Blaze near Pine contained after consuming 101 acres
Pine – A fire that caused an evacuation of hundreds of homes in Jefferson County on Sunday was contained Monday afternoon after consuming 101 acres near Pine.
The fire started Sunday when a resident burned sticks and limbs on his property, in violation of the county’s fire ban. Officials are not releasing the property owner’s name.
Typically such a violation nets a $600 fine, but officials will investigate to assess the extent of the threat and damage before settling on charges, said Jacki Kelley, spokeswoman for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.
About 90 firefighters were monitoring the contained burn area late Monday afternoon to make sure it did not rekindle, she said.
DURANGO
Search for kayaker called off; man ID’d
The search has been called off for a kayaker missing since Saturday in a stretch of Vallecito Creek so treacherous its difficulty rating remains uncertain.
Adam Matthew Barron, 30, of Boulder was identified Monday as the man missing since his kayak overturned, La Plata County Emergency Manager Butch Knowlton said.
Knowlton said the search has been called off, adding Barron’s body might be found when water levels drop off after the spring thaw.
Several kayakers have not seen a sign of Barron down the one-mile stretch of whitewater above the Vallecito Campground on rapids rated at between a Class 2 and a Class 5, one of the most difficult type of rapids to navigate.
If confirmed dead, Barron would be the first to die in the creek, which recently gained notoriety among kayakers, Knowlton said.
Knowlton said he would post pictures on the county’s Emergency Management website to help kayakers understand the creek’s dangers.
FEDERAL HEIGHTS
Police probing death of girl, 1, in bathtub
Federal Heights police are investigating the death of a 1-year-old who died after being left in a bathtub that had been filling with water for 30 minutes before she was discovered on Saturday.
The girl had been taken to St. Anthony North Hospital by her parents after they found her unconscious and not breathing. She was then flown to The Children’s Hospital. Police said the girl was discovered by a sibling who saw the tub overflowing. She died Monday.
When concluded, the case will be presented to the Adams County District Attorney’s Office, and it is likely charges will be filed, police said. They have not released the names of the parents.
GRAND JUNCTION
I-70 driver dies after swerving for cows
A 22-year-old Grand Junction man was killed Sunday night when he swerved to miss a cow and calf on Interstate 70 near Grand Junction, according to the State Patrol.
Nicholas Reynolds was thrown from the 1996 Monte Carlo as it rolled twice, 265 feet from the westbound lane, around 11 p.m. He died a short time later at St. Mary’s Hospital in Grand Junction.
Reynolds was not wearing a seat belt, according to the Colorado State Patrol. A passenger who was wearing a seat belt suffered minor injuries.
TUCSON
Study looks anew at Colo. basin droughts
A new study using tree-ring data to reconstruct Colorado River flows over the past 500 years has found several periods of more severe and longer-lasting drought than the region has experienced in the past century.
The findings in the University of Arizona study provide further indication that information used for a 1922 Colorado River Compact overestimated the river’s average water flow based on one of the wettest periods in the past 500 years.
The 1922 compact between Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Wyoming and Utah determined how much of the Colorado River water each state would get, dividing it between upper- and lower-basin states.
“For a long time, many of the states in the basin have assumed that just the historical gauge record is adequate for modeling purposes,” said Brad Udall, managing director of the Western Water Assessment, which partially funded the study. “It’s not adequate.
Updating the university’s 1976 study of tree rings in the Colorado basin, the new work reconstructed river flows back four centuries before the gauge record and found eight periods of drought of equal or greater severity to the most recent drought, roughly from 1999 to 2004.
The study, a collaboration of the University of Arizona’s Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Colorado, is published in this month’s issue of Water Resources Research.
LAMAR
New wheat varieties will star at field days
Scientists from Colorado State University and other experts will meet with wheat farmers to promote new crop varieties.
The Colorado Wheat Field Days are scheduled June 12-16 at 13 sites in Eastern Colorado.
The Colorado Wheat Administrative Committee, Colorado Association of Wheat Growers, Colorado Wheat Research Foundation and CSU will host the events.
