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Victor Marx Calls for Water Storage Expansion and Modern Infrastructure
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, State

Victor Marx Calls for Water Storage Expansion and Modern Infrastructure

By Marianne Goodland | The Denver Gazette Victor Marx, the Republican nominee for governor, took the spotlight Wednesday during the opening day of the Colorado Water Congress, laying out how he says the state should approach its water future. Marx told the standing-room-only audience in Steamboat Springs that he holds water rights himself, giving him a personal stake in Colorado’s water challenges. His proposed fix? More storage. “We can’t make it snow, we can’t make it rain, but we can decide whether we’re prepared for when the water comes,” he said. “So, I believe we should store water in good years. Wet years. Lord, please send it.” He said storage gives farmers and ranchers reliability, options for communities and reduces emergency decisions. “...
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Colorado campaign connects hungry families with local farmers
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ScottKJames.com, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado campaign connects hungry families with local farmers

By Scott K. James | Commentary, Scott's Sheet A Colorado campaign aims to connect local producers with families facing hunger, proving that neighborly common sense can still do useful work. There is a particular kind of quiet that settles over a kitchen table when the grocery money runs out before the groceries do. Parents know that quiet. It is the sound of someone mentally moving numbers around, stretching one dinner into two and wondering whether the kids will notice that the cereal box is mostly optimism and cardboard dust. A few miles away, a Colorado farmer or rancher may be doing some difficult math of his own. The crop is ready. The cattle have been fed. The work has already been done. The buyer, however, is never guaranteed. You would think connecting ...
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Colorado Records 17th Wolf Death After Livestock Attacks
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Colorado Records 17th Wolf Death After Livestock Attacks

By: Marianne Goodland | Colorado Politics   A yearling male wolf in Grand County has become the 17th wolf to die in Colorado in the past two years. Colorado Parks and Wildlife announced that its staff killed the wolf on Aug. 4 because it was believed to be responsible for killing four calves in Jackson and Grand counties between June 29 and Aug. 1. The state agency’s announcement said the producers had pursued nonlethal measures to minimize conflict with the wolf. Ranchers have told Colorado Politics that those minimization efforts are ineffective. The wolf killed on Tuesday is the second mortality in 10 days. Another wolf had been found dead in northwest Colorado, according to a CPW announcement, but no further details were made available. READ THE FUL...
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When Colorado’s water runs short what should come first: Food or fairways?
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GregWalcher.com, Approved, Commentary, State

When Colorado’s water runs short what should come first: Food or fairways?

By Greg Walcher | Commentary, GregWalcher.com I met a guy at a golf course recently who expressed grave concern about the health of the grass this summer, because of Colorado’s ongoing drought. We hadn’t met before and knew nothing of each other’s backgrounds. But he entertained me with a tirade about Colorado’s waste of water, especially for agriculture. He asserted that 85 percent of Colorado’s precious water is used to raise livestock and feed for livestock, an outrage when there is so little for watering the greens and fairways. I was tempted to ask the man if he is a vegetarian, but I didn’t because I already knew the answer. Of course he is not a vegetarian; he is one of those activists who wants everyone else to change their lifestyles. The kind who want everyone else to r...
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Southwest Colorado needs affordability, accountability and balanced representation
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Southwest Colorado needs affordability, accountability and balanced representation

By Naomi Riess | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice For more than three decades, I have worked with families, farmers, ranchers, property  owners, small businesses and local governments across Southwest Colorado. I have  helped people navigate land-use rules, permitting requirements, water issues and  development approvals. Through that work, I have seen how government decisions  made far from our communities can affect whether a family can build a home, whether a  business can expand and whether a landowner can continue using property responsibly.  That is why I am concerned about the direction Colorado is heading.  Families and seniors are watching the cost of housing, insurance, property taxes,  utilities, food and health care con...
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John Deere Settlement Expands Farmers Right to Repair Nationwide
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The Colorado Sun, Approved, National

John Deere Settlement Expands Farmers Right to Repair Nationwide

By: Michael Booth | The Colorado Sun The agreement with the federal government and five states to allow more access to fix agricultural equipment is a win for farmers and consumer advocates. Major farm equipment dealer John Deere has agreed to a “right to repair” that Colorado farm and consumer advocates were key in launching, settling with the federal government and five states to give access to diagnostics and fixes for crucial agricultural equipment.  Colorado in 2023 became the first state to pass a law guaranteeing right to repair, and now industry leader John Deere has acknowledged that right should exist across the country, said Tyler Garrett, chief executive of the trade group Rocky Mountain Farmers Union.  The farmers union and CoPIRG, consu...
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Ranchers Question Whether Wolves Are Changing Coyote Behavior Around Colorado Livestock
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Cowboy State Daily, Approved, Local

Ranchers Question Whether Wolves Are Changing Coyote Behavior Around Colorado Livestock

By Mark Heinz | Cowboy State Daily Ranchers in northern Colorado wonder if the growing wolf population is causing coyotes to be more aggressive toward livestock. "In 30 years of doing this, I’ve never seen anything like that," a rancher said about two coyotes attacking healthy livestock. A northern Colorado rancher who lives near one of the state’s reintroduced wolf packs said she and her neighbors are becoming increasingly frustrated because when wolves aren’t threatening livestock, coyotes are. Amanda Cerveny said she spotted and took video of a lone canine crossing her property near cattle. She thought at first it could have been a small or young wolf, but also thought it might be a coyote. Her latter suspicions were confirmed by biologist Doug Smith...
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Colorado Faces Supreme Court Fight Over South Platte Water Rights
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The Colorado Sun, Approved, State

Colorado Faces Supreme Court Fight Over South Platte Water Rights

By: Jeff Rice | The Colorado Sun Attorney General Phil Weiser is ready for the fight over water flowing across the border: “Nebraska’s burden to prove claims is incredibly high.” The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear Nebraska’s lawsuit against Colorado over a proposed canal that would take water out of the South Platte River in Colorado and send it to a reservoir in Nebraska. Nebraska claims Colorado is deliberately obstructing efforts to build the ditch, known as the Perkins Canal, even though everyone agrees Nebraska has the right to do so. The canal is necessary, Nebraska says, because Colorado isn’t sending enough water into Nebraska. The Perkins Canal would divert water from the South Platte River near Ovid to a storage site somewhere in Nebraska. The...
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Who’s shaping Colorado’s outdoors? An examination of Colorado’s Outdoors Strategy
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Who’s shaping Colorado’s outdoors? An examination of Colorado’s Outdoors Strategy

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Colorado’s Outdoors Strategy CPW recently released “Colorado’s Outdoors Strategy.” The first link below takes you to their landing page from which you can download the report itself. Covering this in detail is not feasible here, as the executive summary of the strategy (see the second link below) is 16 pages long. What I wanted to aim for, then, is to give you a jumping off point along with a nodding familiarity with what the report is intended to do, who participated, and the process by which it was made. This will also tie into the second post today: this strategy is reflective of a larger push to rewire our state wildlife and land use policy. If I had to do a one-sentence summary of the Strategy, it ...
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Before blaming alfalfa for Colorado’s water woes, consider what the headlines leave out
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Before blaming alfalfa for Colorado’s water woes, consider what the headlines leave out

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Alfalfa and water use: comparing apples to oranges There is a media narrative out there about alfalfa which, though not entirely wrong, is desperately in need of context; this being another example of why reporters parachuting into rural areas of the state to report on things prior to running back to the Front Range is doing no one any good (rural or urban). The claim was recently repeated in a Sun article, along with its natural follow-on. Quoting from the first link below: “It takes 44 inches of water a year in Burlington to grow alfalfa. Only about 10 inches of water drops on Burlington in a year. It only takes 15 inches of water to grow a healthy crop of black-eyed peas in Burlington. So. The numbers ...
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