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Corner Posts Aug/Sept 2008

edited by Amy Maestas

Found in: | Inside | News |

Open Space in Telluride

TELLURIDE, Colo. - In early June, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled in favor of the town of Telluride in a dispute about 572 acres outside town limits that it condemned to preserve as open space. In 2002, voters passed a measure to condemn the land and gave the town approval to borrow $10 million to buy the land, which once was owned by the operator of the Idarado mine before the CEO of a military contracting firm bought it in the 1980s. The town offered to buy the land for $19.5 million in 2003, but CEO Neal Blue refused the offer. The next year, Blue lobbied Colorado legislators to pass a law that made it impossible for municipalities to condemn property for open space outside its boundaries. The issue ended up in court, and the latest ruling by the state's high court, in a 6-1 vote, sided with the town under the argument that the 2004 law violated the scope of eminent domain granted to home-rule municipalities by the Colorado Constitution.

Quarantined Boats

GLEN CANYON - To continue the fight against the invasive quagga and zebra mussels in the West's so-far-clean waterways, the National Park Service announced in early June that it will quarantine boats trying to enter Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. The boats will remain quarantined until a biologist can inspect them.

Curious Minds Want to Know

CANYONLANDS NATIONAL PARK - This Southern Utah park is making it even more fun and interesting for families that visit it this summer. The park is expanding its program that includes an Explorer Daypack that families can borrow while visiting the landscape. Essentially, families that visit Island in the Sky or the Needles districts can use a credit card as a security deposit (rental is free) to borrow a backpack that has such interpretive tools as guide books, binoculars, workbook, thermometer, crayons and pencils, handkerchiefs and more. These tools give the family members some hands-on experience in learning about all aspects of the area they were visiting. "The goal of all interpretation is to connect visitors of all ages with the physical and intangible resources. It is sometimes hard for people to grasp that [connection] for themselves," Karen Henker, lead interpreter at the Island in the Sky District at Canyonlands National Park, told the Salt Lake Tribune.

Toot!

RIDGWAY, Colo. - Telluride's Galloping Goose No. 4 rail car has a temporary home in Ridgway. Telluride's fire department, which actually owns No. 4, recently asked the Ridgway Railroad Museum to restore the rail car that it has owned since 1951. When restored, the Galloping Goose will make its way back home to Telluride. Restoration workers estimate the project will take as long as three years. They will use historical records and photographs to get it back to original (but non-working) shape while also seeking advice from the Galloping Goose Historical Society in Dolores. There, Galloping Goose No. 5 was restored to operating condition several years ago. The No. 4 is the only car in the fleet of seven that has yet to be restored or modified.

Bi-Kanab-ini-less

KANAB, Utah - This tiny town on the Utah-Arizona border is abuzz now that the new city-owned pool has opened. But if you plan to swim at the new Cowboy Water'n' Hole, don't do so in a bikini. The town has outlawed bikini wearing at the swimming pool. Town councilors say the rule is intended to keep the atmosphere family-oriented, especially given that the council in 2006 passed a "natural-family resolution," in which the town leaders describe the natural family as a man and woman, duly married "as ordained of God," with hearts "open to a full quiver of children" and that such households are to be treasured as "the locus of the true common good". (The text of the resolution has more tidbits of this sort.) Kanab Councilwoman Nina Laycook told the Salt Lake Tribune that it's likely the town will modify the no-bikini rule because it really was meant to outlaw "thong bikinis and things like that."

All Aboard

GRAND CANYON - The Grand Canyon Railway has begun running the Coconino Canyon train. The 90-minute roundtrip train goes from the Grand Canyon Depot and wends 24 miles through the canyon filled with ponderosa pines. There is a brief layover at the Imbleau Station, a former railway section house. The train departs twice each evening and will continue to run through Sept. 1.

New Shortcut

LAKE POWELL - Lake Powell's water level has risen so much this summer that it has allowed the opening of a shortcut, known as Castle Rock Cut. This provides a shortcut to the main channel from Wahweap Marina. At the upper end of the lake, the water level has helped put the boat launch ramp at Hite within "spitting" distance of the lake after having been high and dry for the last several years.

Stand to the Left, Ski to the Right?

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. - Arizona Snowbowl ski area has recently asked the U.S. Forest Service for permission to build a conveyor belt on one of its runs. The resort wants to use the conveyor belt to move newbie skiers up to the top of the bunny hill. Right now, skiers make their way to the top by walking on indoor-outdoor carpet laid on the snow. As it awaits that approval, Snowbowl also is waiting to hear about its appeal case with a federal court about its plan to make snow. Native American tribes successfully sued to block the effort, and Snowbowl has appealed the ruling.

Decision Coming

FARMINGTON, N.M. - The Environment Protection Agency has promised that it will deliver a decision in July about whether it will grant Prevention of Significant Deterioration air permit to the builders of the proposed Desert Rock Power Plant. Sithe Global is partnering with the Navajo Nation's Din� Power Authority, which would run the 1,500 megawatt pulverized coal-burning plant near Burnham in San Juan County, N.M. The decree comes because the EPA, Sithe Global and the Department of Justice settled litigation filed against them in February by Desert Rock Power Company and Din� Power Authority after EPA did not issue a permit in the required time. The plant has been kept in limbo for four years as it awaits the air permit.

Unintended Consequences?

ACROSS THE NATION - The Wall Street Journal recently published an article about how the nation's housing slump is benefiting conservation. Some financially stressed developers are opting to sell their land to conservation organizations such as Trust for Public Land and the Nature Conservancy. "Two to three years ago, local farmers and ranchers were eager to sell off their land and cash out," the Nature Conservancy's Cristina Mestre told the Journal. "Now, we're being approached en masse [to buy development rights]." Living in the West, where some vast expanses of land have managed to escape development, this seems to be good news - a "green lining" as the Journal put it.

Joining Forces

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. - A federal judge in Phoenix has allowed Nevada, Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming join together to oppose a lawsuit filed by Flagstaff-based Grand Canyon Trust. In December, the Trust filed a suit against the Bureau of Reclamation because it says the agency releases water from behind the dam, Lake Powell, in a way that benefits power production but destroys downstream habitat for native fish. When the dam was built in 1963, it changed the way the flows from springtime flooding cleansed the Colorado River's sand and gravel bars. The change, the Trust says, has reduced the native fish population and introduced nonnative species such as trout.

It's On!

TELLURIDE, Colo. - Aspen and Telluride are duking it out. Two organizations, Community Office of Resource Efficiency in Aspen and Sheep Mountain Alliance in Telluride, have a contest going that pits the towns' shoppers against each other to see who can give up using plastic shopping bags. Their goal is to get shoppers to switch entirely to using reusable bags. The grocery owners of City Market in Aspen and Clark's Market in Telluride have promised to donate 5 cents to an environmental fund for each purchase or use of a reusable bag. The fund will then be used to finance an environmental project within each community. The loser has to purchase two solar monitor sets for the winning municipality's public school system. The contest goes through Labor Day.