I carried earlier this year regarding protecting the rights of surface users when oil and gas is developed on their property. I would like to set the record straight regarding what actually occurred, and, what I think we should do next to address this critical issue.
Oil and Compost
Column by George Sibley
Gardening – June 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
THE HOT NEW ITEM on the home front is a shredder. Not a shredder like the Enron folk or various government agencies have used to cover their tracks, but one that you shovel leaves, grass, moldy MacDonald wrappers, soggy Shoppers and other rakings into, and then everything gets chewed up into little bits that either get sprinkled directly onto the claypan that passes for dirt around here or put into one of two backyard compost bins where we also dump a lot of garbage from the kitchen. And within a few months, that mess miraculously turns into dirt of the sort that has potential for growing things.
Naming the Indian group of the Sawatch Range
Article by Virginia McConnell Simmons
Geography – June 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
THE SAWATCH RANGE on the west side of Chaffee County is a visual knock-out, and the names of some of its peaks offer a reminder of the area’s past history. Among alien labels like Princeton and Harvard, a handful of mountains in the range bear names that honor the Ute Indians, who occupied this region for roughly six centuries before white folks moved in.
Resorts keep trying to use biodiesel
Sidebar by Allen Best
Agriculture – June 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
Buses in Crested Butte were scheduled to start burning biodiesel in April after a winter devoted to using only petroleum-based diesel.
Biodiesel use was suspended for the season after bacteria in the winter fuel supply was blamed for clogged fuel filters which caused buses to breakdown at Christmas. But representatives of the oil company that supplied the faulty fuel have declared the problem fully addressed, with no return of recurrent problems, according to the Crested Butte News.
About biofuels
Sidebar by Ed Quillen
Agriculture – June 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
When it comes to biofuels, you could start with firewood – it can be locally grown, it’s renewable, and it can cook your dinner and keep you warm. But most current talk of biofuels focuses on blending a liquid fuel made from farm crops with a liquid fuel made from petroleum distillates.
Will it pay to grow our own diesel fuel?
Essay by John Mattingly
Agriculture – June 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
BLUE SUN PRODUCERS will be making canola-based biodiesel in the San Luis Valley. The company hopes to bring the price of biodiesel in line with the cost of petrodiesel, and bring economic benefit to Valley farmers and consumers.
The full story on Blue Sun Producers, including their thoughtful and optimistic business plan, can be found at www.gobluesun.com.
Our Ladies of the Tenderloin, by Linda R. Wommack
Review by Martha Quillen
Prostitution – June 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
Our Ladies of the Tenderloin: Colorado’s Legends in Lace
by Linda R. Wommack
Published in 2005 by Caxton Press
ISBN 0-87004-444-3
Colorado, Mother of Rivers: Water Poems, by Gregg Hobbs
Review by George Sibley
Water Poetry – June 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
Colorado, Mother of Rivers: Water Poems
By Justice Greg Hobbs
Published in 2005 by the Colorado Foundation for Water Education
ISBN 0-9754075-4-6
More growing resources
Sidebar by Martha Quillen
Gardening – June 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
With Wann and Tweit advising, you should be able to get your garden up and blooming, but both books are in black and white. So you may well want one of those gorgeous, full-color manuals that shows brilliant pictures of garden vegetables, and landscapes and flowers, too.
Or you may want an illustrated book about something specific like Xeriscaping, or herb gardens, or easy-care shrubs.
Rocky Mountain Garden Survival Guide, by Susan J. Tweit
Review by Martha Quillen
Gardening – June 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
Rocky Mountain Garden Survival Guide
by Susan J. Tweit
Published by Fulcrum in 2004
ISBN 1-55591-507-8
The Zen of Gardening in the High and Arid West, by David Wann
Review by Martha Quillen
Gardening – June 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
The Zen of Gardening – In the High and Arid West
by David Wann
Published by Fulcrum; copyright 2003
ISBN 1-55591-457-8
Creede Repertory Theatre turns 40
Article by Marcia Darnell
Drama – June 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
IT’S THE BIG 4-0 for Creede Repertory Theatre, and the company is marking the occasion with a theatrical-themed season.
“We are celebrating show biz in Creede,” says Creative Director Maurice LaMee.
Toasting the new west
Brief by Central Staff
New West – June 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
Sam Arnold, the owner of the Fort restaurant (a replica of Bent’s Old Fort near Morrison) is also on the board of the Center of the American West in Boulder, one of our favorite think tanks.
Arnold once assembled the Old West Toast, composed of words and phrases from the 19th-century fur trade:
All Gunnison venison to be tested for CWD
Brief by Central Staff
Wildlife – June 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
All deer killed by hunters in the Gunnison Basin this fall will be required to be tested for Chronic Wasting Disease.
CWD has not been found in the Gunnison area, but the Colorado Division of Wildlife hasn’t conducted enough tests to be confident that it’s not present in those herds.
Regional Roundup
Brief by Martha Quillen
Regional News – June 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
Augusta Leaves for Better Climes
Melva Touchette has been performing her one-woman impression of Baby Doe Tabor locally for 17 years, but The Herald Democrat recently reported that she’s leaving for Kansas “because her health is failing from the altitude.” Under the headline “Touchette takes ‘Baby Doe’ to lower elevations” the Leadville paper explained how Touchette first thought of re-enacting Baby Doe Tabor’s version of historical events for her Masters degree thesis in theater at the University of Arizona.
Whitewashing the fence
Brief by Central Staff
Rural Life – June 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
Rural life provides an abundance of hard, dirty work, such as shoveling stalls or splitting cordwood. Even so, some people will pay to help with certain of those chores, like driving cattle.
How to build yourself a job
Brief by Central Staff
Transportation – June 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
The May edition of Atlantic Monthly contained a lot of good writing, along with a laudatory piece about Colorado’s own robber baron, Phil Anschutz. Anschutz started in oil, and later moved on to telecommunications – he’s a major stockholder in Qwest.
Brokers outnumber listings in Vail
Brief by Allen Best
Real Estate – June 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
The real estate boom is of such magnitude in the Vail-dominated Eagle Valley that there are now more real estate brokers, 670, than there are residential listings, 569. That’s only a third of the normal inventory.
Union Park Project refuses to die
Brief by Central Staff
Water – June 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
The Union Park water project, also known as the Central Colorado Project, might have a new lease on life – it has gained the support of State Sen. Jim Dyer, a Littleton Republican.
The project has been proposed and pushed by Dave Miller, an independent water developer based in Palmer Lake. It has been opposed by everyone from the Gunnison City Council to Gov. Bill Owens.
Briefs from the San Luis Valley
Brief by Marcia Darnell
San Luis Valley – June 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
Primitive Preferred
Steve Chaney, head ranger at the Great Sand Dunes National Park, reported that the public input for the new park leaned toward preservation over development. Folks seemed more interested in primitive camping at trailheads rather than construction of new facilities, he said. The biggest issue is vehicle access to the northern part of the park, near Crestone. The Park Service, the Division of Wildlife and the Fish and Wildlife Service must complete their studies, probably in another four years, before changes can be made.
Pack burro racers start season in Cripple Creek
Brief by Central Staff
Burro Racing – June 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
Summer may arrive one of these days (there’s certainly been enough wind to bring in a new season), and with it comes pack-burro racing – the only professional sport indigenous to Central Colorado.
The 2005 schedule includes the three Triple Crown races, as well as a Cripple Creek race and tentatively a race near where the Colorado Central Railroad once operated.
SouthArk Funnies
SouthArk Funnies
Comic Strip written and drawn by Monika Griesenbeck
Mountain Life – June 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
Environmentalists failed Libby, Montana
Essay by Ray Ring
Environmentalism – June 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
“Goofy logic” from “Ray Rong,” one critic charged. “The most ridiculous piece of journalism I have read,” said another. “Trash” and “rubbish,” said others.
Those blasts came from angry environmentalists. They’re criticizing a piece of news analysis I wrote recently, about an environmental-health disaster in Libby, Mont. I intended it to be provocative.
Western Water Report: June 2, 2005
BUSH TAPS FORMER IDAHO FARMER TO BE WATER CZAR
If approved by the Senate, Mark Limbaugh will be the Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Water and Science, in charge of setting policy for the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Geological Survey. Idaho Statesman; May 16 <http://www.idahostatesman.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050516/NEWS01/505160310/1002/NEWS01>
<http://www.gjsentinel.com/hp/content/news
