Western Slope

Western Slope officials supporting the nuclear option for energy

Jump started in the past year by Gov. Jared Polis’ clean energy mandate and the imminent closing of the Craig Station Power Station, local governments have been studying new technologies — such as small modular nuclear generation and technologies that allow spent nuclear fuel to be recycled and repurposed.

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Cattle rustling — the ‘easy crime’ — decimating Western Slope ranchers

The grass crunches underfoot and dust billows in dense clouds as a truck and trailer speed out of public lands in Montrose County. The trailer is full of calves lowing plaintively. The driver gives the Western salute, one or two fingers raised as a four-by-four rumbles past. The truck turns on to the highway, nose pointed east.

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Gaines: The people doing ag in this state need to speak up for each other

Whether you run cattle on the Western Slope of Colorado or you grow forage on the Plains, there are precious few people in Colorado in Production Ag, while there seems a never-ending list of advocates — paid, volunteer, and sometimes from out of state — who are speaking up in support of things that either have the potential to harm producers or that will most assuredly harm them.

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Ranchers hit CPW with $580k in compensation claims for livestock impacted by wolves

Ranchers in Grand County hit Colorado Parks and Wildlife with a $582,000 bill for wolf kills and related impacts on cattle and sheep in the first year of reintroduction, and they are hoping the sum will convince the parks and wildlife commission to pause the next phase of the program at its meeting in Denver on Jan. 8. 

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Western Colorado ranchers bracing for impact of the next release of wolves

Sen. Perry Will told his constituents in a social media post “Brace yourselves, Garfield County,” after Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) announced that they will begin phase two of their wolf reintroduction program, adding insult to injury to western Colorado ranchers who have already seen the devastating impact on livestock on their northern neighbors.

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Colorado wildlife officials meet with Western Slope commissioners over wolf reintroduction

Colorado Parks and Wildlife, which faces sharp criticism over its plans to release more wolves on the Western Slope in the coming months, met with county commissioners last week from the counties where the next reintroductions are slated to take place.

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