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 […]
CVEPA
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: John Osgood, Pitkin County and the Battle at Red Wind Point
The first whites in the Crystal Valley traveled on the Ute Trail, as well documented by the Hayden surveys in 1873. Whites brought with them the wheel, and no sooner than the first homesteads were staked, petitions began flowing into the nascent Pitkin County clerk’s office requesting a wagon road. The 1886 petitioners included Myron […]
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 inNews, Uncategorized
CSQ strikes ‘gold’ in Marble
In the fall of 2022, Colorado Stone Quarries, Inc. (CSQ) announced in a newsletter the discovery of a special type of gold-veined white marble at its Pride of America Quarry (formerly Colorado Yule Marble Quarry) just south of the town of Marble. It was the latest in a series of developments at the quarry since […]
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 inNews, Uncategorized
CVEPA celebrates 50 years
For its 50th anniversary celebration at Sunfire Ranch on Sunday, Aug. 21, the Crystal Valley Environmental Protection Association welcomed well over a hundred attendees, ranging from longtime supporters to newcomers bracing to take up the charge of protecting the Crystal Valley for another 50 years to come. Founding board member Karin Lindquist, 85, traveled from […]