Environment

Fracking documentaries square off in Boulder tonight

By Alan Prendergast Wed., May 22 2013 at 12:29 PM
Categories: Environment, Follow That Story, Television & Film, Things to Do

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Filmmakers Josh Fox and Phelim McAleer are having quite an argument, but mostly on film and not in the same room. Both men will be in Boulder tonight at the same time to present documentaries that claim to expose the truth about using hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in natural gas drilling. But the events are scheduled in different venues, and undecided moviegoers should be advised that the two films have contrary ideas of what the underlying "truth" about fracking might be.

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News

Hentzell Park: Neighbors launch drive to stop Denver land swap

By Alan Prendergast Tue., May 21 2013 at 12:50 PM
Categories: Education, Environment, Follow That Story, News, Politics

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Michael Hancock.
A much-contested deal to trade eleven acres of open space in the Cherry Creek corridor for an office building in central Denver, pushed by Mayor Michael Hancock and approved by city council in April, has triggered not one but two citizen petition drives to nix the swap and protect the land in question -- one of the last remnants of a prairie ecosystem in the city limits.

Voters may get to decide the matter this fall, although the city's efforts to squelch the campaign may result in a battle in court first.

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Follow That Story

Prairie dog poisonings not the only things angering Stapleton residents

By Alan Prendergast Mon., May 13 2013 at 1:05 PM
Categories: Business, Environment, Follow That Story

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This week's feature, "The Dogs of War," reports on the ongoing campaign to manage -- and, in some cases, exterminate with poison -- prairie dog colonies in the emerging Stapleton community. Master developer Forest City and city park managers are battling to protect natural-looking (but not quite natural) open space areas from being overrun with the rodents, a keystone species of the shortgrass prairie ecosystem, while touting the development as a "return to Denver's natural heritage as a city established on the prairie."

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Videos

Video: How to understand what prairie dogs are saying -- and if they think you're fat

By Alan Prendergast Fri., May 10 2013 at 5:50 AM
Categories: Environment, Follow That Story, Videos

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"Short fat guy! Green shirt!"
This week's cover story, "The Dogs of War," examines increased efforts to eradicate prairie dogs around the metro Denver area -- particularly in Stapleton, where developers and park managers have found it easier to poison the pesky rodents than relocate them. That's stirred up outrage from advocacy groups and parents.

It also raises questions about what happens to other wildlife when a keystone species is exterminated to protect well-groomed open space and "natural" areas that aren't really natural.

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Environment

Wolverine, the sequel: Feds propose to bring tough weasel back to Colorado

By Alan Prendergast Mon., May 6 2013 at 11:50 AM
Categories: Environment, News, Politics

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One tough weasel.
Today is the last day for public comment on a proposal by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to bring the wolverine -- not the Marvel character with the sharp claws, adamantium skeleton and tortured backstory, but something even more awesome and much, much more badass than Hugh Jackman -- back to the southern Rockies. And that means M56, the only confirmed wolverine currently hanging out in Colorado's high country, may be in for some company soon, after at least four years of lonesome wandering and solo hunting-and-slashing.

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Videos

Video: Fracking protesters disrupt energy conference with balloon alarms

By Alan Prendergast Tue., Apr. 23 2013 at 10:50 AM
Categories: Business, Environment, Politics, Videos

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Photos, video below.
If you're looking for a crash course in how to be annoying, you could do worse than study the guerrilla tactics of Colorado Extraction Resistance, a group of activists bent on chafing the thick hides of energy interests who rely on hydraulic fracturing methods to drill for oil and gas. The group infiltrated a major industry gathering in downtown Denver last week, to noisy effect -- generating an online account of the affair that concludes, "It was much easier than you might think. All you need is fancy clothes, a few days for planning, and a little bit of raw nerve."

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Environment

Crown Hill Park open-space defenders protest Jefferson County's "nature play" proposal

By Alan Prendergast Tue., Mar. 12 2013 at 2:57 PM
Categories: Environment, News, Politics

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Plenty of folks in Colorado like their nature as natural as possible.

So when park officials began pushing for various amenities and improvements at a popular open-space area in Denver's western suburbs -- including close to $200,000 worth of "nature play" installations that look a lot like playgrounds -- the nature lovers pushed back in force.

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Environment

Photo: Billboard gives thanks -- and advice -- to embattled BLM director

By Alan Prendergast Wed., Feb. 27 2013 at 1:02 PM
Categories: Environment, Follow That Story, News, Politics

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Helen Hankins.
When you're a bureaucrat under fire, accused of being a tool of Big Oil, there's nothing like a big, wet kiss from your critics to let you know you're being watched -- closely. Particularly if that greeting takes the form of a giant billboard on I-70 in Golden, not far from the Bureau of Land Management office where Colorado director Helen Hankins ponders oil and gas leases on public lands and other weighty matters.

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Politics

Fracking secrecy: Judge orders BLM to reveal companies seeking to drill the North Fork Valley

By Alan Prendergast Fri., Feb. 15 2013 at 2:57 PM
Categories: Business, Environment, Follow That Story, Politics

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Colorado drill pads.
In what's being hailed as a major victory for community groups fighting fracking projects, a Denver federal judge has ruled that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management can no longer keep secret the identity of companies seeking to obtain oil and gas leases on public lands. The landmark ruling reverses decades of government policy and has a direct bearing on the much-watched and contentious battle over 30,000 acres of proposed leases in Colorado's scenic North Fork Valley.

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Environment

Cycling: 15th Street Bikeway won't be a trail connecting to nowhere, city says

By Michael Roberts Fri., Feb. 15 2013 at 11:58 AM
Categories: Environment, Follow That Story

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Big photos below.
A proposed bike lane for 15th Street has been a hot topic in the cycling community, with the advocacy organization BikeDenver making its feelings known at a Valentine's Day love-in at which members presented more than 200 I-love-bike-lanes cards to Mayor Michael Hancock's office; see photos below. Meanwhile, the Public Works department is rallying support for its approach by, among other things, reassuring a critic who shared his thoughts in our comments section.

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