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Telluride less than it could have been

TELLURIDE, Colo. — This past winter, Telluride voters rejected a compromise measure that would have yielded some affordable housing for the 560 acres of open space on the edge of the town, along with some mansions.

TELLURIDE, Colo. — This past winter, Telluride voters rejected a compromise measure that would have yielded some affordable housing for the 560 acres of open space on the edge of the town, along with some mansions. Instead, the town may devote $30 million to $50 million to preserve it as open space.

Seth Cagin, publisher of The Telluride Watch, continues to agonize over that decision. In the second of a two-part essay, he cites it as a prime example of how Telluride has become what he calls the "poster child for Shallow Ecology."

"I used to think that Telluride was smart enough to cheat its probable fate. Ten years ago, all of the indications were that we would become a haven for the very rich and nobody else. The pressures from the outside world were fierce, but we thought that somehow we could beat destiny by being smart. Our watchword was ‘sustainability.’ We would balance our environment and community needs."

It was, he says, not to be. "Telluride is not much better than anyplace else in terms of our abuse of nature."

Cagin says Telluride has always favoured lower densities and open space. These debates were always characterized as pro-development vs. anti-development. But the reality is that those choices have foreclosed the possibility for affordable housing.

With no land available locally, workers will be shunted to other regions, but at a much greater cost. By forcing more commuting, there will be more people driving on roads, more de-icing, and bigger roads. And those things have environmental consequences, he points out.

"None of this is ecologically sound. There is a social cost, as well, as workers forced to commute lose precious time to more valuable activities, like spending time with their families."

Cagin professes great love for Telluride, having lived there longer than in either Boulder, Colo., where he grew up, or in New York City, where he spent his 20s and 30s. He likes Telluride for the reasons that others love it: the scenery, the proximity to public lands, and because of its wealth of culture, isolation, and small-town character.

"But yet, as I walk the streets of this town I love and proudly call home, I am sometimes overwhelmed with remorse that we have become so much less than we could have been," he says. "Telluride is still a great place, and yet, , often I find myself thinking: ‘For all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: It might have been.’ (John Greenleaf Whittier)."

‘Green’ with guilt

SILVERTON, Colo. — In ski towns and resort valleys of the West, the name "second home" has nearly become synonymous with "trophy home" or even "gluttony." The New York Times, however, finds another aspect to vacation homes, a "green" one that is motivated by good intentions, guilt, and the quest for bragging rights.

"We’re getting people doing million-dollar houses with composting toilets," said John Abrams, which builds solar-paneled and salvaged-lumber second homes on Martha’s Vineyard. The National Association of Home Builders reports that it’s getting easier than ever to find contractors who are ecologically minded. And a new, standardized rating system from the United States Green Building Council helps them verify that claim.

But can a second home ever be ecologically sound? Not really, although the newspaper finds some owners of vacation homes that have gone to great lengths to minimize their impact on the planet.

One such vacation homeowner interviewed by the newspaper is Kimberly Garner, who searched online for recycled materials with which to build a 20- by 25-foot house in Silverton. But recycled and "green" is not always cheaper, at least in the short run. Monica Marsiecek, the publisher of Ecological Home Ideas, says building green typically adds 5 to 10 per cent of the total price tag. However, she expects the price to drop as such building practices become more mainstream and competitive.

Energy standards beefed up

CRESTED BUTTE, Colo. — As energy prices rise, homes and businesses are being better insulated. Just the same, Crested Butte is raising the bar a bit more.

New energy efficiency standards being reviewed by the town would require builders seeking to renovate old homes to bring the insulation up to the R-28 standards for roofs. Builders of new structures can also obtain a Home Energy Rating System certification.

Speeding bikers ticketed

MT. CRESTED BUTTE, Colo. — Police in Mt. Crested Butte have begun enforcing the letter of the traffic laws as they apply to bicycles, to the regret of one Justin Blakelee. He was given a $40 ticket for going 10 miles over the state 30 mph limit.

"There’s no way I even figured I would be going 10 over," he told the Crested Butte News. "For crying out loud, it’s a mountain bike,"

The newspaper talked with one local mountain cyclist, Kay Peterson, who is OK with police enforcing the law – as long as they give their attention to cars, as well.

Ranks of Realtors swell

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. — Among permanent residents of Teton County, where Jackson Hole is located, one out of every 20 is a registered Realtor®. That compares with one out of 230 nationally.

The ranks of Realtors® has swelled 10 per cent annually during the last five years. The Teton Board of Realtors® now has 655 members. Real estate offices range from one-person outfits to the valley’s biggest, a Sotheby’s outlet that has 140 licensed property peddlers.

By comparison, the Vail Board of Realtors has 750.

Why so many agents, asks the Jackson Hole News & Guide? Potential wealth, obviously. In mid-June, for example, the average sales price of single-family homes was almost $1 million. Selling just one house is for many people like hitting the lottery, explained John Hanlon, who is president of the Teton Board of Realtors.

Also, unlike most businesses, opening a real estate office is relatively inexpensive, about $5,000.

But not everybody hits the real estate lottery. On average, an agent makes one or two sales annually. Twenty per cent of agents generally account for 80 per cent of sales, said Hanlon.

Restaurateurs think local

KETCHUM, Idaho — A growing number of restaurateurs in Ketchum, Sun Valley, and other Wood River Valley towns are deliberately serving organic foods but also locally produced vegetables, fruits, and meat.

For example, instead of relying upon produce from California, restaurateurs can buy local lettuce cucumbers, and spinach, as well as red beets, carrots and asparagus.

"I want my food to be grown and come from closer than the food service industry would have us do," explained Chris Kastner, owner of CK’s Real Food. "We’re all about going with the seasons and keeping it as local as we can. It makes you feel good about what you’re selling – that you’re part of the solution, not part of the problem."

The Idaho Mountain Express traces this thinking to the Slow Food movement, which began in 1986 in response to the opening of a McDonald’s restaurant in Rome, Italy. The Express says the name has become synonymous with opposition to everything the fast-food industry is famous for: monoculture farming, fat-saturated products, and growth hormones.

Among those benefiting are sheep producers. The mountains of the West are covered with grazing sheep. But most are shipped to feedlots, where they are fed grain before they are slaughtered.

One producer near Ketchum, Lava Lake Land and Livestock, directly sells to local restaurants when the lambs are four to six months old. It also sells directly to the public.

"There’s accountability," said Mike Stevens, president of the ranching company. "If it’s not good, you’re going to hear about it."

Real estate hits bumps

ASPEN, Colo. — The real estate boom of the last three years is hitting some minor bumps. In Pitkin County, where Aspen is located, sales in May were down nearly 16 per cent compared with the same month last year.

However, February through April all gained against last year, putting the total dollar volume of sales at 4.66 per cent ahead of last year’s record pace, reports The Aspen Times.

Down-valley in Garfield County, where Carbondale, Glenwood Springs, and Rifle are located, sales in May jumped 39 per cent.

‘Another’ hydrogen highway?

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. — Wind and other so-called "clean" sources of electricity, unlike coal or even natural gas, is being talked about in ski towns across the West. But one problem is that power from wind comes only when the wind is blowing. Most people want their lights, ski lifts, and air conditioners with greater reliability.

In Wilson, a small town in Jackson Hole, an entrepreneur named Ted Ladd believes he has a better idea. He has received a $100,000 grant from the National Science Foundation that seeks to use both wind and water.

Northeastern Wyoming, around Gillett, has both in abundance. The water, however, is found in conjunction with seams of coal-bed methane. It is salty and unsuitable for many other uses.

Ladd proposes to use the electricity from the wind turbines to split the water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. Hydrogen is used for a variety of purposes. But that’s just the first phase, he tells the Jackson Hole News & Guide. Ultimately, he envisions a hydrogen pipeline that would, for example, fill fuel-cell powered cars traveling along Interstate 80, which extends between Oakland, Salt Lake City, and Chicago.

Biodiesel now used in entire fleet

PARK CITY, Utah — After a one-year test, municipal leaders in Park City have decided biodiesel is their cup of tea. The city’s entire fleet of diesel-powered vehicles is now using B-20, in which 20 per cent of the fuel is derived from soybeans and other vegetative matter.

What’s better, this adventure in environmental do-goodism is actually costing the town less money. In the last year, the price of conventional diesel has increased. Now, biodiesel will save 5 cents per gallon. The town expects to burn 215,000 to 220,000 gallons per year, mostly in transit buses.

Eric Nesset, the town’s fleet manager, said the town last summer began using B-20 exclusively in its old town trolley. A concern was whether the fuel would gel during cold winter temperatures. It didn’t. "We never had a bit of a problem," he told Mountain Town News. "We had a lot of cold weather – as cold a winter as we ever had here, and we just never had a problem with it," he reported.

The city’s experiment was driven by municipal policy that aims for reducing environmental impacts. The city also is attempting to construct more energy-efficient buildings, costing more money in the short run but saving money in the long run.

In addition to the satisfactory test results, a second crucial threshold was reached: the town’s diesel supplier began providing B-20 exclusively to the town. As such, the town did not have to go into the fuel-supply business itself. Members of the public can also purchase B-20 at the supply center.

In the past, biodiesel has had quality control problems and such low sales volume that it lacked the economies of scale sufficient to allow competitive prices. Still, biodiesel quietly seems well on its way to becoming a fixture in fleets in ski towns and resort valleys. Jackson, Breckenridge, Crested Butte and Telluride have all used biodiesel, and despite some problems, continue to use it. Aspen’s Roaring Fork Transit Agency also is now using B-20.

A major advantage of biodesel is reduced pollution. It produces fewer particulates and small amounts of carbon dioxide and hydrocarbons, although it causes a slight increase in emissions of nitrous oxide.

Sawmill plan premised on beetle kill

GRANBY, Colo. — Like many mountain valleys in the West, Grand County several decades ago had sawmills operating up and down the valley: at Kremmling, Granby, and Fraser. But like elsewhere, most of the teepee burners have disappeared, the skies have cleared, and the sawmills have closed.

But because of the epidemic of beetle-killed trees, there’s enough supply to justify a new, if small, saw mill near Granby, reports the Sky-Hi News.

Meanwhile, many people have been clearing dead trees from their property, putting the limbs into slash piles. Not all buyers of property realize the expense of having the slash removed, says the paper.

Gunnison looks at biomass heat

GUNNISON, Colo. — Add Gunnison County to the list of mountain town and county jurisdictions interested in using logs and slash from surrounding forests to heat public buildings in more advanced biomass burners.

There, a badly crowded jail needs to be expanded, and county commissioners may take a proposal before voters in November to double the size of the 45,000-square-foot courthouse.

The Crested Butte News reports agreement among land managers that a long-term supply of biomass is available from public lands for such a venture. The commissioners were offered – and accepted – a free feasibility study by McNeil Technologies. Financial assistance is available through the Governor’s Office of Energy Management and Conservation.

Summit County has been moving briskly toward adopting a biomass burner to heat county office and other buildings near Frisco. Eagle County has also been talking of a similar idea, as has Vail.

How high is too high?

MINTURN, Colo. — A $1 billion real estate development being planned for an old mining area on the southwest side of Vail Mountain, between the old towns of Red Cliff and Minturn, will have elevations as high as 10,500 feet. Opponents say that’s far too high to have houses for people coming from sea level.

Or is it? Breckenridge has a base elevation of 9,800 feet, but homes extend to about 11,000 feet on the way to Hoosier Pass. Copper Mountain is at about 9,700 feet, while Mt. Crested Butte and Telluride’s Mountain Village are both at around 9,400 feet. So, what’s another 1,000 feet?

A physician consulted by the Vail Daily seemed to think that the thin air alone shouldn’t kill the real estate vision. Granted, 25 per cent of visitors arriving for a Colorado mountain vacation get altitude sickness during their first few days. A handful of them will be so sick they will want to stay at home, he says.

More serious is pulmonary edema, in which fluid collects in the lungs after 3 to 5 days at higher elevations. This can result in death, so those suffering from it are removed to lower elevations. An estimated 1 per cent of people develop pulmonary edema. More rare and more serious yet is cerebral edema, or fluid on the brain.

The physician, Chip Woodland, said people acclimate to less oxygen after one or two weeks, and can then function nearly as well as they can at sea level. However, it can take six to eight weeks to fully acclimate.

What the newspaper failed to report, however, is that medical studies have shown that problems become more frequent at higher elevations. For example, people going to elevations of 5,000 feet have fewer problems than those going to 8,000 feet. The usual benchmark for more serious problems is 9,000 feet.

The project is also being criticized for the impact to wildlife. Some 1,150 homes are proposed for about 4,500 acres of land. "The impact to elk for the entire project is significantly understated," said Perry Will, a Colorado Division of Wildlife manager.

The developer, Ginn Co., is considering doing what none before him has done, which is to build a wildlife overpass across Highway 24, which goes through the project, to help expedite movement of elk and other wildlife species.

Staples planning store in Steamboat

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. — Staples, the office supply chain, is planning to locate a store in Steamboat Springs. The Steamboat Pilot reports that while a typical Staples has 20,000 square feet, the space being examined by the retailer in Steamboat would have 13,000 feet.

Too many banks?

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. — Is Jackson Hole getting too many banks? It has five banks, a goodly number of mortgage firms and financial service brokers, and more yet plan to open up shop. Among them is Utah-based Zions Bank, which recently expanded into the Ketchum-Sun Valley market.

"What’s too many?" asked Jim Lewis, president of First Bank of the Tetons. "Too few of any service provider is not good for the consumer."

Said Jim Moses, market president of First Interstate Bank of Jackson: "I think it’s reflective of a community that is extremely healthy and growing."

Similar concerns about a surfeit of banks have also been mentioned in Ketchum/Sun Valley, Steamboat, and Vail/Eagle Valley. But in Colorado, some consolidation is occurring. U.S. Banks has purchased Weststar Banks. In some locations, including Aspen, the two chains have operated banks side by side. Presumably, there will be some vacant storefronts.

New thrill for summer visitors

PARK CITY, Utah — There’s a new thrill this summer at Park City Mountain Resort. Like some other ski areas, the resort offers an Alpine Slide during summer. But now, it also has an Alpine Coaster. Passengers are pulled up on the coaster on one- and two-person toboggans. The track is over a mile long, and the better part of that is on a gradient. Costs will be $15 per ride.

Work begins on Eagle hospital

EAGLE, Colo. — Work is beginning on a large medical-office building in Eagle in what is planned to be a major medical complex. The town is located halfway between Vail and Glenwood Springs, and hospitals from both have been talking since 1998 about developing a jointly operated hospital, to be called the Eagle Valley Medical Center. That new 175,000-square-foot hospital is expected to be opened by 2008. The location of the hospital and associated medical offices is on a 14-acre parcel in the Eagle Ranch development, located south of the old town of Eagle.

CPR latest to test deer whistles

BANFF, Alberta — For about 20 years devices called sonic deer whistles have been sold. The idea is that the whistles, when mounted on a car’s bumper, catch the wind and emit a sound at a frequency not within the range of hearing of people, but easily heard by deer, elk, and other such creatures. Thus notified, the deer presumably will not scamper onto a road just as your car bears down on it.

The empirical evidence that these things work? Evidence citied by manufacturers was slim. Still, buoyed purely by anecdotal evidence ("The deer seem to prick up their ears when we drive with these things on," said one sheriff’s deputy in Colorado), many vehicle fleets were thus outfitted.

Now comes the Canadian Pacific Railway, which has had severe public relations problems in the Banff area because of all the bears and other wildlife critters that have been killed by passing trains. Wildlife activists want the railroad to do more to prevent the deaths.

Ed Greenberg, a railroad spokesman said that Hornet Deer Whistles will be tried on the railroad for a year to evaluate their effectiveness. The Rocky Mountain Outlook says that the manufacturer asserts that experiments on police and emergency vehicles over a three-year period resulted in six million accident-free miles.

But when the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources tested sonic whistles in the late 1980s in randomized double-blind experiments, it found no evidence on behalf of the efficacy of the whistles.

Banff fossils studied

BANFF, Alberta — At one time, Banff was on the edge of a sea, and in that sea were creatures called trilobites. But about 500 million years ago, during one of at least three "extinction events in the Cambrian period, the trilobites disappeared, but were soon replaced by different trilobites.

Scientists have long been aware of the trilobite extinction, but still don’t know why. To solve that riddle, several scientists are in Banff National Park this summer to study the above-timberline fossil beds.

"We don’t yet fully understand the environmental changes that led to what must have been an ancient ecological catastrophe, although there is some evidence to indicate that sea level may have risen and previously shallow water environments around the edge of North America were replaced by deeper, possibly cooler water environments," explained Steve Westrop, a paleontologist from the University of Oklahoma.

Westrop told the Rocky Mountain Outlook that he has conducted similar research into environmental changes at sites in the Great Basin of Nevada and Utah, as sell as sites in Oklahoma and the upper Mississippi Valley.