Author: Seth Boster
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Fees announced for overnights in popular wilderness of Colorado
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Starting next year, you’ll have to pay to stay the night in some of Colorado’s most iconic, backcountry destinations. The U.S. Forest Service recently announced a permit program that will require a $10 fee per night per person staying in certain parts of the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness. That goes for hikers along the Four Pass…
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New online database tracks threats, actions to protect Colorado wildlife
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Climate change threatens the high-alpine home of Colorado’s pika. A lack of snow does not bode well for the lynx. Gas and oil development has overtaken former land of the prairie chicken and mountain plover. Urban development has overtaken that of the burrowing owl. Hikers and campers scare away the boreal toad, while rock climbers…
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Record spending reported at Colorado’s national parks in 2021
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Visitors spent more money than ever at Colorado’s national parks in 2021, according to a government report. The annual report determined 7.8 million parkgoers collectively spent an estimated $560 million, with most of that going toward lodging, eating and filling up the gas tank. Those expenses and more supported 7,570 jobs in and around Colorado’s…
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Colorado study confirms: Outdoors were saving grace at start of pandemic
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A new study out of the University of Colorado at Boulder provides empirical proof to claims heard widely at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic: The outdoors were a guard against anguish. Researchers surveyed 1,200 residents around Denver and rated depression and anxiety “scores” to draw correlations with time in green spaces. Among those who…
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Introducing Conor Hall, new head of Colorado Outdoor Recreation Industry Office
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Colorado has a new face for its mighty outdoor industry. It’s a young one. It’s 32-year-old Conor Hall, who from his childhood mountain town of Crestone has gone on to accomplish an impressive amount in an early career. It has been a career in politics, most recently with The Trust for Public Land. For the…
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New initiative in western Colorado seeks answers to changing ways of sandhill cranes
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Well known are the sandhill cranes that grace the southern San Luis Valley every spring. Lesser known is the smaller population that migrates across the Western Slope, around Delta and Montrose. And more mysterious to experts on that side of Colorado: reasons for fewer sightings of the majestic birds over the past couple of decades,…
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Free entrance to Colorado state parks for Fresh Air Friday
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Colorado Parks and Wildlife encourages you to burn some Thanksgiving calories and skip the shopping lines on Black Friday. Entrance fees to all 42 state parks will be waived once again for Fresh Air Friday. This is the seventh year of the tradition, aimed at turning Black Friday, the shopping-fueled day after Thanksgiving, into “a…
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Keep dogs away from wildlife or risk $1,000-plus fine in Colorado: Official warning
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Colorado officials are warning people to keep their dogs away from wildlife or risk hefty fines. The warning comes after Colorado Parks and Wildlife recently cited an Evergreen resident whose canine was found to have mortally wounded a deer. The person was found guilty of negligence, which carries a $274 fine, and of an illegal…
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How Colorado’s 43rd state park came to be: ‘It was certainly a long shot’
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It was the summer of 1969. It was love at first sight. From the minute she laid eyes on Sweetwater Lake in a remote pocket of northwest Colorado, 19-year-old Adrienne Brink knew she would be back. “It’s just so majestic. I can’t even explain it,” she said from the base of the horse packing outfitter…
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Jefferson County deal seen as ‘win-win’ for outdoor recreation, mining
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Open space officials in Jefferson County are eyeing a land exchange that they say would benefit recreation and wildlife as well as a mining company. The proposed deal was described as a “win-win” in a recent press release. The sales tax-funded Jeffco Open Space program would acquire 1,192 acres that would be funded by Martin…
