environment

The Pitkin County Open Space and Trails department is seeking public input on a new habitat management policy.

Researcher Chris Filardi loves birds and he’s spent decades studying them in the Solomon Islands. Filardi is director of Pacific Programs at the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation, American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

Coming up on Cross Currents, weather permitting, there will be a prescribed fire in the Upper Hunter Creek Valley later this spring.

Dry February weather melted snow in the high country, but snowpack levels are still substantial. A healthy level of snow up high is important for everyone down low, particularly farmers and ranchers. A crew of snow surveyors and high-tech systems are already sending readings about snowmelt. Marci Krivonen explains.

It’s a calm and sunny February day at 8700 feet above sea level. Snow surveyor Derrick Wyle plunges a long metal tube into deep snow on McClure Pass, south of Carbondale.

Rocky Mountain Institute has opened the doors to its new offices in Basalt. And for the first time, the think tank is settling into its own brand new energy efficient building. Aspen Public Radio’s Elise Thatcher took a tour and has this report.

Of the 60 communities enrolled in the Georgetown University Energy Prize, Aspen is in third place. The two-year conservation competition looks at energy use in residential and government buildings.

The look of the forests in the Roaring Fork Valley may be dramatically different in the future. High elevation forests could be replaced with lower growing species like aspens. A new website shows how forests in the American West will look different under climate change. The local nonprofit Aspen Center for Environmental Studies worked with scientists to develop the site.

Jamie Werner is Forest Program Director at ACES. Her laptop’s propped open and she’s clicking around the site, forestforecasts.org.

"So here we have Aspen Mountain and Aspen Highlands…”

High school students from around the valley got a lesson on drought and water scarcity in the West Thursday. The organization Ecoflight brought in experts, and college students just returned from a flight over the Colorado River basin. Aspen Public Radio’s Marci Krivonen has more.

The Colorado State Forest Service says certain trees will be less colorful this fall. A wet spring and summer have been ideal conditions for at least two kind of fungus that are affecting aspen and cottonwood trees across much of Colorado.

Garfield County Commissioners are willing to take legal action to prevent oil and gas trucks from using a popular road near Glenwood Springs. Commissioners and other officials are reacting to news there may be drilling on the controversial Thompson Divide. At Monday’s meeting, the GarCo leaders said the County will try to convince the Forest Service to bar drilling companies from using Four Mile Road, which leads to Sunlight Mountain Resort.

Supporters for more protection for the Crystal River are hitting the road again. The goal is a Wild and Scenic River designation, but that takes an Act of Congress. Supporters have crafted a bill and want to get approval from local governments. And yes, they’ve already done something similar.

The White River National Forest is about to get deluged with summer users. The Forest Service is contemplating a management plan, but it won’t be implemented this year. Aspen Public Radio’s Carolyn Sackariason has more.

District Ranger Karen Schroyer says she needs more information from the public before making any decisions on how to curb the overuse in areas like Condundrum Hot Springs or the Maroon Bells/Snowmass Wilderness area. She plans to get feedback from recreationalists in Denver this summer.