Trees, not knowing the calendar date, began to bud in early March. In Denver and across much of Colorado, temperatures remained unseasonably warm for months. And precipitation? Hard to come by.

By early March, , and one-tenth of the state suffered extreme or exceptional drought, including Denver and its surrounding areas. The conditions did not bode well for gardens this year.

For home gardeners, protecting trees, shrubs, flowers and produce means paying careful attention to watering routines and shielding as much water as possible from evaporation, experts said.

“It has been such a warm and dry winter — things seem to be way ahead of schedule,” said Chris Hilgert, the director of and a horticulture specialist at Colorado State University Extension.

Here are some tips from experts for gardeners looking to help their greenery survive drought.

Smart watering

If you didn’t water your trees this winter, it’s better to start late than never.

In a dry winter, trees need deep watering to stay healthy, said Jennifer Miller, the assistant manager of horticulture at the . Evergreen trees especially need the extra moisture because they keep their needles all winter and lose water to evaporation through their leaves.

“Trees are the biggest plants out there, and we don’t want them going into the growing season stressed,” Miller said.

Trees benefit from deep watering. Established trees should be watered around the perimeter of their canopy, as that’s where their roots reach. Once or twice a month, a tree needs approximately 10 gallons of water per inch of trunk diameter.

Younger trees — a year old or younger — should be watered near their trunk, as their roots have not yet grown out as far. They need about a gallon of water, Miller said.

Miller uses 5-gallon buckets with holes drilled in the bottom to water her trees. She measures out the water and then places the buckets around the trees’ canopy lines, letting it drip down.

Be careful to water only when temperatures are above 40 degrees and the ground isn’t frozen, she said. Water can’t pass through frozen soil and won’t reach the roots.

Preventing evaporation

Once planting season comes around, gardeners’ primary challenge becomes minimizing evaporation.

The closer to the roots you apply water, the better, Hilgert said. Using a drip line reduces the amount of water lost to wind and evaporation.

Miller’s top tip is mulch — and then more mulch.

“I can’t stress mulch enough; it’s going to be your best investment,” she said.

Mulching around plants, trees and shrubs helps soil retain moisture, reducing the need to water.

Another simple solution? Weeding. Removing weeds from your garden leaves more water for the plants you are trying to grow, Miller said.

A garden’s water needs will depend on the specific plants, but Miller recommends watering one to three days a week for 30 minutes to an hour. Poking a finger into the soil is a good test to determine if more water is needed. If the soil is dry a few inches down, it’s time to water.

Grouping together plants that have similar water requirements can help reduce water waste.

It’s also important to water during the cooler hours of the day to minimize evaporation. Miller recommends watering between 5 a.m. and 9 a.m. or, if that’s not possible, in the late afternoon or early evening.

Watering in the evening, however, can increase the risk of fungus, as the moisture sits on the plants’ leaves and stems longer, she said.

While planning your spring planting, don’t forget the birds and the bees, Miller said.

She suggested installing a water fountain or a bird bath to attract the important species to your yard. Leaving a few pieces of floating wood in the water can give bees a place to land while they take a drink, she said.

Smart plant choices

Gardeners can also prepare for drought in the long term by shifting toward , Miller said. Plants adapted to semi-arid climates, where temperatures can fluctuate widely, will do well with minimal human intervention.

Many Colorado seed companies sell varieties of flowers, vegetables and fruits that are adapted for Colorado’s climate, she said.

Hilgert also suggested swapping out thirsty nonnative lawn turf for more resilient native grasses, like or

While gardeners may be tempted to start planting early, Hilgert warned that cold snaps and snow are still possible through the end of April.

“Winter may still show up temporarily,” he said.

As a yearslong stalemate in negotiations persists between the seven states that share the river, it’s become increasingly likely that the federal government will impose its own long-term plan, choosing from a range of proposals officials have outlined in recent months.

But experts and water managers across the 250,000-square-mile Colorado River basin are raising the alarm about the five plans, questioning if any of them hold up under the new climate reality. They say the federal plans won’t keep the system from crashing in critically dry years — which are becoming more frequent — and could wreak chaos on the pivotal lifeline for 40 million people in the American Southwest.

“In every one of those alternatives, under what they call critically dry hydrology, the system is failing,” said Andy Mueller, the general manager of , a taxpayer-funded agency based in Glenwood Springs that works to protect Western Slope water. “And critically dry hydrology is what we have continued to see consistently in the basin in the last 25 years and what we should expect going forward.ā€

Climate change and persistent drought have already sapped hundreds of billions of gallons of water from the river’s annual flow. Officials from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Friday to add more water to Lake Powell — one of the system’s two major reservoirs downstream of the river’s headwaters in the Colorado mountains — after updated projections showed that spring flows into the already-low reservoir could be less than a third of average.

Federal water managers over the next year will release hundreds of millions of gallons of water from Flaming Gorge Reservoir in Wyoming and Utah to keep Lake Powell above “minimum power pool” — the reservoir elevation needed to send water through hydropower turbines. Without access to the turbines, water released from the dam must flow through much smaller bypass tubes that are , choking flow from one of the West’s largest water banks.

Emergency decisions like those taken Friday illustrate some of the risks of failing to prepare for intense drought, experts say.

In extremely dry years, the longer-term plans under consideration by Reclamation would allow the water levels of the system’s two main reservoirs to repeatedly fall below minimum power pool. Federal officials then would be forced to make recurring emergency cuts to the water supplies of the three states downstream of the reservoirs, creating uncertainty for millions of people and a massive agricultural industry.

For more than two years, negotiators from the seven states that rely on the river have tried and failed to agree on that runs from Colorado’s high country to Mexico. The technical nitty-gritty of the disputes is wonky, but the key issue underlying the schism between the states is simple: Who should be forced to use less water — and how much less — as the Colorado River’s flows shrink?

Reclamation officials on Friday said they are preparing to implement their own plan this summer if the states can’t agree on answers to those questions. In January, federal officials released five potential operational guidelines — called “alternatives” in federal jargon — and asked for input.

They , including critiques from across the basin asserting that none of their plans would function well in dry years. That criticism also applied to the only plan the Bureau of Reclamation can implement without consensus from the basin states or without gaining new legal powers.

Letters from a number of Colorado entities — including the , , the Western Slope’s and county commissions from a vast swath of the state — urged federal officials to present at least one plan that would hold up in extremely dry years.

“Sound science dictates that Colorado River management must evolve to handle a permanently drier future,” Tina Bergonzini, the general manager of the Grand Valley Water Users Association, . “The current federal preference for predictability is an atmospheric impossibility given that studies indicate rising temperatures have already slashed river flows by a fifth.”

Bureau of Reclamation officials declined an interview request for this story. But they have publicly acknowledged the risk.

“In critically dry periods, all of the alternatives have unacceptable performance,” bureau engineer Rebecca Smith said during . Even imposing large cuts to water usage in those years would not keep the major reservoirs at functional levels, she said.

The conflict on the Colorado is likely one of the world’s first major water policy overhauls to grapple with the reality of climate change, said , a senior water and climate research scholar at Colorado State University’s .

In the past, Colorado River managers made operational tweaks and short-term deals to address drought. This time, it’s different.

“We’re not looking at an incremental step here,” Udall said. “We’re looking at a complete redo of how we operate this resource that affects 40 million people.”

‘Downright scary what¶¶Ņõap going on’

The West first wrestled with divvying up the powerful Colorado River in 1922, when delegates from each of the seven states met in Santa Fe and signed .

At its most basic, the compact divides up the 18 million acre-feet of water then estimated to be in the river — including 7.5 million acre-feet reserved for the Upper Basin states of Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico, and 7.5 million acre-feet for the Lower Basin states of California, Arizona and Nevada. An acre-foot of water is the volume of water it takes to cover an acre of land in a foot of water — about 326,000 gallons — and is generally considered the annual water consumption of two families.

The 18 million acre-feet was likely an overestimation of how much water there was even a century ago, but today’s river provides even less than the total amounts promised to states in 1922.

“Since 2000, the flows have been radically different,” Udall said.

The 20-year average annual flow measured in 1925 was 17.6 million acre-feet, Bureau of Reclamation data show. In 2025, it was 12.7 million acre-feet.

But even that number hides the reality of recent dry years. The five-year average amounts to only 10.9 million acre-feet. Last year’s flow measured at 8.5 million acre-feet.

This year will be even lower due to record-low snowpack across much of the basin.

The conditions this year are not a one-off, Udall said, but symptoms of a larger warming trend fueled by human-caused global climate change. Hotter temperatures not only increase water loss through evaporation but also make plants and soils thirstier, reducing the amount of water that flows downstream. Evidence is also piling up indicating that climate change is reducing precipitation across the Colorado River’s headwaters, Udall said.

“I think this is quite nerve-racking — and perhaps just downright scary — what¶¶Ņõap going on,” he said.

The Bureau of Reclamation acknowledges the likelihood of a hotter, drier future in its draft environmental impact statement, though it shies away from using the term climate change.

“The basin is experiencing increased aridity due to climate variability, and long-term drought and low-runoff conditions are expected in the future,” the document’s executive summary states.

Expect more critically dry years

Future hydrology is the biggest and most impactful uncertainty federal officials must reckon with while crafting plans for the river, Smith said in the January webinar.

The bureau modeled hundreds of potential future conditions and then compared how each of its five proposed plans would perform under different levels of river flow over the next 20 years, broken into three categories:

• Average (12-14 million acre-feet average over 20 years)
• Dry (10-12 million acre-feet average over 20 years)
• Critically dry (less than 10 million acre-feet average over 20 years)

If average flows over the next two decades fall in the “average” category, the plans generally would be able to keep Lakes Powell and Mead — the two big downstream reservoirs — above critical levels and eliminate the need for emergency reductions in water supplies to keep them functional.

But that’s not how recent years have gone.

Since 2020, Colorado River flows have fallen into Reclamation’s “critically dry” category in four of six water years. The repeated dry years, coupled with downstream consumption that has not changed to match the reduction in inflow, have and Mead, which are now less than a third full.

ā€œCritically dry hydrology is what we have continued to see consistently in the basin and what we should expect going forward,” said Mueller, from the Colorado River District.

Between 2021 and 2025, the river’s flows averaged 11.2 million acre-feet — low enough to fall into Reclamation’s dry hydrology category. That average was boosted by the unusually wet 2023 year when the river delivered 17.4 million acre-feet of water, while most of the other years fell into the critically dry category.

As modeled by the bureau, if critically dry years continue, Powell and Mead will more often fall so low that their will become unusable, impacting power availability for more than 1 million people. Bureau officials would more often be forced to implement emergency water cuts to try to keep the reservoirs functional.

In , the Colorado River District urged officials to add an alternative plan that would function well in critically dry periods.

ā€œThe population of the state of Colorado and the entire Colorado River basin is best served by the Department of the Interior studying alternatives that actually bring the system into balance,” Mueller said, referring to the cabinet department above the bureau. “And recognizing that those management alternatives will have some extremely harsh realities — hydrologically and politically — up and down the basin. But that¶¶Ņõap what weā€™re best served by.ā€

Bureau of Reclamation’s most likely plan

Without a deal between the seven states or obtaining more legal authority from Congress or the states, federal officials will be forced to implement a plan dubbed “Basic Coordination.”

The plan mandates the least cuts for the Lower Basin states and is generally less flexible than the other proposals.

In dry periods under that plan, Lakes Powell and Mead could fall below minimum power pool 30% to 40% of the time, according to Bureau of Reclamation projections. In critically dry periods, that figure rises to more than 70%.

The federal agency estimates that Lake Powell will be vulnerable to falling below that level in the first five years under the Basic Coordination plan if the average annual flows in that period amount to less than 11.3 million acre-feet. The five-year average has fallen below that level in three of the last five years.

If the federal government enacts the Basic Coordination plan, the bureau will keep scrambling to make emergency decisions to ensure Powell and Mead are operable. Such decisions could involve cuts to Lower Basin water supplies or the sending of water from federally-managed reservoirs upstream — like Flaming Gorge or Colorado’s Blue Mesa — to keep enough water in Powell.

Federal officials could also seek water from other water sources the government owns or operates in Colorado, Mueller said, such as from irrigation projects on the Western Slope or , which delivers Colorado River water across the Continental Divide to northeastern Colorado.

ā€œLegal uncertainty and hydrologic uncertainty would erupt,” he said. “We, as good water managers throughout our state and the basin, should try to avoid that.ā€

Under the Basic Coordination plan, reactive chaos will erode what certainty remains on the changing river, said , the regional policy manager for , a climate advocacy organization.

ā€œWe will be right back where we are with emergency operations,” he said, like pulling water from upstream reservoirs to prop up Powell. “But you canā€™t do that every single year because there isnā€™t enough water in the Upper Basin reservoirs.ā€

Bureau of Reclamation officials plan to finalize new long-term guidelines by Aug. 15, in time for the Oct. 1 start to the new water year, which generally tracks with the start of snowfall.

ā€œYou donā€™t want to limp through with Basic Coordination, youā€™d want to put everything on the table you can,” Berggren said.

ā€œWeā€™re facing a crisis,” he continued. “We have tools available, we know what they are — we just need to implement them.”

Water scarcity, due to exceptionally low mountain snow and soil-drying heat, looms foremost.

ā€œIf we donā€™t get moisture, Iā€™m not going to plant,ā€ said chile grower Praxie Vigil, who runs along the Bessemer Ditch, a 43-mile irrigation canal that once nourished crops across 20,000 acres east of Pueblo. He was planning to decide this weekend.

ā€œIt¶¶Ņõap not looking good for any of us. Usually, I just plant and hope for the best. But this year, Iā€™m not going to. This is bad. I can barely water 20 acres,ā€ said Vigil, who works a side job as a pipe-welder to make ends meet.

The dry conditions, compounded by federal policies and turbulence far beyond the Rocky Mountain West, are forcing Colorado farmers to scale back production this year, change the crops they prioritize and question their long-term survival. Grocery shoppers likely will see less locally grown food in produce sections.

First, the Trump administration’s tariffs and war on Iran drove up prices for fertilizer, packaging and other materials. The Mideast conflict also broke supply chains — sprinkler heads and filters needed for those peaches, made in Israel, aren’t available.

Then, Trump’s bombing that began Feb. 28 led to fuel costs spiking to $5 per gallon of diesel.

Meanwhile, the federal government’s crackdown on immigration and state limits on how many hours seasonal foreign workers with H2A visas can work have intensified agricultural labor uncertainty.

ā€œI havenā€™t had anybody physically taken away. But thereā€™s definitely fear among the workers,ā€ Brian Crites said at , working his family’s 1890s homestead at Avondale, where heā€™ll leave 750 of his 1,000 acres unplanted due to high costs and lack of water. Even though workers from Mexico on his farm hold green cards, they see information online, Crites said. ā€œI try to keep the morale up. I tell them they’re pretty safe here.ā€

Other challenges include retailers mislabeling produce as Colorado-grown when it’s not, which degrades the state brand. Lawmakers and Gov. Jared Polis just prohibiting the deceptive trade practice of fake local labeling.

“Agriculture is a big powerhouse of our economy. It is our No. 1 export sector. We do everything we can to support ranchers and farmers in our state,” Polis said in an interview last week. “What the government cannot do is make it rain or snow.”

‘Hit from every direction’

As summer approaches, ā€œeverybodyā€™s looking at what their options are,ā€ said peach grower Bruce Talbott, operator of on Colorado’s Western Slope.

His orchards depend largely on the federally run Green Mountain Reservoir, which measured 36% full last week, with streams feeding the reservoir also running low because paltry mountain snowpack had already melted away.

ā€œWe want to haul down as little water as possible and stretch what we do have as far as we can. How that¶¶Ņõap going to play out is unknown. …We’ve never actually shut off the canals. Right now, we’re running them low,” Talbott said.

“If there’s no more capturable water, then weā€™ve got enough until Aug. 1.” he said. “That¶¶Ņõap enough that about half the peaches would get harvested. The last half would not. The peaches would be small. And it would be awfully hard on trees. Our chances of having healthy trees headed into next year would be very compromised. Weā€™d probably lose a lot of orchards.ā€

Hail this month damaged cherries, pears and apricots in the area, and crops that bloomed early in February due to warm winter temperatures need water longer and still are vulnerable to frost through May, director Jessica Burford said.

“We’re getting hit from every direction,” she said. “It’s going to be a very expensive year. Farmers are worried about our peaches being large enough to meet grocery store standards.”

Yet few were quitting.

ā€œWe are farmers. We are here to produce food. If we donā€™t do it, we won’t get paychecks. We would starve, our fields would go to crap, and weeds would take over. So we might as well give it a shot,ā€ said Dalton Milberger, owner of , east of Pueblo. “Chile is our lifeline.”

As Milberger was preparing to plant chile seeds last week, his machine broke down.

A statewide crisis

Farmers statewide are wrestling with similar difficult decisions on whether to plant crops, Commissioner Kate Greenberg said.

The unprecedented warm weather has led to “an incredible lack of soil moisture,” and that, combined with the other ā€œconflating factors,ā€ means that — unless summer brings regular monsoon rain — some farms may die, Greenberg said.

“It’s hard to pinpoint if and when we lose farmers and what exactly the tipping point is,” she said. ā€œFolks are now pivoting from their plans. Maybe it means cutting back on acres, maybe not growing so much. Maybe the conversation is that this is the year when we turn in our gloves and call it good. Weā€™ve got a lot of those conversations going on right now. The combined pressures on farming and ranching families are not alleviating. It’s possible they could force out family agriculture.ā€

Taking a year off generally isnā€™t an option, ā€œbecause there are payments to be made,ā€ said Mike Bartolo, who helped develop resilient green chile seeds over 32 years of work as a research scientist for the and serves on the board of the .

Bartolo was born and raised in the Arkansas River Valley, where water rights sell-offs to Front Range cities in the 1970s decimated farm fields and towns. Aurora and Colorado Springs officials, seeing the Colorado River Basin’s water shrinking, again are pressing for control over stressed farmers’ water rights, Bartolo said.

Planting crops now — “one of the most troubling times in agriculture I’ve witnessed in my lifetime” — means taking “a tremendous amount of risk, on top of existing risks,” he said.

ā€œUnless thereā€™s some miraculous turnaround, we face an era of uncertainty. We donā€™t know what to do. Youā€™re kind of backed into a corner. What do you do? This is your livelihood. How do you sustain yourself? In Colorado’s rural communities, we are looking at survival.ā€

‘Hoping to get through this year’

State leaders say they’re committed to supporting farming and rural communities. But climate change impacts “will get worse,” Polis said, anticipating “a world of scarcity of water” where “in addition to the reduced supply, there’s also increased demand” due to population growth.

Federal immigration and foreign policies aren’t helping, he said. “If you start a war with Iran, you know that prices are going to go up a lot.”

Climate warming sets off cascading changes, such as increased pests, for which a state in Palisade breeds insect natural enemies that can be deployed to manage those pests.

But worms, mites and beetles still gnaw at the crops in Olathe, where farming has become “crisis management,” said owner David Harold, who decided last week he’ll be “cutting way back” on sweet corn.

Instead of planting corn on 1,600 acres, he’ll plant on just 100 to 300 acres. That will make it harder to find the Olathe sweet corn in supermarkets, and Harold said he’ll shift to direct sales to people who pre-order online.

Tuxedo is also “losing some workers to other areas” where migrants can work more hours, despite giving them “all the extra hours and overtime I can afford,” he said.

“We are very off balance. Fertilizer prices. Diesel prices. Transportation. I cannot get equipment in and out of here like I need to. The whole thing has been coming apart. We don’t have a clear path right now,” Harold said.

“I’m not going to put the money into these crops and then hope the bugs don’t get me, hope there’s enough water, hope there’s enough truck drivers, hope the consumer can afford it. It’s been a rollercoaster. What are we going to do? Can we take the risk? We’re struggling. Big changes are here right now. I am hoping to get through this year.”

Crop-switching and reduced planting

Along the Arkansas River east of Pueblo, farmers last week were meeting with irrigators and leaning toward a strategy of prioritizing high-value crops, such as the green chiles, while reducing corn and alfalfa.

But “it’s touch and go,ā€ said fifth-generation farmer Rocky Musso, operator of , eight miles east of Pueblo. Musso had his fields plowed and was headed to meet with a neighbor “before we make a decision” to find out who might be able to spare unused shares of water.

ā€œWe donā€™t want to plant too conservatively. We will cut down to about 60% to 75% of our chile planting,ā€ he said. ā€œWe were always taught to farm every season. You get discouraged. But it does us no good to get discouraged.ā€

At , established in 1890, water levels in the Bessemer Ditch were roughly 70 cubic feet per second. That’s less than half the typical spring flows during planting season, due to the low snowpack in the mountains west of Leadville above the headwaters of the Arkansas River.

The family operators produce a variety of foods, including pinto beans, onions, squash, tomatoes and pumpkins — in addition to Pueblo green chiles.

While they’re facing “the worst year in recorded history,” they made some smart moves, such as anticipating the impact of tariffs and stocking up early on fertilizers before prices went up, Jayme DiSanti said.

ā€œWe’re still going to plant. Weā€™re going to cut back on other things and focus on vegetables,” DiSanti said. “We are not going to cut back on green chiles. That’s our thing. We’re going to be short on water. But chiles like it hot and dry. So people can probably expect hotter chile.”

A March heat wave shattered several records for high temperatures across Colorado. the source of at least 70% of the state’s stream flows and water in reservoirs, is the worst on record. Cities along the Front Range have enacted water restrictions.

At a time when snow in the mountains usually has barely begun to melt, several ski resorts have closed. And ranchers are looking for hay in case the rangeland and pastures can’t provide enough food for their cattle this summer.

Problems for Colorado’s cattle industry will ripple through the state’s economy. The state’s cattle herd was the nation’s 10th largest in 2025, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.Ā Beef is the state’s top agricultural export, totaling $1.26 billion in value in 2025, the Colorado Department of Agriculture said.

Beef, fresh and frozen, is Colorado’s No. 1 export overall.

“The producers that are in the business now are here for a reason. It’s because they continue to be optimistic. They just keep saying, ‘You know, it has to rain one day,’ ” said Erin Karney Spaur, executive vice president of the

But ranchers are also keeping their eyes on the sky and the forecasts. Karney Spaur said most ranchers have drought plans, which include stockpiling hay and moving cattle around to give the grass time to grow. Worst case scenario, ranchers might end up selling part of their herd.

In past dry spells, people have trucked their cattle to other parts of Colorado or other states in search of greener pastures. The problem this time is the broad sweep of the drought will make those places harder to find.

“What I haven’t seen in my lifetime is the widespread drought all throughout Colorado and the West, for that matter,” Karney Spaur said.

In most areas, cattle producers with federal grazing permits on U.S. Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management land have received letters saying to expect reductions in use of the sites unless conditions change, Karney Spaur said.

“Most BLM-managed public lands in Colorado are in severe to exceptional drought,” Colorado BLM spokesman Steven Hall said in an email.

The BLM staff regularly communicates with permittees and with industry associations, Hall said. “Typically the BLM and permittee agree on changes to grazing use during drought.”

Conditions in the Rio Grande National Forest in southwest Colorado range from moderate to exceptional drought, according to the . Ranchers have been advised that if dry conditions continue, the grazing season might have to be shortened or the number of cattle on a site reduced for part of the summer in some areas, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in an email.

Decisions will be made case by case and the Forest Service will work with ranchers to explore options, the USDA said.

Much of the federally managed land used for grazing is in western Colorado. On the Eastern Plains, several ranchers have grazing permits on state-owned lands.

Curtis Russell, Colorado Cattlemen’s Association president, ranches in Sugar City in southeast Colorado and is a member of a grazing association that leases state lands. While the area had a good grass-growing season last summer, Russell doesn’t expect producers to move their animals onto the state lands this season until it rains.

The State Land Board closely monitors drought conditions and manages grazing on a case-by-case basis in coordination with lessees, spokeswoman Emily Barbo said in email. The staff is in close communication with ranchers across the state, she said.

“Things are really trying to green up, but it’s just hard,” Russell said. “We had 90-degree days in March. It was pretty hard to keep moisture in the ground with the wind blowing and 90 degrees.”

Ranchers on the Western Slope were battling through a dry summer in 2025 when wildfires erupted and raced through the parched vegetation. The fires scorched some ranchers’ pastures and federal grazing allotments.

Off the charts

Retta Bruegger, a regional range management specialist with Colorado State University Extension, calls snowpack “money in the bank” for ranchers who depend on grasses and plants to feed their cattle. But with Colorado’s snowpack at its lowest-ever levels, the bank is close to tapped-out.

“To be perfectly frank, this year is off the charts in terms of what it looks like and how it’s setting up so far,” Bruegger said. “I think people will be making a lot of hard decisions.”

On a recent trip just over the Colorado border into Utah, Bruegger said the forage looked better than she expected. The outlook could change if the weather does.

“In the world of all possibilities, it could start snowing tomorrow and snow until June 1. I don’t necessarily think that’s going to happen, but that would change some things if it does,” Bruegger said.

Janie VanWinkle and her family ranch in Mesa County. They graze their cattle on land they own and on leases with the federal government, the city of Grand Junction and Colorado Mesa University. The bulk of their grazing in the summer is on Forest Service land and they’re not sure whether use of the allotment will be restricted because of the drought.

“We’ll be having a meeting with our Forest Service range specialist in the next month or so. We’re kind of waiting to see what the weather is going to do,” VanWinkle said.

She finds the uncertainty unnerving after theĀ  forced the family off their usual allotment to another area. VanWinkle and her husband, Howard, spent 122 days on horseback, moving their animals from water to food and at times through flames. The firefighters worked closely with the family to keep them and the cattle safe.

“The good news is we didn’t lose a single cow in the fire,” said VanWinkle, whose son works with her and husband.

As the family heads into what could be another dry summer, wildfires are a concern. “We’ve never talked about this, but I know this is the fear that’s been in my son’s heart. It’s the fear that’s in mine and my husband’s: What if there’s another one?” VanWinkle asks.

The statewide snowpack was at 21% of median Wednesday, the reported. This year’s level is the worst since measurements were recorded starting in the late 1930s and early 1940s.

In addition, the snow water equivalent, the amount of liquid water stored in the snow, was 3.3 inches, just 22% of the 30-year median, as of April 1, said Russ Schumacher, state climatologist and director of CSUā€™s Colorado Climate Center. The previous low was 9.1 inches in 1987.

“That’s the metric we pay attention to for water because that’s the water that’s going to flow into the rivers” and increase soil moisture, Schumacher said.

A year when the water content is 70% to 80% of average in early April would be considered a bad year, he added. “This year, we’re looking at 20% of the average, which is so far beyond that.”

Colorado has been hot as well as dry.

“That heat wave in March was just astonishing in terms of how unusually warm everything was across the state,” Schumacher said.

It was Colorado’s warmest March on record, according to the . Averaged across the state, the month was 13.1 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the 20th century average and 4.3 degrees above any previous March.

Relief might come this summer in the form of El NiƱo, the weather phenomenon that warms the ocean surface in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean.

“Globally, it tends to raise temperatures. Here in Colorado, that tends not to be the case. We tend to be wetter and somewhat cooler, later in the summer and fall,” Schumacher said.

The said April 9 that the chance of an El NiƱo was 61% and a one-in-four chance that it might be strong.

David Gottenborg, whose family owns Eagle Rock Ranch in South Park, is hoping for a change. Park County typically doesn’t get a lot of moisture in winter, but this winter was even drier than usual. And warmer.

“We sit on Tarryall Creek and we’re running about 15, 14 cubic feet per second versus normally about 30 or so. So we’re about half,” Gottenborg said.

The Gottenborgs, who raise cattle and hay, irrigated a little in the last couple of weeks.

“Irrigation season typically starts April 1. In most years, it’s almost kind of a moot point because our head gates are frozen,” Gottenborg said.

Not this year.Ā And there’s no ice now in Tarryall, a tributary of the South Platte River.

Besides cattle, hay is one of the Gottenborgs’ main income sources. They partnered with Colorado Parks and Wildlife to donate 48 tons of hay in December to Western Slope ranchers whose land was burned by the Lee wildfire last summer.

But their hay crop was down last year and they’ve halted sales for now.

“The old-timers here in the valley, they would always keep at least half of what they would need the following year in their stack yards. We’re trying to do that,” Gottenborg said.

The ranch gets calls almost every day from people looking to buy hay. Gottenborg said a woman told him that she had contacted more than 30 people. “We had to tell her ‘no’ as well.”

Karney Spaur of Colorado Cattlemen said she’s heard of hay selling for $300 to $350 a ton. This time of year, she said $150 to $175 a ton is more the norm.

One bright spot for ranchers is that in large part because of low cattle numbers nationwide.

“If you have to sell cows, it’s a good time to sell cows because they’re worth a lot of money,” said Russell, the rancher from Sugar City. “On the other hand, if El Nino comes in like they’re talking about this summer and we get a lot of rain and people have already sold cows and need to buy cows back, it’ll cost a lot of money.”

Drought conditions are forecast to develop and worsen across the western half of the country through June, including in Colorado, according to a . But relief could be on the horizon, with above-average precipitation expected in Colorado from July to October, the stateā€™s monsoon season, .

ā€œWeā€™re in bad drought conditions pretty much everywhere in the state, and so any sort of hope for relief out in the future, I think, is what people are looking for,ā€ Colorado State Climatologist said. Schumacher is also an at Colorado State University and director of the .

Seasonal forecasts currently anticipate an active monsoon season in late summer and El NiƱo conditions in the fall and winter, Schumacher said.

ā€œThe chances are there that there will be a very strong El NiƱo,ā€ Schumacher said. ā€œBut we donā€™t have a lot of historical data points to compare to for these super El NiƱos ā€¦ and we donā€™t want to over-interpret those few times that it¶¶Ņõap happened in the past to determine what may come.ā€

It¶¶Ņõap hard to predict how El NiƱo will affect Colorado, because the weather pattern routinely brings wet weather to the southwest states and dry weather to the northeast,Ā Schumacher said. Colorado sits nearly in the middle.

ā€œBut, in general, when we go into El NiƱo in Colorado, it at least tilts the odds toward the wetter side of things,ā€ he said. ā€œLa NiƱa, which weā€™ve been in for the last two years, tends to be when we see drought.ā€

La NiƱa conditions, , normally bring snow to Coloradoā€™s northern mountains and dry weather to the rest of the state. Instead, this year, abnormally low snowpack shut down the stateā€™s ski resorts early and has many residents planning their lawn care around water restrictions. This yearā€™s March was also the hottest in documented history for many Colorado cities, including Denver, where more than a dozen heat records were broken.

What you need to know about Front Range drought restrictions

El NiƱo and La NiƱa are opposite ends of the -- a climate phenomenon based on water temperatures in the Pacific Ocean that influences temperatures and precipitation around the globe, . The world is currently sitting in neutral, the middle of the two climate patterns.

Periods of El NiƱo and La NiƱa typically happen every two to seven years and last nine to 12 months, but they don't operate on a regular schedule, . Generally, El NiƱo years occur more frequently and, while they bring warmer temperatures globally, tend to be colder in Colorado, Schumacher said.

As of Thursday, NOAA forecasters of El NiƱo conditions between September and January, and a 25% chance of a very strong El NiƱo starting in October, also referred to as a ā€œsuperā€ El NiƱo.

But before Colorado gets there, it's on track to see a wet summer season.

ā€œThe best case scenario is the rains come a bit early this year, and theyā€™re slow and steady -- we get regular showers and thunderstorms every day ā€¦ and that helps to keep the wildfire risk down and reduce the demand for water,ā€ Schumacher said.

ā€œI think the worst-case scenario is that we have an early and bad wildfire season because of how dry things are in the mountains, and then the monsoon rains come heavy later in the summer,ā€ he continued. ā€œThen weā€™re dealing with a lot of flash flood risk on those burn scars. I donā€™t know which of those is more plausible.ā€

Flash floods are more likely on wildfire burn scars because the burnt soil canā€™t absorb the water as well. Even just a little rain on burn scars can quickly lead to flash floods and debris flows, Schumacher said.

But the forecast isn't set in stone, especially several months out, he said, adding that "thereā€™s always just a lot of uncertainty in terms of what¶¶Ņõap going to happen.ā€

Q. It has been a warm winter and a warmer spring. Can I plant my tomatoes now?

A. Sorry, but although it’s tempting to get a jump start on the planting season with thoughts of tomato salads, sauces and salsas on the horizon, following the standard planting schedule regardless of drought conditions or the somewhat consistent springlike temperatures.

Want proof? There is a chance of snow this week! And since Colorado weather patterns can change vastly, even in a single day, you should still wait until late May to plant tomatoes.

Here is the information straight from CSU: “For optimal growing, tomatoes need warm temperatures: above 52ĀŗF at night and above 60ĀŗF during the day at transplant. They are readily killed by a light frost. A week of cool daytime temperatures (below 55ĀŗF) will stunt plants, reducing yields. Soil temperatures are also important; soil temperatures must be above 55 ĀŗF before transplant can be successful. With these warm temperature requirements, planting time along the Colorado Front Range is typically late May. Do not plant tomatoes out into a cold spell and make sure soil temperatures are warm.”

Want to read a “super sweet” story about tomatoes in the meantime. Check our tale of survival in the garden from last year, after a hail storm did its best, but our splendidly productive little cherry tomato plants stood tall

Cool-season vegetables can be planted now, and other vegetables can be planted by mid-May. Consider mulching vegetable beds to conserve water and to suppress weeds.

Q. Can I fertilize and aerate my lawn given the recent drought conditions?

A. Normally, these are good lawn care practices, but with the ongoing drought, these practices are conditional, and that condition is water.

If the lawn was fertilized in the fall and it is greening up, skip the spring fertilization. Fertilizing during drought has its risks. If you have to fertilize, proceed with caution. Apply a light application of an organic slow-release fertilizer, Ā½ to 1 pound of nitrogen per 1000 square feet, and be sure to water in thoroughly with Ā½ inch of water. (Check local water restrictions and watering schedules.)

Similarly, aerating turf is usually done in spring and fall. Core aerating encourages deeper root growth and water infiltration and reduces compaction. After core aerating, water turf well to moisten the root zone.

To manage turf with reduced watering schedules, run the irrigation system using a cycle-and-soak technique; that is, running it multiple times and leaving time in between for water to soak in and not run off.

Kentucky bluegrass is resilient. It can be kept alive in a dormant state in drought situations simply by watering it every two to three weeks. This keeps the crowns of the plant hydrated even though the turf wonā€™t green up. To make the best use of the water applied, look for persistent dry spots in the lawn. Check for clogged nozzles and alignment of nozzles.

Set out plastic cups to capture water and fix the coverage where there are irrigation gaps.

Martha Kirk is a master gardener in Arapahoe County.

But as a 20-year-old, Sides also knows young people are as just as comfortable, if not more so, getting their news from TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Reddit and X. So when it comes to the future of 9News-KUSA in Denver, whose parent company, Tegna, is being purchased by Texas-based Nexstar Media Group — owner of Denver’s Fox31 — he’s not concerned.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen to 9News, good or bad, but whoever the owners are or whatever the politics behind these deals, it doesn’t change my values,” said the Colorado State University junior, who reports and anchors news at CTV, a student-run station in Fort Collins . “I’m not afraid of any of it.”

The $6.2 billion takeover, which the Federal Communications Commission approved in March, would give the combined operation 265 stations and the ability to reach about 80% of TV watchers in the U.S. That has alarmed free-speech advocates and triggered federal and state-filed antitrust lawsuits, including one that the Colorado Attorney General’s office signed on to.

One of those antitrust claims, by DIRECTV, has put the merger on hold as a federal judge considers claims that it would create a monopoly that would be bad for consumers; a judge on Friday delayed a decision on the case by another week.

But even as older viewers and opponents of the merger fret about corporate consolidation and its problematic effects on viewers, millions of Americans have already moved on to other forms of media. Only 15% of adults aged 18-29 say they follow the news all or most of the time, according to , which gauges media trends. More than three-quarters of that demographic also said they get their news, at least some of the time, from social media. And younger people are more likely to be regular news consumers on TikTok, Instagram, Reddit and X, .

That contrasts with people 50-64, who pay close attention to the news 45% of the time, but who get their news, in part, from social media just 45% of the time. And only 28% of responders over the age of 64 get their news from social media, at least some of the time, but they are the ones paying the most attention to current events, according to Pew, at 62%.

As of December 2025, streaming accounted for nearly half of all TV viewing, , according to a Nielsen survey. The company’s Big Data + Panel measurement also found ratings and viewership across 158 TV networks were down last year by an average of 18% to 30%, and have dropped by about 50% overall in the last decade.

That means the broadcasting companies are fighting for their lives as their majority Baby Boomer audiences dwindle and younger viewers decline to adopt the same viewing habits as their parents and grandparents.

Everyone is scrambling

Trust has also declined. Only 52% of adults under 50 say they still trust national news media, , and Gallup reports that overall trust in news media, in any age group, dropped below 30% for the first time since it began measuring in the 1970s. Young adults are the least likely age group to trust news organizations, the Pew study found

Local TV news has been a bright spot in terms of trust, though. In fact, 74% of Americans said they had “a lot of” or “some” trust in local news organizations, with 85% saying their local news outlets were at least somewhat important to their community, .

That might be because, unlike national networks or cable broadcasts — CNN, Fox News, etc. — local television is all about making honest connections, said Amanda Mountain, president and CEO of Rocky Mountain Public Media.

“Editorial independence is key to this trust, which is why locally owned and operated entities like public media will continue to further differentiate ourselves in the context of a mega-merger like this,” Mountain said.

Angelica Kalika, who teaches journalism and digital media at the University of Colorado Boulder, said part of that comes from innovative programming that stretches the boundaries of TV; for instance, 9News’ Jeremy Jojola offers vertical videos on TikTok, which are formatted specifically for smartphones.

So mergers like Tegna/Nexstar may not work, she explained. “Eating up loved broadcast stations is a cop-out to actual innovation and catering to your audience. … Everyone is scrambling and taking advantage of an almost regulation-free FCC.”

Prior to its acquisition, Tegna owned 64 stations, including 9News, an NBC affiliate, and KTVD-TV Channel 20 in Denver. Nexstar owned more than 200 stations, such as KDVR-TV Fox31 and KWGN-TV CW2, also in Denver, and KXRM-TV Fox21 in Colorado Springs; it also counts KREX-TV in Grand Junction and KREZ-TV in Durango among its properties.

Nexstar is now lined up to own all of it. Experts say that consolidating 9News’ newsroom into Fox31-KDVR’s existing operation is inevitable, likely resulting in layoffs.

9News has often boasted the best ratings and awards of any TV station in Colorado, according to past Nielsen reports. But the station last year lost ground to Fox31-KDVR, which dominated ratings in several time slots for local TV news. That’s despite 9News anchor Kyle Clark garnering national attention with his nightly “Next” program, which regularly invites donations for good causes and directly, humorously addresses viewer feedback and criticism.

Delete, delete, delete

Employees at 9News, including Clark, declined to comment for this story. Nexstar spokesman Gary Weitman also declined to comment on behalf of Nexstar’s stations, including Fox31, citing the pending litigation by states’ attorneys general and DIRECTV.

The Nexstar-Tegna deal follows an aggressive push for deregulation by the FCC and a 2026 federal court ruling friendly to media consolidation. President Donald Trumpā€™s administration has long advocated loosening what it calls overly restrictive media-ownership rules, and current FCC chairman Brendan Carr has vowed to “delete, delete, delete” outdated regulations.

Carr has also said fears of a monopoly are overblown and that the removal of the ownership cap on local stations still only allows Nexstar to control about 15% of all U.S. TV broadcasters.

Denver is the 17th largest TV news market in the U.S., with a metro population of 4.6 million, and 1.8 million regular viewers,Ā according to 2023 data from the National Association of Broadcasters. The Denver/Aurora market is the largest in Colorado, followed by Boulder, along with Colorado Springs and Fort Collins,Ā the .

And yet, for younger viewers and journalists, the future isn’t about the TV news industry’s survival, but whether local news is sustainable, or worth going into, at all.

“Nonprofit news organizations are suffering from budget cuts and foundations pulling their support,” Kalika said. “So how are students and young journalists going to participate in that? We can no longer think of it as competing organizations trying to steal audiences. Colorado has a better news ecosystem than most, but we’re still figuring out what that support looks like.”

Young people remain passionate about journalism, both as consumers and producers, said Laura Frank, a professor of media and journalism studies at the University of Denver. As head of COLab (Colorado News Collaborative), Frank also sees in her students intense suspicion of large, corporate news-gathering operations, echoing what many outside the industry feel.

“They would often rather take a risk on their own to start something so they’re not caught in this downsizing they’ve been hearing about all their lives,” she said. “We may be more resilient to the collapse of editorial voices here in Colorado, with the variety of hyper-local news outlets that have rushed in. But we’re not immune.”

Making news relevant to young people is a constant but worthy challenge, said Linda Shapley, interim president of Rocky Mountain Student Media Corp. in Fort Collins.

“We want to make sure we’re building the skills for our students that still matter,” she said. “They all recognize that social media algorithms are structuring what they see — and they’re figuring out how not to be a tool of that.”

Both men will appear on the June 30 primary ballot. Bottoms, who is one of the most conservative lawmakers in the state Capitol, won slightly more than 45% of the 2,145 ballots cast, comfortably beating Marx’s 39% and topping a field of more than a dozen candidates who vied for gubernatorial ballot access. When Marx’s total was announced and Bottoms’ victory assured, the lawmaker’s supporters shouted and jumped around him in the bleachers of Colorado State University-Pueblo’s arena.

“This is our year. This is the year we’re going to do this,” Bottoms, who is in his second term in the statehouse, said in brief remarks earlier Saturday. He promised to work with federal immigration authorities, to build nuclear reactors and to “reclaim safety and security.” He also pledged to “DOGE the mess out of everything in this state,” a reference to billionaire Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency,” which gutted a number of federal programs last year.

State Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, who also is running for governor, did not participate in the assembly process and has instead submitted signatures to appear on the primary ballot. Marx also submitted signatures while also seeking the assembly nomination.

The party also nominated state Sen. Mark Baisley for U.S. Senate, former Colorado Libertarian Party official James Wiley for secretary of state, and Fremont County Commissioner Kevin Grantham for state treasurer. All those candidates will be appear on the ballot alone in June, virtually assuring them places on the November general election ballot.

For attorney general, the assembly sent Michael Allen, the district attorney in El Paso County, and attorney David Willson to the primary election in June.

The day was marred by delays, mistakes, long lines and, as afternoon turned into evening, a voting discrepency: About 80 more ballots had been cast than delegates had been credentialed to cast them. The assembly then voted to accept the new ballots as legitimate (the official running the meeting said they likely were).

The winner of the June gubernatorial primary will face off against U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet or Attorney General Phil Weiser, each of whom are seeking the Democratic nomination to replace Gov. Jared Polis next year.

The Republican candidates who emerge from the primaries will face a Colorado Democratic Party that has held all four constitutional statewide offices since 2018. No Republican has won the governor’s office since 2002, and the last statewide win for a GOP candidate was Heidi Ganahl’s win for a University of Colorado governing board seat in 2016.

Repubican contenders repeatedly promised to reverse those trends Saturday. Eighteen gubernatorial candidates initially were slated to speak, although several didn’t turn up and their candidacies did not advance. One candidate — Kelvin “K-Man” Wimberly — appeared to have no supporters present to nominate him. That prompted someone from the crowd to run up to the microphone, gesture to Wimberly and offer to nominate “this guy.”

As party members slowly trickled into the building Saturday morning, campaign volunteers wandered, handing out bags with posters for Marx or walking in slow arcs with signs for fellow chief executive hopeful Robert Moore. Scott Pond, who hopes to take on U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper in November, signed a pair of baseball caps for one supporter. Many attendees — including the conspiratorial podcaster Joe Oltmann — wore “Free Tina Peters” stickers, a sentiment echoed by a banner hanging behind the assembly stage.

Several candidates, including Marx, pledged to free the former Mesa County clerk, who was convicted for orchestrating a plot to sneak a third party into a secure area to examine voting equipment after the 2020 election.

Oltmann briefly ran for governor before declaring his candidacy to become the state GOP’s chairman.

On Friday, former state lawmaker Ron Hanks was nominated to launch a right-wing primary challenge against U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd, the freshman Republican who represents the Western Slope’s 3rd Congressional District. Hurd’s previous primary opponent, Hope Scheppelman, dropped out of the contest last month, after President Donald Trump re-endorsed Hurd.

Wednesday. If the phrase “Tax Day” makes you want to run screaming in the other direction, you’re not alone. Fortunately, quirky nonprofit Warm Cookies of the Revolution is bringing back its Tax Day Carnival on Wednesday, April 15, to relieve some of the anxiety.

Tax experts, including real estate and immigration specialists, will be on hand from 3 to 5 p.m. in case you have questions or need to file an extension. The carnival itself runs 5-8 p.m. with jugglers, mariachi, sideshow performers, Lucha Libre, face painters, circus performers, cookies, henna, poetry, magic, food from La Reyna del Sur,Ā  and “neighborhood treats,” according to organizer Evan Weissman.

It’s free, bilingual and family-friendly at D3 Arts in the Westwood neighborhood, 3632 Morrison Road in Denver. RSVP now at .

Rocky Mountain Record Show

Saturday-Sunday. The final Rocky Mountain Record Show to be held at the Sports Castle, its 10th overall since 2022, arrives on Saturday, April 11, and Sunday, April 12, with an expected 2,000-plus audiophiles in attendance. Bring your own records to swap and sell, and peruse 150,000 new, used and rare titles from 70 vendors at 150 tables.

Participating locals include Wax Trax Records, Black & Read, Angelo’s CDs and Vinyl, Paradise Found, Vinyl Valhalla, Little Horse Vintage, Sold Out Vinyl Records, The Vinyl Cafe and Electric Cherry Boutique. DJs, food trucks and a bar will also be on site. Admission to the event at 1000 Broadway, which runs 10 a.m.-5 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. on Sunday, is $12 for Saturday and $7 for Sunday via .

Film fests, from Boulder to Aspen

Through Sunday. This weekend is a crowded one for the Colorado film festival scene, with the Boulder International Film Festival, Oscar-qualifying Aspen Shortsfest, ACT Human Rights Film Festival and Denver Silent Film festival all competing for butts in seats. You can sample more than one, of course, provided you set your schedule now.

The Boulder International Film Festival is a great general-audience choice, with dozens of screenings and titles and filmmakers in attendance, April 9-12 at various venues in Boulder (). Aspen Shortsfest has a habit of sending its winners to the Oscars, as recent years have shown, and the gorgeous setting is a virtue in itself, April 7-11 in Aspen (). The smaller ACT Human Rights Film Fest runs at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, April 9-12, with local and national titles (). And Denver Silent Film Festival returns to the Sie Filmcenter, April 10-12, with live musical accompaniment and rare, restored titles ().

Famous + Almost Famous

Thursday. Tireless Denver comic and punk-metal firebrand Ben Roy tours the country with his stand-up and in barn-burning bands such as Spells and the newly formed Arson Charge, both of which have lives of their own. But you can see the nationally renowned comic in his original element on Thursday, April 16, as he emcees the Almost Famous show at Comedy Works South.

The long-running showcase features 7-10 minute sets from hungry, hard-working comics such as Nic Dean, Lane Lonion, Lizzy Wolfson, Sam Ellefson, Phil Corridor, Kate McLachlan, Mitch Jones and Austin Black, with Roy corralling the hilarity. Tickets for the show at 5345 Landmark Place in Greenwood Village are $14 viaĀ  (and let me tell you, it’s well worth the price).

Earlier forecasts from the weather service projected 90-degree temperatures in Denver on Wednesday, which would have marked the city’s first of the year and earliest on record. The expected temperature high has since dropped to 88 degrees, which would still break , according to the weather service.

:

• 64 degrees in , breaking the 63-degree record for March 24.
• 75 degrees in , breaking the 71-degree daily record.
• 81 degrees in , breaking the 76-degree daily record.
• 83 degrees at Colorado State University in , breaking the 76-degree daily record.
• 83 degrees in , breaking the 76-degree daily record.
• 84 degrees at the University of Northern Colorado in , breaking the 80-degree daily record.

:

• 69 degrees in , breaking the 62-degree record for March 24.
• 80 degrees in , breaking the 75-degree daily record.
• 88 degrees in , breaking the 75-degree daily record and the 86-degree March heat record. Denver has broken or tied the March heat record three times so far this month, .
• 89 degrees at Colorado State University in , breaking the 76-degree daily record.
• 87 degrees in , breaking the 78-degree daily record.
• 89 degrees at the University of Northern Colorado in , breaking the 79-degree daily record.

This is a developing story and may be updated.