Aspen Journalism

Aspen Journalism is compiling a data dashboard highlighting metrics of local public interest, updated weekly by mid-day Tuesday. Roaring Fork and Crystal rivers’ streamflow well above average. The USGS gauge on the Roaring Fork River near Aspen at Stillwater, located upstream of town, measured streamflow at 247 cfs on...

This is the second part of a two-part series, beginning with “From wagon roads to two-lane,” which can be read here. Part one explored motoring in Aspen from the first car in 1906 up to the completion of Highway 82 over Independence Pass in 1924. After horse traffic...

Once celebrated in 1906 Aspen as the transition from horse and buggy to metropolitan, the circumnavigation of the first car through town brought looky-loos into the streets. Who then would have imagined that 116 years later Main Street would be gridlocked with “tin Lizzies.” This is part one of a two-part series. Read part two here.

MARBLE —As a fix for violating the Clean Water Act in 2018, the operators of a local marble quarry must construct a culvert and bridge and rehabilitate the stream they illegally diverted, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Colorado Stone Quarries, which operates the Pride of America...

Aspen Journalism is compiling a data dashboard highlighting metrics of local public interest, updated at least weekly by mid-day Tuesday. The USGS gauge on the Roaring Fork River near Aspen at Stillwater, located upstream of town, measured streamflow at 144 cfs on May 8, which is 122% of average. That’s up from last week, when the river was flowing at 58.9 cfs. On May 8, 2021, the river ran at 108 cfs.

Among the goals of Colorado’s 2015 Water Plan was to focus more attention on “non-consumptive” water uses — environmental and recreation water needs — through stream management planning. The basic idea of a stream management plan, or SMP, according to the Colorado Water Conservation Board,...

Enjoy this story you helped produce. Aspen Journalism is compiling a data dashboard highlighting metrics of local public interest, updated at least weekly by mid-day Tuesday. Lake Powell has gained more than three inches since last week. Lake Powell‘s storage remains at one of its lowest levels recorded since it...

When a stakeholder group formed late last year to explore new management strategies in response to increased off-highway vehicle traffic on the Lead King Loop near Marble, many of the participants envisioned as an end game a permit system for off-highway recreational vehicles traveling the remote and scenic back country roads.

Enjoy this story you helped produce. Aspen Journalism is compiling a data dashboard highlighting metrics of local public interest, updated at least weekly by mid-day Tuesday. “The last few days of sunshine and unseasonably warm temperatures have brought the mixed feelings of early spring as the valley floor greens, snow melts and rivers begin to run,” the Roaring Fork Conservancy snowpack and river report of April 21 noted. “Stream flows increased substantially over the last week; flows on the Roaring Fork River have doubled and flows on the Crystal River have tripled!”

Colorado lawmakers have suspended an attempt to prohibit outside investors from profiting off the state’s water. On Thursday, the Senate Agriculture & Natural Resources Committee voted 5 to 2 to approve an amendment sending Senate Bill 29 back to the interim Water Resources Review Committee for more study and input from water users. However, at the end of Thursday’s hearing, Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg, acting as chair, decided to “lay over” the bill, meaning the committee would take it up at another time.

Enjoy this story you helped produce. Aspen Journalism is compiling a data dashboard highlighting metrics of local public interest, updated at least weekly by mid-day Tuesday. March paid occupancy reached 79% in Aspen, up from 66% last year. Paid occupancy in Aspen reached 79% in March, up from 66% last...

Enjoy this story you helped produce. Pitkin County’s composting program is booming. In 2021, the Pitkin County Solid Waste Center recorded its highest composting level in the past six years, and it’s likely that the trend will continue to grow. In Aspen, the composting surge is almost entirely...

Colorado’s predictions for spring runoff are looking better than the past two years, but streamflows are still expected to be below normal. And the lingering effects of the two previous drought years means reservoirs remain depleted and may not fill. According to the April 2022 Water Supply Outlook from...

Enjoy this story you helped produce. Aspen Journalism is compiling a data dashboard highlighting metrics of local public interest, updated at least weekly by mid-day Tuesday. The USGS gauge on the Roaring Fork River near Aspen at Stillwater, located upstream of town, measured streamflow at 34.8 cfs on April 10, which represents 87% of average. That’s up from last week, when the river was flowing at 26.6 cfs. On April 10, 2021, the river ran at 34.9 cfs.

After a lengthy water court battle, the city of Glenwood Springs has secured a conditional water right for three potential whitewater parks on the Colorado River. The new recreational in-channel diversion, or RICD, water right is a win for Colorado’s river recreation community, even though the city had to make concessions to future water development to get it.

Enjoy this story you helped produce. Aspen Journalism is compiling a data dashboard highlighting metrics of local public interest, updated at least weekly by mid-day Tuesday. The USGS gauge on the Roaring Fork River near Aspen at Stillwater, located upstream of town, measured streamflow at 26.6 cfs on April 3, which represents 83.13% of average. A week before, the river was flowing at 25.1 cfs. On April 4, 2021, the river ran at 23.8 cfs.

Enjoy this story you helped produce. Aspen Journalism is compiling a data dashboard highlighting metrics of local public interest, updated at least weekly by mid-day Tuesday. Snowpack remains slightly above average for Ivanhoe and Schofield Pass. “Snowpack in the Roaring Fork Watershed is 112% of normal,” according to the Roaring...

Ruedi Reservoir is at about its lowest level of the year — and also of the past 19 years — according to numbers from the Bureau of Reclamation. As of Wednesday, the reservoir on the Fryingpan River contained 54,914 acre-feet of water and was about 54% full. And according to U.S. Bureau of Reclamation data, outflow is currently slightly more than inflow, meaning levels may not have bottomed out yet.

Enjoy this story you helped produce. Aspen Journalism is compiling a data dashboard highlighting metrics of local public interest, updated at least weekly by mid-day Tuesday. February occupancy in Aspen hits new record high in 2022. “Due to a strong calendar and a healthy combination of both leisure and group...

Enjoy this story you helped produce. Between the prosperity of ski towns such as Aspen and Snowmass, in their nooks and crannies, the grit that is the working class conducts its business. For many, the fantastical, idealized mountain-town overcoat that Aspen flaunts is not a financial destination to reach, but...