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At least now they’ll spell the name right

Compiled by Allen Best GRANBY, Colo.

Compiled by Allen Best

GRANBY, Colo. — If there’s a silver lining to the story from Granby, where a manic bulldozer operator last week crunched 13 buildings before shooting himself, it would be that nobody will misspell the name of the town for a good many years to come, as new reporters for Denver newspapers tended to do.

And from strictly a mercenary perspective, the bizarre story that flashed around the globe also put Granby on the map, a valuable accessory for those hoping to sell several new projects of vacation and weekend homes near Granby. They won’t have to tell people where Granby is anymore.

Located about half-way between the Winter Park ski area and Rocky Mountain National Park, Granby started out as a railroad town, but for about a half-century has been a service centre and bedroom community for the resort areas.

Lately, as land prices skyrocketed hard along Interstate 70, developers have been assembling projects around Granby, hoping to appeal to the middle class from Denver and its suburbs. "Colorado as it Used to Be," some have called it.

And that is fundamentally what Granby is and has been – Colorado as it used to be. The main street, called Agate Avenue, that Marvin Heemeyer bashed with his 60-ton bulldozer fortified into a 75-ton tank, has both a Chuck Wagon and a Longbranch Restaurant, just as most Colorado towns once did. It also had that relic of little-box retailing, a Gambles store. All in all, the town hasn’t change much in 30 years except to become more tired looking.

The newspaper is called the Sky-Hi News, and editor and publisher of the paper, Patrick Brower, was in the office, trying to gather news of the berserk bulldozer operator when the dozer arrived, crashing into the front of the building. Brower had sided with town officials in the zoning dispute that seems to have been the pivot for Heemeyer’s many angers.

Ironically, town voters in April had rejected a badly needed streetscape beautification plan to give some lift to the downtown area. Voters said they didn’t want to spend money until they had it in hand. Now, it looks like they will get some from state and federal coffers.

Sun Valley economy strengthens

SUN VALLEY, Idaho — Although smaller than at many resorts across the West, tax receipts at Ketchum and Sun Valley showed some firmness in April. Sales tax revenues edged upward 3 per cent in Sun Valley and held steady overall in Ketchum. The Sun Valley Resort, the ski area operator, said bookings for the resort this summer are ahead of those from last year, reports the Idaho Mountain Express.

Telluride a "Slow Food City"

TELLURIDE, Colo.–By now, most people have heard of the book "Fast Food Nation," the film "Super Size Me," or at least heard talk of what burgers and fries are doing to our health. All this was the subject of several films shown this year at the Telluride Mountainfilm Festival.

As well, town officials have decided to become a "Slow Food City." The international movement is "dedicated to food appreciation and food activism; a combination of the celebration of good eating with the protection of biodiversity, preserving regional cuisines, food products, harvesting methods, production techniques, and traditional ways of life threatened with extinction by the big business of non-sustainable industrial agriculture and global fast-food culture."

Telluride Mayor John Pryor said he learned during a visit to Ecuador this spring that more rain forest is clear-cut for cattle grazing than for timber. In other words, burgers are destroying the rain forests.

Culture and history sell

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. — At two separate Colorado conferences this year, first in Denver and more recently at Steamboat Springs, presenters have trumpeted the economic potential of catering to tourists who might be interested in history or arts instead of sweat and luxury.

Catherine Zacher, former president of the chamber of commerce for 13 years in Santa Fe, said these cultural or heritage tourists spend 8 to 10 per cent more per day than average travellers. These are not high-brows, she said, but they do want to get more meaning out of their vacations.

"Baby boomers want to go home from vacation with more than a tan," she said at the conference in Steamboat. "They are looking for life-seeing experiences, not sight-seeing experiences."

Anne Pritzlaff, a member of the President’s Advisory Council on History Preservation, said historic buildings have economic value. They add authenticity to a place.

Who are these cultural or heritage tourists? Pritzland said they are 45 to 64 years old, predominantly female, and have higher-than-average levels of income. They like to visit historical places and museums, attend cultural events or festivals, and go shopping. Surveys show 62 per cent stay in hotels.

Cultural tourists, noted The Steamboat Pilot, are the sorts of people who, when going to South Dakota, would not be content to visit Mount Rushmore, but instead would also want to learn about the Sioux Indians.

Cultural tourism also requires more integration of offerings. There must be a single marketing message that addresses the entire region with one compelling voice, Santa Fe’s Zacher said. "There is no room for petty turf wars in marketing heritage tourism," she said. "Heritage travellers must be given a guide map to the region, not single attractions."

"If you have five communities, they can all advertise in competition to get the same tourists," Zacher said. "But if you can make sure the tourists find something in each of the five communities, you will extend their visits."

The Summit Daily News notes that while Breckenridge has always boasted of its mining history, the town lately has set out to create an artist colony within the town.

Meanwhile, in Alberta’s Bow River Valley, the Rocky Mountain Outlook is more than a little annoyed at Canmore town officials for their perceived bias for sports. Doors swing open easily for the well-organized sports lobby, but the community’s arts and cultural groups can hope for no more than a sop, and only then if they’re polite, says the newspaper.

Town councillors are "ready to pop open the piggybank to build a new (admittedly needed) $12 million recreation centre, but immediately start choking at the notion that it may cost the town ‘hundreds of thousands’ to implement a new arts and cultural department and a new program for public art," opines the editor.

Canmore, says the newspaper, need not go far to see cultural tourism as an important economic driver. "The Banff Centre has flavoured the community consciousness for 70 years, people from Canmore and Calgary flocked to the Centre for concerts, theatre, performances, often stopping afterwards for a coffee or glass of wine. This is cultural tourism, staring us right in the face – what’s not to understand."

Goliath wins; David folds cards

FRISCO, Colo. — Summit County’s most recent newspaper war lasted barely a year and a half. The Summit Independent Daily threw in the towel in late May – at least for now, reported its competitor, the Summit Daily News.

The upstart daily had hoped to capitalize on anti-Vail sentiment. The established daily is owned by Swift Newspapers, which now has a near monopoly on newspapers from Aspen to Vail to Breckenridge, with a similar concentration of ownership in the Lake Tahoe area of California, among other places in the West. Partners said the independent daily was undercapitalized.

Hummers tied to politics in Mideast

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. — A growing number of Hummers are found in Jackson Hole, and letter-writer Steve Gil says there’s connection with tons of things – who’s in power in Saudi Arabia, oil-well drilling along Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front, and so forth.

The nation needs to free its dependence upon imported oil, and it needs so be broadening the incentives for development of wind and solar power. Instead, he charges the Bush administration has allowed small-business owners to write off Hummers on their taxes.

Leave immigration to feds

DURANGO, Colo. — A Durango immigrant-advocacy organization is asking the city council to adopt a resolution declaring the city a "safety zone" for immigrants.

What this means, says Olivia Donaji Lopez, executive director of Los Compañeros, is that the city wouldn’t use municipal resources to identify, apprehend, prosecute, or deport non-citizens solely on the basis of immigration status.

Whitney Vaughan, with the La Plata Family Center, supports the proposal. She told the Durango Herald it is not the job of police to worry about legal or illegal entry into the country as long as a person is not committing a crime or misdemeanour.

Lisa Duran, of the Denver-based Right for All People, explained that federal legislation now being drawn up would require local police to enforce federal immigration laws, and prod local agencies to participate by tying that enforcement to federal grants. The resolution, which was previously passed by Santa Fe, is a response to that potential law.

Colorado River piddling with peak spring runoff

KREMMLING, Colo. — What a year it isn’t. The Colorado River as it flows through Kremmling, about 60 miles from its headwaters in Rocky Mountain National park, was flowing at a piddling 250 cubic feet per second during the early days of June, shortly after the peak runoff.

Compare that to the big water years of the early 1980s, when the river surged with up 12,000 cfs.

The biggest part of the story is the lacklustre winter and the early runoff, about a month early. The major reservoirs upstream, from Dillon to Granby, which are used to divert water to cities and farms on Colorado’s Eastern Slope, are also part of the story. Those reservoirs are holding back all they can.

Lake Louise a pretty but deadly place for grizzlies

LAKE LOUISE, Alberta — A study by a researcher from the University of Alberta has found that Lake Louise is the place in the Canadian Rockies where grizzly bears have been most likely to die during the last three decades.

In fact, reports the Ottawa Citizen, the rate of mortality there is so high that project co-ordinator Scott Nielsen says the grizzly may be facing extirpation in Alberta. This is despite recent conservation improvements at Banff and Lake Louise, including electrified fences to keep bears away from some areas and restricted access for campers.

Nielsen, in a paper published in Biological Conservation, said that Lake Louise, whose beauty is a magnet for people, has the sort of habitat that also draws bears. Although bears can be tranquilized and relocated, the solution is imperfect, as "survival of those animals is quite low."

Scientists study global warming in mountains

KINGS BEACH, Calif. — In an invitation-only meeting, 100 top scientists met at Lake Tahoe during May to begin plotting how to co-ordinate research about how global warming and its effects on mountain ranges of the West.

As a direct result, a five-year Western Mountain Initiative has been launched, backed each year by $1.2 million in federal money.

Some effects of global warming are already being observed in mountainous areas. For example, wildfires have grown larger and more severe in recent years. While some scientists say that’s due to fire suppression of the past century, Craig Allen, a U.S. Geological Survey scientist at Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico, implicates climate change.

"By better understanding what controls the size and severity of wildfires, we hope to improve society’s ability to minimize other damaging effects," Allen said in a statement.

As well, scientists say hotter summers mean more stress on mountain forests, contributing to the beetle infestations and elevating fire risks, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.

Rising temperatures mean less water stored in the winter snowpack, which functions as a vast reservoir that slowly releases water during the hot summer months, when it is needed most. But if winter temperatures rise, as they have been, there will be less snow and more rain. That suggests the need for more reservoirs. As well, spring melt will come earlier. And, not least important to ski towns, the snow line will creep higher up mountains.

All of this has already been happening, but researchers predict that the process will accelerate.

In the past, researchers have focused on individual mountain ranges, producing results too limited to draw sweeping conclusions. This new organization is to create a network for studying climate changes in the mountains of western North America, with the goal of reaching region-wide conclusions.

Researchers from Massachusetts, Arizona and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently reported that long droughts that have periodically choked the West since record-keeping began are nothing like the persistent and extensive droughts that parched the region in eons gone by, says the Chronicle. The newspaper notes that scientists are only beginning to understand how manmade changes may compound those natural rhythms.

Weed your lawn now for autumn wine fest

CRESTED BUTTE, Colo. — Are dandelions weeds? Not necessarily. In Crested Butte, a festival co-ordinator suggests they’re cause for future merriment, dandelion wine. Nancy Wicks, co-ordinator of Vinotok, a festival that celebrates the Slavic origins of the coal-miners who first populated the town, said the Dandelion Wine Tasting Contest will be held at a pig roast during the festival in September.

Jackson Hole restricts fireplaces and stoves

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. — Add Jackson Hole to the list of places cracking down on crackling fireplaces. Teton County commissioners have passed a law restricting homeowners to one EPA-approved wood-burning stove or fireplace, but also one unapproved fireplace or stove or pit.

Even so, these restrictions are loose compared to many put in place during the last 15 years in resort areas of the West. For example, Vail in 1990 banned all new fireplaces and stoves unless EPA approved, and helped launch a program that has resulted in hundreds of wood-burning fireplaces being replaced with gas-burning varieties. Similar restrictions were put into place in nearby towns as well as unincorporated areas.

County reviews real old technology for the future

HOT SULPHUR SPRINGS, Colo. — County officials are reviewing a proposal to heat county buildings with what might be called a giant wood-burning stove. The cost of such heating plants runs from $150,000 to $1 million, according to a sales representative of BioEnergy Corporation, with fuel cost savings ranging form 30 to 90 per cent. To heat the courthouse would take 100 to 110 acres of chipped forest products annually.

As the county is awash with forests that are getting old, with no local sawmill to speak of any more, county officials seem to be at least interested in the idea of converting a problem into a benefit. Similar conversions have taken place in Montana’s Bitterroot Valley and at Nederland, Colo., located west of Boulder.