Few things are better for “catch-up” when you’ve been gone four weeks than the newspaper. I found a bounty of events:
• US OpenAir, which planned to screen movies in City Park, has been unable to find sponsors, and is canceling its premier 2011 schedule. This was the company that wanted to fence off part of some of our city parks to make money off them, in direct contradiction of the city charter.
The Hickenlooper administration has strived for several years to instigate this new policy, ignoring considerable public opposition. Hopefully a new mayor will respect the remarkable legacy of our city parks, and keep all the parks free for citizens, which has been the policy for 150 years.
That won’t save poor old Civic Center, the workhorse of city park events, which is scheduled to host a snowboarding and skiing event for paying customers in January. We’ll see what shape it is in after that.
• Colorado State Parks officials are considering selling oil and gas mineral leases within certain of the 42 parks, to make up for the drastic reduction in state funding even as visitation rises, with 12 million visitors in 2009. From $5.7 million that year, general fund contributions slid to $2.6 million this year, with an additional $4.5 million from the state Severance Tax Trust Fund in fiscal year 2008-09 and $7.7 million expected in 2011-12. There already is limited drilling in Barr Lake State Park.
Colorado is blessed with many public parks, both state and national, and their incomparable beauty and serenity are an irresistable draw for visitors and locals alike. But that appeal — and income — can be shattered by thoughtless decisions that mar the peace and beauty.
You don’t hear tourists yearning to visit oil fields. And there can be damaging environmental consequences from drilling. The state budget is in dire straits, but that should not tempt state agencies to make decisions that would irrevocably damage properties for which they are stewards.
• Xcel Energy and Tri-State are planning a $180 million, 140-mile electric power line from Pueblo to Alamosa. The companies want the power line, delivering energy from solar power projects in the San Luis Valley to the Front Range, to go over LaVeta Pass to Walsenburg, across a beautiful untouched valley filled with ranches, wide open spaces and pristine vistas.
Opponents say the lines could go over Poncha Pass, where both companies already have power lines, and leave this gorgeous valley untouched. Opposition includes ranchers and other residents, and those who love the unmarred beauty of the Colorado mountain valley landscape.
One of the most determined is owner of the Trinchera Ranch, billionaire hedge fund manager Louis Bacon. The proposed power line would march right across his ranch. But the rest of us should be concerned, too.
We must be on guard that the same attributes that make Colorado so very special — our wondrous natural landscapes, wide open spaces, working ranches and farms, all irreplaceable and unmatched — aren’t given away or sold off in the guise of economics.
“Ecology is the single best investment we can make in Colorado,” said John Fielder, the celebrated photographer who has memorialized thousands of the state’s gorgeous lands. “The mountain vistas, ranch lands, parks, blue skies and clean air are what bring the tourists, new businesses, new residents . . . . They are why people choose to locate in Colorado. And they could disappear so quickly. Our smartest decisions are to protect and maintain a sustainable future in this state.”
• And lastly, Robert Knowlton of Grand Junction was indicted for stealing and selling American Indian artifacts from U.S. Bureau of Land Management property. His punishment: 18 months of probation. That’s not even a slap on the wrist for stealing part of our national heritage. No wonder countless thieves think no one cares and take whatever they wish. When they do so, we lose irreplacable records of our past.
Joanne Ditmer has been writing on environmental and urban issues for The Post since 1962.
