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 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

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

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

Nearly 40 years later, one of Colorado’s longest-running Superfund sites still has no radioactive waste cleanup plan
Nearly 40 years after federal regulators designated a former uranium mill near Cañon City as a Superfund site and mandated its cleanup, there is still no plan for how to...
All Stories

Driver struck and killed child in “terrible, terrible accident” in Commerce City parking lot, police say
The fatality occurred in the 7700 block of Highway 2, according to a news release issued by the Commerce City Police Department on Friday morning.

Aurora sent police to Denver during 2020 protests. Which city should pay for officers’ alleged misconduct?
Aurora is asking a judge to force Denver to pay the full cost of lawsuits that include the city and the police officers it lent to its larger neighbor during...

Hundreds of migrants are arriving in Denver, again stretching city resources. What’s the long-term plan?
The city has helped 9,320 migrants since December, according to available data, with hundreds arriving daily last week, as they had last winter before the numbers leveled off earlier this...

19-year-old died in Colorado jail cell from fatal medication cocktail prescribed by medical staff, lawsuit says
Oscar Canas died on April 18, 2021, in the Garfield County jail while serving a one-year sentence for misdemeanor drug possession. He was given a "fatal drug cocktail" prescribed to...

Children ages 10 to 12 can still be arrested in Colorado after lawmakers gut bill to raise minimum age of prosecution
The first version of the bipartisan bill, HB23-1249, would have banned the arrest and prosecution of kids ages 10 through 12 for any crimes other than homicide and instead proposed...

Was Letecia Stauch psychotic or strategic? Jury begins deliberations in killing of 11-year-old Gannon Stauch
An El Paso County jury is deciding whether a woman who killed her 11-year-old stepson was sane when she stabbed and shot the child or suffered a mental break so...

Boulder City Council removes oversight panelist who criticized police
A community leader who publicly criticized policing and previously sued the city will lose her place on Boulder's Police Oversight Panel, City Council voted Thursday.

Who should police the police? Boulder considers ousting oversight panel member over allegations of bias
The City Council will weigh whether having opinions on police reform counts as bias and should disqualify someone from participating on a panel tasked with improving the Boulder Police Department.

Colorado sheriff’s deputy with criminal history sued for firing Taser at unarmed man’s face
A Colorado sheriff's lieutenant with multiple criminal convictions slammed an unarmed man to the ground and fired a Taser at his face for watching a traffic stop.

Mesa County, health contractor to pay $2 million after 27-year-old dies of epileptic seizures in jail
Tomas Beauford died April 16, 2014, in a Mesa County jail cell after a series of seizures, which deputies and nurses from the health care company ignored, his family’s lawsuit,...