Colorado met its Republican River compact. Denver's new limit on gas stations advances. An open email to Sen Dylan Roberts and Colorado Sun reporter Tracy Ross.
Colorado met its Republican River compact.
Per the Colorado Politics article linked below, Colorado was required to retire 10,000 acres of irrigated farmland on the Republican River watershed (see the picture heading up this post) by 2024.
This goal has been met. The next stage of the agreement requires another 15,000 acres be retired by 2029 (7000 of which are already retired).
Meeting the requirements to now has been quite costly, however.
Colorado has had to pay millions to settle lawsuits with Kansas and Nebraska. We have also had to pay to retire wells in the basin. And in case you haven't been out to Eastern Plains, retired wells effectively means an end to farming.
This kind of pressure on agriculture in the area comes against the background of an ever-thirsty Front Range that has bought up water rights out here on the Plains.
This is another way that the cost creeps in, differing in that it's tougher to quantify. It is the social and psychological cost paid for in a lost way of life, communities that wither away, traditions lost.
The money we pay out here can, to varying degrees of ease, be paid back, but I wonder at the losses to agriculture in our state. Will they be permanent?
Will the loss of these wells be just another tickmark on a list of things that mean the effective end of agriculture here?
This was not avoidable, such are the nature of interstate compacts, but perhaps easier to swallow without other, outside pressures.
https://www.coloradopolitics.com/news/colorado-meets-compact-obligations-for-republican-river-officials-say/article_df8faeb4-cc79-11ef-bba3-0f30809ce122.html
Denver's new limit on gas stations advances.
I posted back in October about a Denver City Councilmember proposing to limit gas stations in the city (see the first link below for the context).
The second link below provides an update. I'll leave it to you to read, but in essence this proposal is advancing. It was approved by the City Council to go to the planning board and will be back in February for a final vote.
Let us all be thankful that the wise people in Denver Government know so much better than any of the rest of us. They alone know what is best to put on each street corner.
https://open.substack.com/pub/coloradoaccountabilityproject/p/denver-looking-out-for-us-children?r=15ij6n&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
https://kdvr.com/news/local/you-may-soon-see-a-limit-on-new-gas-stations-in-denver-in-effort-to-address-housing-crisis/
Related:
A late (to me) arrival for the post above: Sharf's op ed on Denver's gas station ban. Worth a read.
https://pagetwo.completecolorado.com/2025/01/13/sharf-denver-gas-station-ban-swipe-at-mobility/
An open email to Senator Dylan Roberts and Colorado Sun reporter Tracy Ross
Presented below in its entirety with links.
Good morning to both,
My name is Cory Gaines. I write for a variety of outlets around the state. I write on a variety of topics, but have spent a fair bit of time on wolf reintroduction. I am also a member of the Facebook Group Colorado Wolf Tracker.
I wanted to write you this open email about the article linked first below to provide you both some context. Context about the role groups like Colorado Wolf Tracker play, a role which your writing Ms. Ross, and your statement Senator Roberts (likewise with what you didn't say or write) makes me believe you lack.
In the article, Ms. Ross, you characterize the group as "increasingly vitriolic towards wolves, CPW, Gov. Jared Polis and wolf reintroduction supporters over the first year of reintroduction." Also remarking that "They [people in the group] amped up even more Sunday when the plane allegedly carrying the wolves was en route to Eagle."
Sen Roberts, your statement given to the Sun reads, and here I quote it in full from the article,"State Sen. Dylan Roberts, whose constituents include ranchers on the Western Slope, told The Sun he saw the group take on 'a whole new level of activism' Sunday. He said he wanted everyone to remember 'CPW employees are just doing their job as they’ve been directed by their superiors,' and he hopes 'for this round of releases and for the next round of releases, and forever, however long this continues, that people can have very valid objections and concerns about wolf reintroduction in Colorado, but that they would be able to draw a line between that and somebody just doing their job.'”
Yes, in my limited time in the group I have seen vitriol. Thus the nature of social media: for other examples, unmentioned by you Ms. Ross, unmentioned by you Sen Roberts, I would point you to the First Gentleman's own social media accounts where he has said some rather nasty things about ranchers and even a fellow journalist "just doing her job", Rachel Gabel.
Colorado Wolf Tracker was not created in a vacuum, has not grown in a vacuum. Unmentioned in your Sun article Ms. Ross (though tangentially hinted at later) are the constructive roles it takes on for many who have concerns over wolf reintroduction. It does indeed take the place of some journalism: the page functions as an information-sharing arm about wolf locations, the rather swampy connections between our governor's office and CPW, how to advocate, among others.
The need for this kind of information sharing has become all too clear to me and many others who are concerned at how wolf reintroduction has proceeded in this state. As examples, I point you to the second and third links below. In them you will find examples of how your own paper, The Colorado Sun, happily joined the government at its first round of wolf releases, blithely ignoring the fact that they were one of two left-leaning, Front Range outlets invited. How the Sun toed the line regarding only using government-provided pictures and government rules about reporting. Your colleagues Larry Ryckman and Jason Blevins were none too happy to be asked about this either. Not how one builds trust. You will also find how CPW commissioners shut off comment about the wolf release. A story which your paper has never reported on. Ditto for any sort of serious look at just who has influence in the governor's mansion on this ... and who doesn't.
Outside of some strongly worded soundbites in the papers and at committee hearings, you, Senator Roberts, have done little by way of action. Not nothing, but little. How much actual accountability for actions have you sought? How much in the way of investigation and auditing have you spearheaded? Yet you take it upon yourself here to admonish people with concerns about how this is being handled to, in essence, behave themselves. Would that you had similar words for the people that rioted and trashed downtown Denver in 2020 (see the fourth link below if you would like a reminder), I don't hear a "we must hear them" in your quote above about ranchers who are just as peaceful, who have yet to actually break a law as many rioters did.
People's motives for engaging with sites like Colorado Wolf Tracker are many and varied. One doesn't get a sense of that from your article Ms. Ross, one doesn't get a sense of that from your statement Senator Roberts. Some are there to be angry, yes, but many are there to inform themselves and to learn how to advocate for their livelihoods and traditions. And, yes, Senator Roberts, they can distinguish between decision makers and employees.
A fuller, more accurate and thoughtful approach would have been better here, one based on perhaps spending more time getting to know the people involved. It would have given a better picture of the people that perhaps don't agree with what their government is doing. Hell, dare I dream, it might have even resulted in some stories and action on your part.
Cory
https://coloradosun.com/2025/01/14/second-batch-of-wolves-lands-in-colorado/
https://open.substack.com/pub/coloradoaccountabilityproject/p/aint-no-power-outage-gonna-hold-me?r=15ij6n&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
https://www.coloradopolitics.com/opinion/cpw-cut-my-mic-silenced-and-ignored-me-so-i-threatened-to-sue-opinion/article_9e29b5be-2d05-11ef-bf44-8311bcb4c1cd.html
https://www.realvail.com/
peaceful-protest-for-george-floyd-and-against-police-brutality-sunday-in-vail-village/a8475/