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Fire Danger on the Front Range -- A Different Perspective

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 It has been a dry water year on the Front Range. For the six months since October 2025, precipitation has been only 45.5% of normal in Boulder County, according to CSU’s Colorado Climate Center. Firefighters are on high alert. Chainsaws reverberate through local stands of trees. The electrical utility warms that it may cut off power to whole neighborhoods during windy times.  And yet, I am strangely sanguine about avoiding big fires. While most foresters and municipal or regional entities are carrying out widespread thinning and cutting of trees, I am saying, “Wait a minute, let’s think this through.” Before we raze stands of old growth trees and healthy forests, let’s consider whether we are throwing the baby out with the bathwater.  Bulldozing firebreaks and toppling the canopy doesn’t really mitigate the risk of fire in many cases. Oftentimes, the culled trees are left in stacks, a fire hazard just waiting to ignite. Chainsaws and other power equipment can cause spark...
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POTUS v. WOTUS

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 Coming to a Head-- The Crisis that Inspired this Blog is Now Upon Us Back in August 2024, I published my first post of this blog, " Urgent Need for Participation in Protecting Sacred Places with Water ." In his first term, President Trump sought to remove some of the protections on the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) and later, during the Biden administration, the Supreme Court further weakened it. Today the  New York Times  reports that the EPA is being directed to kneecap the Act even further, so that about 55 percent of America's drinking water will come from unprotected and unregulated sources. (This is a gift article, so you can read it whether or not you have a NYT subscription.) Farmers, home builders, real estate developers, oil drillers and petrochemical manufacturers are overjoyed. For the rest of us, clean water will become scarcer and testing and treatment costs will climb higher. What about the forests, plants, wildlife, fish, birds, insects and other l...
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The Great Sell-Off of Our Public Lands and Resources

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Punching Ourselves in the Face In medieval times, village people enjoyed puppet shows featuring the irascible Mr. Punch and his wife, Judy. A colorful well-lit stage was set up in the town square and the entire show could be performed by one puppeteer with Punch on one hand and a succession of characters on the other. A partner in front of the stage often served as narrator and collected money.  But oftentimes there were other partners in the shadows. While Punch was loudly holding forth and carrying out slapstick, nondescript people would creep about, stealing goods out of the bags of the distracted audience.  Today, Punch is still in the limelight, bulldozing historic buildings, openly fighting with colleagues, shutting down the government and grounding planes, while in the shadows our forests, parks and public lands are being auctioned off to the highest bidder. Here are just a few examples of the pillaging.  It's Happening Now Most of the damage the admini...
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Five Things You Probably Didn't Know About Chaco Canyon

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  Chaco Canyon is a legendary sacred place in central New Mexico which, despite its remoteness, is visited by thousands every year. Hundreds of books, blogs, and podcasts have been written about it since it was first  "discovered" by the Euro-American world in 1849 and the plunder began.  So, here are five big things you probably didn't know about  Chaco Culture National Historical Park : 1. It's far greater than just "downtown" Chaco.  The Ancestral Puebloans who lived in the area built many outlier communities; about 150 have been identified and named. Here are a few of them: Pueblo Pintado - This is Spanish for “painted village.” Pueblo people on the Washington Expedition called it Pueblo de Montezuma. This site is also known as Pueblo de los Ratones, or “village of the mice,” Pueblo Colorado or “red village,” and Pueblo Grande, or “large village.” Its Navajo name is Kin twell, or “wide house.” Kin Bineola - This comes from the Navajo Kin Bii’naayoli...
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Where We See A Land of Many Uses, D.C. Sees Only a Few

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  White River National Forest Closer to Damage via Roads, Luxury Homes (February 27, 2026) The National Forest land near Edwards, Colorado, is getting smaller and smaller due to development. A Florida company has found a loophole in federal regulations that would force the building of a 2.4-mile paved road through the pristine forest to allow construction traffic to build 19 luxury homes. It's wending its way through the legal system and environmental groups trying to save the forest seem to be fighting a losing battle.  See this Colorado Sun article for more information.  Interior Department Poised to Rescind the Public Lands Rule It has been almost a year since we first wrote about the dangers to our millions of acres of public lands ( here is the post ). When the Republicans regained office, they moved swiftly to realize their vision of the destruction of forests, parks, wilderness, nature preserves and other public lands. At times, the brazeness of these assaults has...
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Harvesting the Indigenous Garden

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 My Mini Three-Sisters Front-Yard Garden Back in the spring, I encouraged readers to try growing some food this year, even if just in a planter on the balcony.  I wanted to be sincere about this commitment, so I cast around for a good spot to start a new garden myself. I settled on an unlikely place: a bare spot in my front yard where the grass was thin and brown.  It was about 100 square feet and I had been eyeing it ever since my friend and mentor David Braden started the 100-Square-Foot Challenge back in the 2010s. (He passed on to the Big Garden in the Sky in 2024 and I miss him constantly.) In the first few years, I prepped by breaking sod and piling leaves, grass clippings and sometimes even brush on the pile, which was fortunately somewhat hidden from the road by a large dogwood bush. When I changed the cooling media in my evaporative cooler, I put the mineral-rich used media (essentially corrugated cardboard) on there too. The surrounding grass took notice and sta...
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The Smoke Screen of Wildfire Management

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 Mitigation Masks True Intentions in the Urban/Wild Interface  New sounds ring out in the forest. Not of birdsong, the chattering of the squirrel or the howl of the coyote, but the loud buzz of chain saws. "We must thin the forests, to lower the risk of wildfires," those who wield the power saws say. Fearful local homeowners support and add to this effort, creating "defensible space" around their homes.  Wait a minute. Does cutting, thinning and logging really lower the risk of wildfires? In the past year, I have visited several homeowners who live on the Front Range of Colorado, in communities such as Evergreen, Boulder, Conifer and Pine. Just by their names, you know the homes are nestled among trees. After the disastrous Marshall fire that burned  6,000 acres including 1,000 homes and commercial buildings at the end of 2021, people, insurance companies, and governments are turning to cutting down trees as a deterrent and solution.  Those who promote timber ha...
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