The council includes business leaders from a variety of industries, as well as state and local economic development officials, according to an announcement made Wednesday afternoon.

Their task will be to analyze “the current business landscape” and develop a “shared vision for the future.” Findings will be provided to the legislature and all gubernatorial candidates.

“Colorado is appearing more towards the middle of the pack in terms of competitiveness — that should be a wake-up call to all of us,” Polis said.

Rather than waiting for the next governor to address the problem, Polis wants to deliver a list of action items, including legislative fixes, before leaving office in January.

In April, Dan Caruso and 260 other business leaders warned in a letter that the state was losing its long-held reputation as a leading hub for startups, innovation and venture capital investment.

The group, known as Engage Colorado, urged officials and policymakers to prioritize pro-business policies, reduce regulatory friction, and address the rising cost of doing business.

Caruso also argues that more robust economic development incentives are needed to compete with “winning” states like Texas.

While , Polis has zeroed in on the state’s high housing costs, which put it at a disadvantage in recruiting workers.

“Where we are lagging is cost of living, and housing is the biggest part of that. We are starting to turn the corner,” Polis said.

Last month, the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade launched the first of a series of listening sessions with business leaders and employers across the state.

Colorado’s nonfarm employment peaked in June 2024 at 2,979,900 jobs. Last month, it was down by 9,100 positions to 2,970,800, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The losses are especially severe in the information sector, which is a bellwether for technological innovation. The June 2026 count of 64,800 jobs is down by 19% or 15,200 jobs from the June 2022Ěý recent peak of 80,000.

That is larger than the 11% decline nationally. The last time information sector employment was so low in Colorado was in the summer of 1995.

An acceleration in the use of artificial intelligence explains some of that. Colorado, while a global leader in quantum computing, has lagged behind in AI.

But Polis emphasized that technology is only one part of a much larger economy and that his council will take a much broader look.

An especially worrisome development in the past two years is the shrinkage of the state’s labor force. Even if companies wanted to expand, fewer workers are available to hire.

The state’s labor force peaked at 3,274,230 people working or actively seeking work in October 2024. Last month, it stood at 3,193,263. That represents a loss of nearly 81,000 workers over 20 months.

Where did those workers go? Colorado’s population is aging, and more people are retiring. After a long stretch of lower birth rates, fewer young adults are entering the workforce than in prior decades. More discouraged workers may be simply dropping out.

Domestic net migration, a major source of workers in recent decades, has evaporated. International immigration briefly plugged the gap, but that has dried up as well under the Trump administration.

Colorado’s population last year grew at its slowest pace since 1990, at the tail end of the oil bust.

Despite the lack of job creation, a shrinking labor force has kept the unemployment rate at a low 3.9%.

Normally, a shrinking labor pool and a shrinking job base are accompanied by a recession, but that isn’t the case currently.

Both the U.S. and Colorado economies grew at a 2.1% pace last year after adjusting for inflation. And the U.S. GDP growth rate accelerated to 2.7% in the first quarter.

“Colorado isn’t as competitive as it used to be, and everyone building or backing companies here can feel it. The data backs that up, and pretending otherwise helps no one,” Seth Levine, a partner and co-founder at Foundry, a Boulder-based venture capital firm, said in the press release.

Besides Lieberman and Levine, other members of the council include:

• â—Ź J. J. Ament, president & CEO of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce
  â—Ź Debbie Brown, president of the Colorado Business Roundtable
  â—Ź Dan Caruso, managing director, Caruso Ventures
  â—Ź Marielena DeSanctis, chancellor of the Colorado Community College System
  â—Ź Binh Diep, general manager at Slalom
  â—Ź Raymond Gonzales, president of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation
  â—Ź Cory Finney, managing partner at Howdy Partners
  â—ŹLoren Furman, president and CEO of the Colorado Chamber of Commerce
• â—ŹChristine Heitz, CEO of Colorado Thrives
  â—Ź Zaneta Kelsey, CEO of Access Mode
  â—Ź Wendy Lea, chair of Energize Colorado
  â—Ź Brittany Morris Saunders, president and CEO of the Colorado Technology Association
  â—Ź Marc Nager, managing partner at Howdy Partners
  â—Ź Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer, president and CEO, Colorado Springs Chamber & EDC
  â—Ź George Sparks Jr., president and CEO of Denver Museum of Nature and Science
  â—Ź Walker Stapleton, former Colorado Treasurer and a commissioner of the Colorado Economic Development Commission
  â—Ź Jason Wardrip, business manager at the Colorado Building and Construction Trades Council

It isn’t a regional problem —Ěý the three states with the strongest percentage job gains over that period are Nevada, Idaho and Utah, while Texas, Florida and California lead for the number of jobs added.

Nor can a recession be blamed for the poor showing. The U.S. economy is chugging along, and since the early 1990s, Colorado has rarely lost jobs when that is happening.

Yet, Colorado ranks 12th worst in total job losses and 14th worst in percentage job losses since Jan. 2025, according to

It isn’t scraping the bottom of the barrel like West Virginia, Michigan and Ohio. And the unemployment rate remains a manageably low 3.9%.

But for an economy used to being a star athlete, Colorado appears to be hanging out under the bleachers with a different crowd.

“We know this is a critical moment for the state. We have many strengths. But we are facing increasing headwinds,” Rachel Rose, deputy director of the Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT), told the Colorado Economic Development Commission (EDC) last week.

To address those headwinds, Gov. Jared Polis plans to announce the formation of a new competitiveness council this week involving both public and private partners.

Polis has already directed Rose and OEDIT Executive Director Eve Lieberman, in cooperation with the Colorado Economic Development Council, to host a .

“Our goal is to hear from businesses of every size in every sector in every part of the state. We are working on a grassroots effort,” Lieberman said.

Former Gov. John Hickenlooper’s administration deployed a similar approach under the Colorado Blueprint, holding more than 50 regional working sessions and talking to business leaders and residents in all 64 counties.

Key concerns raised in those sessions included high living costs that deterred employee recruitment, burdensome regulations and new workplace mandates, and infrastructure bottlenecks.

Expect those issues and more to come up again in the current round of meetings in a state that has moved politically from purple in 2011 to solidly blue.

The outreach effort will also try to get at why companies are leaving, and where applicable, what incentives other states provided them.

OEDIT is also working with University of Colorado Boulder’s Leeds Business Research Division to analyze what economic indicators matter most and where Colorado has a competitive advantage, and where it lags behind.

And that information should help inform the competitiveness council.

“This will be very good from the standpoint of having the data and having the policy recommendations ready to go,” said EDC member Chris Frantz, who attended an earlier listening session.

Rankings matter

OEDIT has tracked various rankings since 2012, and they provide a pulse on how the state is doing. For years, they offered bragging rights, until they didn’t.

“Each ranking has its own level of rigor and bias,” Rose said.

For example, Colorado routinely made the top 10 of CNBC’s “America’s Top States for Business” from when it launched in 2007 to 2022, even ranking first in 2011. But this year, .

Items dragging Colorado down were the cost of living, 49th; cost of doing business, 38th; and infrastructure, 32nd. The state continues to lead nationally on technology and innovation, and the quality of its workforce.

“Colorado’s drop in the rankings reinforces what the Chamber’s strategic research has already shown,” Colorado Chamber President and CEO Loren Furman . “Regulatory burdens, housing, rising costs and workforce needs remain key issues affecting the state’s competitiveness.”

But optimists can rally around the U.S. News & World Report “Best States” ranking, which has

That report places more weight on “structural” measures, such as educational attainment, venture capital investment, and productivity.

Those measures indicate that Colorado has a strong foundation for renewed growth, if it can address what has caused it to lag this decade.

The ALEC Economic Outlook Index’s ranks Colorado in 29th place, down sharply from 17th place in 2024 and 2025 and far from its second-place ranking in 2008.

Areas where Colorado ranks lowest are for the share of debt that local governments and state enterprises carry as a share of their revenues, and for its labor laws.

And when it comes to taxes, Colorado ranks 33rd overall with high local sales tax burdens and complex property tax mechanics overcoming a relatively low flat personal and corporate income tax rate, according to the Tax Foundation.

Go small or big?

In April, a coalition of more than 230 business leaders issued a letter warning that Colorado was at risk of losing its reputation as an innovation hub if economic competitiveness and pro-business policies were not prioritized.

The effort was led by Dan Caruso, who heads an organization called Engage Colorado, and it had the support of Polis, who leaves office in five months.

Caruso, in a , said that Colorado now finds itself among the states losing rather than winning when it comes to retaining and attracting employers.

“Losing states don’t view winning businesses as an investment that will provide a substantial return for their state. Instead, they see it as a cost that competes against other budget items,” he said.

By not prioritizing economic development and job creation, business leaders and capital providers may come to view a state as undisciplined in its spending priorities.

Caruso argues Colorado needs to bring bigger economic development incentives to bear if it wants to compete with “winning” states like Texas, and to prioritize more pro-business policies.

“Dangerously and disappointingly, Colorado is following California and New York’s playbook of taking for granted that innovators want to be in their states,” he said.

Michael O’Donnell, executive director of the Prairie Rose Development Corp., said Colorado is losing steam in an area that will never receive the headlines that the departure of Chipotle or Palantir did.

“We have the largest numeric loss in startup activity of any state. We have become a little bit less entrepreneurial than we used to be,” O’Donnell told the commission.

He then corrected himself, saying “a lot” less.

All of this comes as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security — under the direction of President Donald Trump — has scaled up a mass deportation effort that doesn’t only target criminals anymore and has begun a public dragnet for anyone with questionable legal status. The administration is expecting to detain so many people that DHS signed a $529 million contract with Geo Group to open a second Colorado facility to lock up 1,188 people in Hudson. The Aurora facility already holds 1,530 people.

We are skeptical, however, that meaningful oversight will come from a federal department that is in complete disarray, having burned through Kristi Noem in 18 months. Now the agency is led by Markwayne Mullin, a man who is refusing to publicly address the fact that under his watch immigration enforcement officers have shot and killed two unarmed people they were trying to detain during roadside stops in separate states.

What little oversight we will get of the Geo facility in Aurora and the new facility proposed for Hudson must come from Congress or from city, county and state officials.

U.S. Rep. Jason Crow has tried for years to hold the Geo Group accountable, writing a bill that actually became law requiring federal detention centers, even when privately owned, to allow members of Congress to tour facilities without giving prior notice. Geo Group still refused to allow Crow into the facility, so the Aurora congressman filed a lawsuit, getting a judicial order to allow him access.

Meanwhile, the Geo Group has refused to work with county and state health officials attempting to ascertain whether a single known case of tuberculosis in the facility this month could trigger a larger outbreak.

“Our priority remains obtaining the cooperation needed to do a communicable disease investigation,” Hope Shuler, a spokeswoman with the Division of Disease Control and Public Health Response, told The Denver Post. “(The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment) has also reassured the facility and federal officials that the information being requested is standard for this type of public health investigation.”

Gov. Jared Polis is attempting to meet with the company’s owners but has so far been unsuccessful.

The Geo Group, which was founded by George Zoley, the current CEO and chairman, responded to questions about the recent shooting and the tuberculosis case from The Denver Post on Wednesday afternoon.

“Aurora ICE Processing Center employees are not issued firearms inside the facility, and they are not permitted to bring personal firearms into the Center. They are also required to follow all applicable federal, state, and local laws. The Aurora ICE Processing Center is a federal immigration processing center that follows standards set by the federal government and operates under close federal government oversight,” wrote a spokesperson for the company. “The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) — working with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — has publicly confirmed that there are no active tuberculosis cases at the Center. We would refer you to DHS and ICE for any further questions.”

An employee of Geo Group lost his cool last week while trying to drive past protesters blocking the entrance into the Aurora detention center. Police accuse the man of pulling out his gun and shooting a protester who was walking away from the conflict.

The woman was hit by a bullet in the back of her foot and was taken to the hospital. She has said in interviews that none of the Geo employees present for the shooting stopped to render aid after she was shot, but Aurora police officers on the scene immediately responded to help and to pursue the shooter. He fled the scene and was later arrested on charges including attempted murder. Zoley has refused to comment on the shooting. Still, the company did put out a statement saying that the employee accused of attempted murder had been “placed on unpaid administrative leave and we will fully cooperate with law enforcement.”

We are grateful that the chief of police in Aurora has handled the case so far with transparency and clarity.

“Violence of any kind will not be tolerated in Aurora. Constitutional rights are a pivotal part of a just society — violence is not,” Aurora police Chief Todd Chamberlain said.

Protests at immigration detention centers are occurring across the nation and are becoming increasingly hostile. On July 4, 2025, an Alvarado, Texas, police officer was shot in the neck by a protester who was part of a group setting off fireworks and harassing detention center employees. . We urge protesters to remain peaceful at their Geo Group vigils, and we encourage them to stay loud and fearless.

We need this federally funded facility to be transparent about the safety, health and conditions for both its employees and its detainees – all of whom are humans deserving of humane conditions and safe working environments. Zoley should be out front personally working with state and local officials on these issues, and he should be explaining how he will improve the training and vetting of staff to prevent a future tragedy.

To send a letter to the editor about this article, submit online or check out our guidelines for how to submit by email or mail.

Updated July 22, 2026 at 1:06 p.m. This editorial was updated to include a response to questions from a Geo Group spokesperson that were sent Wednesday afternoon.

Jennifer Lucero-Alvarez, a spokeswoman for the Adams County Health Department, told The Denver Post in a statement that as of Monday, the private prison company Geo Group “has not provided all the information or access necessary for (the department) and Denver Health Tuberculosis Clinic to complete the public health investigation.”

That, despite the state’s top public health official issuing a directive last week that facility leaders allow inspectors to review medical records for the detainee who contracted the potentially fatal respiratory illness. Health officials also have said they want to look into unconfirmed reports of more TB cases in recent weeks.

Jill Hunsaker Ryan, the executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, gave Geo until last Friday to let inspectors in.

But the deadline has come and gone. It did not spur the release of new information from the Geo Group or ICE, said Hope Shuler, a spokeswoman for the state agency’s . The company operates the 1,530-bed facility on behalf of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Gov. Jared Polis, she said, had requested a discussion with Geo officials but had not heard back.

“Our priority remains obtaining the cooperation needed to do a communicable disease investigation,” Shuler said. “CDPHE has also reassured the facility and federal officials that the information being requested is standard for this type of public health investigation.”

Meanwhile, that ICE said in a statement that a case of tuberculosis had been detected in the facility on June 25 and that the person who had contracted it was “treated, cleared, and removed from the country.” Neither ICE nor Geo Group responded to The Post’s request for comment Monday.

Tuberculosis, a potentially fatal illness, spreads through the air and typically affects a patient¶¶Ňőap lungs, according to the .

The Adams County Health Department had issued a public health order on June 25 requiring GEO to “comply with Colorado public health laws governing tuberculosis investigations,” which includes allowing health officials to interview the case patient and others, look at medical records and get access to exposed individuals.

“We do not have direct communication from the facility to understand the situation inside,” Lucero-Alvarez said. “We remain concerned about individuals in the facility, including those who are detained and staff who might have been exposed.”

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said in a statement Monday that his office “stands ready to work with the governor’s office and state health officials to bring Geo into compliance with the law.”

“As a private company, Geo Group is required to comply with state health and safety regulations,” Weiser said. “The reported tuberculosis case at the ICE detention camp in Aurora is a serious public health issue and Geo must work with the state to investigate any potential outbreak or exposure to others.”

But what any enforcement action might look like — and when it might occur — wasn’t clear.

The investigation is at least the second public health probe into the Aurora facility this year, afterĚýAdams County officials sought more information about an alleged respiratory or gastrointestinalĚýoutbreak in January. That investigation didn’t identify an outbreak — though it, too, was frustrated by delays and resistance from officials at the facility.

In the letter sent Tuesday evening, Jill Hunsaker Ryan, the executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, also asked the Aurora facility’s warden and health administrator to allow inspectors to review medical records for the detainee who contracted . A positive test result was identified late last month.

She directed officials to provide facility access to inspectors investigating the case, as well as records for other individuals who have been screened for TB and the information necessary to determine the disease’s potential spread.

By Wednesday evening, a CDPHE spokeswoman said facility officials had not yet responded to the requests.

The escalation came amid a nearly three-week standoff between Adams County health officials and the Aurora facility’s operators and federal officials — who, local officials say, have blocked investigators from interviewing detainees, inspecting the facility and reviewing records. Adams County officials issued a public health order last month seeking that information after the Geo Group, which operates the facility, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has ultimate control over it, refused to cooperate.

“These barriers prevent public health officials from determining the scope of potential exposure and taking appropriate steps to protect detainees, employees, contractors, visitors, people who have been transferred or released, and others who may have been exposed,” Hunsaker Ryan wrote to the facility’s leaders in the letter. “Immediate cooperation is necessary for the investigation to proceed.”

A spokesman for Geo Group did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Wednesday afternoon. Representatives for ICE and the Department of Homeland Security told The Denver Post earlier this week that there were no active tuberculosis cases in the 1,530-bed facility, though they did not respond when asked if that meant officials had moved any individual who had tested positive.

The agencies have not publicly acknowledged the positive test, which health officials said they identified on June 22 using samples taken from the facility.

In a Wednesday statement to The Post, Gov. Jared Polis said he was “deeply concerned by the reports of active Tuberculosis at the GEO facility in Aurora and the inability for local public health to do their jobs because of interference from the facility.”

“We are focused on protecting public health and urge the GEO Group to let Adams County Public Health do their jobs to investigate this alleged outbreak, including providing any necessary testing and treatment to prevent disease spread,” he wrote.

Immigration attorneys and advocates have told The Post that a number of detainees in the facility have been tested for TB in recent weeks and that at least one person had been removed from the facility. Because of Geo’s and ICE’s refusal to provide full access to the facility, health officials have said they cannot confirm reports of additional cases or quarantines.

Hunsaker Ryan’s letter lists the state laws that underpin the state’s access and information requests, as well as health inspectors’ legal responsibility to investigate TB cases. She did not say what the state will do if Geo and ICE do not comply by Friday.

CDPHE spokeswoman Hope Shuler wrote in an email to The Post that agency leaders still hoped facility officials would respond to the letter, adding that their goal was “to work collaboratively with GEO.”

“This is how we would treat any potential outbreak of a communicable disease,” Schuler said. “If we are unable to obtain the necessary access and information, we will determine appropriate next steps, but our goal right now is simply to gain access for purposes of determining whether we have an outbreak.”

The standoff is not the first time, in Colorado or elsewhere, that ICE and its detention center contractors have refused access to outside inspectors.

Adams County officials admonished the Aurora facility earlier this year for failing to provide sufficient information for an investigation into a separate suspected outbreak. In Washington state, to allow state health inspectors into a Tacoma detention center after the facility repeatedly denied them access.

After ICE moved to block members of Congress from conducting unannounced visits to detention centers, another federal judge ordered the Trump administration to grant access to the lawmakers, including Colorado’s U.S. Reps. Jason Crow and Joe Neguse.

Geo has also resisted recent attempts to more tightly regulate the conditions of its facilities. Last month, the company filed a lawsuit challenging a new state law in Colorado that requires regular outside inspections of detention centers; that legislation also covered investigations of communicable diseases.

On Monday, Geo Group announced that it had signed a contract worth up to $528.6 million to open a new detention center in Hudson, on the grounds of a shuttered prison the company once operated.

The Elk fire, ignited by lightning Thursday, is burning on 1,980 acres north of Lake City and about 11 miles east of the Gold Mountain fire, according to Colorado fire officials.

The west of Colorado 149 and north of the Independence Gulch Trailhead to the county line at 1:30 p.m. after unexpected growth on the fire overnight and winds forecast for Wednesday afternoon.

County officials set up an evacuation center at the Lake City Armory, 230 N. Bluff St.

The Elk fire is one of seven active wildfires in Colorado that have together consumed nearly 208,000 acres, or 325 square miles.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis announced this week that any people or businesses affected by wildfires that have been declared a disaster emergency — including the Aspen Acres, Big Sheep, Ferris, Gold Mountain, Green Ridge, Poitrey Canyon, Sharpe, Snyder and Willow fires — .

The deadlines for state income tax extensions, due Oct. 15, and sales taxes, due between July 20 and Oct. 20, can both be extended to Dec. 31, according to the Colorado Department of Revenue.

“No Coloradan should have to choose between rebuilding a life and meeting a tax deadline,” Polis said in a statement. “By extending these deadlines for people and small businesses, we’re helping Coloradans impacted by wildfires get the time and space needed to recover, without the added pressure of late fees.”

Taxpayers affected by the wildfires can also contact the Department of Revenue to request penalty waivers for other taxes and fees due in October — including marijuana, fuel and retailer delivery fees. Those tax deadlines can be extended to Nov. 6.

The deadlines will not automatically be extended, according to state revenue officials. Eligible taxpayers must call 303-238-7378 after receiving a bill.

“The Department of Revenue stands ready to help Coloradans affected by these wildfires,” Taxation Division Senior Director Brendon Reese said in a statement. “We hope that by waiving late filing penalties that impacted Coloradans can focus on rebuilding and recovering from these devastating fires. Please reach out to us so that we can help.”

Jump to:ĚýAspen Acres fire | Green Ridge and Fishhook fires |ĚýGold Mountain fireĚý|ĚýFerris fire | Willow fire | Air quality alerts

Aspen Acres fire in Custer and Pueblo counties

As of Tuesday morning, the burning in southern Colorado had consumed 99,077 acres, or 155 square miles, and was 36% contained, fire officials said.

The wildfire is Colorado’s largest active wildfire and the , behind the 2018 Spring Creek fire that consumed 108,045 acres. No size update was available on Wednesday.

The Aspen Acres fire has destroyed close to 900 structures, Operations Section Chief Brad Washa said during a . It’s unclear how many of those are homes, but law enforcement in Pueblo and Custer counties previously announced that at least 337 homes and four businesses had been destroyed.

While large sections ofĚýthe evacuation orders had been lifted in Pueblo County on Tuesday,Ěý ordered new mandatory evacuations on private and U.S. Forest Service land as fire activity picked up alongĚýthe western edge of the nearly 100,000-acre wildfire.

Sheriff’s officials issued mandatory evacuations for Forest Service land east of where Williams Creek crosses into the national forest, along the creek to the intersection of Huerfano County Road 630, north to County Road 636, and west to County Road 634/Gardner Road.

The Bartlett Trail subdivision and the surrounding area are also under evacuation, county officials said.

Updated evacuation maps for are available online.

As of Tuesday, more than 6,400 people evacuated by the Aspen Acres fire had returned home and roughly 1,210 homes remained on mandatory evacuation orders in Pueblo County, Sheriff David Lucero said during the community meeting. The remaining evacuations affect about 3,000 people, he said.

Information on the number of people still affected by evacuations in Custer and Huerfano counties was not available on Wednesday.

Firefighters “made really great progress” on creating a control line along the fire’s southwestern edge, north of Rye, on Tuesday, Northern Rockies Complex Incident Management Team 6 Operations Chief Ben Wagner said during a . Most of the fire’s secured containment lines are on the eastern edge, where Wagner said firefighters are continuing to mop up.

“We anticipate this fire to be on the landscape for a long time,” Wagner said.

The Northern Rockies team will take command of the fire from Alaska Complex Incident Management Team 1 on Thursday.

Hot, dry and windy weather is expected in the area through at least Thursday, but there’s a “rising confidence” that monsoonal moisture will arrive within the next two weeks, meteorologist Sophia Adams said during the community meeting. Above-normal temperatures are likely to continue, but the storms could bring much-needed moisture.

The following roads remained closed for the fire as of Wednesday morning, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation:

• Ěýbetween McKenzie Junction and Interstate 25
• between Colorado 165 and Rock Creek Road west of Pueblo

The exact origin of the fire remains under investigation, but officials believe it was human-caused.

Green Ridge and Fishhook fires

Two wildfires sparked south of Steamboat Springs in northern Colorado on Sunday, according to Routt County officials.

As of Tuesday evening, the had scorched an estimated 229 acres with no containment in Routt National Forest, near Rabbit Ears Pass, according to the U.S. Forest Service. U.S. 40 remained open as of Wednesday morning.

The fire is roughly three miles from the Steamboat Ski Resort.

Mandatory evacuations were lifted Tuesday for the Green Ridge fire burning near the Stagecoach Reservoir, which was last estimated at 44 acres with 27% containment, according to Routt County officials. The fire had threatened 480 structures when Gov. Jared Polis issued an emergency declaration on Sunday, but none have been damaged or destroyed.

Road closures remained in effect around the fire on Wednesday, including:

• Routt County Road 16 at 18A
• Routt County Road 212 just past Schussmark Trail
• Snowbird Trail
• Broken Talon Trail
• Broken Talon Way
• Lynx Basin Way
• Lynx Basin Lane
• King Fisher Lane
• Green Ridge Drive
• Mountain Meadows Drive
• Ute Trail
• Cheyenne Trail
• Los Ranchos Road
• Commanche Road

The cause of the fires remains under investigation.

Gold Mountain fire near Ouray

The has consumed 37,259 acres with 12% containment, fire officials said Wednesday. That’s roughly 58 square miles.

“With another night of improved humidity recovery, firefighters continued making steady progress,” .

Thunderstorms are expected to pick up in the afternoon, bringing higher humidity and a 50% chance of rain, according to the update.

“Although it will help, the fuels are still critically dry and receptive to ignition and fire spread,” fire officials said. The storms can also produce erratic winds, which fuel wildfires.

More than 880 personnel remained on scene to fight the wildfire, according to Rocky Mountain Complex Incident Management Team 2, which took control of the fire response on Tuesday.

remained in place on Tuesday for residents of Ouray and Gunnison counties north of the fire, according to .

The Ouray County evacuation zone was bordered to the west by County Road 8 and County Road 10, to the south by Baldy Peak, to the east by Green Mountain and the Cimarron Ridge and to the north by Tommy Creek and Deer Creek.

Evacuations were also in effect northeast of the Cimarron Ridge, along the border of Gunnison and Montrose counties, according to the map. That area is bordered to the north by Washboard Rock, to the east by Gunnison County Road 864A, to the south by Hampden Lake and to the west by Cimarron Ridge.

Montrose County residents north of the mandatory evacuation zone and Gunnison County residents to the east of the zone were on pre-evacuation status at that time.

Evacuated residents can seek shelter at the Ridgway Secondary School, 1200 Green St., according to county officials.

The cause of the Gold Mountain fire, which sparked shortly after 5:30 p.m. on June 27, remains under investigation

Ferris fire in San Juan National Forest, near Dolores

As of Wednesday morning, the had consumed an estimated 64,869 acres, or 101 square miles, in and near the San Juan National Forest north of Dolores. At that time, the flames were 43% contained, fire officials said.

It’s officially the 10th-largest wildfire in recorded Colorado history, surpassing the 2013 West Fork fire, which consumed 58,570 acres, and close in size to the 2002 Missionary Ridge fire, which scorched 70,285 acres, according to .

Lightning sparked three fires in the San Juan National Forest on June 27. Those fires then grew and merged into the Ferris fire.

As of Wednesday morning, most of the evacuations had been lifted around the wildfire. Small pockets of mandatory evacuations remained in effect near Ryman Creek and Little Pony Reservoir, but the majority had been downgraded to pre-evacuation status.

Willow fire near Leadville

Containment shrunk slightly on a wildfire burning near Leadville in Lake County, dropping to 28% on Tuesday from 33% on Monday, according to fire officials.

As of Tuesday evening, the had consumed roughly 6,539 acres, according to Southwest Area Incident Management Team 4, which is leading the fire response. The burn area covers roughly 10 square miles.

Mandatory evacuations remained in place Tuesday for an area bordered to the north by Lonesome Lake and Isolation Lakes, to the west by Twining Peak, to the south by Echo Creek and to the east by East Tennessee Creek. .

The cause of the fire, which started on June 29, remains under investigation. As of Tuesday evening, 597 personnel were on scene to fight the wildfire.

Air quality alerts

The four large fires have led to consistently worsening air quality across the state, prompting state health officials to issue advisories. The warnings mostly cover central, west and southwest Colorado.

The newest alert from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment will remain in effect until at least 9 a.m. Wednesday, . That alert includes Delta, Montrose, Ouray and Pueblo counties.

If the smoke drops visibility to less than 5 miles in an area, it has reached unhealthy levels, state health officials said in the alert. Those with heart disease and respiratory illnesses, young children and older adults are more at risk.

An was also issued for the Front Range and will be in effect until at least 4 p.m. Wednesday. That alert covers the urban corridor from Douglas County to Larimer and Weld counties, including the Denver and Boulder areas.

Sunny, hot and stagnant weather will allow ozone to reach the “unhealthy for sensitive groups” level on Wednesday, state health officials said in the alert.

The Green Ridge and Fishhook fires join four larger wildfires actively burning on more than 205,000 acres across Colorado: the Aspen Acres, Gold Mountain, Ferris and Willow fires.

Jump to:ĚýAspen Acres fire | Green Ridge and Fishhook fires |ĚýGold Mountain fireĚý|ĚýFerris fire | Willow fire | Air quality alerts

Aspen Acres fire in Custer and Pueblo counties

With a burn area of 98,609 acres, or 154 square miles, the remains Colorado’s largest active wildfire and the . As of Monday morning, the fire had consumed an area roughly the size of Denver and was 36% contained, according to fire officials.

The Aspen Acres fire had destroyed at least 851 structures as of Friday. It’s unclear how many of those are homes, but law enforcement in Pueblo and Custer counties previously announced that at least 337 homes and four businesses had been destroyed.

Beulah residents will tentatively be allowed to return home starting Monday, fire officials said. Residents must have obtained a re-entry card at the Disaster Assistance Center, 29 Lehigh Ave., to access their homes and should enter at a time based on their address, according to the Beulah Fire Protection and Ambulance District.

Updated evacuation information for and for can be found online.

Evacuated residents can seek shelter at the Pueblo County Recreation Center, 1650 Cooper Place; the Wetmore Community Center, 95 County Road 393; or at Pathfinder Park in Florence, 6655 Colorado 115.

The following roads remained closed for the fire as of Monday morning, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation:

• Ěýbetween Silver Cliff and Siloam Road west of Pueblo
• Ěýbetween the Fremont County line and Wetmore
• Ěýbetween McKenzie Junction and Interstate 25
• between Colorado 165 and Rock Creek Road west of Pueblo

The exact origin of the fire remains under investigation, but officials believe it was human-caused.

Green Ridge and Fishhook fires

Two wildfires sparked south of Steamboat Springs in northern Colorado on Sunday, according to Routt County officials.

As of Sunday evening, the had scorched 94 acres in Routt National Forest, near Rabbit Ears Pass, according to the U.S. Forest Service.

On Monday afternoon, the Green Ridge fire burning near the Stagecoach Reservoir was holding steady at 44 acres and was about 27% contained, according to Routt County officials. The fire had threatened 480 structures when Gov. Jared Polis issued an emergency declaration on Sunday, , none were damaged or destroyed.

As of Monday morning, mandatory evacuations were in effect for an area bordered to the west by Routt County Road 212, to the south by Green Ridge, to the east by Service Creek and to the north by Stage Coach Reservoir,Ěý.

Pre-evacuations were also in place at that time for an area east and north of the mandatory evacuation zone. That area was bordered to the north by Stagecoach State Park and Blacktail Mountain, to the west by Routt County Road 16 and to the east by Service Creek and Bushy Creek.

An evacuation center is available at Soroco High School, 305 Grant Ave. in Oak Creek, according to Routt County officials.

“There is plenty of parking room for campers and vehicles,” . “The evacuation center is for information only and is not currently an overnight shelter, though anyone needing overnight shelter should check in at the evacuation center.”

On Monday, reporting that the Fishhook fire was about three miles away, and that the resort was running its snowmaking equipment in the Tomahawk and Spike areas to saturate the ground in case the flames advanced.

“While it is not currently an immediate threat, we recognize that wildfires can be unpredictable,” the resort said on Facebook.

Information on the cause of the fires was not immediately available.

Gold Mountain fire near Ouray

A pilot fighting a wildfire north of Ouray died Sunday evening when their aircraft crashed into the Silver Jack Reservoir in southwestern Gunnison County, according to the sheriff’s office.

As of Monday morning, the had consumed 36,259 acres with 11% containment, fire officials said. That’s roughly 57 square miles.

More than 980 personnel remained on scene to fight the wildfire, according to Rocky Mountain Complex Incident Management Team 3, which is leading the fire response.

remained in place on Monday for residents of Ouray and Gunnison counties north of the fire, according to .

The Ouray County evacuation zone was bordered to the west by County Road 8 and County Road 10, to the south by Baldy Peak, to the east by Green Mountain and the Cimarron Ridge and to the north by Tommy Creek and Deer Creek.

Evacuations were also in effect northeast of the Cimarron Ridge, along the border of Gunnison and Montrose counties, according to the map. That area is bordered to the north by Washboard Rock, to the east by Gunnison County Road 864A, to the south by Hampden Lake and to the west by Cimarron Ridge.

Montrose County residents north of the mandatory evacuation zone and Gunnison County residents to the east of the zone were on pre-evacuation status at that time.

Pre-evacuation orders remained in effect for the previously evacuated area west of the wildfire’s southern burn area, including Lake Lenore and bordered to the west by U.S. 550, to the north by Cutler Creek, to the east by the wildfire burn area and to the south by Bridalveil Creek.

Evacuated residents can seek shelter at the Ridgway Secondary School, 1200 Green St., according to county officials.

The cause of the Gold Mountain fire, which sparked shortly after 5:30 p.m. on June 27, remains under investigation

Ferris fire in San Juan National Forest, near Dolores

As of Monday morning, the had consumed an estimated 64,464 acres, or 101 square miles, in and near the San Juan National Forest north of Dolores. At that time, the flames were 23% contained, fire officials said.

Lightning sparked three fires in the San Juan National Forest on June 27. Those fires then grew and merged into the Ferris fire.

As of Sunday, mandatory evacuations remained in effect north and east of Dove Creek, . The evacuation area was bordered to the east by Big Canyon, to the north by the border of San Miguel and Dolores counties, to the west by Colorado 141 and to the south by Road H.6.

Across the San Juan National Forest, mandatory evacuations were also in place for the Glade Ranch area. That area was bordered to the south by Trimble Spring, to the west by Narraguinnep Mountain, to the north by Thomas Mountain and to the east by Bayless Ranches, according to the map.

Willow fire near Leadville

Containment continues to grow on a wildfire burning near Leadville in Lake County, according to fire officials.

As of Monday morning, the Willow fire had consumed roughly 6,239 acres with 33% containment, according to Southwest Area Incident Management Team 4, which is leading the fire response. The burn area covers roughly 9 square miles.

Mandatory evacuations remained in place on Monday for an area bordered to the north by Lonesome Lake and Isolation Lakes, to the west by Twining Peak, to the south by Echo Creek and to the east by East Tennessee Creek. .

The cause of the fire, which started on June 29, remains under investigation. As of Monday morning, 753 personnel were on scene to fight the wildfire, according to an update from fire officials.

Air quality alerts

The four large fires have led to consistently worsening air quality across the state, prompting state health officials to issue advisories. The warnings mostly cover central, west and southwest Colorado.

The newest alert from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment will remain in effect until at least 9 a.m. Monday, . That alert includes Montrose, Ouray and Pueblo counties.

If the smoke drops visibility to less than 5 miles in an area, it has reached unhealthy levels, state health officials said in the alert. Those with heart disease and respiratory illnesses, young children and older adults are more at risk.

An was also issued for the Front Range and will be in effect until at least 4 p.m. Monday. That alert covers the urban corridor from Douglas County to Larimer and Weld counties, including the Denver and Boulder areas.

“We have seen a pretty quick and large start to the fire season that¶¶Ňőap really brought on by our lack of snowpack and spring precipitation,” said , a wildfire researcher and associate professor of Forest and Rangeland Stewardship at Colorado State University. “Our fuels and our forests are really, really dry right now, in a way that we have very rarely seen, and that doesn’t bode well for future events.”

So far in 2026, fires have consumed more than 270,000 acres in Colorado, or 423 square miles. That¶¶Ňőap bigger than all Colorado’s wildfires between 2021 and 2024 combined and more than half the acres burned in 2025. It¶¶Ňőap only July.

On average, since 2020, Colorado wildfires have burned roughly 58,000 acres by July 9, said Travis Hartsburg with the National Interagency Fire Center. The state normally sees 17 “large” fires, or those that consume more than 100 acres in timber or 300 acres in grass. As of Thursday, it had reported 31 for 2026.

Colorado wildfires consumed , or 555 square miles; , or 126 square miles; , or 64 square miles; , or 88 square miles; , or 87 square miles; and , or 1,163 square miles, according to reports from the Rocky Mountain Area Coordination Center.

Colorado is several weeks ahead of schedule compared to the normal fire year and is experiencing wildfire activity not normally seen until late July or early August, Hartsburg said. Many large fires in previous years — including the Alexander Mountain, Stone Canyon, Quarry and Bucktail fires in 2024 and the Lee, Elk, Stoner Mesa, Derby and Crosho fires in 2025 — started at the end of July or in early August. This year, the state’s already massive wildfires sparked in the last week of June.

While wildfires consumed a massive amount of land in 2025, the destruction was minimal. The Rocky Mountain Area Coordination Center recorded 34 fires in Colorado that together destroyed 71 structures. Most of the damage came from the Lee fire, Colorado’s fifth-largest on record, which alone consumed 137,758 acres and destroyed 30 structures.

The Aspen Acres fire, Colorado’s largest active wildfire, had already destroyed 851 structures as of Friday. It¶¶Ňőap unclear how many of those are homes, but law enforcement in Pueblo and Custer counties previously announced that at least 337 homes and four businesses had been destroyed.

It¶¶Ňőap the state’s most destructive wildfire since the 2021 Marshall fire, which devastated 1,084 homes, and the fifth-most destructive blaze in Colorado history by buildings destroyed, . The Marshall fire remains the most destructive on state record, followed by the 2013 Black Forest fire, which destroyed 489 homes; the 2020 East Troublesome fire, which destroyed 366 homes; and the 2012 Waldo Canyon fire, which destroyed 346 homes.

The number of homes confirmed destroyed by the Aspen Acres fire knocked the 2012 High Park fire, which destroyed 259 homes, out of fifth place. The Aspen Acres fire also surpassed the High Park fire in size, taking its spot as Colorado’s seventh-largest wildfire on record.

Other large fires this summer include the mostly contained Snyder fire, which killed three firefighters as it spread onto Colorado’s Western Slope from Utah; the Gold Mountain fire north of Ouray, a popular mountain town; and the Ferris fire, which was sparked by lightning in southwestern Colorado’s San Juan National Forest.

The Rocky Mountain area — including Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas — is experiencing “a historic wildfire year,” Hartsburg said.

It¶¶Ňőap rare to see this many large, destructive wildfires in Colorado this early in the year, Stevens-Rumann said. Wildfires aren’t burning in “an unprecedented realm” on a national scale, but Colorado and the surrounding region are on the “more extreme side,” she said.

“We are only going into a world with more fires globally,” Stevens-Rumann said. “The likelihood of us having bad summers like this and bad winters like we did this last year is increasing. … That really bad fire season of 2020 is more like the mean conditions of the next decade.”

Colorado’s three largest wildfires on record sparked in 2020: the 208,913-acre Cameron Peak fire, the 193,812-acre East Troublesome fire and the 139,007-acre Pine Gulch fire, . When the Aspen Acres fire took spot number seven, it bumped the 2020 Logan fire — which consumed 32,546 acres — off the list of Colorado’s 20 largest fires.

As of Sunday, 38,956 wildfires reported in the United States in 2026 had burned more than 3.5 million acres, or 5,469 square miles, . were active at that time for parts of Colorado, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah and Arizona.

The hope is for a strong monsoon season to douse Colorado, abating the worst of the fire danger that hits in late summer, Stevens-Rumann said.

Dry, hot and windy weather is expected early this week, but then moisture enters the forecast, Colorado State Climatologist said.

“It¶¶Ňőap too early to say how much rain there’s going to be, but the pattern will shift to make it a bit more favorable for fighting fires and less favorable for fires to burn huge amounts of acreage in a short amount of time,” Schumacher said last week.

Most of the precipitation will be confined to the western half of Colorado, National Weather Service meteorologist Stephen Rodriguez said. It¶¶Ňőap not yet clear how much of the rain, if any, will make it across the Continental Divide, he said.

“It¶¶Ňőap still a question mark at this point,” Schumacher agreed.

Colorado’s monsoon season is expected to be more active than usual, at least west of the Continental Divide, which will increase humidity and make it easier for firefighters to tackle new fire starts, Schumacher said. Late-summer storms and the El Niño expected to bring more rain to the fall and snow to the winter won’t fix the drought, but Schumacher said both are reasons to be “cautiously optimistic” that the state’s wildfire risk will decrease.

In both 2020 and 2025, Colorado’s monsoon season was nearly nonexistent, prolonging dry wildfire weather, Schumacher said.

“If the monsoon does come through and we start getting that higher humidity, more cloud cover, chances of rain … then that will go a long way to limiting the potential for those really big, fast-growing fires that we’ve seen in the last few weeks,” he said.

But rain poses its own problems where fire has already struck. In the Aspen Acres burn scar, even half an inch could cause flooding and mudslides “given the severity of the burns,” Rodriguez said.

While rain can help extinguish active flames, it doesn’t change the landscape’s overall dryness and may only decrease fire risk for a few days, Stevens-Rumann said. The state needs consistent precipitation through the end of the summer to ward off the worst fire danger, she said.

“The concern about that, as we’ve seen already with the Aspen Acres fire, is a lot more unstable weather conditions,” Stevens-Rumann said. “A big thunderstorm means those winds are moving erratically, which can make fires bigger in unpredictable ways.”

Thunderstorms also come with the risk of lightning-sparked fires, Schumacher said, but the humidity limits the potential for rapid growth.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis declared a statewide drought emergency in June, fueled by the winter’s record-low snowpack and an abnormally warm spring. All of Colorado’s 64 counties are ranked as abnormally dry, and 91% of the state is considered to be in moderate to exceptional drought, .

An El Niño weather pattern took effect in June, which . El Niño years primarily bring drier weather to the northern United States and wetter conditions across the southern United States. Colorado falls on the cusp, but often experiences wetter weather, Schumacher said.

El Niño’s effect is strongest in the United States in winter, and this year is likely to be one of the strongest in recorded history, according to the .

With plenty of hope for wet weather on the horizon, Coloradans just need to make it through the heat wave expected this weekend, Schumacher said.

“Hopefully, after that, things start to turn in a better direction,” he said.

Colorado Republicans have spoken: First-time political candidate Victor Marx will lead the ticket as the party’s gubernatorial nominee in November.

The Associated Press called the race for Marx on Thursday, more than a week after the June 30 primary election. His closest opponent, state Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer, took an initial lead and then stayed close to Marx’s heels for more than a week. The religious nonprofit leader finally sealed his narrow win in the three-way race after final vote totals came in.

While Marx, 61, steadily gained ground and seemed to be the frontrunner in the final weeks of the race, the result was still remarkable for a party whose institutional leaders had coalesced around Kirkmeyer. His once-unlikely victory, powered by his direct outreach to voters and disinterest in traditional campaign tactics, laid bare the party’s still-unresolved internal struggle between more traditional and insurgent, conservative candidates.

Part of Marx’s appeal has been that he is not a politician. But in the coming months, he may have to act like one as he tries to unite his party — and appeal to voters beyond it in what’s become a firmly blue state. He’ll face Democrat Phil Weiser, the state’s attorney general, as his chief rival in November.

Colorado election results for the 2026 primary

And Marx will also almost certainly face more questions about his extensive and eye-popping personal history, which includes stories of hunting demons, high-risk humanitarian missions and a backwoods forced killing when he was a child.

Here's what to know about those claims and about the Republicans' gubernatorial nominee.

What is Marx's backstory?

The most scrutinized, questioned and difficult-to-verify part of Marx's candidacy is his extensive personal history. A Louisiana native, Marx has said he was the victim of profound abuse as a child. He has said he beheaded a cat as part of a voodoo ritual at age 3 and that he killed a man at age 7, both at the behest of his then-stepfather. (The sheriff in the Mississippi county where Marx says the killing took place has not returned messages seeking comment.)

Marx later joined the Marines, and toward the end of his time in the military, he reconnected with his birth father, Karl Marx. That, in turn, inspired him to embrace Christianity, which would later animate his campaign. He has said he is a black belt in "Cajun karate," a form of martial arts invented by his dad, and the younger Marx taught martial arts at schools in Hawaii.

He moved to Colorado Springs to work for Focus on the Family, a conservative ministry, and in 2003, he founded All Things Possible Ministries with his wife, Eileen, and supporters in Texas.

Marx is deeply religious and has said that he has freed people from demonic forces, which he's said can be brought on by pornography and unmarried couples living together.

What has his ministry done?

When it was founded, All Things Possible Ministries' goal was "to reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ through outreaches and crusades primarily to youth." Marx visited prisons and held speaking engagements elsewhere, where he sometimes demonstrated his claim to being . His group has provided trauma support to people, including through the distribution of stuffed animals loaded with prayers and songs.

After traveling to work with a former Special Forces soldier in Myanmar, Marx branched into what he's called "high-risk humanitarianism." He says he traveled to Iraq and Syria during conflicts with the Islamic State militant group, and he funded medical teams working with the Burma group to come and treat civilians caught in the crossfire.

Marx primarily played a support role there, though he was present at least twice when medics came under direct fire. His nonprofit's tax forms indicate the groups has spent more than $4.3 million in overseas efforts in recent years, though those records also indicate the group has no offices or staff in those countries.

Map: Where did the votes come from in the Colorado primary races for governor?

He has said his nonprofit, the annual revenues for which recently topped $7.5 million, now focuses on training law enforcement, and a police official in Colorado Springs said the group provides trauma support for officials investigating crimes against children. Marx said during the campaign that he and his wife had stepped down from the nonprofit.

What are some of his unsubstantiated claims?

Marx faced scrutiny during the primary campaign for several claims connected to him and the organization he co-founded. In an interview with 9News, he for a website claim that he'd rescued more than 45,000 women and children. Another humanitarian, with whom Marx worked in Burma and in the Middle East, confirmed to The Denver Post that Marx had traveled and worked in those countries, and the humanitarian said Marx played mostly support, funding and training roles.

Marx has said he called in an airstrike on Islamic State militants and that he entered Israel and Gaza shortly after the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas. The U.S. military, the Kurdish government in northern Iraq, and the Israeli military did not respond to messages from The Post seeking to verify Marx's claims. The humanitarian with whom Marx worked in Iraq was unfamiliar with his claims about an airstrike.

He also attracted attention for his refusal to answer when asked by journalists how many people he'd killed as an adult. "Does it matter?" he replied in the 9News interview.

Marx's political history and role in the GOP

Marx has never run for office before this race. He previewed his candidacy at a Charlie Kirk memorial last September and announced his run shortly after. Prior to his entry into the race, he hadn't donated money to any political causes in Colorado, according to state campaign finance records.

During the primary, he received few endorsements from institutional Republican voices, other than U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert and a handful of county sheriffs. Indeed, he was largely eschewed by the state's old-guard Republican officials. Both Kirkmeyer and state Rep. Scott Bottoms, who came in third in the primary, said they would not support his candidacy should he win. Dick Wadhams, a political consultant and former chair of the Colorado GOP, has sharply criticized Marx.

Marx, meanwhile, has embraced the opposition from what he's described as the political establishment, and he ran his campaign as a political outsider. He raised more money than Kirkmeyer and Bottoms combined.

His policy positions

Though he has shrugged off policy discussions, Marx has largely adopted policy positions familiar to Republican voters.

He has called for a reduction in the income tax, for audits of state agencies and for Medicaid work requirements that are stricter than those already passed by Congress. He said he would require state officials to cooperate with federal immigration authorities (which would require a change to state law), and he has generally called for supporting law enforcement and strengthening criminal penalties.

He has said he would issue a full pardon to Tina Peters, the former Mesa County clerk and election denier whose prison sentence was commuted by Gov. Jared Polis. Marx later softened that position in comments to the Colorado Sun. He has said he supports reducing "red tape" to make it easier to build housing, and he indicated to the Sun that he thought the state should provide support for pregnant women who are immigrants without permanent legal status.

The expanded program is intended to improve the state’s recycling rate — one of the worst in the nation — and it will be paid for by the companies that create packaging waste, such as Amazon and its massive volumes of cardboard boxes.

The was approved last year by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, and it is expected to provide free curbside recycling to more than 700,000 homes and businesses statewide by 2035.

“We knew it was coming, so that was part of the driving force in our decision to build this,” said Mark Snedecor, director of business development and infrastructure planning for WM, formerly Waste Management.

WM held a grand opening Thursday for its Denver East Recycling Facility & Hauling Site in Aurora with fanfare that included a visit from Gov. Jared Polis as well as the Colorado Rockies’ mascot, Dinger. The building has two miles of conveyor belts and massive machines that can sort plastic bottles, aluminum cans, cardboard and other garbage using light sensors, magnets, air and human hands.

The site also includes a station for WM’s trucks, which are fueled by compressed natural gas rather than diesel.

The company is planning to build an on-site plant that will convert methane from its nearby landfill to natural gas, said Tara Hemmer, WM’s chief operating officer. It will be able to create enough natural gas to power the equivalent of 15,000 homes.

WM needed to upgrade its Colorado recycling capabilities because the population is growing and the industry has changed, Snedecor said.

For example, the company handles less newsprint while cardboard boxes pile up with the surge of Amazon and other home-delivery services, he said. Because cardboard is heavier than newsprint, the machines need to be built differently to handle the weight.

The facility’s machines can also strip off the shrink-wrapped labels that cover drink bottles and other food products, then bundle that waste. For now, that material has no other uses, but WM is working to figure out how to reuse it, Snedecor said.

Polis, who signed in 2022 that created the expanded statewide program, lauded the new facility as an example of how environmental sustainability can become an economic opportunity.

“Garbage is an opportunity,” he said.

The statewide expansion will be funded by fees assessed to the companies that create packaging waste, and it is overseen by a , which sets the fees in cooperation with the Department of Public Health and Environment.

The amount companies will be charged depends on how much waste they create and how much money they make.

“What that’s meant to do is to encourage producers to make their packaging easy to recycle,” said Brandy Moe, Recycle Colorado’s executive director.

The first round of fees was due by June 1. The health department is considering a change in how it calculates the revenue that would exempt a company from mandatory participation in the program, according to its website.

State regulators, trash companies, packaging companies and others have spent years planning for the expanded program, Moe said. It will roll first out to single-family homes before expanding to apartment complexes and commercial sites.

Every home and business in the state should have curbside recycling by 2035.

The rollout will include a public education campaign to help people understand what they can recycle.

“It’s about to go live,” Moe said. “All the things are about to come together. There’s going to be a learning curve.”