CCC Legacy Lingers on Forest — With a Little Help

CCC Legacy Lingers on Forest — With a Little Help

Civilian Conservation Corps laborers in 1933 work on the foundation for the Tigiwon community center, a building intended for pilgrims coming to view the Mount of the Holy Cross. US Forest Service photo.

ASPEN PUBLIC RADIO

In the midst of the Great Depression, thousands of out-of-work young men from across the country found jobs in Colorado in the Civilian Conservation Corps. The government relief program hired laborers to build roads, cut trails and raise buildings on public lands throughout the United States. Nearly eighty years later, their work can still be seen in some of the most popular trails and landmarks on the White River National Forest. Now, some of those sites are getting a little extra protection to preserve their legacy into the future. (more…)

Land Trusts Protect Disappearing Landscapes and Lifestyles

Land Trusts Protect Disappearing Landscapes and Lifestyles

Touch-Me-Not Mountain Preserve Conservation Easement overlooking Eagle Nest Reservoir and the Village of Eagle Nest. Photo courtesy Taos Land Trust

OUT HERE MAGAZINE

The Barber Farm in Rowan County, N.C., has been handed down in the family from generation to generation since it was settled in 1794. In those two centuries, it’s always been a farm, and even as industrial development spreads across the landscape around it, it always will be a farm. (more…)

In Oil Shale Hearings, Opinions Sharply Split

In Oil Shale Hearings, Opinions Sharply Split

Shell's experimental oil shale facility in western Colorado. David Frey photo.

NewWest.NetTo boosters, it’s almost a magical elixir for the world’s energy woes. To opponents, it’s more akin to snake oil. Even more than most other fossil fuels, oil shale meets with a sharply divided reaction, and after two weeks of public hearings across Utah, Wyoming and Colorado, federal officials have received an earful from both sides.

But beyond the bluster, those in the middle feel left in a vacuum of straight talk. (more…)

Fossils Paint Mammoth Picture of Changing Climate

Fossils Paint Mammoth Picture of Changing Climate

Photo courtesy Denver Museum of Nature & Science.

Scientists digging into the peat below Ziegler Reservoir at Snowmass Village, Colorado, found something like an Ice Age zoo last fall. Now, as they prepare to start digging again next month, they also have a puzzle.

Researchers are hunched over in labs piecing together fragments of mastodon skulls and ancient deer antlers. But scientists are also piecing together bigger questions. When did these animals die? Why there? And more importantly, what can they tell us about climate change – then and now? (more…)