抖阴ap

Colorado wildfires: Uncontained fires scorch nearly 85,000 acres, ‘critical fire weather’ forecast

Environment reporter

Elise Schmelzer

Elise Schmelzer is the environment reporter at The Denver Post and covers water, climate change, public lands and wildlife. She previously covered public聽safety for the Post. Before moving to Denver, she wrote for the Casper Star-Tribune in Wyoming, the Washington Post and the Colorado Springs Gazette. She studied journalism and Spanish literature at the University of Missouri. When she's not writing, she disappears into the mountains to hike and fish.

Featured Stories

A wolf track is seen in the snow at Don and Kim Gittleston鈥檚 ranch

The wolves are coming to Colorado, and the state has stockpiled explosives and deterrents. How are ranchers preparing?

December 6, 2023 at 9:46 a.m.

Colorado's ranching community, bracing for the reintroduction of wolves to the state as soon as this month, is weighing methods to protect livelihoods from the carnivore while facing new stresses.

Low water levels are seen at Government Point in Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Nevada on April 12, 2023. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)

How should we manage the drying Colorado River? Here’s what’s at stake in negotiations for its long-term future

October 29, 2023 at 6:00 a.m.

An announcement last week of a short-term Colorado River management plan gives those working on the next batch of long-term plans for the river a breather, experts said. Now, those...

Jeri Fry, cofounder of Colorado Citizens Against Toxic Waste, or CCAT, right, shows the site of the Soil Conservation Service Dam on the Cotter Uranium Mill Superfund site to resident Ricardo Simmons, left, on October 17, 2023, in Ca帽on City, Colorado. Fry鈥檚 father, Lynn Boughton, was a whistleblower at the Cotter uranium processing mill. The Cotter Uranium Mill Superfund site near Ca帽on City has an estimated 5.8 million tons of radioactive waste buried within 2 miles of homes. (Photo by Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post)

Nearly 40 years later, one of Colorado’s longest-running Superfund sites still has no radioactive waste cleanup plan

October 22, 2023 at 6:03 a.m.

Nearly 40 years after federal regulators designated a former uranium mill near Ca帽on City as a Superfund site and mandated its cleanup, there is still no plan for how to...

Sand, dirt and tumbleweeds wrapped around fences have taken over what used to be irrigation ditches with water flowing through them to irrigate fields in Crowley, Colorado, on March 25, 2025. Farmers in nearby counties worry the same could happen to them if cities like Colorado Springs divert more water from the Arkansas River by buying or leasing water rights. (Photo by Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post)

Colorado Springs voters will decide on annexation of 6,500-home development that has stoked farmers’ water worries

April 8, 2025 at 2:52 p.m.

Colorado Springs City Council voted 6-3 to send the question regarding the annexation of the Karman Line development to a special municipal election on June 17.

A Denver Water truck drives by Gross Dam in Boulder County on Dec. 2, 2020, before an expansion project began. (Matthew Jonas/Daily Camera)

Judge allows Denver Water two more weeks of Gross Dam construction before court-ordered halt

April 7, 2025 at 2:54 p.m.

The state's largest water utility will have two weeks to complete any necessary work on its $531 million dam expansion project before a court-ordered construction halt takes effect, a federal...

Juan Quintana uses a tractor to level the soil in a corn field on the farm of Alan and Peggy Frantz in Rocky Ford on March 25, 2025. (Photo by Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post)

Who will give up their water? Colorado farmers fear a growing city’s need for more to feed development.

April 6, 2025 at 6:00 a.m.

The battle over an annexation to Colorado Springs, while it already needs more water to meet projected growth, is a recent example of tension between Colorado's continuing urban growth and...

In this June 13, 2022, photo, construction continues on the Gross Reservoir expansion as paddleboarders walk past in Boulder County, Colorado. (Matthew Jonas / Daily Camera)

Judge orders Denver Water to halt expansion of Gross Reservoir over flawed environmental permitting

April 4, 2025 at 5:49 p.m.

The judge found the reservoir expansion would cause irreparable environmental damage that cannot be compensated for by monetary payments.

A map released by Colorado Parks and Wildlife on March 26, 2025, identifies watersheds where collared wolves traveled in the state between Feb. 25 and March 25. (Courtesy of Colorado Parks and Wildlife)

Map: Where Colorado’s wolves traveled in March as they expand territory. Will pups come soon?

March 26, 2025 at 4:32 p.m.

Wildlife officials wait and watch for signs new pups might be born this spring.

Bison gather in a field in the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge in Denver on Dec. 12, 2023. (Photo by Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post)

Should it be illegal to shoot wild bison that wander into Colorado? Lawmakers will decide.

March 25, 2025 at 6:00 a.m.

Colorado Senate Bill 53 would classify wild bison as big game wildlife.

A gray wolf stands outside its crate for a brief moment at a release site on Jan. 14, 2025, before reentering the wild in an undisclosed location in the Colorado mountains. (Provided by Colorado Parks and Wildlife)

Federal agency kills collared Colorado wolf suspected of killing sheep in Wyoming

March 20, 2025 at 2:24 p.m.

Five sheep had been killed and investigators found evidence of wolf presence, including wolf tracks and bite marks on carcasses consistent with wolves.

A "bathtub ring" seen above the waterline around Lake Powell was created during drought that reduced the flow of the Colorado River on April 15, 2023 in Lake Powell, Utah. The flight for aerial photography was provided by LightHawk. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)

Despite near-normal snowpack, key Colorado River reservoir is expected to see lower spring flows

March 20, 2025 at 6:00 a.m.

Snowpack across the entire Upper Colorado River Basin sits at 95% of median as the winter draws to a close.

Hundreds of wild horses roam Colorado. Can more state involvement head off helicopter roundups?

March 19, 2025 at 5:15 p.m.

Colorado could take a more proactive and permanent role in managing the wild horse herds that roam the Western Slope under a bill in the state legislature.

Clouds hover over the Ute Mountains behind land owned by the Bureau of Land Management near Cortez, Colorado, on October 1, 2021. A larger view of the Ute Mountains resembles a woman laying down. Over 8.3 million acres of public land in Colorado is managed by the BLM. (Photo by Rebecca Slezak/The Denver Post)

New western Colorado congressman proposes reopening of thousands of acres of federal land to drilling

March 12, 2025 at 6:00 a.m.

The Western Slope's newest congressman, Jeff Hurd, has proposed reopening thousands of acres of federal public land across Colorado to energy development and reducing protections for wildlife habitat.