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City of Souls, City of Decline

One of Colorado’s most rapidly declining cities struggles to find meaning and survival amid harsh economic times.

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“Green Labs:” Promoting Sustainable Science One Lab at a Time

University laboratories across America find inventive ways to reduce, reuse and recycle.

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Photosynthesis: Industrial Colorado

Industrial Colorado on Photosynthesis explores a side of Colorado sometimes obscured by the natural beauty of the landscape, yet critical to the state’s history, infrastructure and environmental issues. See the photo essay here. 

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Q&A with James Howard Kunstler: Author, Social Commentator and Critic of American Culture

Writer James Howard Kunstler discusses the future of our cities — his critique of Boulder might surprise you.

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Smoke and Rearview Mirrors: the Not-So-Simple Science of Driving High

Fearing more stoned drivers on the road, some are seeking to legislate the minimum amount of marijuana that would determine when a person is legally too high to drive.

City of Souls, City of Decline“Green Labs:” Promoting Sustainable Science One Lab at a TimePhotosynthesis: Industrial ColoradoQ&A with James Howard Kunstler: Author, Social Commentator and Critic of American CultureSmoke and Rearview Mirrors: the Not-So-Simple Science of Driving High

Water Supplies for Colorado Farms Sustained by Spring Snow

Categories:

Agriculture, Drought, Food & Agriculture, News, Water

Apr 22

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Snowpack in the mountains has still not reached average levels this year. (Photo/April Nowicki)

Snowpack in the mountains has still not reached average levels this year. (Photo/April Nowicki)

Spring 2013 brought more than a foot of snow to Colorado, but the drought status persists, driving the cost of water up and affecting small farms’ bottom lines.

Demand for water swells with population growth, which is on a continual rise – almost half a million more people live in Colorado than did six years ago, for a total of almost 5.2 million, according to the 2012 U.S. Census. Meeting high water demand depends heavily on how much snow falls in the mountains in winter, and farmers know that less snow can dictate crop yields.

Statewide, snowpack has reached 86 percent of normal, thanks to spring snowfall. Seeing the majority of snowpack  in March and April is a welcome last minute contribution to the reservoirs, and has potential to keep farms in sufficient supply of water throughout the growing season.

“That’s what saved us in the 2003 drought season,” said Eric Wilkinson, the general manager of Northern Water, a public water conservation district based in Berthoud, Colo. Read the rest of this entry »

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Minor Maintenance Completed at Boulder’s Wastewater Treatment Facility

Categories:

News, Technology, Water

Apr 18

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Plant operator Emanuel Watson gave a tour of the facility during Monday's snowstorm. Watson frequently gives tours as part of the facility's commitment to public education. (Photo/Christi Turner)

Plant operator Emanuel Watson gave a tour of the facility during Monday’s snowstorm. Watson frequently gives tours as part of the facility’s commitment to public education. (Photo/Christi Turner)

Despite the heavy bout of mid-April snowfall, repairs to the primary clarifiers at Boulder’s wastewater treatment facility were completed on schedule on Wednesday.

“The work on the primary clarifiers is actually fairly minor and only related to rehabilitation and replacement of old components,” said Chris Douville, wastewater treatment manager at the facility. “The work on the third and final clarifier was completed today, so other than site cleanup the contractor is done.”

The repairs to the primary clarifiers, also called sedimentation tanks, included replacing the gates that let the wastewater in, as well as installing new trash racks to remove large debris that may still be in the water when it enters the clarifiers. Repairs also included an increase in the height of the tank walls to increase their total capacity. This will further reduce the risk that the clarifiers would let untreated sewage flow into Boulder Creek. While such a failure has not happened in over 50 years of operation, keeping the risk at a minimum is a primary concern of the treatment facility. This is especially true in light of population growth in the Boulder area, which translates to an increased output of wastewater. The city’s population has grown from just under 38,000 in 1960 to more than 103,000 in 2010.  It is expected to grow to more than 119,000 by 2035. Read the rest of this entry »

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When Plants Attack: The Fight Against Invasive Species in Boulder

Categories:

Activism, Climate Change, Ecology, Nature & Wildlife

Apr 16

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Nancy Contreras, a junior at Fairview High School, helps to remove invasive Scotch thistle from Violet Park in Boulder. (Photo/Caitlin Rockett)

Nancy Contreras, a junior at Fairview High School, helps to remove invasive Scotch thistle from Violet Park in Boulder. (Photo/Caitlin Rockett)

Despite the day’s blustery conditions, 17-year-old Nancy Contreras smiles as she digs a shovel into the ground, wrenching out a hairy looking weed along the greenway in Boulder’s Violet Park.

The weed is onopordum acanthium, commonly known as Scotch thistle. The grayish green plant is native to Europe and Western Asian, but has quickly spread throughout North America since its introduction in the late 19th century. In spite of the pleasant purple orbs the biennial plant produces in their second year, the United States Department of Agriculture considers the plant an invasive species due to its ability to crowd out native species and crops. Colorado, along with 13 other states, has declared it a noxious weed. Brought together by the non-profit group Wildlands Restoration Volunteers, Contreras and her brother Oscar joined a handful of adult professionals and student volunteers this past Sunday to help manage the spread of Scotch thistle in Boulder. Read the rest of this entry »

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Into The Weeds

Categories:

Climate Change, Ecology, Feature, People & Bios, Profiles

Apr 9

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Tim Seastedt removes spotted knapweed (Centaurea Stoebe) from his field test site at Left-Hand Canyon. (Photo/courtesy Tim Seastedt)

Tim Seastedt removes spotted knapweed (Centaurea Stoebe) from his field test site at Left-Hand Canyon. (Photo/courtesy Tim Seastedt)

Tim Seastedt has run the gamut of the field of ecology – from tagging grizzlies in the boreal forest and darting polar bears in the barren tundra, to the more benign study of soil in the grasslands. After decades of ecological study, he now finds himself literally in the weeds – an expert in invasive weed management and ecosystem restoration in the Colorado alpine.

As a professor of ecology at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Seastedt runs a unique weed management program that uses creatures rather than chemicals to keep invasive plant species at bay. His research focuses on how the invasive weeds are linked to pervasive climate change, and how humans may be able to adapt to some of the seemingly inevitable changes predicted in the region’s ecosystem. Yet not all changes are inevitable. Seastedt’s work has made him an advocate for innovative restoration ecology, and he leverages the help of volunteers and local organizations to help restore the land to a more natural, weed-free state.
“I feel like I backed into the topic of restoration from dealing with the invasive species issue,” Seastedt says.

In a way, he completely backed into science as a profession.

“It was more a party than science,” he says of his college years as a wildlife biology major tagging grizzly bears in Yellowstone National Park in the 1960s. “They were still dumping the garbage in Hayden Valley, and 60 grizzlies would come in and feed on it every night. It really was theater, it really wasn’t science.” Read the rest of this entry »

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Bill McKibben Discusses New Media’s Role in Climate Change Coverage

Categories:

Activism, Climate Change, News

Apr 5

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Journalist Bill McKibben speaking at the Journalism That Matters event "Long Live Journalism; Journalism is Dead" on April 3, 2013. (Photo/Caitlin Rockett)

Journalist Bill McKibben speaking at the Journalism That Matters event “Long Live Journalism; Journalism is Dead” on April 3, 2013. (Photo/Caitlin Rockett)

The rapidly changing media landscape is often seen as a threat to journalism, but where climate change is concerned, new forms of media may give journalists the tools they need to mobilize society in revolutionary ways.

According to Bill McKibben, an environmental journalist and co-founder of the grassroots movement 350.org, “homemade” media such as tweets and blog posts have the power to educate and create significant social movements.

“It does a better job a lot of times than the real media – the one people get paid to produce,” he said on Wednesday night at the Journalism That Matters event, “Journalism is Dead; Long Live Journalism,” held at the University of Denver. Read the rest of this entry »

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Water Use for Fracking Not Necessarily a Net Loss

Categories:

Energy, Fracking, News, Policy, Policy & Politics, Science & Tech, Water

Mar 14

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Reagan Waskom currently serves as the Director of the Colorado Water Institute and as Director of the Colorado State University Water Center. (Photo/Courtesy of Colorado State University)

Reagan Waskom currently serves as the Director of the Colorado Water Institute and as Director of the Colorado State University Water Center. (Photo/Courtesy of Colorado State University)

While the fracking boom in Colorado raises public concerns of a water bust, a balance may be possible.

“It’s all reusable,” said Reagan Waskom, director of the Colorado Water Institute and the Colorado State University Water Center. “It’s just a question of what it costs to do it.”

In the third lecture in the “FrackingSENSE” lecture series on the University of Colorado campus in Boulder on Tuesday, Waskom put the water debate in context for fracking, telling the standing-room-only audience that finding ways to conserve water throughout the fracking process is key to sustainability, and a balance between community needs and energy needs. He also reminded the audience that in Colorado, agriculture uses a much higher percentage of water than fracking. Hydraulic fracturing, or the injection of water mixed with trace chemicals into shale in order to extract natural gas deposits, is indeed a water-intensive procedure; but Waskom argued that perhaps a different perspective was needed on just how much water is “a lot.”

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