E-bikes on Red Hill
The Bureau of Land Management is currently taking public comment on its e-bike policy in Eagle County and the Roaring Fork Valley. Red Hill Council, Carbondale Parks and Recreation Commission and the Carbondale Bikes Peds and Trails Commission oppose allowing e-bikes on the front side of Red Hill as user conflicts will increase and trail damage will make maintenance that much harder.
Please make your public comment on the BLM website: www.bit.ly/blm-e-bikes
Meanwhile, Shout out to Red Hill trail volunteers and those who support them by respecting the rules and recommendations regarding keeping dogs on leash, hiking and biking on dirt NOT mud and being friendly to other users. (Shout down to those who think your track “isn’t that bad” or your dog stays on trail and doesn’t bother other users or the off trail environment.)
Shout out to Red Hill volunteers who established clear paths on the hiker-only trails on the front side; it was so much easier to travel the best path last week than last year, now clearly marked by sticks and strings. Please, when you hike there, honor the sticks and strings protection so the revegetated areas have a chance to recover.
Susan Rhea
Carbondale
Harvest Village
So now the Texas developer wants to change the name of Harvest Roaring Fork to cutesy and misleading Harvest Village.
One of the definitions of harvest is “to take or kill for food, sport or population control.” How appropriate.
The definition of village is “a small group of dwellings in a rural area.” Hmmm.
Let the developer soil his own nest deep in the heart of Texas and leave our valley alone.
Kay Maynard
Carbondale
Be a hero
One billionaire could win a heartfelt legacy of thousands if he/she purchased the land from Harvest development on Highway 82 between Carbondale and Glenwood. The proposed development will RUIN so many things in our valley. Look for ads from Cattle Creek Coalition and visit the website (www.cattlecreekcc.com). Imagine what this land could be for our valley with your purchase away from these out-of-state developers who have a questionable reputation due to issues at the Tree Farm in Basalt. There will be NO place left for the elk if this project is approved.
Nature park, elk habitation, beavers and heron and eagles safe in their dwellings… those are only a few of the benefits you could add to the Valley. Once you purchase the land you could donate it to Aspen Valley Land Trust for their supervision of further use. This will protect the Roaring Fork River and Cattle Creek whose banks are considered conserved via the Roaring Fork River Conservancy. Who would manage the usage once this horrendous development began? And the traffic it will cause is indescribable and would demand major reconstruction on Highway 82.
It would only take one billionaire to buy out this proposed development as they paid around $33 million for it. It is our understanding that the Aspen Valley Land Trust made an offer, but Harvest did not consider it large enough.
So, billionaires, if you don’t want the property in your hands, you could donate enough money to Aspen Valley Land Trust under the condition that it purchase Harvest (previously Sanders Ranch). They could name our new nature park after you!!
What say you? Would you be our valley’s hero? And save the elk and our creek and river.
Wewer & Steve Keohane
Cattle Creek
Derangement
I have been accused of having Trump Derangement Syndrome because I oppose having masked, mostly untrained thugs profile and terrorize people of color. I have been told ICE is “just doing its job,” that these people are criminals. I have been told to give Trump a chance.
Possibly, but doubtful. If there were true justice in America, Trump would be in jail; if not for being a pedophile, then for insurrection. If not for insurrection, then for tax fraud. If not for tax fraud, then for obstructing Congress. Or for hiding classified documents, or rape, or embezzlement, or election manipulation. It’s sad that the “Grand Old Party” has lost its morals to become the aider and abettor to a dictatorial egomaniac. It’s sad that almost 40% of Americans think this is acceptable behavior.
If you’re a Trump supporter, I challenge you to ask AI: Did Biden steal the 2020 election? Has ICE only arrested violent criminals? Is voter fraud rampant? Does the economy do better under Republicans or Democrats? It might surprise you to learn that you are the one with Derangement Syndrome.
Join us at the next No Kings rally on March 28 from 1 to 3pm in Sayre Park, Glenwood Springs, to help stop this madness.
Peter Westcott
Missouri Heights
Re: Re: Bruno Kirchenwitz
Upon reading Valarie Gilliam’s letter about me last week, I thought we might have some common beliefs. She quoted a study by the libertarian Cato Institute and libertarians believe in individual liberty, limited government and peace. So do I, but Val’s perspective on this topic trio varies greatly from mine.
Cato’s “factual” analysis that illegals are a fiscal benefit to our economy is contradicted by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) in 2024 under Biden. CIS found that 59% of households headed by green card holders and undocumented people used at least one form of welfare. Only 37% of U.S.-born families used any welfare. That report excludes all us oldsters on SSI, Medicare and Medicare.
Valarie’s wailing about due process rings hollow when her beloved illegals spat on due process and our sovereignty while invading the U.S. And who said ICE agents aren’t well trained, “The View” or Tampon Timmy?
Unless one can’t read English you can’t miss the IDs emblazoned on their uniforms. ICE agents wear masks so illegal-loving protesters can’t dox them and their families.
Calling ICE agents murderers sans a trial or even charges seems a bit premature. And that 5-year-old was abandoned by his illegal daddy while deluding an arrest by ICE, who later returned the kid to his family.
Ms. Gilliam asserted, with a firm grasp of the obvious, that no other POTUS achieved Trump’s level of enforcing immigration laws. Biden’s big border blunder allowed unvetted, unvaxxed illegals to invade the U.S.. THE Donald didn’t need comprehensive immigration reform to seal our borders. He just did it.
There are two reasons Biden’s handlers humanely opened up our borders for 48 months. Dems envisioned a future voting block of illegals and businesses are addicted to cheap, malleable labor.
In any case, her slandering Trump as immoral is beyond the pale. While Barack tried bribing Iran with pallets of C notes and Biden was in China’s pocket, Trump resurrected the Monroe (Donroe) Doctrine in our hemisphere.
I believe in Trump’s tenet of peace through strength. Val sounds more like a timid appeaser. Biden whimpered, “Don’t.” Trump avowed, “Done,” cutting Venezuela and Iran off at the knees. The cartels and Cuba are next.
Dems are too funny to cry over yet too sad to laugh at. So I can only shake my head at Ms. Gilliam’s misplaced empathy.
Bruno Kirchenwitz
Rifle
Re: Hind Rajab
I recently attended the screening of “The Voice of Hind Rajab” at the Crystal Theater. The story it reenacted, of the failed attempt to rescue a 6-year-old girl in the midst of a 2024 Israeli offensive in Gaza, was so harrowing that it left me speechless.
What made it even more heartbreaking was knowing that it’s happening again. The killing has not even stopped in Gaza (more than 70,000 dead), and now we’re at war with Iran.
These tragic, bloody wars are being waged in our name, supposedly on our behalf. In Gaza, we’re supporting the slaughter with our tax dollars; in Iran, we’re leading the charge.
When will we learn that we don’t make ourselves safer by making more enemies? Can we collectively stand up and say, this is not who we are?
Call out the madness.
Dave Reed
Carbondale
Re: Agrivoltaics
Last week the Crystal Theatre showed “Save The Farm, Save The Future” a movie focused on “agrivoltaics,” or farming and grazing under solar arrays. It certainly has some good points, but I think it exaggerates the land use and other impacts of most new solar farms, and I’ve been to many.
Current solar farm construction now avoids some of the worst land scraping from the early days. With a little effort, revegetation supports biodiverse plant and soil life, which supports the many critters able to get over, under or through the fences required by electric and security codes. Some small modifications to enhance that habitat or support grazing are great. Some crops even grow better and with less water under solar. But modifications to accommodate agriculture can’t add excessive costs to solar construction and electricity production. It’s a low margin business already and social justice is best served by not adding costs to electricity unnecessarily.
Much is made of soil carbon cycling in agriculture versus the resources used for solar. However, the carbon and resource savings from solar overwhelm anything going on with the land. CSU scientists measured plant-soil-air carbon cycling under solar arrays and determined it was the same as out in the open. Regenerative agriculture might sequester five tons of CO2e per acre annually. Also annually, and per acre, a solar farm produces electricity that would otherwise emit almost 500 tons of CO2 from a coal plant’s stacks. One could say that PV is 100x as “land-efficient” at GHG reductions.
Yes, the emissions from materials and construction of the solar farm are about 500 tons per acre, but that’s once, and offset in the first year of operation. After 30 years, the half-inch thick panels may need to be replaced. Over that time, equivalent energy from a coal plant would have consumed a “seam” nine feet thick over the same land.
I’m also not too worried about “food security” if 1% of Colorado ag land is turned over to solar. But maybe that belies my roots; as a kid I could look at the docks of the sugar refinery across the river from my father’s NYC office, knowing that 1,000-mile trade had started with sailing ships in the 1600s. A settler-colonialist nightmare of slavery for a long time, but that’s another story.
Fred Porter
Carbondale
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