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...
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Drug dealers who sell lethal fentanyl doses rarely prosecuted under new Colorado law
Law enforcement officials say they are overloaded by the sheer number of fentanyl deaths and prosecutors note the cases are complex and often require many resources to prove who sold...

Weak tornado touches down in Weld County, warning issued for area
A "brief landspout/weak tornado" developed in the area but dissipated. Another tornado may develop, the weather service warned.

Tornado touches down briefly northeast of Denver metro area
A small tornado briefly touched down northeast of the Denver metro area Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service.

Four bystanders shot by Denver police officer in LoDo file civil rights lawsuit over “life-altering injuries”
The Denver police officer who fired into a crowd of Lower Downtown bar patrons while confronting an armed man last summer is facing a new civil rights lawsuit filed by...

Ex-Aurora police officer found guilty of failing to stop partner’s excessive force under new state law
Francine Martinez was convicted of failure to intervene — the first law enforcement officer to be convicted by a jury of the charge created under the landmark police accountability bill...

Ex-Aurora officer on trial under Colorado’s new failure-to-intervene law for not stopping pistol-whipping of arrestee
Trial is likely first under failure-to-intervene law created as part of landmark 2020 police reform bill

Metal-filled beanbag round fired by Aurora police officer lodged in man’s torso, lawsuit states
Shawn Meredith, 51, on Thursday sued the department and three of its officers in federal court, alleging they used excessive force during a 2021 arrest for an alleged assault and...

Denver to pay $350,000 for violent police arrest during protest of homeless sweep
One officer punched Michael Jacobs in the head multiple times, while another used a baton to ram Jacobs in the genitals as other officers held him down, the lawsuit alleged.

Will a gun that uses facial recognition reduce firearm deaths? A Colorado entrepreneur thinks so.
Kai Kloepfer's goal is to reduce accidental deaths and suicides and to keep children from accessing their parents' weapons.

Evidence shows Colorado deputy “intentionally and maliciously” killed Christian Glass, judge finds
Both Andrew Buen and Kyle Gould argued to Fifth Judicial District Judge Catherine Cheroutes that there was insufficient evidence to support the charges against them.