Columns

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Just when you thought you’d heard everything

Before diving into the earth-shaking topic of noise pollution, it’d be only right to mention some of my lesser-known weaknesses: ■ Our family dog used to jump into the shower with me whenever the hot water steam set off a smoke ...

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Just another day in the park

Just another day at Colorado National Monument. Twenty thousand acres of canyons and cactus under baby-blue skies, relentless sunshine and astonishingly few gnats greeted park visitors on a recent Saturday.  All traipsed beneath Old ...

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Be active, die doing what you love to do

National Trails Day is Saturday, June 2, when park rangers are expected to encourage Americans to hike their booties off.  The idea, developed in 1993 at the behest of a presidential commission on the outdoors, is to leave the house and ...

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Secretive legislative organization pushes interests of corporations

Most Americans had never heard of the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, until the shooting of Trayvon Martin exposed the close relationship between ALEC and the NRA. Together they sold state legislatures on the idea that ...

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Parks and Wildlife still a long way from completion

Gee, and you thought action Thursday in Denver would bring us the new Colorado Parks and Wildlife. So did I. After a day refreshingly free of head-butting and wrangling, action by the Hydra-headed Parks and Wildlife commission resulted in a ...

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Options abound to get outdoors in 2012

There’s a great, big, beautiful tomorrow Shining at the end of every day There’s a great, big, beautiful tomorrow And tomorrow’s just a dream away Man has a dream and that’s the start He follows his dream with mind and ...

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Innovative partnership provides water for people and habitat for ducks

Before the new year completely takes over the news, here are a few items hanging over from 2011. Ducks Unlimited partners with water board: Ducks Unlimited Colorado recently selected the Colorado Water Conservation Board as the conservation ...

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Conservation a hard thing to define for some people

Grasping what someone means when they utter word “conservation” is as tasking (and slippery) as squeezing a watermelon seed. Does it mean protecting existing resources, be they wildlife, energy, drinkable water, open space or ...

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New agency seeks input on merger of parks, wildlife

Now that the merger between the Division of Wildlife and the Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation has been completed, the newly minted Division of Parks and Wildlife wants to know what you think about it. Hmmm. Better late than never, one ...

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Lake of the Woods Trail not your typical Grand Mesa trail

Looking for a “typical” Grand Mesa National Forest trail? One that meanders up and down short dark-timbered hills that spill into broad, wet mountain meadows? A trail where the crest of a rocky ridge towers along one side and the ...

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