Corrections: Sopris Sun photographer Bob Rugile’s last name was misprinted on last week’s cover as “Rubile.” A disclaimer regarding the assisted use of AI for the Sol del Valle translation last week was missing. Lastly, the Sept. 3 article, “Debate heats up around Amendment 84,” was written and titled ahead of the measure being relabeled as Amendment 83; the online article was updated with an editor’s note to reflect this change.
Re: Amendment 83
The Sopris Sun’s Sept. 3 article, “Debate heats up around Amendment 84,” incorrectly identifies Amendment 84, a voter identification initiative, as an amendment that would “enshrine the right to hunt and fish in the Colorado Constitution.” Amendment 83, the Right to Hunt and Fish Amendment, is the initiative in question.
Without issuing a correction and leaving the article as is, The Sopris Sun is misleading the public.
Alex Brandhorst
Colorado
Editor’s note: This article was written ahead of the measure being relabeled as Amendment 83; the online article was updated with an editor’s note to reflect this change.
Shelter from the storm
Thank you so much to the Carbondale & Rural Fire Protection District for welcoming me into their station, providing shelter from the intense rain storm I encountered on my bike ride on Sept. 19. I was biking on the Crystal Trail returning from the BRB Campground and noticed a wall of water headed my way. I rode as fast as I could, thinking I could make it home before it got too close. I was drenched and had just passed Prince Creek Road when I saw two strikes of lightning, immediately followed by thunder.
I looked ahead and saw two firefighters holding the station doors open for me and waving me inside. A special thank you to Lt. Keegan Fawley who I hadn’t seen since he was a student at Roaring Fork High. He offered me to join the crew for lunch and hung out with me while I waited for the weather to clear.
I can’t thank you all enough for your hospitality! It is reassuring to know our firefighters are always looking out for our safety.
Terri Ritchie
Carbondale
Thank you, Bonedale & ranchers
I want to share a big thank you to the community for showing up to sell out “Our Ranches, Climate & Our Local Food System” last week at the Crystal Theatre. It’s truly a testament to how deeply this community loves this extraordinary valley and the agriculture that will continue to protect land for ecosystem health, wildlife habitat and to feed us as our global food supply becomes ever more fragile.
Thank you to the panelists, Jason Sewell, Parker Nieslanik, Kade Gianinetti and Jared Kerst. And to sponsors Aspen Valley Land Trust, Western Mosaic Fund, Rocky Mountain Ranch Services, Roaring Fork Valley Coop and Amore Realty and Joe Risi, as well as supporters Roaring Fork Farmers & Ranchers, The Center for Human Flourishing and Botany Houseplant Shop. Thank you, Emmet Hood Garcelon, for the sound. Also thanks to Jan Garrett and JD Martin for their beautiful musical invocation.
Please support our local producers by buying local food: Mana Foods in Carbondale, Two Roots Farmstand, Nieslanik Beef, online at nieslanikbeef.com, and Wild Mountain Seeds, online at wildmountainseeds.com, for fall CSA shares in October, and up valley at the Farm Collaborative market.
Gwen Garcelon
Roaring Fork Food Alliance
Good folk in Carbondale
At 84, I receive about 90 emails a day, many of which are cons/scams trying to take my identity, credit card usage or finances, leading one to think we’ve become a nation of thieves. Last Friday, I was filling my motorcycle with petrol at the non-ethanol pump at the Coop and managed to leave my wallet on top of the pump (also, perhaps, age related). I realized it was gone on Saturday morning and figured I may have left it there, so returned to find it was not and the cashier told me no one had turned it in.
I returned home angry at myself, despondent, and while checking for mail found the wallet, somewhat soaked as it had rained since Friday afternoon, in my mailbox! It was completely intact with about $60 in cash, my credit cards and many critical pieces of medical identification and the like, all there.
Some local person I’m sure saw my address on my drivers license — probably a male, as I have never seen a female at that special pump, but who knows, I’m sure women would do the same — and took it to my home mailbox. No note was included, so I had no idea who had been so kind, considerate and honest on my behalf.
Thank God we live in Carbondale, where I believe most all folks would behave this way. Thank you very much, local mysterious stranger — if it had been a friend, I’m sure I would have been amply teased about it by now. My wife and I don’t plan to leave Bonedale any time in the future.
Richard Wells
Carbondale
Re: GAME Act
The Sopris Sun’s Sept. 16 article on the proposed GAME Act provides useful history, but accepts the framing of Out of Bounds Ranch and its paid lobbyist while omitting details about what the public stands to lose.
This is not simply an effort to clean up “checkerboard” ownership. A private landowner is asking Congress to privatize approximately 2,179 acres of public land near Glenwood Springs in exchange for approximately [2,103] acres nearly 50 miles away on the Roan Plateau.
Those lands are not interchangeable.
The public land near Out of Bounds Ranch has long been accessible to local hunters, hikers and other recreationists. I’ve hunted and recreated here my entire life, long before the ranch owners decided they wanted it for themselves.
This is exceptional wildlife habitat and productive hunting ground. My family and many others depend on it for food, access and memories. Its proximity to the Roaring Fork Valley makes it valuable to hunters. If it becomes private, that access is gone forever.
It repeats the claim that the Roan Plateau parcels would “unlock” access to 8,900 acres of BLM land. That is misleading. The two adjacent BLM parcels already have public access points.
Even more troubling, the proposal is still changing. The reported acreage has shifted, and the publicly circulated draft leaves the final legal descriptions to be completed after enactment, even though it directs the exchange to be completed within 180 days. Congress and the public are being asked to approve the deal before its exact boundaries, values and consequences are fully established.
This is not land-neutral bookkeeping. It would permanently remove cherished public land from one community and replace it with different land, with different wildlife and recreation values, nearly 50 miles away.
If public land is going to be transferred, the public deserves a transparent process and an opportunity to decide whether the trade is worthwhile. I also ask The Sopris Sun to publish Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s written comments on the exchange in full, including its concerns about comparing lands that are geographically separated and located in different herd management units.
The GAME Act would set a dangerous precedent by allowing Congress to bypass the normal public land-exchange process before the details are complete. Public land should not be privatized simply because a wealthy landowner wants it.
Once this land becomes private, it is gone for good.
Tayler Larsen
Utah, currently
DEI
It is easy to be against something big or complicated, especially if it has a name which can be said with a sneer. Simply find, or invent, examples that seem unfair or threatening. Describing them can arouse strong emotions and be quite persuasive.
For example, policies promoting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), whatever their benefits, will inconvenience or offend somebody. DEI can become a slur.
(I once received a letter thanking me for my job application, but informing me that I would not be included in the next stage of the selection process. It was signed by the equal employment opportunity officer. My ethnicity may have influenced that decision. Resentment was tempting.)
It is easy to be loudly against DEI. What’s harder is to say clearly what you are for: “I just want it to be fair, and to pick the best person” is not clear enough. Advocates of DEI are seeking those same (vague) goals, fairness in hiring and a collection of employees whose varied skills and backgrounds would best serve their organization. Such decisions are often quite complex, hard to make and easy to criticize.
The reason it is hard for DEI opponents to say what they favor is because it does not sound good. They want to end, or at least move away from, diversity, equity and inclusion.
The opposite of diversity is uniformity.
The opposite of equity is inequity (unfairness).
The opposite of inclusion is exclusion.
These are not the high ideals of this democratic republic. May I call them “UIE”? Arguing for “UIE” is hard because it seems to be unAmerican. I believe it is.
The only folks I’ve noticed openly, honestly advocating for “UIE” are the most rabid white Christian nationalists and a few far-right officeholders and commentators.
Beware of those who are loudly “against!” without saying what they are for.
J. R. Bernard, an older nobody
Glenwood Springs
Letters policy: The Sopris Sun welcomes local letters to the editor. Shorter letters stand a better chance of being printed. Letters exclusive to The Sopris Sun (not appearing in other papers) are particularly welcome. Please, no smearing, cite your facts and include your name and place of residence or association. Letters are due to news@soprissun.com by noon on the Monday before we go to print.