Does the rejection of mountain lion hunting ban mark a step toward bridging the urban-rural divide?
In 2020, 13 Colorado counties supported Proposition 114, which required Colorado Parks and Wildlife to reintroduce gray wolves to western Colorado. Four years later, only six counties supported Proposition 127, which would have banned mountain lion hunting.
The wolf reintroduction measure narrowly passed, thanks to urban voters. (A majority of support for wolf reintroduction came from eight densely populated Front Range counties, which accounted for 73% — 1.2 million — of the 1.5 million yes votes for Prop. 114 .)
The mountain lion hunting ban did not pass , partly due to urban voters who rejected the proposal in formerly pro-wolf Adams, El Paso, Jefferson and Larimer counties.
It's the first time in four elections dating back to 1992 that voters have turned down a wildlife proposal.
Rural communities overwhelmingly rejected the lion hunting ban. In places where wolves have been hunting livestock , the margins were huge, with, for example, 90% of voters in Jackson County and 76% of voters in Grand County voting no.
But it's the urban voters along the Front Range who tend to carry the most influence in statewide elections. After the troubled rollout of wolf reintroduction in Colorado in the past year, with ranchers struggling to deal with wolves killing livestock, could urban voters finally be listening to their rural neighbors?
Sen. Dylan Roberts, a Democrat from Avon, said part of the reason Prop. 127 failed is that rural voices were more vocal this year. Opponents of the mountain lion ban were much better organized this year compared to the wolf reintroduction vote in 2020, which did not include an organized opposition campaign.
"I think there was a recognition that maybe if we work a little bit harder, raise a little money and work together we can beat this," Roberts said.
And the well-publicized issues with the wolf reintroduction helped everyone in Colorado realize the challenges of imposing voter mandates on rural communities and wildlife officials, Roberts said.
"There is no question the rocky and rushed rollout of the wolf measure and the negative impacts has clearly resonated across the state," Roberts said.
Lauren Truitt, the former head of education and information for Colorado Parks and Wildlife who worked with the 200-member Colorado Wildlife Employees Protective Association to oppose the lion hunting ban, said the Prop. 127 vote "is the voter base putting its trust back where it belongs, with the science and the wildlife experts. I hope this is a step in the right direction to help rebuild trust between the Front Range and the Western Slope."
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In Their Words Forest Service plans a hiring freeze and volunteer trail groups are bracing for extra dutyThe U.S. Forest Service was hoping for $8.9 billion for 2025 , to help pay its 30,000 employees, manage its 193 million acres and fight wildfires.
While a final allocation from Congress is pending, early signs suggest the chronically underfunded and overworked agency will not be getting that much. So, Forest Service chief Randy Moore is planning to not hire seasonal workers next year.
"We have an opportunity to do what we can with what we have," Moore told employees Sept. 16 , noting that the agency has lost about 8,000 jobs in the last 20 years and he is "seeing indications of a stressed workforce."
He warned his employees that priorities would be shifting with reduced funding. "We are not going to do everything that is expected of us with fewer people."
Volunteer groups that work with the Forest Service are braced for "some frustration and challenges upcoming for 2025," said Doozie Martin, executive director of Friends of the Dillon Ranger District.
Forest Service officials have asked most of their partners to not anticipate big projects in 2025 as the agency struggles through its belt-tightening.
The 20-year-old Friends of the Dillon Ranger District regularly delivers about 1,000 volunteer days a year in the White River National Forest's Dillon district, which accounts for about half the 17 million visits to the White River National Forest, the most trafficked forest in the country . The nonprofit last year provided more than 8,500 volunteer hours and collected 500 bags of trash on the public lands around Summit County and helped educate 1,516 local kids through its youth programs.
"We are lucky we live in an area where we get a lot of community support from the community and that is not something I expect will recede," Martin said. "Perhaps we will need to adjust our programming ... but right now, I still anticipate having our 1,000 volunteers patrolling the trails and reporting back to land managers. I think we can accomplish a similar amount to what we have in the past."
The budget issues mean the White River National Forest — where more than 17 million annual visits to 2.3 million acres stir an economic impact of $1.6 billion in rural Colorado — will have about 30 fewer seasonal workers next year.
Those seasonal jobs — not including firefighting crews — include fuels reduction, fire prevention and education, campsite management, public education, biological field work and trail maintenance and construction.
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Breaking Trail Winter Park Express ski train offering more seats for as much as $50 cheaper than last winterThe Winter Park Express train will offer more seats and more frequent trips between Denver and Winter Park with tickets priced lower than last year. And Winter Park ski area this week announced it will open Friday, a bit earlier than usual thanks to recent snow and a new $37 million snowmaking overhaul .
The increased options and affordability of what was once called the Ski Train reflect a growing call for better passenger rail traffic in Colorado . Transportation officials are eyeing the tracks running between Denver and Steamboat Springs and Craig for passenger traffic — which ended in 1968 — as the flow of coal trains slows from soon-to-be-retired power plants in northwestern Colorado.
The Winter Park Express expanded service will include trains running between Denver and Fraser every Thursday through Monday, January through March. The trains also will run a holiday service Dec. 20-22 and Dec. 27-29. The increased frequency is part of a partnership between the Colorado Department of Transportation and the Winter Park ski area managed by Alterra Mountain Co.
The new service will include two more passenger train cars than last winter, increasing the number of available seats per trip to 402, up from 268 last year. The trains will run a total of 69 round trips between Denver's Union Station and Fraser — with a stop, of course, at the Winter Park ski area station — which is 29 more than last season.
Round-trip tickets will cost between $38 and $78, with kids fares starting at $19. That's down from $58 to $118 last winter. And skis and boards are free. (Get tickets at Amtrak.com/WinterParkExpress .)
The Winter Park Ski Train started in 1940, ferrying kids with the famed Eskimo Ski Club along the 56-mile route through the Moffat Tunnel between Denver and the Winter Park. Steadily declining ridership and rising insurance costs forced then-owner Philip Anschutz to close the Ski Train in 2009. Amtrak resurrected the service in 2017 with its Superliner double-decker cars dropping skiers at the base of the Winter Park ski area.
The train offers an alternative for Winter Park skiers wary of weekend traffic on Interstate 70 and U.S. 40 over Berthoud Pass.
"The Winter Park Express gives people another way to get to the slopes that's more scenic, sustainable, and relaxing than getting in a car and driving," said the ski area's president Sky Foulkes, in a statement.
The Playground New owners revive The Pro's ClosetThe Pro's Closet was shut down for less than a month when new investors and former employees of the Boulder County used-bike retailer revived the business.
Private investment firm Elshair Companies — founded in 2020 by Arizona e-commerce entrepreneur Yasser Elshair — has given The Pro's Closet a second chance after the innovative re-commerce company suddenly closed its doors and liquidated everything in its 137,000-square-foot Louisville warehouse last month.
That warehouse "was one of the problems we had to correct," said Justin England, who joined the company in 2009 and is now chief revenue officer under the new owners. The Pro's Closet raised more than $90 million in the past decade from different equity firms, including $12 million in 2020 from Foundry Group and Edison Partners to enable a move to the sprawling Louisville facility from Boulder.
"The first 10 to 12 years of the business we were on a steady and predictable growth train and then we took on some funding that helped accelerate our growth curve but started us on a path that wasn't sustainable," England said.
The post-pandemic slump in bike sales sent the company into a tailspin. The new owners are "going to steer the business back to our roots," England said of the company that was founded in 2006 by former mountain biker Nick Martin selling high-end bikes out of his vintage VW van.
Elshair Companies has investments in online marketplaces like Jane.com, FragrantJewels.com and OliveOil.com. Earlier this week The Pro's Closet resumed buying bikes, frames, wheels and bike parts through its website with plans to have a selection of bikes for sale before the end of the year.
The re-commerce model of buying and fixing up used high-end road, gravel and mountain bikes for resale works in a both a down and booming economy, England said, repeating an oft-heard mantra of the bustling used-gear business .
"In downturns people are looking for bargains and TPC is going to have those kinds of deals and in upswings the TPC model makes it easy for customers to get great value on their used bike to use toward a new purchase," he said. "There is opportunity on the horizon."
The Guide Voters in two Western Slopes communities take different tacks on infrastructure projectsThis week, voters in one valley of the Western Slope sided with county commissioners in support of a major airport infrastructure project while voters in another community rejected a commissioner-backed plan for road improvements .
Mesa County voters denied a controversial plan for a new interchange project at Interstate 70 in Grand Junction.
"We heard the voters loud and clear. It's too much money for the moment. It was a big ask," Mesa County Commissioner Cody Davis said shortly after he learned that he had won a second term but lost the 29 Road interchange measure he had championed.
Davis told Sun freelancer Nancy Lofholm that another traffic-mitigating measure along the interstate might be promoted in the future after more planning and work with the Colorado Department of Transportation on financing such a project.
Ballot Issue 1A asked voters to approve bond debt to finance a new $68 million interchange at I-70 and 29 Road as part of a decades-long plan to improve traffic flow in Grand Junction. Another $12 million was planned for expansions on 29 Road. Mesa County and the city of Grand Junction planned to split the cost of the project.
Opponents said the project needed more study to secure additional funding from the state and landowners who could benefit from the improved road and interchange. The Mesa County commissioners and economic development promoters supported the project, while a vocal group of opponents, including several Grand Junction City Council members, had carried out an equally energetic campaign against it.
"I'm pleased the citizens of Mesa County rejected this expensive boondoggle," John Traylor, one of the lead voices for the opposition, told Lofholm. "Let's hope Mesa County can now focus on real priorities for this county."
Meanwhile in Pitkin County, voters supported the role of county leaders in shaping development at the Aspen-Pitkin County Airport and rejected a citizen-backed ballot question that would have required public votes on the expansion of the runway at the airport known as Sardy Field.
A simmering fight over the airport had pitted citizens worried that a bigger airport would cater to larger private planes and encourage more growth in the Roaring Fork Valley while county leaders and a group of airport advocates supported an improved runway for airline safety and improved efficiency.
The Federal Aviation Administration in late October gave the county commissioners the go-ahead on a long planned renovation and expansion of the runway at Sardy Field. If voters had approved the citizen-initiated measure, Question 200, the FAA had warned it might withhold federal funding for airport improvements.
Former Aspen Mayor John Bennett, in a news release from the group A Whole Lot of People for a Better Airport, said the election was "a milestone in achieving our vision of a modern airport that's better aligned with our community values and priorities ... a quieter airport with lower greenhouse gas emissions and a comfortable, green terminal we can all be proud of."
If election results left you steamed, at least Tuesday delivered a lot of new snow in the high country to help cool you off. This weekend, lifts will be turning at Arapahoe Basin, Breckenridge Copper Mountain, Keystone, Winter Park and Wolf Creek. Hope you get a chance to make some turns. Thanks for reading The Sun.
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