Base camp at the FOND Fall Fest '11. (Thad V'Soske)
I’ve traveled this route quite a few times in the last 3 years and without fail each time I weave through the contours of this mysterious canyon a multitude of questions bubble up and into my consciousness. How this canyon formed? Is that granite!? Who lives out here? Can I turn down that road? Is that a wild herd of Elk!? Can I hunt in these parts? Whoa cool waterfall! Is there public access?
Twenty four hours a day the Tar Sands eats into the most carbon rich forest ecosystem on the planet. Storing almost twice as much carbon per hectare as tropical rainforests, the boreal forest is the planet's greatest terrestrial carbon storehouse. To the industry, these diverse and ecologically significant forests and wetlands are referred to as overburden, the forest to be stripped and the wetlands dredged and replaced by mines and tailings ponds so vast they can be seen from outer space.
Tired of watching mediocre baseball? Come to GreenScene. Guaranteed victory!
Everyone in Colorado seems to know at least one person who came to Colorado only planning to stay for a short while and never left. Maybe you are one of these people. Either way, it is evident that Colorado seems to have a special special draw that many of us have experienced first-hand. Sure, we are a nice people, us Coloradans, but it’s really all about the beauty of this state.
The environmental community’s biggest recruiting tool is nature, and Colorado is blessed with some of the most beautiful scenery in the country. We think that when people see firsthand the beauty of a proposed wilderness area, they are much more likely to get involved to help protect that area.
To help accomplish this, CEC is proud to announce a new way for you to learn, get involved, and meet other conservation-minded folks. GreenScene will be focused on education and getting out and exploring Colorado, and will provide opportunities for our members and activists to get out and enjoy our great state, all while learning the ins-and-outs of of some of Colorado’s most important environmental issues, and — most importantly — what you can do to help.
At our first GreenScene event, Kurt Kunkle, our Wilderness Campaign Coordinator, will talk how Colorado’s most beautiful — and threatened — areas become designated wilderness, focusing on the proposed Hidden Gems Wilderness Area. Then, two weeks later, we will carpool up to one of the Hidden Gems areas in Summit County, where Kurt will guide a hike and highlight what makes that area truly special and why it needs to be protected.
The first event will take place on July 26th at Breckenridge Brewery and BBQ and will start at 7pm. If you are interested in what makes an area “wilderness” and how CEC and others fight to give areas that designation and all the protection that comes with it, come on down. Kurt’s an expert at this stuff, so if you have any questions or thoughts on the issue, this is a great opportunity to share those. It’s going to be a great, laid-back, time and I hope to see you there.
Dolores hike overlook
Nature is what feeds me, gives me life. It is in the raw beauty of our world where I can see reflections of myself stronger and clearer than in any mirror. It is here in the wilderness, where I am not the top of some food chain, where I am not the sole creator but rather a delicate observer that I can find parts of myself I didn’t know existed.
Donate to CEC with each purchase you make.
How much money did you spend today? Maybe you got a cup of coffee for $3.50, bought lunch for $8.55 and then picked up a new pair of shoes on the way home for $58.60. What if you could round up each of those purchases to the nearest dollar, and donate the spare change to Colorado Environmental Coalition?
Well, our newest partner SwipeGood allows you to do just that: maximize your loose change for a good cause, and protect Colorado’s air, water and land with each purchase. And while the resulting $1.45 from today might now sound like a little, it actually adds up to over $20 in donations over the course of the month – without any extra work on your part.
But don’t take our word for it – go ahead and take SwipeGood for a test drive. All you have to do is go to our page on SwipeGood and sign up your credit or debit card. SwipeGood rounds up your purchases to the next dollar, and lets you donate the change to Colorado Environmental Coalition. You can even cap your monthly donations, so your are in complete control of the amount of money you donate each month.
How good will it feel to go about your every day shopping knowing that each purchase you make helps Colorado? I can tell you it feels great – like you have a warm halo over your head.
So what are you waiting for? Learn more, enroll your credit or debit card today and change the world around you, one purchase at a time.
Photo: flicker.com/Uncle Kick-Kick
Wonder how sprawl happens?
This blog is about Columbus, OH, but it could be anywhere, including Colorado. Look around you, and you’ll see the same thing: undeveloped lands (including farmlands) further from downtowns being turned endlessly into the next mall or big box retail center. A few years or a decade later, those once-new shopping centers decline as fancier new shopping centers open a little further out. Downtowns or urban centers die along with the old malls, leaving vacant areas blighting up the community. And the pattern continues.
While Michael Hancock and Chris Romer are working overtime to highlight their differences in the last few days of Denver’s mayoral race, there is at least one issue that they should have no trouble agreeing on: continuing the highly successful Greenprint Denver program.
Denver manages regional tree planting initiative to provide shade and improve water and air quality.
Created by former Mayor John Hickenlooper in 2006, Greenprint is Denver’s sustainability office, ensuring that environmental protection, economic prosperity and social equity are woven into all aspects of the City’s work. Equal parts facilitator, cheerleader and whip cracker, Greenprint integrates and amplifies the sustainability work of all City agencies. Through the tireless work of many partners including the Department of Environmental Health, Denver reached its Climate Action Plan’s 2012 greenhouse gas reduction goal three years ahead of schedule – a key benchmark of Greenprint’s effectiveness.
Monument Spring
I left the Western Slope four years ago to attend graduate school after a stint working in Wilderness Therapy with adjudicated youth. Knowing I am a social but also political being, I wanted to enrich that political part of my life formally. Enrich I did! I spent 12-hour days in front of textbooks digesting political processes and learning about heart-wrenching environmental injustices. All the while I wondered how spending so much of my life INSIDE would benefit me in the end. The silver-lining came when I received a call from Elise Jones offering me a job working with warm-hearted people, in the land I love, on issues I care about deeply. With an offer to become the West Slope Energy Organizer for CEC, I was invited home to Colorado.
A great view of the Yampa from Little yampa Canyon- photo courtesy of Soren Jespersen
For the last five years I have worked on water issues for CEC. This work typically takes the form of long meetings, trips around the state for more meetings, days at the legislature and conference calls (a lot of conference calls). In short: it isn’t super glamorous and only underscores my yearning to be out on our rivers and streams. While all of us here at CEC try to make time to get out and really experience Colorado by hiking, fishing, camping and biking there is really no better way to experience our rivers than by floating down them. Two weeks ago, for the third year we teamed up with our partners at The Wilderness Society and with Friends of the Yampa (FotY) to float Little Yampa and Juniper Canyons. After doing this trip last year it took me all of about thirty seconds to commit to going along again this year. It was a great couple of days of “work” to say the least.
Grand Junction’s community radio station KAFM 88.1 is in full throttle on their spring fund drive. Their Board of Directors is currently conducting a non-profit match contest RIGHT NOW until 1pm! There are non-profit matches on the table. CEC is on the board. Please call 241.8801 to pledge to KAFM and support CEC.
Favorite non-profit in the valley who receives the most pledges before 1pm will be recognized by way of a 3-month underwriting contract!!!!!!!! —– all money goes towards this great community radio station that supports non-profits, including the CEC all year long!!
