Environment

Yesterday, September 6, Joseph Seeds Jr. was rescued by helicopter from Capitol Peak, a fourteener in the Elk Mountains range, where five climbers died over a 43 day period between July 15 and August 26. He avoided becoming the sixth casualty on what has been described as Colorado’s most dangerous fourteener thanks to terrific work by extremely busy rescue crews located in the area in and around Aspen and his tremendous experience when it comes to scaling the biggest peaks in the state.

Dan Haley implied that Coloradans have intentionally monkey-wrenched pipelines and flowlines — and further, the problem would grow if citizens are given full information about their locations on the Front Range. But is monkey-wrenching really taking place?

Because of the fifth death on the Aspen area’s Capitol Peak in just over six weeks, Colorado’s fourteeners have been in the news for tragic reasons lately. But a new survey reveals that these majestic attractions are more popular than ever, with the number of hiker-use days during 2016 exceeding the 2015 total by more than 50,000. The data also identifies the ten most popular fourteeners in the state, as well as those where hikers are less likely to encounter a crowd.

On Saturday, August 26, a thus-far-unidentified 21-year-old man died in a fall from Capitol Peak, a fourteener in the Elk Mountains near Aspen. The man is the fifth Capitol Peak death since July 15, a span of 43 days, or just over six weeks. And while the fourteeners in the Elk Mountains range are considered to be Colorado’s most dangerous, the number of fatalities on Capitol Peak during 2017 to date is unprecedented in recent memory. Capitol Peak registered four fatalities in the decade and a half prior to this year.

Is any of what Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is proposing to do with national monuments even legal?

It’s not easy to prove that Mayor Michael Hancock and his minions are violating the Denver City Charter in their pursuit of a $300 million stormwater diversion project, but opponents of the controversial project have managed to keep things interesting in Denver District Court this week.

Colorado fourteeners are gorgeous, but they can also be deadly. Since caution is key when attempting to summit these magnificent peaks, we reached out to Lloyd Athearn, executive director of the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative, who offers the following ten tips for challenging Colorado fourteeners safely.

Undoing a national monument is apparently a casual and half-assed process, judging by the way the Trump administration is going about it.

The Western Values Project is digging deep to track the potential conflicts of interest in Zinke’s department, while exploring their potential effects on fossil fuel drilling in Colorado.

On Sunday, August 6, a thus-far-unidentified 35-year-old Front Range man died while climbing the Knife’s Edge portion of Capitol Peak, in the Elk Mountains near Aspen. He’s the second person to perish scaling Capitol Peak in less than a month, following Parker’s Jake Lord, who suffered a fatal fall there on July 15. And according to Lloyd Athearn, executive director of the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative, data compiled by the organization shows that Capitol Peak and several other Elk Mountains fourteeners are among the riskiest in Colorado.

Researchers at the Boulder-based NIST are taking air pollution to the next level with drone technology.

Zinke’s order came as a concern to leaders of the recreation industry as well as conservationists, who say that the Trump administration is putting oil and gas interests first and foremost – even though the BLM leased the second most land in Colorado of any state during the 2016 fiscal year —  and threatening public lands just as many are citing Colorado’s conservation efforts as the reason behind Outdoor Retailer’s relocation from Salt Lake City.

Opponents of the $1.8-billion highway expansion claim the federal government shirked its obligations to fully consider a range of economic and environmental impacts before approving the biggest road project in Colorado history.

For forty years, the Golden-based NREL has led the country in providing the foundational technology for innovations in solar, wind, biomass and battery efficiency – all to make renewable energy companies more successful, one breakthrough at a time. But as the climate begins to rapidly change, researchers are facing new pressures to push America’s energy economy in a new, sustainable direction.

The administration plans to rescind the Clean Water Rule, a contentious Obama legacy that President Donald Trump has described as “this very destructive and horrible rule.”

National Geographic’s upcoming documentary feature, From the Ashes, which spotlights Denver among other cities, depicts an ominous political and social battle brewing between opponents of “the war on coal” and advocates of “coal’s war on our health.”

The Trump administration is delaying for two years implementation of a pair of rules intended to limit methane emissions by oil and gas operations.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke recently signed a Secretarial Order to review current federal and state sage-grouse conservation plans. Colorado had worked hard to make sure those plans were collaborative and fair.

As a service to readers, Westword presents this primer in how to distinguish the enigmatic, embattled energy giant Anadarko from the enigmatic, ominous cult classic Donnie Darko.

At the fourth and final “sharing session” to discuss the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge that occupies most of the site that was once home to the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant, there was on sharing. So two weeks later, opponents shared something else: a motion to stop construction of the refuge.

As with most things Trump, Alan Prendergast’s Slaughter ’Em: The Trump Plan to Solve the West’s Wild Horse Problem, a story about the president’s plan to control the West’s wild horses population, drew plenty of comments from our readers. Some were sympathetic to the majestic beasts, others not so much. Says…

A lawyer for Denver residents challenging a  $300-million stormwater project says that city officials are being excessively secretive about the case, declining to provide more than 7400 pages of documents and maintaining that the internal processes that brought the project into being should be shielded from outside scrutiny.