A pair of geothermal energy developers are getting some much-needed funding to advance their quest to access the hot-water resource deep underground in Chaffee County. The money is coming from the state energy office and investors including one who “grew up around the benefits of geothermal” in Iceland. 

Hank Held and Fred Henderson, the pair behind Mt. Princeton Geothermal, have joined forces with Western Geothermal and Reykjavik Geothermal for exploration and development of the water that boils thousands of feet beneath the Earth’s surface along the Rio Grande Rift, which stretches from New Mexico into southern Colorado.

According to Held, Western Geothermal agreed to match a $500,000 grant Mt. Princeton Geothermal applied for from the Colorado Energy Office, which this year has awarded $7.7 million through the Geothermal Energy Grant Program to advance the use of geothermal technology in the state.  

With the combined $1 million, Mt. Princeton Geothermal can move in the direction of drilling two exploratory wells they hope will tap a reservoir of water believed to sit at a depth of between 4,500 and 6,000 feet. 

Held said the money will be “insufficient for our complete drill plan, so we are in consultation with additional prospective investors.”

But if the wells in question prove that a reservoir of hot water capable of generating 10 megawatts of energy lies beneath the land in Chaffee County, he said the partnership could yield a “potentially massive investment,” on the order of $40 million to $43 million.

Geothermal’s new rules  

The Mt. Princeton merger preceded the Colorado Energy & Carbon Management Commission’s announcement Monday that it has adopted its first set of rules for deep geothermal operations. Those rules follow the expansion of the commission’s focus on energy and carbon management projects outside of oil and gas which went into effect last summer.

Held, Mt. Princeton’s CEO, said Tuesday he hadn’t had enough time to digest the new standards, but after “glancing over them” saw, “generally speaking,” they include revisions the men had the opportunity to comment on this spring.

In an interview earlier this summer, Held described some of the hoops he and Henderson have had to jump through since the ECMC took over. 

“According to the previous procedure, we would make our geothermal drilling application to the Department of Water Resources,” he said. “Then, because our prospective well meets two criteria — it’s probably over 212 degrees and deeper than 4,000 feet — our application would be referred to the Oil and Gas Commission for their approval.”

The Oil and Gas Commission approved those types of wells in the past, but the issuing authority before the ECMC took over jurisdiction continued to be with the Department of Water Resources, he added. “Now, under ECMC, all of the regulations have changed, and they’re trying to separate our type of geothermal — hydrothermal — from enhanced geothermal, which involves fracking. With hydrothermal, we’re simply going down to what we believe to be a known hot water source to bump it up, extract the heat and put the water back in the ground.”

Henderson, Mt. Princeton’s chief scientist, has in the past said Colorado’s green energy regulations are some of the strictest in the country, making it hard for developers to attract investors. 

But Gudmundur Heidarsson, one of Western Geothermal’s investors, said, “having lived in at least three European countries and three U.S. states, I can’t think of a government that’s more helpful than the Colorado government. 

“I mean of course we’re doing something that hasn’t really been done in the state, so there’s a lot of learning,” he added. “There’s a lot of change in legislation and processes that needs to take place. But I’ve found officials to be easy to get hold of, to be helpful, and also, which I actually appreciate, a little bit careful in terms of making sure nobody’s coming in and doing something that is hard to reverse.” 

Local resistance persists 

For years, Henderson and Held have faced substantial pushback from residents of the Lost Creek Ranch subdivision, which lies about a mile from the proposed drill site. Opponents say 900 private wells could be impacted by a “geothermal project of this magnitude” and that their homes are built on the same fault line as the drill site, which they worry could “increase the potential for earthquakes.” They also fear noise pollution and odor a proposed plant could create. 

But in closed-loop systems, which is likely what Henderson and Held would build, gases removed from the well are not exposed to the atmosphere and are injected back into the ground after giving up their heat. So air emissions are minimal, and Heidarsson says, “we have buildings all over the place, so that’s not going to be any different than any other industry, in a sense.” 

Mt. Princeton Geothermal, Western Geothermal and Reykjavik Geothermal announced their merger June 19 at a community meeting in Buena Vista. Representatives from the Icelandic Ministry of Energy, Business Iceland, Green by Iceland and Chaffee County also attended.

Heidarsson said the meeting went well, which pleased him, because “you want to make sure you have a good communication with everybody around and you’re doing things in a sustainable way. As an entrepreneur in this area, I appreciate that, because it builds trust in the community and a path to continuing projects down the line.” 

The Colorado Sun reached out to Tom McCracken, a vocal opponent of the plan, who declined to comment while he runs for Chaffee County commissioner, he said. Blane Clark, who McCracken suggested may speak with The Sun, didn’t return emails Thursday.

With new investors, new potential 

Heidarsson said he and his partners discovered Henderson and Held after searching for a geothermal source in the Leadville area and failing to find one suitable for development. 

“So, we kind of started to look down the (Rio Grande) Rift, if you will, and essentially came across what Hank and Fred had been doing for the last 12 or 13 years,” he added. “And since they had done some of the initial water testing and had some seismic data that they’d run in the site, we found that interesting and went to see if they were willing to work with us.” 

They were, so Heidarsson brought some of his partners from Iceland as well as some research companies and the University of Reykjavik in to see where they could connect the dots on the project. 

He said it’s a little late for them to start drilling this fall but he’s optimistic they can get the licensing, internal contracting and financing needed to have the preliminary drilling in place by early spring.

“But geothermal is one of those industries that just takes a bit of time to get everything right,” he added. “It’s not just turning on a spigot.”

PARK COUNTY — Miles of sagebrush-covered ground and a soaring cloud puff-dotted sky dwarfed Gov. Jared Polis and other officials as they addressed a crowd gathered before them July 29 on a sweeping piece of land about 10 miles northeast of Fairplay. 

Surrounding them but invisible save for a few droppings was an elk migration corridor. On a plain below a gently sloping hill was Tarryall Creek, a trout fishery and riparian zone favored by moose, elk, deer and beavers, plus hawks, songbirds and the occasional bald eagle. And visible from nearly anywhere they stood were big, beautiful mountains. 

The group was there to celebrate the latest land acquisition by Colorado Parks and Wildlife, 1,860 acres of the Collard Ranch 60 miles west of Denver now designated as a protected state wildlife area. In December, CPW joined forces with Great Outdoors Colorado to purchase the land, spending $2 million and $6.5 million, respectively. Or rather, proceeds from the Colorado Lottery paid the $6.5 million and hunters and anglers mostly picked up the remaining $2 million. 

GOCO and CPW bought the land from the Western Rivers Conservancy who “jumped at the opportunity” to buy it after Allen Law, their Interior West project manager, fell “in love at first sight” with it in 2022. “Western Rivers’ motto is ‘Sometimes to save a river you have to buy it’ and that’s exactly what we did at the Collard Ranch,” he said. 

Now, Polis was hailing it as the next “premier hunting and fishing opportunity for all Coloradans,” added to the 558,000 acres the state says it has acquired for state parks, state wildlife areas and state habitat areas since Polis took office in 2019.

But as history has shown, state wildlife areas aren’t devoid of problems. 

Paying for limited play on public lands  

Like the other 350  or so state wildlife areas across the state, Collard Ranch was purchased partially with proceeds from CPW’s Habitat Stamp Program. 

Since 2006, Habitat Stamp funds have conserved millions of acres of key Colorado habitat. Some of those acres are designated state habitat areas and are off-limits to humans. But on state wildlife areas hunters and anglers are allowed to blast and cast, and each area has different “allowed activities” for nonconsumptive users such as hikers and birdwatchers. 

That has suited hunters and anglers who regularly access the state wildlife areas. But a coalition of animal advocacy groups sued CPW last September over regulations they said favored hunters and anglers over other users. 

Their complaint: Since 2021, all visitors to state wildlife areas — not just hunters and anglers — have had to pay to play, and nonconsumptive users deserve equal rights. The plaintiffs had a point: Bikes are prohibited, but wheeled carts hunters use to pack their dead game out aren’t. Hunting dogs only, if you don’t mind. And horseback riding is off-limits unless the horse is helping you hunt.

The case is ongoing and Collard Ranch reflects the plaintiffs’ complaint. Although it has been billed as the next big thing for hunters, anglers and recreators, only hunting, fishing and wildlife viewing are allowed per state wildlife area regulations.   

CPW is planning a soft opening for hunters only in October while others will have to wait until next spring for access to Collard Ranch, Kara Van Hoose, agency spokesperson, said. 

The number of visitors allowed at a time will also be limited by the number of cars that can fit in a parking lot CPW plans to build at the entrance, Mark Lamb, area wildlife manager for the region Collard Ranch sits in, said. CPW offers a limited number of hunting licenses in all of its game management units regardless of whether parts of them are designated state wildlife areas or not, so this new designation won’t increase overall hunter numbers. 

But Dave Gottenborg, whose 3,000-acre Eagle Rock Ranch lies near the Collard Ranch and who sits on CPW’s Habitat Stamp Committee, says he has some concerns about the big herds of elk that migrate through the Tarryall Valley bottom throughout the winter looking for forage and refuge. 

Do state wildlife areas concentrate hunters?  

Gottenborg is one of several ranch owners in Colorado who participate in CPW’s Landowner Preference Program, which encourages private landowners “to provide habitat that increases wildlife populations for the benefit of all hunters,” “discourage the harboring of game animals on private lands during public hunting seasons” and “relieve hunting pressure on public lands by increasing game hunting on private lands.” 

Yet, he thinks public access on the formerly private Collard Ranch could put extra pressure on the elk.  

Gottenborg is selective about which hunters he allows on his property through the landowner preference program, often giving his allocated number of vouchers to “neighbors, friends, and/or cowboys/cowgirls who come and help with branding, gathering, fence work, manual labor, etc,” he said in an email. He likes to do what he can for those who “may have some trouble putting food on their table at today’s grocery prices,” saying, “this is our way of helping them in return for their help on the ranch.”

He has also installed wildlife-friendly fencing on his land to assist elk in their winter journey that starts in Summit County and heads over Boreas Pass and Georgia Pass into the northern part of South Park near the Cline Ranch State Wildlife Area. 

From there, they migrate south across U.S. 285 into such areas as the Collard Ranch and points south, he said. “Elk also come over Kenosha Pass and through the Lost Creek Wilderness into the Tarryall Valley near my place. They seem to favor the bottom land along Tarryall Creek,” along with “‘working lands’ but also across recreational properties and now increasingly CPW-owned land as well,” he wrote in an email. 

Overall hunter numbers, which CPW manages, aren’t Gottenborg’s concern, he says. It’s that the state wildlife area designation, with its requisite signage and parking lot, could concentrate more hunters on the newly accessible public land and negatively impact the elk.  

Van Hoose said that’s not likely to happen because “this land is 1,860 acres, which is plenty of land for hunters to spread out.” 

But Gottenborg worries some hunters will try to “push the elk” he has seen “bedded down on a big piece of private property” and resting from private property onto public property — “entirely legal,” he says, — toward other members of their hunting party within the boundaries. And he says “elk are just running out of places to rest. This is simply my opinion – I’m not stating it as fact. It’s just what I observe here in this valley during the months in which hunting is permitted.”

CPW will discourage that kind of behavior the same way it does on the Cline Ranch State Wildlife Area, Lamb said, by limiting access to the entrance at the parking lot “because we want to prevent people shooting from the highway.” 

“What people try to outsmart on this property is predominantly elk,” he added. “So if they saw some elk up on [a] hill, they might try to drop somebody off to try and push them. We didn’t want to have those kinds of issues, so we figured, let’s try only letting people in at the parking lot. We’ve had people get angry about it, but it’s worked really well.”

Van Hoose in an email said CPW’s regional wildlife officers will enforce the rules Lamb mentioned as well as others within the boundaries. 

“A major task of the District Wildlife Managers (or Wildlife Officers) is to contact hunters and anglers in the field to ensure they have the proper licenses and tags while recreating. Officers do these daily checks on many types of lands, including SWAs,” she wrote. 

And to keep enforcement close, CPW plans to house some of the officers in a building that came with the property, Lamb said.  

Letting the new designation play out

Time will tell if turning the Collard Ranch into a state wildlife area will impact the elk that overwinter there one way or another.

But Gottenborg is adopting a “we shall see” stance, saying he thinks CPW has done a great job managing the elk herds he’s familiar with in the past. 

“I believe they will continue to do so,” he wrote in an email. “I have nothing but respect and admiration for the job they do. Same goes for the USFS locally. We all work together in this valley, both private landowners and CPW — to protect private lands from overgrazing — and maintain healthy wildlife populations — and their respective migration corridors.  We consider it a privilege to work with them — all for the good of Colorado hunters, anglers, and yes, wildlife.”

A Native American tribe in Washington that promised 15 wolves to Colorado has rescinded its offer saying the state has not honored concerns of the Southern Ute Tribe involving wolf reintroduction. 

Since soon after Colorado voters approved reintroducing wolves west of the Continental Divide, the Southern Ute Tribe has been trying to get Colorado Parks and Wildlife to acknowledge the tribe’s sovereignty in managing wolves on its land under an agreement covering hunting and fishing in the southwestern corner of the state. 

But the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Nation says a lack of agreement between the Southern Utes and the state is a deal-breaker. On June 6, Jarred-Michael Erickson, chairman of the Colville Business Council, wrote a letter to Colorado Parks and Wildlife Director Jeff Davis saying the Colville Tribes were withdrawing their resolution because “necessary and meaningful consultation was not completed with the potentially impacted tribes” when the state created and implemented its wolf reintroduction plan. 

The Southern Ute Tribe’s concerns date back to at least 2020, when the tribal council approved a resolution drafted by its wildlife advisory board to oppose reintroduction. 

The resolution cited potential impacts on both the Southern Ute Reservation and in the Brunot Agreement Area, approximately 3.7 million acres of the San Juan Mountain region the confederated bands of Utes were forced to cede to the federal government in 1873. 

Included in the 1873 Agreement was a provision reserving the right of Utes to “hunt upon said land so long as the game lasts and the Indians are at peace with the white people.” In 2008, the Southern Ute Tribe entered a historic agreement with CPW that expressed the intent of both governments to work cooperatively toward long-term conservation of wildlife within the Brunot Area. The Brunot Area Hunting Proclamation, which includes bag limits and permit numbers, is updated yearly.

The 2020 resolution to oppose reintroduction cited the impact of wolves on tribe member livelihoods, livestock on the reservation and wildlife including elk, deer and Shiras moose. Steve Whiteman, a fish and wildlife biologist who was wildlife division head for the Southern Ute Tribe from 2002 to 2022, represented the tribe on the stakeholder advisory group that presented recommendations concerning reintroduction to CPW. 

Among key recommendations were recognizing “the Brunot Agreement lands (i.e., consideration of management and Tribal consultation needs)” and developing “new intergovernmental agreements or memoranda of understanding with Tribes.”

But the Colville Tribe’s letter indicates CPW hasn’t done enough. 

Early communications with CPW 

As reintroduction efforts continued to move forward, the tribe in 2021 sent a letter to CPW communicating its concern that wolf restoration would “present an unacceptable risk to our hunting resources.” The letter highlighted the problem of declining elk calf numbers in the San Juan Basin, attributed to drought, habitat loss and degradation, disease, recreation impacts and other predators. 

“Additional pressure from an apex predator like the wolf would likely drive down the elk population further and reduce hunting opportunities,” the letter said. “Any effort at wolf population management will only be possible many years into the future.” 

Tribal officials also were concerned big-game populations could be severely impacted by then, reducing hunting opportunities in the Brunot Area. They were critical of CPW’s “arbitrary compensation cap” on livestock lost to depredation. They wanted assurance of critical funding for a restoration program, research and monitoring, education and outreach as well as a conflict mitigation and compensation program. 

And they said that while the wolf management plan signaled “support of tribal self-determination and self-governance,” they wanted CPW to recognize a “broader recognition of tribal sovereignty” through the adoption of a tribal management plan or memorandum of understanding that would govern the management of gray wolves on the reservation and Brunot Area. 

The tribe sent another letter on Feb. 22, 2023, the last day for the public to submit comments on the proposed wolf management plan. By then the agency had held five public meetings about the proposal to hear community feedback, with a meeting Gunnison being the closest to the Southern Ute Reservation. That letter mentioned the June 4 letter as well as a request by Melvin J. Baker, chairman of the Southern Ute Tribe, asking CPW to limit releasing wolves to the Interstate 70 corridor north of the Brunot Area. 

In fact, the first five wolves were released Dec. 18 north of I-70 on state land in Grand County. Another five were released Dec. 23 in Grand and Summit counties, also north of I-70. 

As of July 23, some of the wolves had ranged north to the Colorado-Wyoming border, east into Larimer and Clear Creek counties, west into western Routt and Rio Blanco counties, but only as far south as the border of Eagle County and Lake County, according to on CPW’s Collared Gray Wolf Activity Map. 

However, CPW’s planned release area includes Montrose and Gunnison counties south of I-70 to the northern border of the Brunot Area. That may be one reason the Colville Tribe decided to rescind its offer of Washington wolves to the agency. Representatives did not respond to requests for an interview. 

In early May, Southern Ute Tribe council member Andrew Gallegos gave the CPW commission a presentation on the history and establishment of the Ute reservations, the Brunot Area, wildlife management and the Brunot hunting program. Some key takeaways were the need for a strong government to government relationship and that the tribes know how to best manage their resources.

But the Colville Tribe in its June 6 letter wrote: “It is further recommended that all directives regarding the request from the State of Colorado that the Tribes provide wolves, that were passed up to the date of this recommendation be rescinded, including, but not limited to those passed on Sept. 19, 2023, and Oct. 3, 2023.”

The Colville Tribe’s natural resources and wildlife division indicated a letter would be coming June 11 and it was sent on June 18, Gonzales said in an email.  

“Because the original agreement has only been rescinded at this time and does not close the door to future conversations or opportunities to work with the Tribe, CPW chose not to release this information,” she added.  

State statute doesn’t require the agency to share communications with the public, but some ranchers are unhappy about CPW withholding this one. 

“I guess it isn’t part of their building back trust program,” Grand County Commissioner Meritt Linke said, referring to promises Davis made during a commissioner’s meeting Jan. 25. “Once again, I would question what would be the benefit of keeping this secret. It’s really not about wolves anymore. It’s about politics.” 

Davis said in a statement last week that while the Colville Business Council, tribal government and natural resources committee’s decision is “disappointing,” we have a “strong relationship” with the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation and “hope to continue these conversations in the future.” 

CPW will continue working with other potential sources for wolves and isn’t “contemplating halting our implementation of the plan,” he added. 

Southern Ute Tribe’s statement 

On Friday, the Southern Ute Tribe released a statement on Colville’s decision, saying that since the passage of gray wolf reintroduction, the tribe has been “actively engaged in collaborative efforts” with CPW and the attorney general’s office to address its concerns “including potential impacts of wolves on livestock, deer and elk herds, and the exercise of Brunot Area hunting rights reserved for Tribal Members.”  

“The Southern Ute Indian Tribe deeply values its progressive and strong relationship with Colorado Parks and Wildlife,” it continued, “and will continue to collaborate with them to establish a framework for working together that enables the state to implement its reintroduction program while simultaneously recognizing the sovereign authority of the Tribe on tribal lands and the interest shared by the Tribe and the state in the Brunot Area.” 

In an email Friday, CPW said, “the nature of tribal governance and state/federal governance can present valuable learning opportunities. CPW is committed to working with our tribal partners to find solutions and move forward.” 

Collared wolves in the news

Meanwhile, the agency has other pressing matters to address, including the confirmed killing of eight sheep by wolves in Grand County July 28.

In news pleasing to wolf advocates, on July 19, Rocky Mountain Wild’s Colorado Corridors Project captured the first official documented image of an introduced wolf staring directly into a camera on Vail Pass. (Ranchers have many of their own images.) 

At its commissioners meeting the same day, Reid DeWalt, CPW’s deputy director, announced the members of a new ad hoc working group formed to focus on “promoting and scaling up non-lethal wolf deterrent measures while providing additional resources to ranchers affected by reintroduction.”

The group includes ranchers, wolf advocates, hunters and a rangeland wildlife conflict specialist along with Davis, DeWalt, CPW wolf biologist Eric Odell, Dustin Chiflett from the Colorado Department of Agriculture and Travis Black, CPW’s northwest region manager.

Fire crews worked through the night to try to get containment on three of the wildfires burning along the Front Range.

Wednesday night, officials working the Stone Canyon fire north of Lyons said they were able to get 20% containment on the fire, which started Tuesday, and some residents in Lyons were allowed to return to their homes.

While ground crews worked the fire lines overnight, air support is expected to resume Thursday morning as officials continue to share resources.

The Alexander Mountain fire is the largest wildfire in the state and late Wednesday night officials announced they had 1% containment. That is on the east side as they continue to protect the Sylvan Dale Guest Ranch. 

On Wednesday, Gov. Jared Polis said he has activated the Colorado National Guard to help with logistics in fighting the wildfires. Soldiers won’t be fighting the fires but will help with backup support, including traffic control and other needs. Polis also said FEMA will help pay for the costs to fight the fires, and will cover 75% of the costs.

The National Weather Service in Denver said there will be a slight chance of afternoon storms mainly over Park County and the Palmer Divide, but “elevated fire conditions will continue over higher terrain.” Those conditions include above normal temperatures, forecast in the high 90s, and low humidity.

Warm and stagnant weather combined with smoke from local and out-of-state fires will bring unhealthy air quality that could be harmful for people with respiratory illnesses, children and older adults, state health officials warned in an advisory Thursday morning. 

The warning is for Douglas County north to Larimer and Weld counties, including the Denver-Boulder area, Greeley and Fort Collins and remains in effect until 4 p.m. 

Catch up: Read live updates from Wednesday

Alexander Mountain fire

Current size: 8,134 acres
Location: West of Loveland in Larimer County
Containment: 5%
Cause: Unknown
Impact: 3,200 people evacuated; at least two dozen structures damaged or destroyed; no injuries

Starting to get containment

With more than 325 personnel working on the fire, officials said Thursday evening the fire was 5% contained and most of the fire activity occurred “primarily on the interior of the fire.” That burning cause a noticeable smoke plume in the afternoon.

Weather is forecast to remain hot and dry through Monday with a high pressure system stationed over the Rockies.

— 7:45 p.m. Thursday

Fiber-optic line draws concern

During a news conference Thursday afternoon, Southwest Incident Management Team Operations Section Chief Jayson Coil said crews are making good progress slowing the fire’s spread and protecting structures, particularly near Masonville on the eastern edge. 

One big concern, he said, is an above-ground fiber optic line that runs through Big Thompson Canyon and provides 911 service to Estes Park. Crews are stationed along Highway 34 to protect the line and keep the fire from jumping the highway and moving to the south where the timber is more dense.

Along the northern edge, the fire is nearing the Cameron Peak burn scar, which he said is good news and should slow the fire in that section.

The fire went from 1% to 0% contained because as the fire grew the percentage of containment dropped.

— 5 p.m. Thursday

More than 20 structures damaged, destroyed

At least two dozen structures have burned in the fire, the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office said Thursday afternoon. The structures are believed to be a combination of homes and outbuildings.

“Getting the notification that your home or property has been damaged is never easy. We will grieve alongside our neighbors through this difficult process, and our team will be here for you in the difficult days and months ahead,” Larimer County Sheriff John Feyen said in a news release.

— 3:20 p.m. Thursday

Updates on plans for fighting blaze 

Hotshot crews are prioritizing protecting homes in the Masonville subdivision on the fire’s east side and Cedar Park subdivision on the west, by creating natural fire barriers, said Jayson Coil, the operations section chief with the Southwest Area Incident Management Team.

Crews will work until they reach the Cameron Peak fire scar, Coil said, saying that the fire is not expected to travel north beyond the fire’s scar. 

Firefighters will also work to protect homes along U.S. 34 and try to make sure the fire doesn’t jump south of the highway, where there are a lot more trees, he said. 

— 12:20 p.m. Thursday

New team takes command of operations

As of 6 a.m., the Southwest Area Incident Management Team 1 has assumed command of the fire. The team, based out of Albuquerque, was last in Colorado in July 2002 to help with the Big Elk fire, which burned 4,800 acres south of Estes Park. (Three pilots were killed fighting that fire.) 

Currently there are 450 personnel fighting the Alexander Mountain fire, which started Monday. The cause of the fire is unknown and under investigation.

The incident team has set up a new Facebook page for updates on the fire. 

— 9:05 a.m. Thursday

Thursday morning’s update

Firefighters have made minor headway and have been able to get its first bit of containment and have secured the perimeter next to the Sylvan Dale Guest Ranch, which is on the east side of the blaze near where it started. Crews continue to keep the flames from jumping over Highway 34, which remains closed.

Hotshot firefighting crews and other resources are expected to arrive Thursday to fight the fire, the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office said. 

Smoke was a big issue for aerial crews Wednesday and “there were times when aviation assets could not be utilized,” officials said late Wednesday night. 

— 5:40 a.m. Thursday

Stone Canyon fire

Current size: 1,553 acres
Location: Stone Mountain outside Lyons in Boulder County
Containment: 20%
Cause: Unknown
Impact: One fatality; five structures have been destroyed

Power returning to Stone Canyon Drive neighborhood 

Power should return to homes in the Stone Canyon Drive neighborhood Thursday afternoon. Xcel Energy will be in the neighborhood Friday morning starting at 8 a.m. to relight gas pilots. Someone must be home for this to happen. If not possible, contact Xcel for alternative methods. 

Large dumpsters are being placed in each neighborhood to deposit spoiled food and perishable items. Disaster management office asks that food waste not be placed on roads or sidewalks.

— 4:45 p.m. Thursday

Some evacuations lifted and roads opened

Some areas of the evacuation have been marked “all clear;” they are indicated in green on this map. Blue Mountain Road is now open north of Highway 36 into Larimer County at County Road 37E and Lone Star Road. 

The Steamboat Valley and Stone Canyon neighborhoods have been marked all clear. The Steamboat Valley Road closure has moved north to Lewis Lane Trail. Stone Canyon Drive is open to Eagle Ridge Road to residents only. And Nolan Road is open to Eagle Ridge Road — again, residents only. 

The fire is experiencing little growth. A large evacuation area remains in place.

— 3:35 p.m. Thursday

Fire restrictions upgraded; “extreme caution” urged

The Boulder County Sheriff’s Office has enacted stage 2 fire restrictions and is asking all residents and visitors to use extreme caution with anything that could potentially start a spark or flame. Larimer County, where the Alexander Mountain fire is burning, also has enacted stage 2 restrictions.

Stage 2 fire restrictions prohibit:

• Building, maintaining or using an open fire, campfire or stove fire on private and public lands, including charcoal grills and barbecues. This ban is also in effect in developed camping and picnic areas. 
• Firework sales, use and possession, including fireworks that are otherwise legal
• Shooting or discharge of firearms for recreational use
• Smoking, unless in an enclosed vehicle or building, a developed recreational site or while stopped in an area at least 10 feet in diameter that is barren or cleared of all flammable materials
• Opening a chainsaw without a USDA or SAE approved spark arrester that is properly installed and in good working order
• Using an explosive to do any kind of blasting work
• Welding or using a torch with an open flame outdoors
• Using a vehicle off established roads, motorized trails or established parking areas, except when parking in an area that does not have vegetation within 10 feet of the vehicle 

— 11:05 a.m. Thursday

Minimal growth overnight; air support diverted

There was little growth overnight and the fire remains at about 1,548 acres, Boulder County officials said Thursday morning. 

The fire, which started Tuesday morning, will likely get less air support as aircraft are reassigned to other fires that are still growing, the county said. Crews will continue to work on the ground to secure the fire perimeter and assess damage by the fire. 

Forecasted high temperatures and low relative humidity levels will provide little relief to the fire.

—9:20 a.m. Thursday

Thursday morning’s update

Officials said Wednesday night they had 20% containment on the fire, which has slowed but is moving to the northeast. Ground crews were working the fire lines overnight, and air support is expected to resume Thursday morning.

— 5:45 a.m. Thursday

Quarry fire

Current size: 450 acres
Location: Deer Creek Canyon in Jefferson County
Containment: 0%
Cause: Unknown
Impact: 600 homes evacuated; no injuries or burned homes

Growth, but on open space land

Officials say the fire grew by around 100 acres Thursday, but on open space land. Overall, it was less active than previous days and responders made progress.

They are anticipating cooperative weather overnight into Friday and continued helicopter support. A hand crew will join the 155 firefighters currently on the ground. 

— 6 p.m. Thursday

Flames within quarter-mile of homes

Three helicopters and two planes continue to drop water and retardant on the fire Thursday.

“We are fortunate to have those. The other fires going on, air resources are crucial to all of us,” Mark Techmeyer, a spokesperson for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said during a 2 p.m. news conference. “When we put in a request last night, we put it in with crossed fingers.” 

Additional resources would be “fabulous to have,” but crews are working with what they have, calling the fire a “hard fight,” Stacy Martin, assistant chief of Evergreen Fire Protection District.

Officials couldn’t provide an estimate as to how long before evacuated residents could return home.

“This terrain isn’t like something I have seen in my career in 15 years,” he said. “It’s hard. This thing could go on for days, a week, two weeks, we just don’t know.”

While the Quarry fire isn’t the largest burning in the foothills, Techmeyer said the amount of homes at risk and challenging terrain places the fire as a high priority to get under control.

No structures have been lost in the fire, but Techmeyer said flames are within a quarter-mile of some homes.

“You look at the incredibly difficult terrain it is for firefighters, and you look at the density of home that are up there and you look at assets that really can’t afford to be lost like the watershed that puts out water down to 2,800,000 people down toward Denver that could be affected by this fire if it got out of control; Lockheed Martin right behind us,” he said. 

“Those are things that have to be protected, not to mention the homes of people that live there.” 

— 2:32 p.m. Thursday

West Ranch subdivision residents told to be ready to leave

People living in the West Ranch neighborhood in central Jefferson County should be alert and ready to leave, Inter-Canyon Fire Protection District said in a post on Facebook about 12:45 p.m. West Ranch is a 1,250-acre gated community with 52 homes.

An evacuation center has been created at Dakota Ridge High School at 13399 West Coal Mine Ave. Anyone who needs help should call 911.

— 1:50 p.m. Thursday

Update on fire resources

There are three helicopters, two aircraft, 155 firefighters and 23 fire rigs on scene fighting the Quarry fire, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said.

— 1 p.m. Thursday

Firefighter morale remains high 

“The volunteers, they’re pros, this is what they do and they know what they are signing up for,” Mark Techmeyer, a spokesperson for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said Thursday. “Their morale is: Let’s go to war, let’s fix this thing, let’s put this fire out, let’s take care of these people’s homes.” 

The cause of the fire, which started Tuesday evening, remains under investigation.

“Everyone should be worried right now, there’s a huge fire that is difficult to fight. … This is not easy folks, this is a tough fire,” Techmeyer said, adding that the fire is about a quarter-mile from West Sampson Road. Techmeyer said he expects firefighting efforts to extend into the weekend.

“We’re going to be on this for a while.” 

County officials discouraged donations of food and other items because there is no space to put them. More information on ways to support affected residents can be found online.

— 8:35 a.m. Thursday

No growth overnight

Low winds and higher humidity helped firefighters and the fire did not grow overnight, Mark Techmeyer, a spokesman for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, said Thursday morning. 

“We had a great night last night. The fire behaved, it laid down and did not grow overnight,” he said.

“This fire cannot jump over to the north side of Deer Creek Canyon Road. We have a whole other situation on our hands if that happens,” he said. “If we lose control of this fire and it jumps over to the north side, that would be our nightmare.” 

— 8:10 a.m. Thursday

Hotshots arrive to help; 5 firefighters injured but OK

The San Juan Hotshots, a group of 20 firefighters from Colorado, arrived Wednesday night and will help to attack the fire from the ground, Mark Techmeyer said. 

“They are boots on the ground in tough terrain and take care of tough situations,” he said, adding, “Let’s be real, this fire will not be won in the air. We have to have the Hotshots.”

As temperatures crept near 100 degrees, five firefighters assigned to the fire were injured, Techmeyer said. Four suffered from heat exhaustion and one had a seizure. None were hospitalized and all are in good condition Thursday, he said.

— 8 a.m. Thursday

Thursday morning’s update

Infrared imaging estimated the fire to be at 341 acres, according to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.

The fire is burning in a highly dense population area, and more pre-evacuation warnings were issued Wednesday night, putting the  Homestead South and Oehlmann Park neighborhoods on notice.

More than a dozen fire agencies responded to the fire Wednesday, including 17 firefighters with five engines from West Metro fire department who worked along the road digging fire lines and cutting down brush and other fuels to help strengthen natural barriers to stop the fire.

— 5:50 a.m. Thursday

Denver Parks and Recreation is saying a fish die-off that occurred last weekend and left at least 2,000 putrefying carp and crappies floating on the surface of Sloan’s Lake has subsided.

Toxic algae blooms caused by consecutive near 100-degree days in Denver spread over certain sections of the lake and “sucked oxygen” out of it that fish need to survive, Parks and Recreation spokesperson Stephanie Figeuroa said in an email Tuesday.

Water temperatures in the lake reached a high of at least 80 degrees over the weekend, Figueroa said. On Monday it registered 79.9 degrees, she said. Cold water from the Sloan’s Lake Park irrigation system was pumped into the lake in an attempt to cool the water, stop the algae bloom and save the fish. The die-off continued until Tuesday, when Figueroa said the department added “increased flows from the Rocky Mountain Ditch” that dropped the temp by another 0.2 degrees. By then, Figueroa said the dying stopped.  

Sloan’s Lake Park sits in the Sloan’s Lake neighborhood in Northwest Denver. The lake is used for everything from water skiing to swimming to fishing and dog walking around its 2.6-mile perimeter. The popular Dragon Boat Festival has occurred there for 24 years, as it did last weekend. Figueroa said the festival “had no effect positive or negative on the fish kill. In fact the fish kill was isolated to the southeast end of the lake in Coopers Bay, away from the dragon boats, and no dead fish impacted their event.”  

She added the sight of so many fish floating lifeless on the water “can be alarming,” but that last weekend’s die-off was “nothing new”  in water bodies in urban settings. 

Toxic blooms in recent history 

A similar die-off occurred in 2020, when extremely low water levels coupled with hot weather caused thousands of fish to die in Sloan’s Lake, which averages 2.5- to 3-feet deep across and 5 feet deep in places, Figueroa said.  

John Michael, a spokesperson for the Department of Public Health & Environment water quality division, added other blooms in 2019 (6), 2020 (12), 2021 (20), 2022 (11) and 2023 (20) to the list. 

Michael said “it’s always difficult to predict what each toxic algae season will bring,” but that they usually run from July 4 to October. 

“We did have some early blooms in June, so that may be an indication of a busy season ahead,” he added. And if temperatures like Colorado has seen over the past couple of weeks keep up, we can expect a bigger impact. 

The Sloan’s Lake Park Foundation keeps close tabs on the lake, as a citizen-founded organization that wants to ensure “the environmental health, sustainability and beauty of one of Denver’s top urban natural assets.” 

It says the lake is suffering “like many lakes in Colorado” from shallow, stagnant water “and a century of human development causing tons of runoff from parking lots, roads, etc. flowing into the lake in the form of sediment.” 

Twenty-three storm drains and the Rocky Mountain Ditch funnel this polluted water into the lake. The foundation says the majority of existing sedimentation was caused by rapid urbanization within the South Platte Watershed prior to the Federal Clean Water Act of 1972, and that the impact has lessened with “much of the watershed fully developed and urbanized.” 

But Kurt Weaver, the foundation’s spokesperson, said “if you drive around the neighborhoods in the greater Sloan’s Lake area, you still see lots of construction dirt that flows directly and unfiltered into Sloan’s Lake. That coupled with increasing temperatures has an inevitable outcome, and that is the deterioration of the lake.” 

Weaver credits the parks and recreation department for doing all they can to keep Sloan’s Lake as healthy as possible, but says, “they are fighting a losing battle. The lake’s demise is imminent if we do not act to dredge it back to a healthy depth and improve the water flow,” evidence of which was on display last weekend. 

Don’t drink oily, turquoise waters (duh?)

Toxic algae blooms are common in lakes and reservoirs across Colorado, and the physiological effects from exposure to them can range from mild to deadly. Shireen Banjeri, a clinical toxicologist and director of the Rocky Mountain Poison Center, said these vary based on how long someone submerges in bloom-infected water or how much of it they accidentally drink.  

“If they just jumped in the lake and then they felt some itchiness on their skin and got out, we would consider that a minor exposure,” she said. “If they swam for a couple hours, they could have more prolonged effects, but I would still expect that to go away within 24 hours.” 

Certain strains of the toxic algae tend to look like oily paint poured on the surface of a lake or pea soup on the water, and are red, orange, turquoise or other green-adjacent colors. And they can cause gastrointestinal symptoms like vomiting, diarrhea or abdominal pain if ingested. 

“Or you could have itching, sore throat, maybe watery eyes or burning eyes,” Banjeri said. Accidentally drink enough, and you could have liver or neurological failure. And because dogs ingest a lot more water than humans when they’re paddling around in lakes, Banjeri says the effects can be exacerbated. 

But there’s only so much any agency can do to keep people and dogs out of the algae. 

Avoiding blooms is on you

Figueroa said her department didn’t prohibit access to the park or the lake, and likely wouldn’t, “just because some folks can’t follow certain guidelines or suggestions.” 

The city of Denver employs rangers who patrol daily from 3 a.m. until 10:30 p.m., by foot, bicycle and motorized vehicles, the 20,000 acres of city and mountain parkland, around 250 individual urban parks and about 850 miles of paved and off-street bike trails. 

“So if a ranger is [at Sloan’s Lake] and they see someone swimming, they’ll tell them you should not swim in the water and, probably, get out,” Figueroa added. “Then they’ll point them to the signs about the health effects that could happen.” And between messaging from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and parks and rec to let people know when blooms are around, “we can get it pretty much under control, and get the right signage out and and keep people away,” she said.   

Colorado Parks and Wildlife deals with toxic algae blooms in waters across the state, and they use their own signage to try and get their message across. On Tuesday, they reported a bloom in DeWeese Reservoir in Custer County. They said they’ve put up signs warning visitors to keep kids and pets out of the water, refrain from swimming, skiing, paddle-boarding and wading and that drinking the water could result in death. 

Oddly enough, “You can still fish during an algae bloom,” wrote Justin Krall, CPW’s wildlife manager for the district DeWeese is in. But “it’s important to take care when handling and cleaning any fish caught in DeWeese,” because toxins accumulate in the liver and guts of fish, they said.  

On Wednesday, Figueroa said 99.9% of the dead fish had been removed from the lake and disposed of. But Weaver countered her, saying, “if you walk the lake, there are still 400 just floating there, and that’s after they took out bags and bags of them.” 

Figueroa said she hadn’t visited the lake personally but that her “team is certain there are no more dead fish.” 

BOULDER COUNTY — Ned Gravel had only one reported accident Saturday, July 13, during its fourth annual race where 870 riders pedaled courses ranging from 10 to 116 miles up thousands of feet in temperatures pushing 90 degrees. But alleged complications with communication has some critics questioning the safety of rural Colorado races. 

A man was seriously injured when multiple riders crashed while coming around a tight corner on Gold Hill Road on Saturday morning. When Indian Peaks Fire Protection District paramedics responded, other riders swerved in front of them, impeding their ability to reach the victim quickly, according to a post on Nedheads Facebook group after the fallen racer was transported to a Boulder hospital by ambulance. 

Emergency responders, all volunteers, say they were caught off guard by the race crawling across their 122-square-mile region, although records show the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office alerted Indian Peaks, as it does any fire protection district with an official event planned for its service area.

Race organizer Gavin Coombs said he hopes to sit down with Indian Peaks responders and discuss the incident. In the four years since the race started it’s the first time Indian Peaks has had to respond to an emergency call, he said. 

In the meantime, Coombs, like other organizers of gravel races in Colorado, has framed up a new code of conduct for cyclists participating in his races, hoping to cut down on race-day conflicts.

Coombs said the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office, the Colorado State Patrol and Gilpin County were all alerted prior to race day. Ned Gravel also contracts with Event Medical Specialists to have six medical providers, partnered with amateur radio operators, stationed along the course to respond to emergencies. And its operations plan includes a detailed emergency response plan that lists things like evacuation pickup sites and a designated emergency treatment facility. 

Andy Bohlmann, who organized hundreds of cycling races as the first technical director for the U.S. Cycling Federation, now USA Cycling, said it sounds like Ned Gravel “had its act together” based on information in its emergency plan, but that gravel racing in general “is very loose, meaning there are no rules or regulations or oversight or checks and balances on the race organizers.” And with some events, he added, he’s surprised no racers have been killed.

“There’s no governing body to assign some kind of official to monitor these events, to get them in some kind of order,” he said. “These people don’t want organization but then they’ve got to find insurance. You have to have insurance to be an entity, and usually an entity is a 501(c)(3). But that doesn’t mean they know how to organize a bike race. And gravel racing is as dangerous as any road race.”

Gravel’s behavior problem 

The rider injured during Ned Gravel is “stable and OK,” Coombs said. 

But according to comments in the same Nedheads post, once Indian Peaks responders reached him, some riders were “funneling at top speed” between the ambulance and the patient, making it nearly impossible to get supplies like oxygen to him. 

It’s an extreme example of similar attitudes that have prevailed in other races, like SBT GRVL, in Routt County, which ended with ranchers decrying last year’s race. Several public meetings were held in the aftermath in which area ranchers said riders’ trash, selfish attitudes and disregard for safety were more than they could take. For months it was unknown if SBT GRVL would continue after Routt County commissioners scheduled a public hearing to decide its future. 

Discussion are ongoing and this year’s race is scheduled for Aug. 18. 

“We haven’t worked through all of the challenges, but we’ve certainly engaged in a really robust process of public meetings, and to the race organizers’ credit, they did quite a bit of work to respond to concerns of citizens,” Commissioner Tim Corrigan said. 

Top concerns were safety and attitude of racers toward the communities in which they ride. 

SBT GRVL cofounder Amy Charity said a number of significant changes have been made to the  2024 “action plan,” including operational updates such as new routes that use less traveled roads and eliminate bi-directional rider traffic, asking Colorado State Patrol to control the front of the race, increasing the number of traffic marshals, beefing up on-course resident outreach and focusing on “education and stewardship messaging” to riders.

Another key change focuses on rider education with the Respect the Routt campaign, which hones in on key topics such as safety, stewardship and kindness, Charity said. 

And all race participants must sign a new set of SBT GRVL oaths prior to starting this year’s race. These include riding on the right side of the road and obeying pertinent traffic laws, respectfully sharing roads with other users, using portable toilets (rather than relieving themselves on private property), and “practicing kindness to others on and off the bike” amid the understanding that this event is inclusive of all. 

Making gravel friendly again

In some instances, organizers in other locations have taken it upon themselves to preemptively ease the burden on communities. 

At a July 1 community meeting in Beulah, fire crews indicated the Oak Ridge Fire, which has been burning since late June, could take weeks to get under control.

The crews were staging on part of the Twelvemile Gravel Hill Climb, which features a short, gutpunch of a course where beginners can get used to safely suffering on the bike, and pros can lay it all out.

No one could be sure how long the fire efforts would take, so Adam Davidson, founder of Grassroots Gravel which hosts the hill climb, immediately canceled the race.

“It’s like the one opportunity in gravel to have a bunch of clangity, clangity, clangity, clangity, clangity, clang,” Davidson said, mimicking the sound of cowbells used to cheer on bike racers.

But calling it off, he said, “was a no-brainer,” even though this would have been the race’s first year.  “It also gives us the opportunity to reassess the race. Like, does it make sense in the coming year to hold it during fire season?”

Like most gravel races, Twelvemile is a no-refunds and no-deferrals event. Grassroots donated what was left of registration fees to the Nature and Wildlife Discovery Center, which has been hosting fire crews at its mountain campus in Beulah, and the Beulah Fire Protection District.  

“Literally the last thing that I want to do is create a burden on a community or be exploitative of the community,” he said. “That’s not what we’re here for. Like I’d rather not run an event than for it to be a net negative on the community. We want to be a symbiote. We don’t want to be a parasite.”

As for Ned Gravel, Coombs said starting next year, riders will have to sign a code of conduct when they register. They’ll have to follow rules of the roads, show respect to residents, motorists and race personnel, adhere to all laws including stopping and/or moving over for emergency vehicles and defer to first responders as well as uniformed and non-uniformed officers, he said. 

If a rider violates the code and someone catches them, they’ll be disqualified and could face banishment from all future races. And the new rules will “trickle through” all other events Coombs’ production company, Peak to Peak Endurance, presents, he said.  

Tracy Ross

Reporter

When it comes to attempting to solve Colorado’s housing crisis, any success story seems worth noting.

So it was fun to learn about a company that has overcome challenges to start getting work done.

Ethan Deffenbaugh and Nick Lemmer own Higher Purpose Homes, a startup construction company that builds houses modeled on a computer and pre-fabricated in a warehouse on the outskirts of Durango.

The idea is to get homes built more quickly, to get more in the market, to increase affordability.

In February, they believed they were on the verge of winning an $8 million grant from the state Office of Economic Development and International Trade to go toward buying land, building a warehouse and starting to chip away at the housing crisis by constructing high-quality homes faster and more efficiently.

Their plan was innovative. Homes could be designed and built with data sent to a machine Lemmer created called a cut station, which pushes lumber into the correct position to create walls, floors and roofs. Workers would then assemble the pisces using a jig designed by Lemmer. The homes could be outfitted with the customer’s chosen finishes and wrapped for transport — all in six to eight weeks.

But they ended up not getting the grant and their future was uncertain. Only for a few days, though.

Because a couple in Durango heard about them after a story appeared in The Colorado Sun and hired them to build a 2,000-square-foot ranch house with three bedrooms and two baths to place on their property with views of the La Plata Mountains.

The couple hired Durango architect Dean Brookie to design the home. Then Higher Purpose got to work framing the shell with materials costing around $21 per square foot and labor in the range of $16.50 a square foot.

Lemmer says the house is rectangular, with giant windows framing soaring views. “It’s got some pretty big decks on there, and some beautiful covered porch areas,” he adds, and the customers seem more than satisfied. They prefer not to be named but in an interview said Lemmer and Deffenbauh’s “work ethic, punctuality, creativity, problem-solving and flexibility provided a quality product in an amazingly short period of time.”

Outside of excavating the site and building a foundation — jobs done by Lazy K dirt work company and Rosso Concrete Company, respectively — that time period was about a month from start to finish. Lemmer says they built the walls over two weeks in the factory, and constructed the roof and floors over one week at the site. “It took couple of days for the crane to come in and lift the roof off of the floor, put the walls up and put the roof back,” he added, “and we had a crew of three: me, Deffenbaugh and our building expert, who’s been a framer for over 15 years now. And then the customer was out there helping, because he was really excited to see it happen.”

As for future projects, they’re currently in talks to prefab a house for a customer in Pueblo. Then they’d like to expand by working with builders and developers who have their own framing crews.

“One of the biggest things right now is finding labor, and so by doing a lot of the labor in a factory setting, we can kind of alleviate the need for the on-site labor,” Lemmer says. “But let’s say a developer has enough labor to frame out a couple houses in a year. By using our method, they should be able to greatly expand that.”

“The concept we’re doing here is we are providing a product that is the same as what everybody’s used to, but eliminating the need for the skilled labor on-site and greatly reducing the time that it takes to get a house framed in,” he adds. “So for developers and builders out there who are struggling to find framing crews and get jobs done, we can provide a majority of the heavy lifting so that framing crews can do more for them and they can rely less on skilled labor to make all of that happen.”

That could help Colorado’s lagging construction market, which some say is slowing in part because there are too few workers.

This week’s report comes from Colorado Sun rural reporter Tracy Ross. If you enjoy her monthly updates on the more rural parts of the state, let her know at tracy@coloradosun.com

Sun economy stories you may have missed

➔ Colorado AG steps into battle over a fence that’s pitted San Luis Valley locals against a billionaire. Attorney General Phil Weiser visited the small town of San Luis to meet with local residents who are trying to stop construction of the wire-grid fence. >> Read story

➔ Southern Ute Indian Tribe sues Colorado governor, gaming division over sports betting. Southern Ute Indian Tribe calls actions by Gov. Jared Polis and the Division of Gaming “bad faith” and “anti-sovereign,” alleging the state seeks to freeze them from the online sports betting market. >> Read story

➔ The Colorado Sun discusses insurance costs, climate change and weather events. Environmental reporter Michael Booth spoke with a panel of experts about how wildfires, hail floods and more are costing Coloradans billions in higher insurance rates. >> Watch

➔ Slaughterhouse ban on Denver ballot targets one 70-year-old business. An animal rights group got a slaughterhouse ban on the November ballot. The head of the state livestock association wants activists to stop messing with agriculture. >> Read story

➔ Xcel should be ordered to get moving on home solar hookups, state regulators and industry groups say. Colorado’s largest utility promised eight months ago to set fees, deadlines, procedures and a connection timeline but has not delivered. >> Read story

➔ Despite 70% opt-out rate, Keep Colorado Wild Passes program delivers more revenue than forecast. Adding a $29 fee to license plate bills sent almost $41 million to Colorado Parks and Wildlife, plus money for avalanche forecasting and search and rescue groups. >> Read story

Other working bits

➔ $311 million paid as Colorado workers tap into state’s paid family leave. Colorado’s Family and Medical Leave Insurance program paid out more than $311 million to fill 62,632 claims in the first half of 2024, according to the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. The program began paying benefits in January but started a year earlier, as eligible workers — and their employers — contributed a portion of their paycheck to the FAMLI insurance fund. By the end of 2023, the fund had $775 million. The benefits are meant to provide a partial paycheck for workers to care for a new child or a serious family health issue. Some stats, as of July 1:

• 38,510 claims were to take care of personal or family health issues. 
• 32,834 claims were to bond with a new child. 
• The average leave was 53.3 days and the payment was $915.30. 
• More than two-thirds of the workers have already returned to work. 

>> News release; Earlier story

HELP US: Did you benefit from the state’s new family leave program or have employees who did? Tell us more by emailing tamara@coloradosun.com

➔ Colorado home sales sink as active listings increase. June numbers are in and according to the Colorado Association of Realtors called it a “stalemate” between buyers and sellers as the number of houses sold fell 11.6% statewide and median sales price edged up 3.1% to $599,000 compared to a year ago, which is still near all-time highs. The number of houses for sale, or active listings, rose 19% with more than 18,373 for sale last month. “Buying conditions have collapsed to levels seen only twice since 1960. Those years were 1974 and 1980, per Game of Trades reporting. We have also seen multifamily default numbers not seen in a decade,” Patrick Muldoon, a Realtor in the Colorado Springs-area, said in a news release. “Are we entering a corrective phase? It appears many indicators are pointing in that direction.” In metro Denver, home sales fell 8.2% and the median sales price rose 1.1% to $637,000 from a year ago. >> See CAR data: Colorado, Metro Denver

➔ More federal money for Colorado’s apprenticeship program. The U.S. Department of Labor awarded $839,094 “to expand, modernize and diversify” Colorado’s Registered Apprenticeship program, which is overseen by the state’s Department of Labor and Employment. Colorado was one of 46 states to receive a portion of the $39 million in grants to support apprenticeships. >> Awards by state

Section by Tamara Chuang | Business/Technology Reporter

Got some economic news or business bits Coloradans should know? Tell us: cosun.co/heyww

Thanks for sticking with us for this week’s report. Remember to check out The Sun’s daily coverage online. As always, share your 2 cents on how the economy is keeping you down or helping you up at cosun.co/heyww. ~ tamara

Miss a column? Catch up:

• What consumers and businesses need to know about Colorado’s “Do not sell my data” law
• Colorado employers may finally have found enough workers
• How a Denver company is fighting the problem of underemployment
• Why Colorado could start attracting more filmmakers
• New broadband laws to help Colorado streamline distribution of $800+ million
• Nearly 55,000 Coloradans now have a retirement account after law went into effect
• Colorado added a mere 300 jobs in April
• Growing older in Colorado? You’ll be interested in these new laws

What’s Working is a Colorado Sun column about surviving in today’s economy. Email tamara@coloradosun.com with stories, tips or questions. Read the archive, ask a question at cosun.co/heyww and don’t miss the next one by signing up at coloradosun.com/getww.

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Corrections & Clarifications

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NEDERLAND — Nederland’s pump track is just a tiny little thing, built of dirt, on a private lot tucked between a vertical gardening wall and Middle Boulder Creek on the main commercial drag. But Billy Giblin, Nederland’s mayor, says its road to creation has been “shockingly controversial.” 

Some cycling advocates say that itself is a shock, given how pump tracks have been stacking up across Colorado and offering kids a safe, centralized and inclusive place to play for at least the last couple decades.

They’re in towns and cities along I-25 and I-70 and tucked away in places like Steamboat Springs and Leadville. High schools are building them to give kids an alternative to traditional ball sports and a low-stress entry to mountain biking. Communities are kicking down cash for their construction and picking up shovels to maintain them. 

Kate Rau, founder and director of Colorado High School Cycling League, which started in 2009 and now has 160 schools participating, says whether they’re simple dirt ovals like the one on Ned’s main street or sprawling asphalt ones like Erie Revolution Pump Track, “pump tracks are places where kids can learn new skills, make new friends and simply play, nonstop, for hours.” 

But a track in Nederland has been nearly impossible to bring to fruition — and the tiny one with a single loop, small jumps and banked-turns-under-construction was done without a permit or other go-ahead from town authorities. Many people, including Miranda Fisher, Nederland’s town and zoning administrator from 2021 to May 2024, say the difficulty exists because the town board has a history of getting “stuck” when it comes to making “complex and polarizing” decisions. 

What confuses people like Rau is exactly how a pump track could be so controversial.

That’s a complex issue involving multiple factors. First, Nederland is a statutory town where authority rests in an elected mayor and board of trustees. Residents living inside town limits — around 1,400 — elect the mayor and board, vote on local issues and pay taxes to the town. 

But another nearly 2,000 people live in the same ZIP code as Nederland. And although many shop in “Ned,” use the library, community center and teen center, send their kids to Nederland schools and otherwise center their lives within the town at the base of the Indian Peaks Wilderness, they can’t vote and they don’t pay property taxes or water and sewer taxes to the town. 

That leaves small decisions, like whether to build a pump track, and big ones, like whether to build a new day care center, or how to redevelop a crumbling main street or how to fund construction of a dam on Boulder Creek to create new reservoir, to the same seven elected officials and around one-third of the population of the greater Nederland area. 

Those larger issues deserve their own stories. But the tale of the pump track that almost wasn’t may serve as a useful example of how effectively a town does or doesn’t work together.   

Barriers to a kid-friendly amenity

The desire for a Nederland pump track goes back to at least 2018, when Josh Lynch was vice chair of the newly formed Nederland Parks, Recreation & Open Space Advisory board. 

That board, with help from the mountain bike advocacy group Nederland Area Trails Organization, thought the best place to put one was Guercio Field, once the main staging ground for the Frozen Dead Guy Days festival and the annual NedFest music festival and a former soccer field next to the teen center, which has a skate park on the opposite side. 

Despite getting the go-ahead from the board, as they started an application for a Great Outdoors Colorado grant, Lynch said he had “two town members start coming to our meetings and literally screaming at me.” 

Their beef was that the parks and recreation board violated open meeting laws and town bylaws “and that nothing we did was legal,” said Lynch, who denies the allegations. But when the town members took their complaints to the board of trustees, the trustees asked the parks and rec board to withdraw their application, he said.  

The lot remained vacant and a pump track didn’t become a focal point of conversation again until April 2023. 

Then a trio of Nederland cycling advocates and dads  — one from inside Nederland town limits and two from outside — asked a new parks and recreation board for $5,000 cover the cost of designing a passive, dirt pump track to be built at the town’s centrally located Chipeta Park, with a basketball court, playground, grassy field, picnic structure and fishing pond for 12-and-unders near Middle Boulder Creek. 

Rex Madden, one of the proponent dads, said a pump track there would give local kids another positive activity to do, add to Ned’s existing bike culture, potentially increase tourism and generate revenue.  

With the parks and rec board’s approval, Madden, Sam Ovett and Jesse Seavers, an excavator and then town trustee, took their request to the town board, which Fisher said voted to allocate $10,000 to the design. “But then the original plan got lost” and the passive track became a big asphalt track, she said, and the proposed construction budget went from $25,000 to $250,000 or $500,000. 

There was also controversy around building it at Chipeta Park, which many, including Giblin, felt was too small for such a structure. Others thought wildlife, including moose, that wanders the park would be impacted. The pump track advocates decided to ask the community how it felt, put it to a survey and say they gathered 450 signatures from supporters.  

That’s where the issue of town residents versus area residents enters the picture. 

Nederland’s complicated public process  

As Giblin, Fisher, Lynch and the pump track dads all know, many households who consider themselves Nederland families live beyond Nederland town boundaries. 

So even though many of the petition signatures belonged to these residents, their wishes technically didn’t matter. 

Giblin said he “often weighs” this demographic’s wishes, needs and desires “equally on community issues.” 

“That said, I do not like it when out-of-town-limits folks tell us how to govern ourselves,” he added. He mostly listens “to residents of the town who are paying water and sewer fees and business owners whether they are residents or not,” he said. 

“But for the pump track I did weigh somewhat equally what the people inside and outside of town limits wanted.”  

Fisher said the board should have decided on the Chipeta track themselves. 

But Seavers decided the most democratic way to get it built was to take it to a public vote asking if people wanted it at Chipeta Park. It was defeated 286 to 196 in the April 2 city election, with the location, not the creation of a pump track itself, being the reason it failed, Giblin said. “But the thing has become shockingly controversial, even though it really is something I believe is meant to be an amenity for the community,” he added. Especially when, after the vote, Madden, Seavers and Ovett decided they were tired of relying on public process. 

They wanted it and they built it 

In their quest to increase cycling options for kids in Nederland, Madden, Seavers and Ovett joined a long line of people who have advocated for more trails and a stronger cycling community for decades. 

There’s the Nederland Area Trails Organization, which formed to “help deliver local, Nederland-area insight and expertise into the unique trail system we all know and love.” 

There’s Singletrack Mountain Bike Adventures, an offshoot of Lake Eldora Race Team at Ned’s local ski hill Eldora, which has taught kids to mountain bike since 1993. 

Both Nederland middle school and Nederland high school, which are under one roof as Nederland Middle Senior High School, have seen significant growth on their mountain bike teams since they started around 2016. And Madden has led and effort to introduce Nederland Elementary School kids to mountain biking through the SHRED program, which offers free bikes to tykes who don’t have them. 

Heather Williams, program director for Singletrack Mountain Bike Adventures, says Nederland’s trails, including those at West Magnolia and Mud Lake Open Space, “can be overwhelming and intimidating to young athletes who are new to biking, so for that, a pump track or any small, little bike park area right in town, is wonderful. It provides a safe, comfortable space for newer riders to really develop those skills and give that confidence that they can apply to area trails.” 

The sense that Nederland hasn’t done enough to create safe places for kids to hang out is part of what drove the dads to go rogue after the Chipeta Park plan failed and decide to build a track on their own. 

To do so, they enlisted the help of a longtime resident and developer named Ron Mitchell known for having an independent streak. Mitchell owns multiple lots throughout Nederland that he has plans to develop. One sits on East 1st Street alongside Middle Boulder Creek and is zoned for high density residential. Half of the lot is currently paid parking that records show he may one day develop into workforce housing. But the other half, which touches the creek and which he refers to as a “park,” was vacant. 

In late May, the dads showed up at the lot with Seavers’ excavating equipment. Giblin says they didn’t attempt to pull a permit to do so, nor did they have one. “They just started digging without the board having any idea that this was a consideration,” he said. “And then the board started getting emails after neighbors approached them with questions and they said they had every right to dig.” 

Seavers said the group studied the town’s development codes and learned they could legally build the track because it was on private property and because dirt pump tracks are considered passive recreation. So when they discovered the town was considering issuing a cease and desist order, they let others know and a campaign began to call the board out. 

“They were trying to call it a sports facility versus passive recreation, and the code is really unclear about that,” Seavers said. “And they were essentially going to try to tell us that you can’t ride bikes in a residential zone or change your earth to make it optimized for bikes.”

Giblin said two details made what they were doing “confusing on private land set out for public use: who is liable if someone gets hurt, and the possibility that the land lies in a flood plain.” But after “a million people dogpiled on the town” because it appeared they were “being unreasonable,” he decided to back off the order, because “it was such a small amount of excavation.” 

The flood plain issue remains a question, “but at the moment we’re kind of just letting it lie,” he said.

A win for people who love pump tracks 

Ovett says the track has had kids on it often since it was built nearly two months ago. Adults are riding it, too, he says. 

An employee at Tin Shed Sports, the only bike shop in town, said they support the track. And according to both Giblin and Seavers, several new spots are being batted around by several different entities for a bigger, better one. 

One of those sites is land Boulder Valley School District owns, up by Nederland Middle Senior High School, and near the start of one of the West Magnolia trails. Neither Rob Price, BVSD superintendent, nor Gavan Goodrich, Ned Middle Senior High principal, returned calls for comment, in Goodrich’s case because he is on summer sabbatical. But Seavers and Giblin both say they’ve gotten positive input from the school officials indicating they support the idea of a pump track at that location. 

That would be a win in all kinds of ways, says Giblin. It’s out of town and not contested; it’s near the hub of trails Ned is most well-known for; and it’s at the school officials have long said they want to turn into BVSD’s “mountain school.” 

Kids in Ned need more positive things to do or they’ll leave town for Boulder, said Fisher. 

“I think this is yet another example, like childcare, where the town really needs to weigh out the interests of the larger Peak to Peak region, because those are going to be the users and there already aren’t enough kids in Nederland,” she added.

The Colorado Livestock Association is pushing back on a Denver ballot measure seeking to ban slaughterhouses within city limits, saying it targets a single business that employs more than 150 people who have worked in the industry for decades. 

If the measure passes, the largest lamb packing plant in the U.S. would have to close by Jan. 1, 2026. Employee-owned Superior Farms’ slaughterhouse near the National Western Stock Show complex processes about 300,000 animals a year, sending millions of pounds of packaged meat across the U.S. and generating as much as $861 million in economic activity for Colorado’s second-largest industry, according to a Colorado State University report.  

It is Dixon, California-based Superior’s largest facility. Only it and Colorado Lamb Processors, a family owned processing plant in Brush, are capable of packing more than 100,000 sheep per year in Colorado. Colorado currently has the third-largest sheep and lamb inventory in the U.S. and ranks second in the nation, behind California, for slaughter-ready lambs. Total capacity of Colorado’s 21 USDA-inspected facilities is 400,000 sheep per year. Superior’s facility in Denver accounts for 15% to 20% of lamb processing capacity in the U.S.

The group behind the ballot measure, Pro-Animal Future, says slaughterhouses are “inhumane to workers, animals and the surrounding communities they pollute,” and that the proposed ordinance would “promote community awareness of animal welfare, bolster the city’s stance against animal cruelty, and, in turn, foster a more humane environment in Denver.”

The Humane League, A Pro-Animal Future affiliate, says animals killed in slaughterhouses are “‘stunned’ by electrocution, gassing or having a metal bolt shot into their skull before being hoisted upside down or shackled as their throats are slit.” Citing a 2013 study over a five-day period in Sweden, the group claims only 84% of cattle are adequately stunned before slaughter.

Zach Riley, chief executive officer of the Colorado Livestock Association, said the USDA “would certainly not allow multiple failed stunning attempts” at the Superior slaughterhouse or others. Jessica Lemmel, Colorado Livestock Association spokesperson, said that fact that Superior is USDA-inspected “drives home the point that this is a facility that needs to continue to process the lambs in the industry rather than smaller processors that aren’t USDA-inspected.” 

The measure was approved for the November municipal ballot this spring, as was a second measure from Pro-Animal Future that seeks to ban the creation and sale of fur products in Denver starting July 1, 2025.

Olivia Hammond, communications lead for Pro-Animal Future, said, “Rather than placing the burden of change on individual consumers, this measure allows voters to lead a collective change away from a harmful industry. We believe that a transition towards more ethical and sustainable practices will build a legacy for Denver as a leader in responsible food production.”

What would happen if it passed?

In June, the Regional Economic Development Institute at Colorado State University released a report outlining the far-reaching economic implications of the ban should it pass in November. 

It says the total annual output of the animal processing in Denver County currently exceeds $382 million, provides nearly 600 jobs and creates nearly $45 million in employee compensation. 

But closing the Superior facility would likely “substantially impact the U.S.-based lamb supply chain and would severely strain existing facilities, thus reducing the volume of Colorado lamb available for purchase in Colorado and the rest of the U.S.,” says the report. 

In the “most pessimistic” scenario, all economic activity related to Superior Farms leaves the state, for a loss of $861 million in economic activity and 2,787 jobs “after accounting for multiplier effects.” 

If half of the economic activity moves to an existing plant outside of Denver, $430 million and 1,394 jobs would be lost after accounting for multiplier effects. And the report says even if 80% of Denver’s lost economic activity is retained elsewhere in Colorado, the state would still lose 697 jobs and over $215 million in economic activity. 

Rick Stott, chief executive officer of Superior Farms, told Meat + Poultry magazine he believes Pro-Animal Future’s goal with the ban is “to eliminate animal ag in the state of Colorado.” 

Riley agreed, adding the past five or six years in Colorado “have been peppered with a litany of anti-ag sentiment.” 

MeatOut Day, when Gov. Jared Polis encouraged Coloradans to collectively ditch eating animal products on March 20, 2021, springs to mind for Riley. “It was like, why? What is the necessity? Why are (producers) under fire?”

That same year, a measure that would have declared basic veterinary procedures, including artificial insemination, acts of animal cruelty, did not make it to the statewide ballot.

The CSU report says “economic spillovers will reverberate throughout the regional economy, because of the transport of goods and services to and from the Denver location.” It adds “the meat slaughter and processing sector in Denver County is intertwined with other value-added food businesses who rely on the meat slaughter and processing sector for inputs.” 

The ordinance “runs counter to demonstrated consumer preferences and choices,” the report continues. The ban would “reduce the resilience of the meat supply chain,” by increasing costs for small and medium livestock producers “who are unlikely to find alternatives,” it says. And the authors of the report conclude closing Superior Farms will make it harder for new startups in the growing local food industry, “because they will not have nearby access to Denver retail markets, and investment capital may be restricted or come at a higher cost.”

Pro-Animal Future’s position

Pro-Animal Future’s website says  “banning a cruel practice in Denver won’t defeat the industry immediately” but shutting down Superior Farms “would be a major disruption for a company and industry that are profiting off harm to animals, workers and our environment.” 

Hammond added, “CSU’s report acknowledges that its headline numbers are the ‘most pessimistic potential scenario,’ rather than the most likely scenario,” and said experts the group has consulted with “have struggled to understand the vague models used to land on such substantial numbers with the closing of just one plant, while noting that the findings exclude any potential benefits of the ban.”

The proposed measure contains a provision directing the city of Denver “to prioritize any affected workers in its employment assistance programs, including those provisioned by the Climate Protection Fund.”   

And Pro-Animal Future’s website suggests that should Superior Farms close and its operational facilities be bulldozed, “any developer who buys (the lot) would be expected to develop it according to Blueprint Denver, the city’s long-term plan, which designates that by 2040, the area of 80216 where the slaughterhouse is will become a ‘Community Center.’” 

As far as Riley is concerned, the future of one of Colorado’s leading agriculture businesses shouldn’t be left to a vote, “but it’s a playbook for special interests,” he said. “They can’t get their way because the elected body of officials recognizes the importance of the industry, so let’s run it in a misinformed-type ballot situation where people vote with their emotions.”  

Hammond said Pro-Animal Future believes “Denver voters recognize the need for a more humane, sustainable food system.”

SOUTH ST. VRAIN CREEK — Sometime this summer, certain parts of South St. Vrain Creek may, for the first time in over a century, have water flowing through them intermittently, thanks to technology most Coloradans take for granted but until recently has been out of reach for area water managers. 

Gates used to divert water from the creek in the direction of thousands of customers on the Boulder County plains now can be controlled using cellphone technology, making sure deliveries to downstream municipal and agricultural uses are made with precision.  

First and foremost, it will help people like Terry Plummer, superintendent of the Left Hand Ditch Company, monitor stream flows into a section of South St. Vrain Creek that has been mostly dry since the 1860s. 

The location is historic because it’s where farmers on the plains around Longmont and Boulder obtained a water right in the 1860s to construct a 28-mile, hand-dug ditch to divert water from South St. Vrain Creek into James Creek and on to their fields, creating the first inter-basin water transfer in Colorado. 

That diversion became problematic when another farmer, Reuben Coffin, watched South St. Vrain Creek through his land dry up and, upon investigation, discovered a dam the ditch company built at its diversion site that was preventing any water from reaching him. Coffin and crew breached the dam and installed armed guards.

Opting out of a gunfight, the Left Hand Ditch Company sued Coffin and his men for trespassing and sought damages. After the Boulder County District Court ruled in the ditch company’s favor, Coffin appealed to the Colorado Supreme Court, which in 1882 upheld the ruling. The landmark case affirmed Colorado’s “first in time, first in right” water doctrine and allowed for the diversion and dam to remain, which is where Plummer enters the contemporary picture.

For many of the years he has worked at the ditch company, he would drive to the remote location to manually adjust water flows for about 450 Left Hand Ditch Company accounts with around 1,600 shares, and for the Left Hand Water District, which supplies water to homes and businesses “from Longmont to down to Erie and out to I-25,” said officials.

But the drive from the site, on a dirt road near Ward, to his office in Niwot takes three hours round trip and water flows are finicky. So, often, he or his predecessors would manually lower or raise the steel gate that releases or blocks river flows and head back to town only to find that cloud cover had caused water levels to rise or fall so they’d have to drive back up and do it again. 

Now with simple cell service, he can connect a mobile device to the diversion system, see river flows in real time and tell the system what to do. That’s more exact monitoring than the state is doing at the site, because they’re using a satellite system that only updates once every two hours, Plummer said.  

With his information and that of two state water gauges at the site, Plummer can monitor multiple water gauges, “do the math” to figure out if there’s water left over after prior appropriations have been fulfilled, remotely trigger a cable system that lowers the gate at the South St. Vrain diversion, and “send excess water down South St. Vrain Creek where somebody (other than the ditch company’s customers) can use it,” he said.  

Officials Monday said the technology could have been deployed sooner, but there was no cell service in the mountains near Ward.

That changed in recent years when Nederland and Raymond built cell towers. Then, about a year ago, John Schlagel, Plummer’s boss and the president of the Left Hand Ditch Company, woke in the night with a vision to operate the diversion remotely.

He contacted Plummer, who called Sean Cronin, executive director of the St. Vrain and Left Hand Water Conservancy District. Cronin said the district was more than happy to help the ditch company with expertise and money because “at this remote location, the ability to get a skyline signal was really too good of an opportunity to pass up.” 

The water conservancy district, which helps to manage St. Vrain River water resources, split the $24,000 cost with the Left Hand Water District. That covered two antennas it took several hours to place into the perfect position to receive a cell signal, a 60 watt solar panel powering an electric motor in a stainless steel box that lifts and lowers the diversion gate, and a touch screen display inside the box that allows those with the right credentials to log in locally and make changes manually, officials said. 

The partners say the project signals a shift in the relationship between historical water management practices and environmental values, which have sometimes been at odds. “This project underscores our unwavering commitment to preserving Colorado’s waterways while ensuring sustainable agricultural practices,” Cronin said. The St. Vrain River is a major system in the larger South Platte River Basin on Colorado’s Front Range that supports fishing, recreation, municipal uses and agriculture. 

When asked why it took managers so long to implement such a seemingly straightforward project, Cronin said, “I think there’s been a lot of interest at this specific location to try to find ways to manage water, to meet all the various needs. There were studies done in this area in the ’90s where solar technology to this degree wasn’t available. So I think technology opens new doors.”

Jenny McCarty, watershed program manager for St. Vrain and Left Hand Water Conservancy District, added the relationships among the groups involved were also key to realizing the project.

“As Terry said, they had an idea and they wanted to get it done,” McCarty said. “There’s so much great relationship and trust built up between the different organizations that we could come together very quickly to meet a lot of different community needs.”