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Colorado wildlife officials meet with Western Slope commissioners over wolf reintroduction
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Approved, coloradopolitics.com, State

Colorado wildlife officials meet with Western Slope commissioners over wolf reintroduction

By Marianne Goodland | Colorado Politics 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. Those counties are Pitkin (Aspen), Rio Blanco, Eagle and Garfield, according to the agency. The idea of more wolves on the Western Slope didn't sit well with county commissioners — except for Pitkin County. And Pitkin County doesn't have state lands, so dropping wolves into that county would require a private landowner to grant Colorado Parks and Wildlife permission to do so. READ THE FULL STORY AT COLORADO POLITICS
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Petition requests hiatus in $5M wolf release program
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Approved, State, thefencepost.com

Petition requests hiatus in $5M wolf release program

By Rachel Gabel | The Fence Post Middle Park Stockgrowers Association president Tim Ritschard is on the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission agenda on Thursday, Nov. 14, at 11:10 a.m. with a request for citizen petition for rulemaking. The petition is signed by 26 of the state’s agriculture organizations, including Colorado Cattlemen’s Association, Colorado Farm Bureau, Club 20, and Colorado Wool Growers Association as well as several local livestock and stockgrowers associations. The petition seeks to delay any further introductions of gray wolves into the state until Colorado’s wolf management program can adequately address the conflicts between wolves and livestock producers. CPW has announced its intention to introduce wolves this coming winter in the same northwest Colorado...
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Western Slope livestock raisers seek answers on wolf concerns from CPW
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Approved, Rocky Mountain Voice, State

Western Slope livestock raisers seek answers on wolf concerns from CPW

By Lindy Browning | Contributor, Rocky Mountain Voice Livestock raisers from the Western Slope are trying to plan ahead as Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) prepares to relocate another 10 wolves on the western landscape this winter. With calving season beginning in January, a season when livestock is most vulnerable and the wolves are looking for a meal in unfamiliar territory, the inherent conflict is seemingly unavoidable. To that end, livestock growers met with CPW in Glenwood Springs to learn about hazing and wolf predation mitigation strategies, as well as risk-reducing programs offered by the organization. CPW's Adam Baca was joined by Dustin Shiflett from Colorado Department of Agriculture and Lauren Emerick from Colorado Wildlife Services, to provide information about ...
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Western Slope SPEAR task force takes 28,500 illegal pills off the streets
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Approved, Rocky Mountain Voice, State

Western Slope SPEAR task force takes 28,500 illegal pills off the streets

By Lindy Browning | Contributor, Rocky Mountain Voice Members of a multi-jurisdictional task force, known as SPEAR (Special Problem Enforcement and Response Task Force), have intercepted 28,500 hydrocodone pills, with a street value of $285,000. Hydrocodone is an opiate that is classified as a schedule II drug under the Controlled Substance Act. According to Garfield Sheriff Lou Vallario, SPEAR received an alert from Mesa County law enforcement that a man, suspected by the DEA of multi-state crimes, was on Interstate 70 heading to Garfield County. Members of SPEAR were immediately activated and the suspect vehicle was located at the Bair Ranch rest area off I-70 exit 129 in Glenwood Canyon. When officers arrived at the Bair Ranch rest area, they found Robert Newman, a resident ...
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Leaders in NW Colorado discuss challenges, solutions for energy, seniors, workforce, housing
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Approved, Local, Rocky Mountain Voice

Leaders in NW Colorado discuss challenges, solutions for energy, seniors, workforce, housing

By Lindy Browning | Contributor, Rocky Mountain Voice When the Associated Governments of Northwest Colorado (AGNC) held their meeting in Rifle, on Wednesday, Oct. 23, much of the discussion concerned how the region would plan for energy needs, housing shortages, and  workforce development and retention.  The loss of severance tax dollars was also front and center throughout the conversation. AGNC is comprised of elected officials from Garfield, Mesa, Moffat and Rio Blanco Counties, as well as elected officials from municipalities from Craig, Colbran, Battlement Mesa, Debeque, Dinosaur, Rangely, Fruita, Hayden, Meeker, New Castle, Palisade, Rifle, Silt, Parachute and Yampa.  Future of energy in Western Colorado With the imminent closing of Craig Power Station, bec...
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Grand Junction ‘Rumble’ rallies support for conservative movement in Colorado
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Approved, Rocky Mountain Voice, State

Grand Junction ‘Rumble’ rallies support for conservative movement in Colorado

By Jen Schumann | Contributor, Rocky Mountain Voice The Rocky Mountain Rumble held Sunday in Clifton gathered Western Slope conservatives under a shared mission: fighting for rural Colorado's future and energizing the community ahead of crucial elections. Hosted by Rocky Mountain Voice's founder Heidi Ganahl, the event underscored the importance of unity, local leadership and economic opportunity as the region grapples with state and federal overreach. Mesa County resident and attendee Vicky Murphy says she's been a political junkie for years, often speaking her mind and she's noticed a change in locals around her lately. "People that I’ve known for years who never opened their mouth about politics are suddenly very chatty," she said. "They have passion [and] concern, and they ...
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Prop. 127’s ‘unintended consequences’ could be devastating, leaders in Northwest Colorado say
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Approved, Rocky Mountain Voice, State

Prop. 127’s ‘unintended consequences’ could be devastating, leaders in Northwest Colorado say

By Lindy Browning | Contributor, Rocky Mountain Voice Members of the Associated Governments of Northwestern Colorado (AGNC) were joined recently in a discussion of Proposition 127 by Gaspar Perricone, of the Wildlife Conservation Project and formerly a political advisor, legislative director to the Colorado Department of Natural Resources and regional director for Sen. Mark Udall. If supported by voters, Prop. 127 on the Nov. 5 statewide ballot would ban hunting of mountain lions, bobcats and federally-protected lynx. The measure is the result of an animal rights activist group, Cats aren’t Trophies (CATs), a 501(c) (3) organization who gathered enough signatures to place the issue on the ballot. This is the same process that led to the reintroduction of wolves in Colorado, often ter...
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On Western Slope, opioid crisis continues and sheriffs say it is leading to mental health, crime
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Approved, Local, Rocky Mountain Voice

On Western Slope, opioid crisis continues and sheriffs say it is leading to mental health, crime

By Lindy Browning | Contributor, Rocky Mountain Voice Mesa County Sheriff Todd Rowell and Delta County Sheriff Mark Taylor have had  a constant battle fighting the opioid crisis in their counties since 2017, when it first started impacting western Colorado. MESA COUNTY When opioids first appeared as fentanyl on the Western Slope in 2017-18, each pill cost $18. Now, because of increases in the supply, they are $2 a pill.  "Fentanyl is a 45-minute high, and we see people taking up to 40 pills a day. It makes zombies out of people in our community,” Rowell said. In Mesa County, according to Rowell, law enforcement and first responders have had to administer Narcan - a medication that rapidly reverses an opioid overdose - 114 times in the last year. “That’s one person every t...
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Pinyon Avenue homicide victim identified
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Approved, Local, Westernslopenow.com

Pinyon Avenue homicide victim identified

By Ryn Lewis | Westernslopenow.com The Mesa County Coroner’s Office has identified the human head and hands found in January by the new owner of a recently sold home at 2988 Pinyon Avenue. Officials have identified the victim of the Pinyon Avenue homicide case as Amanda Leariel Overstreet, a resident of both the Grand Junction and Harris County, Texas areas. Overstreet was the biological daughter of the previous homeowner and was believed to be about 16 years old at the time of her disappearance; she had not been seen or heard from since April 2005. Officials say there is no record that she was ever reported missing. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE WESTERN SLOPE NOW
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U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert listens to Western Slope leaders on energy, water and land use 
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Approved, Local, Rocky Mountain Voice

U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert listens to Western Slope leaders on energy, water and land use 

By Jen Schumann | Contributor, Rocky Mountain Voice Meet Bryce and Lisa Casto, sixth-generation ranchers on the Western Slope, who are worried that the Dolores Monument designation will close their roads and leave them unable to care for their livestock.  Bryce understands the importance of local communities managing the land around them. “When it's locally controlled, we control it better because we will harvest whatever can be harvested," he said. "It's close to home, so we want to make sure we're taken care of.”  Their livelihood depends on the very issues discussed at Colorado Mesa University on Oct. 5 with U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, during a listening session in which participants were encouraged to bring their concerns — and those of many like them — to the foref...
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