The news of the massive methane leaks emanating from the abandoned Coal Basin Mine above Redstone for years was shocking to many, but not to all. Anyone familiar with the Mid-Continent Coal and Coke (MCCC) mine knows that it was one of the most gaseous mines in the West.The horrific gas blast of April 15, […]
John Armstrong
Posted inColumns
The Will to conserve
Next month there will be a celebration of land conservation. Conservation: the word comforts me; it has no negative charge. It is green, noncontroversial, popularly embraced and non-partisan. The Oxford dictionary defines conservation as “prevention of wasteful use of a resource.” Property owners may have the will to conserve but seek the means to conserve. […]
Posted inOpinion
Freedom’s just another word…
“Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose.” I love the curious lyric in Kris Kristofferson’s ballad of Americana, and it’s good enough for Bobby McGee. I resonate more with Dylan’s perspective on such values as freedom: “I spoke the word, as if a wedding vow.”On the birthday of The Sopris Sun, I keep […]
Posted inOpinion
CVEPA Views: Winter of ‘83 stampede
The breaking of branches and the thunder of hooves struck trepidation in my heart. The fading light of December dusk made the scene even more surreal. My girlfriend and I were directly in the path of a stampede of about 50 elk! The snow was so deep and the autumn so cold that the elk […]
Posted inOpinion
CVEPA Views: Nuts! An American Tragedy
I found myself giggling with the exhilaration of each steep, sinuous turn. We descended rapidly down a perfect ribbon of asphalt as if on a roller coaster. We had driven almost 3,000 vertical feet up from Italy’s Mediterranean Sea coast to hike the subalpine spine of the Ligurian Apennines. This hundred mile long mountain chain […]
Posted inColumns, Opinion, Uncategorized
CVEPA Views: Reverence for words
Management plans, stakeholder groups, augmentation proposals, land exchanges… it goes on and on. If one tracks issues important to our valley, the terminology can become heavy. A little levity might be in order to maintain balance. I love etymology, the study of words (not bugs), how they got their meanings — how words develop. I […]
Posted inColumns, Opinion, Uncategorized
CVEPA Views: Respect, the price of admission
“Since when is public access part of the Crystal Valley Environmental Protection Association [CVEPA] mission?” An old friend asked me this recently. It is certainly a valid question, and one that has been discussed at length amongst our board. Whenever we leave our homes to recreate on public lands — or go anywhere for that […]
Posted inColumns, Opinion, Uncategorized
Have you seen the Ghost of Marble Past?
On a gray winter day, you can hear the eerie wind whistle down the long corridors which stretch out almost as long as a football field. It is the skeleton of the 200-room Marble Ski Area base lodge. (The actual size is debatable, but it is very large!) The sprawling roof can just barely be […]
Posted inColumns, Opinion, Uncategorized
CVEPA Views: Marble Airstrip river project challenged
On Aug. 7, the Crystal Valley Environmental Protection Association (CVEPA) responded to a citizen complaint about numerous large backhoes and loader(s) in the Crystal River adjacent to the Marble Airstrip along County Road 3 in the upper Crystal Valley. A contractor had essentially dredged several hundred yards of the river into a straight channel. Upon […]
Posted inColumns, Opinion, Uncategorized
CVEPA Views: The Critically Thirsty West
At this time, 39 years ago, “federal officials scrambled to avoid one of the most dramatic dam failures in history.” Glen Canyon Dam was bursting at the seams with water and rock blasting out around its foundation while crews raced to install a rampart of plywood sheets across the top of the dam. This near […]