The Lost Creek Guide February 16, 2022

Volume 15 • Edition 4

February 16, 2022

Delivering to over 17,000 homes & businesses in rural Adams, Morgan, and Weld Counties

“Truth will ultimately prevail where there is pains taken to bring it to light” George Washington “If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed” Thomas Jefferson

Benchmarks of COVID Steadily Improving in Colorado, Though Still High

By John Daley, Colorado Public Radio

Hart Van Denburg/CPR News Brynn McFerrin, 5, gets her first COVID-19 vaccination Tuesday, November 9, 2021, at National Jewish Hospital in Denver.

With hospitalizations and test positivity rates on a steady decline, pandemic numbers are looking better every day in Colorado.

Confirmed COVID-19 hospitalizations fell to 979 on Monday. It’s the first time the number has been below a thousand since late last year and is back to about where it was in mid-October.

The majority, 64 percent, of hospitalized COVID-19 patients are unvaccinated.

The positivity rate, the rate of positive tests, a key gauge of transmission, dropped to 12.22 percent. That’s still more than double the level public health experts such as University of Colorado epidemiologist May Chu says signals concern.

Omicron COVID cases are falling in Colorado. What that means for hospitals, masking and life “I would say between 3 and 5 percent. I usually say 3 percent, I think it’s better.

Five percent or lower is manageable for hospitals,” said Chu, a clinical professor at Colorado School of Public Health.

She said Coloradans can drive the number down by getting vaccinated and continuing to adhere to measures like masking, distancing and avoiding crowded indoor spaces.

“We’re not done yet,” Chu said.

Benchmarks of COVID Steadily Improving in Colorado, Though Still High Continued on page 14...

Invitation to Work Session on Town of Keenesburg 2022 Budget “The Mayor & the Trustees have scheduled an informal public meeting to review the 2022 Town of Keenesburg budget and the associated funds, the purpose of those funds; planned improvements, the funding source for those improvements; to answer questions related to the budget; staff compensation; water & sewer rate increases; as well as any other questions. This meeting is scheduled for Monday, February 28th, 2022, at 6:00pm. There has been great public participation at the board meetings and this participation is very welcomed and appreciated. The board felt that an informal public meeting would offer the best opportunity for residents to have a conversation with the Mayor and the Board members. If you have specific questions, we ask that you submit those questions in advance to the Town Clerk, Christina Fernandez at tokclerk@rtebb.net . This will help the board be prepared and have the information at hand. Thank you in advance for this consideration.”

Quoted from Keenesburg February Newsletter.

The meeting, we believe, will be held at the old town hall located at 140 S. Main Street. This informational sharing is provided as a community service by the Lost Creek Guide. There have been some fundamental questions raised about the budgeting decision process. The Mayor and the Trustees did not have to hold another public work session on the budget as all the appropriate budget review meeting were posted with appropriate notice with little public attendance. So, we must thank the Mayor and The Trustees for providing this opportunity. If you are interested in how your tax dollars are collected and how they were allocated in the Town of Keenesburg we strongly suggest that you attend this meeting. It is your money. If you show no interest what message does that send?

As Colorado Warms, Dry Soil Sucks Up More Water. That’s Bad News for Rivers and Farmers.

Increasingly dry soils could spell big trouble for reservoirs, agriculture, forest health and pose greater risk of wildfire.

by David Gilbert, The Colorado Sun The soil is changing.

Increasingly dry soils could spell big trouble for reservoirs, agriculture, forest health and pose greater risk of wildfire.

John Stulp was born on the Eastern Plains. Fifty years ago he began farming with his father-in-law near Lamar. Together he and his wife, Jane, brought up five children in southeastern Colorado, raising cattle and dryland wheat.

Along the way Stulp was elected as a Prowers County commissioner, and later served as Gov. Bill Ritter’s commissioner of agriculture and Gov. John Hickenlooper’s water policy adviser. When his service to the state was done in 2019, he headed back home to the prairie.

But the prairie is changing.

Winter wheat crops are becoming more unpredictable as hot, dry weather lasts longer. Where it once took 30 acres of pasture to support a cow and calf, it now takes 40 or more. As farming the prairie becomes a more marginal enterprise, ranchers are selling off cattle, farms are consolidating and families are leaving. Year after year, the area sets records: Driest summers. Driest winters. The last six months of 2021 were the hottest in Colorado’s recorded history, beating records set nearly a century ago in the Dust Bowl.

“We’re in trouble,” said Stulp, 73. Wheat planted in the fall in anticipation of being watered by winter snow is performing poorly, he said.

“The topsoil is so dried out, when we do get moisture, it doesn’t go very far. The wind sucks up the rest. It’s climate change, no question about it. If we get 3-4 degrees warmer like they say we might, it’ll look more like Albuquerque around here, and they don’t do a lot of farming around Albuquerque.”

Meanwhile, in Colorado’s high country, scientists monitoring snowpack in the mountains are noticing a strange phenomenon: even in strong snowpack years, it’s translating into less spring runoff into rivers and streams, as soils left parched by long stretches of hot weather drink first before any water runs on.

With Colorado facing a warmer future, scientists are looking at how increasingly dry soils could spell big trouble for reservoirs, agriculture, forest health and pose greater risk of wildfire.

Underperforming snowpack “Even if precipitation doesn’t decline, a warmer future is a drier future,” said Peter Goble, a climatologist at Colorado State University’s Climate Center who studies soil moisture. “In a warmer world, the water we have gets used more quickly.”

The idea that dry soils soak up more snowpack isn’t new, Goble said, but the data is still emerging, and long-term trends are tough to suss out. Some soil moisture modeling data goes back to the 1970s in Colorado, but most consistent observations go back only to the 1990s. Scientists are still in the process of distributing networks of soil moisture monitors statewide.

As Colorado Warms, Dry Soil Sucks Up More Water. That’s Bad News for Rivers and Farmers. Continued on page 7...

WHAT’S IN THIS ISSUE

Page 2: Way of the World

Page 3: Cindy Baumgartner Comments to Keenesburg Trustees Page 6: Arizona Attorney General on Border Crisis Page 6: Colorado Livestock Association New CEO Page 9: Conservation Easement Update Page 12: Time to Balance the Federal Budget – Again

by Newt Gingrich Page 16: Prairie Takes Pair from Weldon Valley Page 16: Colorado Gets Federal Money to Clean Up Abandoned Wells

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Way of the World

by Bob Grand, Lost Creek Guide The super bowl is over as is Valentine’s Day. I hope everyone had a good day for both. The rest of the world is not so simple. We wait to see what Vladimir Putin is going to do. This blind man’s bluff game is not funny as there is a great deal at stake.

The fact the man is considering invading Ukraine is as strong a statement I know of about how little respect he has for the United States.

A report has come out that Dr. Angelique Coetzee, discoverer of the Omicron-19 strains, was pressured by European governments not to disclose that it had a mild presentation compared to the original COVID-19 viruses. Where was our CDC on this?

Recognize many people profited both financially and politically from the driving effort to impose total control on our lives from Washington D.C. The fiscal impact has been horrific, but we still do not know the full impact on our young people after almost two tears of lock down during their prime developmental years. The 2022 elections will become a statement of what happens when you really offend the American voter. A recent quote submitted by Steve Lurie on the editorial page of the Epoch Times said: “A person was asked are you a Republican, and the reply was no. Are you a Democrat?

And the reply was no., then what are you? I am an American.”

Americans are fed up with the policies and lack of action that have driven inflation, crime, lack of border security to where they are. The results will have a long-lasting effect on the future of the American way of life as we knew it. The sad part of this is that there is a bigger issue that not many people are talking about, and that is the invisible government bureaucracy that is driving so much of this massive government overreach from Washington. We, the citizens have allowed, our politicians, Democratic or Republican, to let this monster of self-serving government bureaucrats to grow unabated.

The 10th Amendment is one sentence long: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, or prohibited by it to the states are reserved to the states respectively or to the people” We should be asking all of our candidates running for federal office how they feel about this. We spend a lot of money supporting the bureaucracy in Washington that would be better off spent on our local issues. Being closer to where the action really is should result in an improvement in accountability and measurable improvement. It is up to us, as citizens, to make that happen. Easier said than done. It takes some time and commitment but if we do not, we turn ourselves over to the monster in Washington that is only interested in preserving their elite status, at least in their minds. Somebody should ask Michael Bennett why his fourth quarter funding raising report shows such a dramatic representation of out of state money coming into his coffers. Do you think that comes from people who are interested in him really representing Coloradans?

The whole pandemic experience has not been a pleasant one for most people.

A bright spot maybe that it has really highlighted the self-centered focus of the bureaucrats in Washington who want to control our lives. As George Orwell put it in his book 1984, “the majority of the population are to be considered trolls, who know not what they really need”. I resent that.

The Marshall fire recovery is not moving as fast as hoped. The Boulder County regulatory process is holding back progress. After all, haven’t we been trained to accept that regulations promulgated by bureaucrats are much more important than simple ordinary citizens. What craziness!

A story we are following up with is that this past year there has been a sharp uptick in deaths between eighteen and forty-nine year olds that is not COVID related. Such an uptick that is impacting insurance company profits as the mortality rate has jumped almost 40%. Not much out of Washington on this yet.

As always, your thoughts and comments are always appreciated. publisher@ lostcreekguide.com

Keenesburg Board of Trustee Meeting February 7th, 2022 The meeting was relatively short with very sparse attendance from town residents.

In public comment I again asked if the Board had thought about the water and sewer rate increases, specifically related to the date of implementation. The Town of Keenesburg , in five separate e town publications identified the effective date of the increases, including three newsletter, the actual ordinance and the special notice, all called for an effective date of January 1ST, 2022. The Town effectively started with the January billing which reflects the December usage, or in effect makes the rate increases effective December 1st 2021,which is not what the town publications

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February 16, 2022

advertised to the public. Words have plain meaning. Effective January 1st 2022 means January 1st 2022, not December 1st 2021. The Town Trustees must ask themselves what was their intent and then consider what they said, repeatedly. I think the Town owes a credit back for the water & sewer rate increases that were put into effect one month prematurely. Come to the budget work session on February 28th, 2022 and share your thoughts. Nobody is perfect but when you make a mistake fess up to it, and correct it.

New CDL Requirements Take Effect Monday and Could Cost You Up to $8,500 and Weeks of Training

By Tyne Morgan

New federal requirements for a commercial drivers license (CDL) take hold Monday, and it could have a major impact on anything from hauling grain to picking up a piece of equipment that’s more than 150 miles from your farm. (File Photo )

New federal requirements for a commercial drivers license (CDL) take hold Monday, and it could have a major impact on anything from hauling grain or livestock to picking up a piece of equipment that’s more than 150 miles from your farm.

According to the Illinois Fertilizer and Chemical Association (ILFA), the new requirements could have a major impact on the movement of inputs. The Association says the new requirements mean an entry-level driver must successfully complete a prescribed program on theory and behind-the-wheel instruction provided by a school or other entity listed on FMCSA’s Training Provider Registry, all prior to taking the CDL test.

“No longer will be the days of obtaining a learner’s permit, driving with a CDL holder for as little as a few hours and then taking the CDL road test,” says ILFA. “This new process will become more detailed and will take more time than the previous CDL process.”

“For agriculture, it will really be the same impact as the transportation industry.

If you need to obtain a CDL, it’s more hoops to jump through. With the shortage of drivers already existing, adding in the new requirement will deter drivers from getting into transportation, further decreasing the pool of CDL drivers,” says Kelly Krapu, safety director for True North Compliance Services in West Fargo, N.D., a company that helps trucking companies and drivers navigate rules and regulations on the road.

New CDL Requirements Starting Monday, Feb. 7, anyone obtaining an entry level CDL, will be required to obtain a higher level of training. According to the new ELDT regulations, the new training will be required for anyone: • seeking a Class A or Class B CDL for the first time • upgrading an existing Class B CDL to Class A CDL • obtaining a first-time school bus (S), passenger (P) or hazardous materials (H) endorsement.

With the changes, to either obtain a Class B or A, or upgrade from a Class B to a Class A: • Drivers will be required to obtain training (theory and behind-the wheel) PRIOR to taking the CDL knowledge test for a commercial learner’s permit (CLP) • Training must be provided by an entity or individual listed on the FMCSA’s Training Provider Registry • The State Driver Licensing Agency will be required to verify training has been completed before allowing the driver to proceed to the next step (this is done via electronic records uploaded by the trainer) • If a new driver presents to the State Licensing Bureau without training, they will be turned away Prior to Feb. 7, in order to get a CDL, applicants had to do the following: • Obtain a medical certificate (if required for your operation there are some exemptions) • Complete the CDL application and pay state fee • Provide proof of identity • Pass knowledge test • Commercial Learner’s Permit (CLP) issued • Use CLP in a commercial vehicle with another CDL holder until comfortable (minimum waiting time varies by state) • Return to State Licensing Bureau for road test – pass the road test • Issued a CDL (class of license depends on test taken and vehicle used) According to Krapu, the changes will be costly, not only in terms of money but also time.

“These classes range from $2,500 to $8,500, depending on the trainer, and can take from 3 days to 20 days depending on the individuals experience,” she says.

Krapu says farmers are exempt from CDL requirements as long as they stay within a 150-air-mile radius of their farm operation. However, there are some areas of which Krapu says farmers should take note.

“If a farmer who is located in Ellendale, N.D., wants to drive their one ton pick-up with a flat bed trailer to pick up a new tractor for their farm in Omaha, Neb., they would be subject to regulations because they are outside the 150 miles from their operation and all federal transportation regulations would then apply, including needing a CDL to go get the new tractor in Nebraska,” says Krapu.

New CDL Requirements Take Effect Monday and Could Cost You Up to $8,500 and Weeks of Training Continued on page 3...

February 16, 2022

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Cindy Baumgartner Note to Keenesburg Board of Trustees February 7th, 2022

Citizens of Keenesburg: I handed this to the town board at the February 7th meeting and I wanted to keep you informed on the information I’m given and what I found during my research. I’m hoping all of you get involved if in no other way then getting on line and join the towns meetings. Again mark your calendars for February 28th, and bring your questions.

I had said that if I received updates from the towns I had request public records from, I would share. So here is La Salle’s, they are taking increases starting January 2022. Increases for trash service, sewer base and water base. Their water comes from Central Weld Conservancy Water, they will be raising their rates by 4% until 2029 which will be around 32%. And they have not decided yet on the other two increases.

Brighton is raising their multi-family, commercial, industrial, mixed uses and schools storm drainage fees and the way it is calculated. But they too are doing it in a way to help the citizen’s plan and adjust their budgets to prepare for the increase, they are spreading it out over three years.

I received Platteville’s response to the request I sent. It reads as Town Manager salary for 2022 $110,599.00, Public Works Director 2022 $79,029.34. Number of utility bills mailed monthly is 980 with 40 total employees.

I have not yet heard back from Douglas Camrud from the CDPHE, but hoping to hear something soon. He is looking for someone in other states that is using the Bi02 system. Since he knows of no one using it in the state of Colorado.

When I asked Mr. Camrud this thoughts of the Bi02 system working with our waste water lagoon system, his response was he didn’t know. And the reason is because the town of Keenesburg has not yet submitted their application to the state for the engineering department to review. So I ask you the board you approved Resolution 2021-67 out lining the agreement with CAPEX for payment to build, engineering and preparing the application for the CDPHE. With the first payment being in the amount of $756,155.49, I’m asking you what happens if the state has a negative response to the application. Since this could be their first review of this kind of system in Colorado.

And having worked with engineers for many years. I’ve seen great plans on paper but during construction and commissioning the project always has its issues. Some with small issues but more have major issues to address during construction and always with commissioning.

Mr. Camrud did have some better news when he said that the state may never require a town to stop using their lagoons, but would require them due to stricter testing limits to install a system that brings the lagoons effluent up to state standards to discharge into creeks and rivers.

This made me curious, what are other towns around us that are still using lagoons hearing. So I contact LaSalle, Mr. Schaeffer which said they are still using the lagoons they built in 1964 and discharge in the river. With the tightening regulations the town is looking for ways to comply with the state in the future. He told me to contact Platteville because they are in the construction process now.

I contacted Dave Brand the towns Public Works Director. He said they are still using their lagoons but by the end of 2022 they needed an improved system.

I asked if they had looked into the Bi02 system to treat their effluent water. He said they did but dismissed it because of it being unproven process. And the warranty they offered was not enough of an incentive to be one of the first to use the Bi02 technology.

So they then looked into a company in Slater, Iowa called Gross Wen Technology or GWT. This process is for lagoon effluent, it is a belt system. It also is a system that can expand with your lagoons for future growth. With a cost of 3.5 MM which would meet Platteville capacity of 34.8 MGD or 348,000 gallons a day, Mr. Brand and his engineers were very impressed with this system. GWT also offers two means of generating revenue first, selling the water from it. Which any process that can meet state standards, allows water be sold. But this process also grows algae, which can generate revenue. (I just took a quick look and saw alga can go for $19,000 per ton). I’m not saying this is fact but it was very interesting. This technology which cost effectively recovers nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus from wastewater. Mr. Brand gave me two web sites to look at, Algae.com and Gross-Wen.com. And the town worked with a gentlemen by the name of Max Gangestand. And they also worked with David Kurz, engineering lead at CDPHE for the state of Colorado.

With all this being said the town of Platteville could not go this way because of the following reasons. The first being their lagoons needed an upgrade, emptied and dug deeper. Then line the lagoons and install an aeration system if needed. And then install the GWT system at an approximate amount of 7MM. And with all this they could never expand because they have no more room for new lagoons. So with this project needing to be completed by the end of 2022 the town had to build a mechanical treatment facility which will be able to meet the futures growth. Which in turn is costing them around the same amount, 7MM. So with this information I encourage the board and Public Works manager to look into this proven system. It will give the needed measures to keep us in compliance with the state now and in the future and allow us to grow the town of Keenesburg. And maybe save us money in the end. And we won’t be a test site for an unproven system, which is hard to find history of reliability.

Thank you for your time.

Cindy Baumgartner

New CDL Requirements Take Effect Monday and Could Cost You Up to $8,500 and Weeks of Training Continued from page 2..

New CDL Requirements Could Cripple Truck Driving Industry Krapu says as she helps drivers navigate the new regulations, she worries it’s going to be yet another barrier for an industry already facing a shortage of truck drivers nationwide.

“It is going to impact driver shortages at a time of critical supply issues and at a time where the transportation industry is already facing a large number of driver shortages,” she says.

So, what happens if a driver doesn’t follow the new regulations? Krapu says if you’re outside the 150-mile radius, there are repercussions to consider.

“If the driver is operating outside the 150-air-mile ‘safe zone’ of the farm operation, law enforcement will request valid CDL and the truck/driver will put out-of-service until a qualified driver can come drive the truck to its destination,” she says.

Letter to the Editor

by Jeff Canfield I read your publication on occasion and find the information typically useful. I must however take issue with what I perceive as the Lost Creek Guide lately having become a mouthpiece for the Polis administration. These recent feature articles appear to be harvested from The Colorado Sun, which I don’t read or know much about. The latest front-page story (The 7 Biggest Lines from Gov. Jared Polis’ 2022 State of the State address…” put me over the top. Polis might be popular in Denver, Boulder, and Larimer counties, but his appeal is limited mainly to those areas for many reasons, no need to expand on that at this time.

Mr. Polis’ latest violation of the will of Coloradans is best exemplified by his outrageous intervention into the case where a truck driver who was convicted on 27 counts including vehicular homicide by a jury of his peers was given the required minimum sentence of 110 years in prison. I’ll not debate the pros or cons of minimum sentencing but know that this was the law applying to the circumstances at the time.

Just two weeks ahead of a scheduled reconsideration hearing which may have resulted in reduced incarceration governor Polis took it upon himself to commute the sentence to just 10-years with parole eligibility in 5-years.

The point is not to debate what the appropriate sentences should have been, but the fact that Polis intervened and ignored our judicial process which is another extension of his perceived authority and an egregious intervention of jurisprudence.

He apparently felt compelled to react to outside criticism and opinion rather than allow the justice system to handle the matter as prescribed by law.

The good news is that a bipartisan contingent involving the DA’s from Boulder and Mesa counties is now criticizing this action which may hopefully result in preventing more similar outrageous acts by Polis and others like him.

Jeff Canfield/ Fort Morgan, CO.

Publisher’s Note:

Appreciate your comments but recognize, whether we like it or not, Jared Polis is our Governor. Folks need to know what he is saying and, more importantly, what he is not saying about rural Colorado, agriculture, oil & gas management, etc, etc. The more informed the public is, we hope, they will make better decisions on who to vote for. The reality is that unaffiliated voters are the majority group when it comes to voter registrations. Neither the Democrats or the Republicans can win without their support. We have to encourage people to vote and hopefully we should all be working towards making all of us better informed. Thank you for writing in, it shows you care.

Wiggins Colorado Water Users Now that you are reading this, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Mark Strickland, my family planted roots here in 2017 because we wanted our two kids to go to the best schools in the region. Wiggins School District is one of the finest in the State of Colorado. Currently I am a Town of Wiggins Trustee and on the ballot for the 2022 election. My goal is to provide the best future for the Town of Wiggins by working with the other Board members to find solutions to issues past, present and future. I enjoy serving the citizens of the Town of Wiggins as a board member and by volunteering my time to the town helping set up fireworks for the last several years and, helping public works spray and mow weeds around town.

The main reason for this letter is not so much to campaign as it is to inform you of what has been going on during the Town of Wiggins Board of Trustees work sessions and regular scheduled meetings. Last year the Board approved the replacement of the sewer line under the BNSF railroad which serves about 70% of Wiggins. That project should be starting soon as the contractor is waiting for materials. The board also approved an increase in water and sewer tap fees to help cover current and future capital costs of the water system and sewer system. The board is looking for ways to fund the cost of a new sewer plant which is being required due to CDPHE (Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment) regulations and the growing size of the town. The board has also for the last year looked into how to balance the water and sewer enterprise funds with the need for system maintenance, upgrades and funding reserves for the future.

Those who have been watching the meetings online will already know some of the facts regarding this topic. Those who have not been following the meetings may be surprised when the new water and sewer rate fees are in place soon. I personally do not look forward to having to raise these rates as it may be a negative impact to many in town. I cannot give you an exact number as to what the future rates will be as the board is still researching best scenario options to be able to cover operating costs while attempting to minimize the impact to those on a fixed income or at a lower income level.

The hard part about my job is I have had ZERO feedback from the public regarding this topic. I don’t want you to think we are not trying our best to serve you because we as a board are doing the very best we can. When residents don’t attend meetings, it makes me think you don’t care and I know that just isn’t true. Please come visit the Town of Wiggins Board in person or via Zoom and speak your mind. We are human just as you so please be respectful in your comments to the board. The board is designed to serve you, the people. Regardless of what you think about the past boards or how things used to be, try to realize the current board is trying to do the best for all who call Wiggins home. I want to thank you for the opportunity to serve you by being on the board and look forward to continuing serving this town for years to come. I can be reached at strickland@wigginsco.com or at 970-301-2248.

Mark Strickland

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Morgan County REA is proud member of Tri-State Generation & Transmission Association

Morgan County REA has been proudly serving northeastern Colorado since 1937. As you can imagine, how we go about our daily lives has changed a lot in the past eightyfive years. However, MCREA—a member-owned cooperative—has always been there to provide safe, reliable electricity to our consumers. One of the reasons we are able to do so is our membership in Tri-State Generation & Transmission Association, Inc. As our wholesale power provider, Tri-State ensures a reliable, affordable and responsible supply of electricity is available to Morgan County REA and in turn—our consumer-members. Tri-State is also a not-for-profit cooperative, whose members include 42 member-owner electric cooperatives and public power districts across four states. Both MCREA and Tri-State G&T align with the cooperative principles and strive to make sure the needs of our members remain our highest priority.

One of the benefits of being a Tri-State member is its diverse power generation mix. Tri-State has a fleet of highly dependable and cost-effective coal and natural gas power plants, in addition to a growing supply of emissions-free renewable energy that includes hydropower, wind and solar.

Tri-State recently celebrated the two-year anniversary of its Responsible Energy Plan, which aims for 50% of its electricity to come from clean energy by 2024 and 70% by 2030. As a Tri-State member, MCREA benefits from these technologies without shouldering the entire cost of those investments.

Tri-State G&T also plays a critical role in navigating the increasingly complex and competitive energy market. As the market fluctuates in real time, Tri-State continuously works to determine the best power mix from more than 30 generation sources, which allows MCREA to provide our members reliable power at the most affordable price possible. Tri-State also analyzes the energy market and overall power industry to guarantee that our future energy needs are met.

This preparation paid off big during last year’s February winter storms that led to massive outages across the United States. Tri-State’s diverse energy mix allowed it to avoid any significant financial or operational setbacks. Power continued to be delivered reliably and wholesale power rates did not soar unexpectedly, as many other utilities experienced. Not only did Tri-State avoid a rate increase, it decreased our wholesale power rates by 2% in March 2021, with another 2% reduction coming next month.

As a rural cooperative that serves parts of 6 different counties, MCREA is proud to be a member of Tri-State Generation & Transmission. Tri-State is one of our greatest resources and we appreciate the role it plays in helping MCREA achieve our mission of providing safe, reliable energy to our members, with a strong tradition and vision for the future.

Colorado Could Ban ‘Slow-Growth’ Policies as GOP and Liberals Team Up at the Statehouse

By Andrew Kenney, Colorado Public Radio

Hart Van Denburg/CPR News A housing subdivision in the Plains town of Strasburg, about an hour east of Denver on Interstate 70.

Colorado cities would be banned from passing slow-growth and anti-growth laws under a proposal that gained some bipartisan support in a surprising committee hearing Tuesday afternoon.

The bill, which is sponsored by two Republicans, would forbid municipalities from enacting new limits on the number of residential units that can be built each year.

State Sen. Julie Gonzales, a Denver Democrat, crossed the aisle to help the bill survive its first hearing.

“This is not a party issue. This is something we’re all grappling with as Coloradans,” said Gonzales, chair of the State, Veterans, & Military Affairs Committee.

The committee is often known as the “kill” committee, and the odds of the Republican proposal originally seemed slim. But an unusual coalition of conservative propertyrights advocates and liberal urbanites came together to support the proposal.

“It’s to my surprise as a lifelong Democrat that I’m calling in in support of a Republican-sponsored bill,” said Sandy Weathers, a resident of Lakewood, adding that the voter-approved growth limit there was driving her friends out of the city.

Colorado has a record-breaking affordable housing plan. Will state lawmakers push for growth and density, too?

“I have witnessed what happens … when you have zero multifamily units that are going to be built in a neighborhood that desperately needs it,” she said.

The afternoon debate focused on how — and whether — Colorado cities should be able to limit their own growth and development. The hearing wrapped up without a vote, but Gonzales’ support means that the measure is poised to pass at a future meeting and potentially proceed to a full vote before the Senate.

“The reality is, no matter how much money this body decides to pour into affordable housing efforts, if local governments continue to enact anti-growth initiatives and unreasonable zoning policies, we are not going to construct the additional housing units we need to make Colorado affordable again,” said state Sen. Larry Liston, who Colorado could ban ‘slow-growth’ policies as GOP and liberals team up at the statehouse continued on page 5...

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Colorado could Ban ‘Slow-Growth’ Policies as GOP and Liberals Team Up at the Statehouse Continued from page 4... co-sponsored the bill with Rep. Andres Picos. Both are Republicans from Colorado Springs.

Boulder, Golden and Lakewood are among the cities that have instituted limits on growth. Voters in those cities approved growth restrictions in 1976, 1995 and 2019, respectively. In each city, the law says that the residential housing stock can grow by only 1 percent per year.

The Republican proposal would not invalidate those existing laws. Instead, it would ban other cities from instituting “any limitation” on the number of zoning applications or building permits allowed each year.

The amended version of the bill garnered strong support from Republican leadership.

“I agree with (Sen. Gonzales.) We have got to think outside the box. We have got to look at innovative ways to change the way we approach housing in this state,” said Senate Minority Leader Chris Holbert of Douglas County, also a member of the committee.

However, if the bill passes, it will have changed significantly from Republicans’ original vision.

As originally drafted, the bill would have severely limited cities’ ability to “downzone” properties. Downzoning is when a local government puts new limits on what a property owner can build. The proposal would have required cities to pay “just compensation” to property owners for lost value if their property is downzoned, similar to a law in Arizona.

In reaching their compromise with Gonzales, sponsors agreed to drop that section.

It was also a major focus of the opposition at the hearing, who argued that the “just compensation” measure would have hobbled city governments and shifted power to private property owners, rather than city leaders. (Republicans like Holbert said they liked that part.)

“We believe that municipalities and their elected officials … need to be able to make those determinations, at that level, with public input, with developer input, with the input of all constituents,” said Meghan Dollar, a lobbyist for the Colorado Municipal League.

After the meeting, Dollar said that CML would poll its members about their opinions on the amended version of the bill, which focuses only on growth limits.

“I think it’s really important to get feedback from municipal officials on this one. I will say that generally, CML opposes anything that takes land-use regulation out of the local level,” Dollar said.

More than a half-dozen liberal land-use reformers — also known as “YIMBYs,” for “Yes In My Backyard” — spoke on the proposal. They weren’t particularly interested in the state-vs-local debate over property rights. Instead, they, they echoed the Republican argument that the state needs to rev up its housing industry in order to meet demand.

“We’ve had decades to see exactly what these (slow-growth) policies have done

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to limit housing,” said Dmitrii Zavorotny, treasurer of YIMBY Denver. The Boulder growth-limiting law directly blocked his parents’ chance to build a home there, he said. He argues the policy has led to sprawl and pollution as people are forced to move to outlying communities instead of Boulder.

How fast to grow has been a Colorado question for decades Colorado’s modern growth debate began in large part in the 1960s and 1970s, and Boulder was at the forefront. In 1976, Boulder voters made it the “first community in the Rocky Mountain West” to put a limit on its growth, as the High Country News reported.

Then-councilman Paul Danish, who led the effort, argued that uncontrolled growth “can’t be tolerated in Boulder because it would break the urban infrastructure and destroy all the desirable qualities of the town’s environment.”

His opponents, including local real-estate brokers, argued that the move would turn Boulder into “an exclusionary community open only to well-to-do” residents.

Boulder’s single-family home prices today are the highest on the Front Range, with the median house going for about $785,000.

Since then, the slow- or anti-growth movement has resurfaced several times. In 1995, Boulder tightened its residential growth limit from 2 percent to 1 percent per year, and Golden passed a similar cap. In 2019, Lakewood voters approved their own slow-growth law. Advocates also tried — but failed — to create a growth limit across the Front Range in 2019 and 2020.

During the pandemic, housing prices in Colorado have hit new highs, and leaders of both parties have made the shortage of new developments a central message. The pro-growth bill is part of Republicans’ “Commitment to Colorado” a package of bills focused largely on the cost of living.

State lawmakers are set to spend $400 million of federal money on a groundbreaking affordable-housing package. And in recent years, Democrats led an effort to create incentives for cities that allow greater density and embrace affordable housing.

The current pro-growth measure also breaks new ground: Its text declares that housing has become a “statewide” concern. That kind of language could contribute to a greater argument for intervention by state lawmakers in policies that, until now, have been decided at the local level.

Among other changes, Gonzales suggested that the legislature could create a permanent committee to address housing issues — another sign of their growing importance to policymakers from both parties.

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Lost Creek Guide

Arizona AG Brnovich Issues Legal Opinion Declaring Border Crisis ‘Invasion’ Under Constitution

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich says state authorized ‘to defend itself’ under governor’s ‘authority as Commander-in-Chief’

By Adam Shaw | Fox News AG Brnovich: ‘Biden has brought destruction to Arizona’ Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich slams President Biden for not prioritizing America’s borders over foreign borders Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich on Monday issued a legal opinion that determines that the ongoing crisis at the southern border is an “invasion” under the Constitution – a move he says gives the state the power to take additional measures to defend itself.

In the opinion, Brnovich says that the definition of “invasion” contained under the U.S. Constitution is not limited to hostile foreign states, and can include “hostile nonstate actors.”

HARRIS SAYS EFFECTS OF BIDEN MIGRATION POLICY WON’T BE SEEN ‘OVERNIGHT,’ AS BORDER CRISIS RAGE “The violence and lawlessness at the border caused by transnational cartels and gangs satisfies the definition of an ‘invasion’ under the U.S. Constitution, and Arizona therefore has the power to defend itself from this invasion under the Governor’s authority as Commander-in-Chief,” Brnovich writes. “An actual invasion permits the State to engage in defensive actions within its own territory at or near its border.”

The opinion comes after Republican state lawmakers and former Trump officials -- including former Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russ Vought and former acting deputy DHS Secretary Ken Cuccinelli, both now at the Center for Renewing America -- urged Gov. Doug Ducey to use war powers to repel the enormous number of migrants that have hit Arizona’s border with Mexico in the last year. It would in theory allow Arizona’s police or National Guard to remove illegal immigrants to Mexico themselves.

They have pointed to language in Article I of the Constitution, which allows for States to “engage in War” when it has been “actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay” without the approval of Congress. They also note Article IV says the U.S. “shall protest each [state] against invasion.”

There were more than 1.7 million migrant apprehensions in FY 2021, and the numbers remained high into December, where there were 178.840 encounters at the border, amid fears that the crisis will likely continue well into 2022 at least. Arizona’s Yuma Sector has been particularly overwhelmed by the surge in migrants.

2.7 Brnovich Opinion on Border Crisis by Fox News on Scribd “The on-the-ground violence and lawlessness at Arizona’s border caused by cartels and gangs is extensive, well-documented, and persistent. It can satisfy the definition of “actually invaded” and “invasion” under the U.S. Constitution,” Brnovich’s opinion says.

While the Biden administration has focused on an explanation of the crisis that centers on “root causes” like violence and corruption in Central America, Republicans at state and national level have blamed the Biden administration’s rolling back of Trump-era border policies and of having left states to fend for themselves.

“No State should be put in the position that Arizona and other border states have been put in through the federal government’s recent actions,” Brnovich writes.

He goes on to argue that “invasion” does not necessarily require foreign states and can instead include hostile foreign actors -- including transnational gangs and cartels bringing violence and drugs like fentanyl to the border.

ARIZONA GOV. DUCEY SAYS BIDEN’S BORDER POLICY SERVES AS ‘MARKETING ARM’ OF MEXICAN CARTELS “Furthermore, the commonly understood meaning at the time of the word “invade” covers the activities of the transnational cartels and gangs at the border—they enter Arizona “in [a] hostile manner”; they “enter as an enemy, with a view to ... plunder”; they “attack,” “assail,” and “assault”; and they “infringe,” “encroach on,” and “violate” Arizona,” he said.

However, Brnovich notes that it will ultimately up to the governor of the state to make a determination whether the State is able to use its powers under the State SelfDefense Clause and that “only the Governor has the authority to establish the exact parameters for the exercise of the defensive use of force.”

Cuccinelli told Fox News that it was a “big deal” for Brnovich to come to the conclusion he did.

“Now we call on Gov. Doug Ducey to use this very clear legal and constitutional authority to protect the people of Arizona from the invasion they’re suffering through their southern border,” he said.

“It’s not enough for states like Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California to complain about Joe Biden’s failure to do his job, they have the authority to protect

February 16, 2022

themselves,” he said. “Only governors Abbot and Ducey have spoken about doing that. But here is confirmation that they have legal authority to take matters into their own hands and solve the problem, not just complain about it.”

Ducey himself has been highly critical of the Biden administration’s border policies.

In a recent interview with Fox News Digital, he said there was a link between rising crime and the influx of migrants into the U.S. “Well, of course, there’s a link between criminals coming over the border and rising crime – of that, there’s no doubt,” he said. “We’ve got nearly two million people that we’ve apprehended at this time. So, border security is national security. The federal government is failing at that.”

In a statement in response to the opinion published on Monday, Ducey’s office noted his deployment of the National Guard to the border and that he extended the border security mission for another year in August – while calling the amount of drugs and migrants coming across the border “unprecedented.”

“DHS Secretary [Alejandro] Mayorkas admitted himself the border is the worst it’s been in over 20 years. He needs to be held accountable. This administration needs to be held accountable. They have totally failed to address this very real public safety and humanitarian crisis,” Communications Director CJ Karamargin said.

“Arizona has and will continue to protect our communities with our National Guard, our Border Strike Force and in partnership with local law enforcement,” Karamargin said. “For Attorney General Brnovich to imply the Guard is not on our border does them a serious disservice and shows that he fails to appreciate the commitment these men and women have to protecting Arizona.”

Fox News’ Danielle Wallace and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Colorado Livestock Association Selects New Chief Executive Officer

GREELEY, CO - The Colorado Livestock Association (CLA) announced Zachary Riley as the organization’s new Chief Executive Officer, effective March 7, 2022. He will replace long-time leader Bill Hammerich.

Mr. Riley is well versed in the legislative and regulatory issues related to Colorado animal agriculture. He has also been involved with industry efforts on health care, climate, energy, transportation and labor.

“I am honored to be chosen to continue the legacy of the Colorado Livestock Association while following the history and leadership of Bill Hammerich,” Mr. Riley stated. “I am thrilled to perpetuate these toils so that our wisest pursuit, agriculture may continue to provide our communities with necessary food and fiber.”

“I’m excited about what Zach brings to the organization from a Colorado regulatory and legislative standpoint. Coming from a family of cattle producers Zach, understands the everyday challenges of livestock producers,” stated CLA President Dwain Weinrich.

Riley’s family has raised cattle for five generations in eastern New Mexico.

Prior to joining CLA, he served as Senior Director of Public Policy and Federal Affairs at Colorado Farm Bureau (CFB). He has been involved with the Colorado Agriculture Council, Colorado Business Roundtable, Colorado Water Congress, Colorado Business Coalition for Immigration Solutions and the Food and Agriculture Climate Alliance. Prior to his time at the Colorado Farm Bureau he worked at the New Mexico Farm Bureau and the New Mexico Cattle Growers.

He has also spent time in Lubbock, Texas as an interim manager of a business organization, while he was completing his degree at Wayland Baptist University.

View the media release and images online here: https://bit.ly/3Lg5eUh Colorado Livestock Association (CLA) was formed in 1998 through a restructuring of the then 43-year-old Colorado Cattle Feeders Association (CCFA).

CLA members are cattle and sheep feeders, cow/calf producers, dairy farmers, swine operations, and industry partners. CLA works on behalf of its members in the regulatory and legislative arenas in Colorado. For more information about CLA visit www.coloradolivestock.org

February 16, 2022

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Lost Creek Guide

As Colorado Warms, Dry Soil Sucks Up More Water. That’s Bad News for Rivers and Farmers. Continued from page 1...

As the body of data grows, the task ahead for climatologists is to gauge the accuracy of different soil moisture models developed by universities and weather monitoring agencies.

“Effectively predicting those spring streamflows is crucial to making the best use of the runoff we’re going to get,” Goble said.

Despite the limited data sets, scientists know soil aridity has been steadily increasing over the past 30 to 40 years, said Russ Schumacher, Colorado’s state climatologist.

“We’re still working on figuring out why,” he said. “Is it natural variability? Is it weather patterns? Or is it climate change? As best we can figure right now, about twothirds of that aridity trend is tied to a warming climate.”

Scientists are also working to better understand the link between soil moisture and wildfire danger, Schumacher said. Dry soils can worsen the “vapor pressure deficit” — the ratio between the amount of water vapor in the air compared to how much the atmosphere could hold, a ratio that grows worse as temperatures rise.

Recent studies show a clear correlation between vapor pressure deficit and the intensity and size of wildfires, Schumacher said — and a strong link to climate change.

Soil aridity can also seriously stress forest and grassland health, he said.

The past two springs saw runoff “underperform” in relation to snowpack, Schumacher said, owing to dry autumns that left soils like a wrung-out sponge.

Snowpack wasn’t terrible in Colorado last winter — the state’s river basins topped out in a range from 78% of the median in the southwestern corner of the state to 98% in the Upper Rio Grande basin, and 90% of the median in the South Platte drainage.

But the picture changed when an early, warm spring runoff season hit the Western Slope. What had been 89% of the median snowpack in the Yampa River basin in the state’s northwest corner translated into only 34% of normal streamflow, with the rest soaking into almost unquenchable soils.

The numbers were similar everywhere west of the Continental Divide. The Colorado River basin had 84% of median snowpack in March, but saw just 58% of normal streamflow. In the Gunnison basin, 80% of median snowpack turned into 48% of normal streamflow.

The impacts were wide-ranging. In the Sand Wash Basin in northwestern Colorado, Bureau of Land Management officials rounded up hundreds of wild horses as dry soil turned rangeland to “moon dust.”

Water managers issued a “call” on the Yampa River for the third time in history last summer, restricting how much junior water rights holders could draw from the river as it dwindled to a fraction of its normal flow. In southwestern Colorado, the Dolores River downstream of McPhee Reservoir dried up completely. In August, Blue Mesa Reservoir near Gunnison hit its second-lowest level since it was built as water managers sent tens of thousands of acre-feet downstream to prop up hydropower at an ailing Lake Powell.

Still, Colorado in 2021 avoided a repeat of the disastrous 2020 wildfire season that saw the three largest wildfires in state history, thanks in part to a robust summer monsoon season. Monsoon storms can help tamp down fire danger and alleviate soil aridity, but they do little for river flows because they’re short-term and localized, Schumacher said.

The situation on the Eastern Plains isn’t pretty, Schumacher said. Though spring 2021 brought healthy moisture to the prairie, “everything flipped in June.”

On the plains, winter snows do far less to recharge soil moisture than summer storms, Schumacher said.

“And last year, we just didn’t get the thunderstorms we expected,” he said.

Combined with months of record-breaking heat, the vapor pressure deficit skyrocketed, sucking water from the soil. The result can be devastating for livestock forage and farming.

Parts of far eastern Colorado got nearly two feet of snow in late January, though not enough to eliminate drought designations in the region.

What about 2022?

Colorado’s snowpack started 2022 in fairly decent shape with cautious optimism for spring runoff, according to the Colorado Basin River Forecast Center, a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Though 100% of Colorado remains in some level of drought, the mountains were hit with sometimes record-breaking snowfall in December. The strong monsoon season in the mountains last summer helped recharge dry soils — though much of far southwestern Colorado remains at no more than 30% of average soil moisture.

Snowpack was above 110% in several high Rockies river basins in early February, though the discrepancy between snowpack and soil moisture means it would likely take at least that much to translate into 100% of average streamflow. The Upper Rio Grande and Arkansas river basins lagged much of the state, sitting in the 90th percentile.

The center’s most recent water supply forecast, issued on Jan. 18, predicts inflow of 102% of normal into Blue Mesa Reservoir; 90% of average into McPhee Reservoir near Dolores; and 81% of normal into Navajo Reservoir straddling the Colorado-New Mexico border.

Currently, Blue Mesa Reservoir is below 30% full, according to the Western Colorado office of the Bureau of Reclamation, which oversees reservoirs. Despite the hopefully hefty spring runoff, Blue Mesa is unlikely to top 75% of its average capacity this summer.

Predicting the rest of the season is tricky, said Goble, the climatologist who studies soil moisture.

“It will be made or broken by one or two wet periods in the spring,” he said. “We’re still in a La Niña weather pattern, which can mean drier conditions. It’s a bit like playing poker with an ace and king out of the deck — you still might get a good hand, but you know from which cards are out which way the odds are tilted.”

The odds are likely to keep leaning that way, he said.

“As the West continues to warm, we expect snow to show up a little later and melt a As Colorado Warms, Dry Soil Sucks Up More Water. That’s Bad News for Rivers and Farmers. Continued on page 12...

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8

Lost Creek Guide

February 16, 2022

USDA to Invest $1 Billion in Climate Smart Commodities, Expanding Markets, Strengthening Rural America

Funding Opportunity Opens to Pilot New Revenue Streams for America’s Climate-Smart Farmers, Ranchers and Forest Landowners • develop markets and promote the resulting climate-smart commodities.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo., Feb. 7, 2022 – Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack How to Apply announced today at Lincoln University that the U.S. Department of Agriculture is A range of public and private entities may apply, including: delivering on its promise to expand markets by investing $1 billion in partnerships to • County, city or township governments support America’s climate-smart farmers, ranchers and forest landowners. The new • Special district governments Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities opportunity will finance pilot projects • State governments that create market opportunities for U.S. agricultural and forestry products that use • Small businesses climate-smart practices and include innovative, cost-effective ways to measure and • For profit organizations other than small businesses verify greenhouse gas benefits. USDA is now accepting project applications for fiscal • Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized) year 2022.

• Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal “America’s farmers, ranchers, and forest owners are leading the way in implementing governments) climate-smart solutions across their operations,” said Vilsack. “Through Partnerships • Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) (other than institutions of higher education) for Climate-Smart Commodities, USDA will provide targeted funding to meet national • Nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) (other than institutions of higher and global demand and expand market opportunities for climate-smart commodities education) to increase the competitive advantage of American producers. We want a broad • Private institutions of higher education, or array of agriculture and forestry to see themselves in this effort, including small and • Public and State-controlled institutions of higher education. historically underserved producers as well as early adopters.”

The primary applicant must be an entity, not an individual.

For the purposes of this funding opportunity, a climate-smart commodity is defined Funding will be provided in two funding pools, and applicants must submit their as an agricultural commodity that is produced using agricultural (farming, ranching or applications via Grants.gov by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on: forestry) practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions or sequester carbon.

• April 8, 2022, for the first funding pool (proposals from $5 million to $100 Funding will be provided to partners through the USDA’s Commodity Credit million), and Corporation for pilot projects to provide incentives to producers and landowners to: • May 27, 2022, for the second funding pool (proposals from $250,000 to • implement climate-smart production practices, activities, and systems on working $4,999,999). lands, Proposals must provide plans to: • measure/quantify, monitor and verify the carbon and greenhouse gas (GHG) • Pilot implementation of climate-smart agriculture and/or forestry practices benefits associated with those practices, and on a large-scale, including meaningful involvement of small and/or historically underserved producers; • Quantify, monitor, report and verify climate results; and • Develop markets and promote climate-smart commodities generated as a result of project activities USDA is committed to equity in program delivery and is specifically seeking proposals from entities serving all types of producers, including small or historically underserved producers. Providing sufficient incentives to encourage producer participation and generating both verifiable greenhouse gas reduction and carbon sequestration benefits are critical to project success and will be considered in the evaluation criteria.

More Information USDA published a Request for Information in September 2021 seeking public comment and input on design of this new initiative and used the nearly 400 comments received to inform this funding opportunity.

Visit usda.gov for additional information, including details on Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities and resources to support your application.

Under the Biden-Harris Administration, USDA is engaged in a whole-ofgovernment effort to combat the climate crisis and conserve and protect our nation’s lands, biodiversity and natural resources including our soil, air and water. Through conservation practices and partnerships, USDA aims to enhance economic growth and create new streams of income for farmers, ranchers, producers and private foresters. Successfully meeting these challenges will require USDA and our agencies to pursue a coordinated approach alongside USDA stakeholders, including State, local and Tribal governments.

USDA touches the lives of all Americans each day in so many positive ways. In the Biden-Harris Administration, USDA is transforming America’s food system with a greater focus on more resilient local and regional food production, fairer markets for all producers, ensuring access to safe, healthy and nutritious food in all communities, building new markets and streams of income for farmers and producers using climate smart food and forestry practices, making historic investments in infrastructure and clean energy capabilities in rural America, and committing to equity across the Department by removing systemic barriers and building a workforce more representative of America. To learn more, visit www.usda.gov.

February 16, 2022

9

Lost Creek Guide

A Record Number of Coloradans are Pursuing Conservation Easements as Land, Water Prices Increase

Welcome

A new law offers landowners securing tax credits worth 90% of the value of the conservation easement on their property.

by Jason Blevins, The Colorado Sun

Matthew Wood, MD Board-certified Pediatrician

Colorado Plains Medical Group 1000 Lincoln Street Fort Morgan, CO 80701

Medical School: University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine Aurora, CO Bob Warner spends a morning checking on his cattle and on the men who are working his family ranch near Fort Lupton, Colorado. "The cows are kind of like children-they run and play and have foot races. I just like to be around them." ((Kathryn Scott, Special to The Colorado Sun)

Tony Caligiuri was ready for it to fall apart.

Instead, the pandemic gave conservation in Colorado a boost. Soaring land values, spiking prices for water, legislation boosting incentives for landowners who protect their land and growing pressure to develop open land has fueled a record year for conservation easements in Colorado.

“We were bracing ourselves for the whole business to collapse, but it’s done the exact opposite,” said Caligiuri, the head of Colorado Open Lands, which has protected 637,000 acres in 668 easements since 1981.

The past year has been the busiest ever for the nonprofit Colorado Open Lands. And the coming year looks even busier.

“The incentives have never been better and we have never seen this much demand in 40 years,” said Caligiuri, whose group has merged with five other land trusts in the past five years. “It’s just been exponential growth. We have a waiting list of 100 projects. Demand is growing faster than we can keep up.”

Only a few years ago, Colorado Open Lands was handling about six easements a year. Now they are doing 25 deals with landowners who are earning more to forever protect their land from development.

Last year, Colorado Open Lands launched a campaign to raise $3 million to support landowners pursuing easements. The trust has recently hired five new employees for both conservation work and stewarding land that is set aside for conservation.

“This place needs to stay in agriculture.”

Bob Warner’s parents started farming and ranching near Fort Lupton more than a century ago. He was born on the farm 85 years ago. The Colorado State University graduate and Air Force pilot who flew for Continental Airlines for 38 years grows hay, alfalfa and corn on about 1,500 acres. He raises cattle there, too. From his home he can see the farmhouse where he was born and the one-room schoolhouse where he learned to read and write.

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Bob Warner’s ranch foreman Patrick Hladky, coaxes calves across the road to where they will pasture with their mothers. (Kathryn Scott, Special to The Colorado Sun)

Now he’s locking up his land in a conservation easement that will keep his family’s fields forever filled with cattle, grasses and corn. He spent 46 years serving on boards for three conservation districts that overlap his property, including the Platte Valley Conservation District, the West Adams Conservation District and the Southeast Weld Conservation District.

“I’ve spent a lot of years working to keep land in conservation and in agriculture in perpetuity,” he said. “I guess now it’s my turn.”

Warner, who is working with both the Natural Resources Conservation Service and Colorado Open Lands to protect his family’s property from development, said he’s practiced conservation on his land “for all my life.”

He’s planted thousands of trees to protect his fields from wind. His father, J.C. Warner, participated in the federal government’s Soil Bank Program in the 1950s and 1960s, which saw farmers fallow acreage in exchange for rental payments from the government as a way to protect soil and better control the flow of crops to market.

“This place needs to stay in agriculture,” said Warner, who sees grazing as a way to help land managers better control grasses on open plains. “We can’t have these places developed. We can’t turn everything into homes. We need land to remain as farms and ranches as a way to manage our land.”

Last year Colorado lawmakers passed House Bill 1233, which removes bureaucratic barriers in the conservation easement process and increases the tax credit a landowner can claim when they place their land in an easement. The law allows landowners to obtain tax credits up to 90% of value of the conservation easement on their property, up from 50%.

A Record Number of Coloradans are Pursuing Conservation Easements as Land, Water Prices Increase Continued on page 11...

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Agents Mark Kinnear Devon Kitchell 303-732-9700 20 S. Main Keenesburg, CO

10

Lost Creek Guide

Colorado Plains Medical Center and Western Plains Medical Complex to Become Part of Centura Health

Region’s leading health system to acquire community hospitals in Colorado and Kansas (CENTENNIAL, COLO.; FT. MORGAN, COLO.; and DODGE CITY, KAN.) – Centura Health has signed an asset purchase agreement (APA) to acquire ownership interest in Colorado Plains Medical Center (CPMC) in Fort Morgan, Colo. and Western Plains Medical Complex (WPMC) in Dodge City, Kan. from LifePoint Health. At the close of the transaction, both facilities will become part of Centura Health, which includes 15 hospitals in Colorado and two in Kansas.

“Colorado Plains and Western Plains have been woven into the fabric of their flourishing communities for more than 100 years and have demonstrated an unwavering commitment to delivering high quality, patient-centered care,” said Peter D. Banko, President & CEO of Centura Health. “Each community we touch is truly unique and important. We are so excited to welcome Fort Morgan and Dodge City to our connected community of 21,000 caregivers. Together, we can advance highly reliable whole person care and make innovative strides in the pursuit of health and wholeness.”

As part of the Centura Health ecosystem, Colorado Plains and Western Plains will be part of a leading regional integrated system – and able to offer patients new clinical care options and explore new opportunities to have an even greater impact on the future of health care in their respective regions. CPMC and WPMC will continue delivering the same high-quality, local care by the same providers who patients and the community know and trust. Their patients, providers and care teams will further collaborate across geographies and bring new health solutions and expanded services in clinical care and patient experience to their neighbors.

“This is an exciting opportunity for our hospital to join an organization that knows Colorado well and shares our commitment to caring for our local communities,” said Kevin Zachary, CEO of CPMC. “By joining Centura’s leading healthcare network across our state and beyond, we’ll be able to build further regional collaborations and expand our patients’ access to services.”

“Centura’s mission, vision and values are a natural fit for Western Plains,” said Rick Wallace, CEO of WPMC. “They share our commitment to ensuring that our hospital continues to be a place where people choose to come for care, physicians want to practice and employees want to work. We look forward to working together and bringing their legacy of compassionate, excellent care to Dodge City.”

All current CPMC and WPMC employees in good standing will be hired by Centura Health at the close of the transaction which is expected to be finalized later this year, pending standard regulatory review and approval. The hospitals will collaborate to ensure that the transition will be seamless for patients with no disruptions in care.

February 16, 2022

TEEN NIGHT OUT ALL ABOUT HARRY POTTER

Feb. 18 event features total immersion in Harry’s world If you like Harry Potter, you’ll love the Teen Night Out event on Feb. 18 at the Fort Morgan Library and Museum.

This enchanting Teen Night Out will test out your knowledge of all things Harry Potter. Play trivia games with your friends. Make and try some magical cuisine.

Get sorted into your Hogwarts house using our very own sorting hat. Immerse yourself in Harry’s world like never before.

Snacks and drinks will be provided. Registration is required and space is limited so act fast! For more information and to register, contact Angie Hoke at (970) 5424008 or angie.hoke@cityoffortmorgan.com.

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FINANCIAL FOCUS

Estate Plans Let You Control Your Legacy When you hear “estate planning,” what do you think of? For many people, these words evoke images of immense wealth. But estate planning isn’t just for the wealthy – it’s for everyone. And it’s about more than preserving wealth – it’s about putting you in control of your own legacy. But how can you achieve this worthy goal?

You can start by identifying your estate planning objectives. Here are some of the most common ones: • Controlling movement of assets to beneficiaries – During and after your lifetime, you will want to ensure your loved ones receive what you want them to have, and when. Through documents such as a will and a living trust, and techniques involving life insurance and using proper beneficiary designations, you – not the courts – will control the movement of your assets to the desired

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recipients.

• Naming someone to make decisions for you if you become incapacitated – Naturally, you hope to stay in good physical and mental shape throughout your life and remain capable of making your own financial and health care decisions. But the future is not ours to see, so, to protect your interests and those of your loved ones, you may want to consider creating arrangements such as a power of attorney, health care directive and a living will. In this way, you’ll still be able to control the key choices that may lie ahead.

• Providing for minor children or dependents – If you have young children or other dependents, you’ll want to be sure they’ll be looked after if you aren’t around. In your estate plans, you can name a guardian for them. You can also use various estate planning tools, such as

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life insurance, beneficiary designations and the establishment of a trust to provide the necessary financial resources for your loved ones.

• Supporting charitable organizations – Leaving something behind for your family is obviously an enormous part of your legacy – but it may also be important to you to provide support for charitable groups whose work you’ve admired. Of course, you can contribute to these organizations while you’re alive, but through strategies such as donoradvised funds and charitable remainder trusts, you can include these groups in your estate plans.

• Managing taxes efficiently – If you’re likely to have a large estate, your heirs may need to be concerned with income and estate taxes. To help control these taxes, you can take a number of steps, such as making outright gifts to your

Wes Cable

Financial Advisor 611 Edison St Brush, CO 80723 970-842-2252

family during your lifetime, establishing an irrevocable life insurance trust, creating a family limited partnership and making charitable donations.

All the estate-planning strategies and techniques mentioned here can be complex – so, to implement them, you’ll need to work with an estate planning attorney and a tax professional. You may also want to include your financial advisor, who can help ensure your estate planning objectives align with your important financial goals, such as living comfortably in retirement and providing for your children’s or grandchildren’s education.

By identifying your objectives and working with your professional team, you can create an effective estate plan – and help yourself maintain control of your legacy.

Edward Jones, Member SIPC

Forrest Hough

Financial Advisor 129 S. 4th Ave Brighton, CO 80601 303-659-2301

February 16, 2022

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Lost Creek Guide

A Record Number of Coloradans are Pursuing Conservation Easements as Land, Water Prices Increase Continued from page 9...

Tax & Accounting Solutions

That value is based on the development potential of a property, so landowners can get a big tax break.

“This makes the playing field much more level in terms of producers and farmers thinking about selling their property but not selling to a developer,” said Carmen Farmer, a project manager with Colorado Open Lands. “They can get close to the whole value of their property and remain on their property and keep it protected.”

Farmer is quick to point out that the benefits of conservation easements reach beyond the farmers, ranchers and longtime owners of wide open spaces.

“Private land conservation is a public benefit,” she said, pointing to the protections of wildlife habitat, views and agriculture that supports rural economies.

Offices in Arvada and Hudson

303-233-6118 Cows and their calves walk through a snowy pasture on Bob Warner’s ranch near Fort Lupton. Warner is placing his family spread under a conservation easement. (Kathryn Scott, Special to The Colorado Sun)

Last year Colorado lawmakers rejected a proposal to set aside $149 million to pay reparations to landowners whose eligibility for the pre-2013 tax breaks was denied by the state Department of Revenue. Many families and farmers said they had followed the rules when placing their land under conservation easements, but investigations more than a decade ago found some valuations were inflated or even fraudulent.

Agricultural families in Colorado have been feeling increased pressure in recent years as the state’s population grows and communities seek more space to grow.

“From decreasing prices and increasing regulatory pressures, figuring out how to make a living while keeping land open for wildlife and continuing the legacy of ag in Colorado can feel impossible,” said Colorado Sen. Kerry Donovan, an Eagle County rancher and Democrat who sponsored last year’s legislation that increased the incentives for landowners who protect their land. “Conservation easements are a tool for Colorado to protect what defines this state: the hardworking Western spirit tied to the rivers and the mountains.”

Donovan has spent several years working with agricultural communities to find ways to protect their heritage. She said the legislation last year was a culmination of years of work trying to build up conservation easements to create financial stability for the state’s ranchers and farmers. The work is not over, she said.

“Colorado will have to continue to find ways to support ag if decades from now we still want mountain valleys and wide open plains to be free of vacation home development,” she said.

The increased incentive for landowners has pushed many of them into action, said Rob Bleiberg, the director of the Colorado West Land Trust, which holds about 500 conservation easements protecting 126,000 acres in Delta, Gunnison, Mesa, Montrose, Ouray and San Miguel counties. He’s seeing about twice the number of landowners ready to protect their land.

“The increased incentive is making these projects pencil out better for landowners,” he said. “It takes a project that was maybe not viable and made them a win-win for the landowner and the people of Colorado, who value wildlife habitat, open vistas and open space conservation.”

It’s not just the incentives that are driving interest in easements. Land prices, along with all real estate prices in Colorado, are exploding. Same for the prices Front Range municipalities will pay for water that comes with large properties. Some farmers have water rights that are more valuable than their land, Caligiuri said.

“Water rights are definitely driving values right now,” he said.

In addition to farmers with water rights, more ranchers are coming around to easements as a way to stabilize their operations in a market where cattle prices plummeted during the pandemic after restaurants closed, Caligiuri said.

And it’s not just the land-rich, cash-poor farmers and ranchers who are pursuing conservation easements. New buyers are joining the easement movement as well. Buyers who line up conservation easements for new properties “are seeing their dollars go further,” Caligiuri said.

“I think a lot of landowners are realizing this is the right window for a conservation easement,” he said. “It’s hard to think of a better time.”

Cattle line up near a red barn on Bob Warner’s historic ranch near Fort Lupton. The retired airline pilot was born on the ranch 85 years ago and wants it to be preserved in perpetuity. (Kathryn Scott, Special to The Colorado Sun)

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported news organization that covers Colorado people, places and issues. To sign up for free newsletters, subscribe or learn more, visit ColoradoSun.com

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Lost Creek Guide

February 16, 2022

As Colorado Warms, Dry Soil Sucks Up More Water. That’s Bad News for Rivers and Farmers. Continued from page 7...

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little earlier,” he said. “Summer storms on the plains may not perform as well. There will be variation from year to year, but as things get warmer, we’re going to lose more water through evaporation.”

Stulp, who for decades has farmed the plains, said farmers and ranchers are doing their best to adapt. In the big picture, he said it’s time for farmers to figure out how to reduce carbon emissions. For now, though, no-till agriculture can help hold in moisture. GPS mapping can allow for more precise planting.

“But all the technology in the world doesn’t matter,” he said, “if you don’t get some help from Mother Nature.”

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported news organization that covers Colorado people, places and issues. To sign up for free newsletters, subscribe or learn more, visit ColoradoSun.com

It is Time to Balance the Federal Budget Again

With our debt exceeding $30 trillion, our polling shows the American people are rapidly shifting toward a belief that we need a balanced budget.

by Newt Gingrich The national debt has passed $30 trillion. It is clearly time to start talking about balancing the federal budget.

The explosion of federal debt has been astonishing. In 1980, the national debt was $908 billion. Today, it is more than $30 trillion and growing. That is a more than 3,204 percent increase in 42 years.

Federal debt has grown much faster than the economy. While the debt has risen more than 3,204 percent, the gross domestic product (GDP) has only risen from $2.86 trillion to $20.94 trillion – a 633 percent increase.

In 1980, the economy was three times bigger than the national debt. Today, the debt is 50 percent bigger than the entire economy. This gap is growing each year as government borrows more than the economy grows. A serious recession would rapidly make the debt-to-economy ratio even worse.

The debt has seemed relatively benign because interest rates have been low.

However, as the Federal Reserve starts to grapple with the threat of inflation, interest rates will rise. As the largest debtor in the world, the federal government will be hit hard by the rising interest rates. In fact, if interest rates start rising, the federal budget will be severely hit by the growing share that will go just to pay interest on the debt.

The American people intuitively understand how dangerous this growing national debt is. They also understand that allowing politicians unlimited spending encourages waste, corruption, and political payoffs.

Even though no major politician has made balancing the budget a key issue, the American people are rapidly shifting toward a belief that the budget should be balanced. A recent poll we sponsored at The American Majority Project, conducted by Mclaughlin & Associates, reported that 70 percent of Americans favor a constitutional amendment to balance the budget. Only 13 percent oppose it. We also found that based on input received in focus groups, “Support for balancing the budget is driven by a belief that it will force Congress to set priorities, solve the root causes of problems, and that it is something that every family and business must do, therefore Congress should do so as well.”

The poll also asked, “If the government actually cut out wasteful spending and corruption, do you think that would be enough to balance the federal budget?” An amazing 58 percent said “yes” and only 26 percent said “no.”

As the Speaker of the House who launched the only four years of balanced budgets in our lifetime, I was keenly interested in the answers to two other questions on our American Majority Project poll.

The poll asked, “If you knew Congress had balanced the budget for four straight years in the 1990s, would that make you more likely or less likely to think getting a balanced budget is possible?” Fifty-six percent said it made them more likely to believe the budget could be balanced. However, 31 percent said it did not, and several people pointed out how much things had changed since the 1990s.

More encouraging was the response when people were informed that, “The successful formula in the 1990s was to control government spending, cut regulations, reform welfare so people had incentives to work, and cut taxes in order to increase economic growth and increase revenues as the economy got bigger.” The poll then asked, “Would you approve or disapprove of congress using the same economic policies now?”

By 73 percent to 14 percent, the American people approve of the high-growth, deep reform, spending control with some specific increases model. Our approach in the 1990s was not simple stinginess. You must have a smart approach to balancing the budget – not a penny-pinching approach. For example, we set out to double the National Institutes of Health budget – because it would save lives, money, and maintain American leadership around the world in a high salaried industry. We reformed welfare – we did not just make it cheaper. We reformed the telecommunications laws leading to an explosion of growth in jobs and declining costs to consumers.

Equally encouraging was the bipartisan nature of support for our approach to a balanced budget through economic growth and reform. While 83 percent of Republicans supported it, so did 71 percent of independents and 65 percent of Democrats.

With an open, participatory dialogue, it would be possible to build a huge national majority in favor of balancing the budget. This should be a major policy goal for both parties – and the debate should begin this year in the 2022 election campaigns.

February 16, 2022

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List Your Farmers Market, Roadside Stand, and More in CDA’s 2022 Farm Fresh Directory Broomfield, Colo. — Colorado agricultural producers are encouraged to list their business in a publication reaching more than 85,000 consumers across our state. The 2022 Colorado Farm Fresh directory, released annually in June by the Colorado Department of Agriculture, promotes Colorado farmers’ markets, roadside stands, u-picks, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) producers, agritourism activities, wineries, and farms and ranches that sell direct to the public.

“Farm Fresh is a popular and helpful resource for Colorado residents and visitors,” said Danielle Trotta, Colorado Proud Program Manager at the Colorado Department of Agriculture. “The publication connects consumers to local producers, farmers markets, and other local goods all in one place and makes it easy to shop for locally sourced ag products that support Colorado farmers and our economy.”

More than 85,000 copies of the directory are distributed each year to consumers through libraries, extension offices, farmers’ markets, welcome centers, chambers of commerce, home milk delivery services, and other businesses. Additionally, Farm Fresh is available on the Colorado Department of Agriculture website.

The fee to be included in the directory is $25, and the listing deadline is February 28, 2021. The listing form can be accessed here*. For more information, contact Loretta Lopez at 303-869-9175.

Schrader Real Estate & Auction Company Opens Office in Keenesburg, Colorado Headed Up by Jess Nighswonger Keenesburg, Colorado (January 30, 2022) – Growing up in Northeast Colorado, it was only a matter of time before Jess Nighswonger made it back to his hometown roots. Jess has joined the Schrader Real Estate and Auction Company team, based out of Columbia City, Indiana as a real estate broker.

The Schrader group has expanded its operations by establishing a new office headed by Jess Nighswonger in Keenesburg, Colorado.

Nighswonger grew up involved in Weld County 4-H and a graduate of Weld Central High School. He later went on to Clarendon Community College, Clarendon, TX and then received his Bachelor in Animal Science from Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. For the last three years, Jess, his wife Brook, and their son Staton have lived in Eastern Nebraska where he was a

General Foreman for Cargill.

“For years we have operated throughout the continental United States, with success in selling a wide range of assets, including cropland, pasture, livestock operations, timberland, machinery and much more. Establishing the new office in Colorado fit perfectly into our plans. Jess was a foreman with Cargill for several years before joining our team. We have known Jess for many years and are excited to have him as a part of our team now,” said R.D. Schrader, president of the auction company.

Nighswonger brings a broad network, agricultural knowledge and great communication skills to the table. His primary focus will be on farms, ranches and equipment in all parts of Colorado and will be acquiring licensing in surrounding states. He can be reached at 303-362-3285 or jess@schraderauction. com.

Those seeking additional information may visit www.schraderauction.com or call 800-451-2709.

Be sure to check out the equipment from Middle J Farms in Keenesburg, CO selling in the March Virtual Consignment Auction on March 3, 2022. Lots can be viewed at schrader.nextlot.com.

Schrader Real Estate and Auction Company is a leading auctioneer of agricultural land and equipment throughout the United States. The company is a five-time USA Today/ National Auctioneers Association Auction of the Year winner.

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Lost Creek Guide

Barbara Jane Ericksen

- Obituaries -

Barbara Jane Ericksen, 85, passed away peacefully on January 28th, 2022, in Hobbs, NM. Barbara was the only girl of four children born to Lloyd and Marguerite Brown on June 17th, 1936, in Doniphan, Nebraska. She married Charles “Pete” Ericksen on May 15th, 1955, in Nebraska moving to Hobbs, NM in 1967 with their five children.

Barbara had a one-of-a-kind personality who was a very strong willed, loving woman who never met a stranger and was devoted to taking care of her family. She proved how strong she was when she became a breast cancer survivor of 10 years. She was a member of the Hobbs Moose Lodge, Eastern Star, VFW, The Eagles, American Legion and First Presbyterian Church of Hobbs. She owned and operated Go Western Liquors where her life of the party personality met and made many lifelong friends. On Saturdays, you would find Barbara with her Nebraska Cornhuskers flag flying high, regardless of how bad her team was playing. She spent her days on her front porch with her best friend Missy, gardening, planting tomatoes and feeding hummingbirds. Barbara enjoyed playing cards and dominos with friends and family, also teaching her grandchildren card games with “her rules”. Her grandchildren often joined her for afternoon tea parties and treats at Barbara Grandma’s house.

Barbara is survived by her brother Darrell Brown of Lincoln, Nebraska, her five children Belinda “Lindy” Funk and husband Wayne of Tucson, AZ, Krist Ericksen and wife Sabrina of Hobbs, NM, Kathryn Hennesy and husband John of Keenesburg, CO, Bradley Ericksen and wife Esther of Hobbs, NM, Gregory Ericksen and partner Robert Bowman of Beaufort, NC, 9 grandchildren and 13 great grandchildren. She is also survived by the countless people she met along the way that she considered her other children and grandchildren (you know who you are).

Barbara is preceded in death by her parents Lloyd and Marguerite Brown, two brothers Ronnie and Wendell Brown, her beloved aunt Velma, one grandchild Kasey Ericksen and a great-grandchild Cheyenne Smith.

The family would like to give their sincere thanks to all the residents and hardworking staff of Desert Gardens that took care of our Mom. In lieu of flowers donate to your favorite charity.

February 16, 2022

Earl William Linnebur

Earl W. Linnebur (98) of Roggen, CO was born to Joseph F. and Anna F. Linnebur in Garden Plain, KS. The family moved to Colorado when he was five and settled in the Roggen area to farm.

Earl was the second of four children: Agnes (John) Evers, Ivan (Alma) Linnebur, and Eileen (Herman) Weibert who have all preceded him in death.

He married Helen F. Hillenbrand on December 28, 1953 and built their home on the farm near Roggen, CO. There they raised six children: David (Cindy) Linnebur, Teresa (Jeff) Reckard, Sharon (Steve) Erker, Karen (Dan) Westhoff, Josie Linnebur, and Tony Linnebur.

Earl was married to Helen for 60 years and farmed all his life. He loved to hunt, play cards, and always had a good joke to tell. You can always remember him by his Stetson hat he wore wherever he went.

He was blessed with 19 grandchildren (listed below) and 38 great grandchildren: Angela Cole, Emily (Paul) Siciliano, Jared (Lauren) Linnebur, Brandon Linnebur, Eric (Lacie) Reckard, Amy (Dustin) Gatens, Katie (Mark) McConnell, Alex Reckard Mary (Adam) Walter, Adam (Kaitlyn) Erker, Aaron (Carly) Erker Mark (Kim) Westhoff, Sara (Kyle) Wiederholdt, Tim (Sadie) Westhoff, Maggie (Justin) Bothelo Matt (Brittany) Linnebur Travis Linnebur, CJ (Allie) Linnebur, Shanae (Landon) Doiel Preceding him in death were his wife Helen, son David, daughter Josie, his parents, and his siblings.

A Rosary honoring Earl will be held at Sacred Heart Church (Roggen, CO) on Tuesday, February 8, 2022 at 1:00 pm. Graveside services will follow at Heart of the Plains Cemetery (Roggen, CO).

In lieu of flowers, please consider a memorial contribution for masses or saying a prayer/rosary.

Tabor Funeral Home in Brighton, CO is handling the arrangements.

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Earl William Linnebur, please visit our floral store.

Benchmarks of COVID Steadily Improving in Colorado, Though Still High Continued From page 1...

Still, that positivity rate is the lowest Colorado has seen since Christmas — when the omicron wave was taking off.

Meantime, the hospital staffing crunch and bed capacity in intensive care units are also improving.

Forty-four percent of hospitals reported they anticipate a staffing shortage in the next week and 26 percent said they anticipated an ICU bed shortage. Both those figures are down a bit from the sharp spike seen when the omicron variant arrived in Colorado.

Eighty-seven percent of ICU beds were reported in use on Monday. That’s a drop from the mid-nineties in early to mid-December. Nearly 200 ICU beds were available, the highest figure since mid-October when the delta wave was building in the state.

At home rapid COVID tests: how to use them and why they may mislead you if you don’t have symptoms The omicron variant added a wave of at least several hundred deaths in Colorado, the fourth major wave to do so. The death data lags, but the impact of omicron last month is now becoming clear.

Nearly every day after Jan. 1, the state reported at least 20 deaths a day for almost the entire month. Jan. 23 was a particularly devastating date — among COVID-19 cases, 44 people died; that’s the most since Dec. 3, 2021, as the wave caused by the delta variant was starting to drop.

The total number of deaths among Colorado cases is now 11,404. The state surpassed a pandemic toll of 10,000 on Dec. 14. So, more than 1,400 have died since then, the majority from infections caused by the omicron variant.

February 16, 2022

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Lost Creek Guide

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Lost Creek Guide

Colorado to Get $39M in Federal Aid to Help Clean Up Its More Than 1,200 Orphan Wells The Department of Interior is handing out nearly $1.4 billion to states across the U.S. to help clean up abandoned oil and gas wells. Texas got the largest grant, at nearly $108 million.

By Mark Jaffe, The Colorado Sun

A workover rig is pictured during plugging and abandonment operations at a series of Great Western Oil and Gas Company wells in Thornton on January 11, 2022. (Andy Colwell, Special to The Colorado Sun)

Colorado is eligible for $39 million in federal funds to plug orphan oil and gas wells — the first tranche of what could total $79 million in remediation funds for the state — the U.S. Department of Interior announced today.

The money is part of the Biden administration’s infrastructure program, passed by Congress last November. A total of $1.4 billion in plugging and abandonment funds are being made available to 26 states.

The awards were made based on a formula accounting for job losses and the documented number and clean-up costs of orphan wells in each state. Texas got the largest grant, at nearly $108 million.

The federal money comes as the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) is working to revise its rules to require oil and gas drillers provide financial assurance they can plug their wells and to increase state funds for plugging and abandoning sites with no solvent operator, so-called orphan wells.

COGCC Chairman Jeff Robbins said in a statement that the award of the federal funds showed “excellent timing.”

“We are thankful to receive these funds and look forward to implementing these programs to be protective of public health, safety, welfare, wildlife and the environment,” Robbins said.

Colorado has 411 orphan wells to plug and 811 orphan well sites to remediate, according to state data.

Those numbers are up 70% the past four months as the COGCC moved to shut down derelict operators and seize their wells and clean-up bonds The commission is planning on moving on additional defunct operators, according to Megan Castle, a COGCC spokeswoman.

Julie Murphy, the commission director, said the Interior Department, under its criteria “has identified 129,000 [orphan wells] nationally and Colorado has 625 orphan wells, which shows that our state’s proactive approach is working and we are fulfilling our mission.”

The Colorado numbers, however, may only represent a small eddy before a big wave, environmentalists say. An analysis of the 52,000 wells in Colorado done by a coalition of environmental groups, including Conservation Colorado, identified 2,917 wells likely to be abandoned.

This included 329 wells owned by companies that had zero oil and gas production in 2020 and 2,588 wells owned by operators whose wells average less than the equivalent of one barrel of oil a day – a level regulators and the industry say is uneconomical.

In the face of those numbers the federal money is a drop in the bucket, Kate Merlin, an attorney with the environmental group WildEarth Guardians, said.

“Colorado’s orphans have historically cost an average of just about $93,000, meaning this $39 million will only cover about 400 orphans,” Merlin said in an email.

“We have at least 10 times as many wells in Colorado that are probably going to become orphaned, or are already basically abandoned.”

An analysis of plugging costs for Colorado wells whose surety bonds were seized put the average price at nearly $93,000. The overall historic plugging costs for the state’s orphan well program is $82,500.

“This federal money is another taxpayer bailout of an industry that refuses to clean up its own messes,” Merlin said.

In the coming weeks, the Interior Department will release detailed guidance for states to apply for the initial grant equal to $25 million and then Colorado will be eligible for another $14 million in performance grants.

The total money allocated to orphan wells in the infrastructure law is $4.7 billion, of which Colorado could be in line for $79 million.

“These abandoned sites are dangerous for Colorado communities and release harmful methane into the atmosphere,” Colorado Democratic Sen. John Hickenlooper, who lobbied for the orphan well funding, said in a statement. “Now we’ll create jobs by capping and remediating abandoned wells.”

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported news organization that covers Colorado people, places and issues. To sign up for free newsletters, subscribe or learn more, visit ColoradoSun.com

February 16, 2022

Prep Basketball: Prairie Takes Pair at Weldon Valley

by Paul Dineen By the official CHSAA stats, Weldon Valley, with an enrollment of 57, is the 41st smallest school out of 362. Prairie’s enrollment is 53, for 36th smallest. As such, it has sometimes been difficult to recruit a sufficient roster, at least for the more teamoriented sports.

Though smaller, Prairie is currently better off in this regard, with a boys basketball roster size of seventeen compared to Weldon Valley’s nine. Weldon Valley’s girls roster also has nine, while Prairie’s has ten. Although school and roster sizes can influence the overall results, they have not been found to adversely affect the effort and spirit of athletes, coaches and fans at these smaller schools. This was again on display on Saturday, January 29 when the Prairie Mustangs visited the Weldon Valley Warriors for a pair of games.

Girls game The visiting Mustangs’ record was a shade better, at 4-6, than the Warriors, at 3-7.

But, the Warriors had won two of their last three, while the Mustangs had won one of three.

The Mustangs took the first period handily, 16-6. Warriors head coach Cody Davis pointed to his team needing “more energy and better decisions. They got boxed out and out rebounded.”

The Warriors displayed those attributes as they had the edge in period two, scoring ten versus the Mustangs’ eight. The Mustang’s lead was as little as one point, at 16-15 with 3:19 left. Prairie head coach Blair Adamson saw the change as “for our part, our girls starting out slowly, taking the lead for granted.” During this rally, the Warriors were more careful in their end right after gaining possession. They were also more patient at the other end when setting up the shot. The half ended at 22-16, Prairie.

Prairie regained their own level of effort for a 14-point edge in the third quarter, 16-2, to open up a 38-18 lead. The game ended 50-24 for Prairie.

Annie Onufrak led the Warriors with eleven points and six rebounds.

Bobbie Schreiner paced the Mustangs with 23 points, followed by Kayla Kuger with 11 and Alliyah Nelson with eight.

Boys game The Prairie boys had started the season winning four of their first five. That was followed by losing four of five, for an overall record of 5-5 (0-1 in the North Central league). A factor in the latter skid has been the absence of senior David Speicher due to injury. His scoring average in the four games before the holiday break was 13 (the team second highest). He has missed the seven games since the break, including this one.

Weldon Valley’s record was 2-9 (0-2 league), but they had won two of their last five.

The Warriors opened the scoring on a twopointer by Weston Filter. Brock Dollerschell would counter with one of his three three-pointers in the game to put the Mustangs ahead for good. The Western Filter of Weldon Valley and quarter would end with a 21-13 Mustangs lead.

Prairie’s Carter Jaeger (4) compete Quarter two saw more long-range accuracy, with for the jump ball at the start of their Dol l ersch el l Saturday, January 29 game at and Andy Weldona Long each notching two from three-point range. That brought Long to five three-pointers in the first half and 18 points. Jayden Felts and Cade Groves led Warrior scoring in the half with ten and nine points, respectively. The half ended, 41-22 Mustangs.

Groves with six and Felts with two were the scorers for Weldon Valley in the third. That was against 17 by Prairie, including Maverik Mertens with six of his 14 on the night. The quarter ended 58-30.

Weldon Valley surged in the fourth, outscoring Prairie nine to four. But, the Mustangs prevailed Cade Groves led Weldon Valley with 19 in a 62-39 final.

Caden Groves led the Warriors with 19 points. points as the Warriors hosted the Prairie Jayden Felts had 13 points plus 12 of the team’s Mustangs on Saturday, January 29 32 rebounds.

For the Mustangs, Andy Long finished with 23, followed by Dollerschell and Mertens with 15 and 14, respectively. The rebounding was spread out, with six by Carter Jaeger leading the other ten Mustangs who rebounded, all totaling 30.

Prairie head coach Denis Bringelson credited shooting percentage as the difference maker, “We shot the ball pretty well tonight.” The game stats bear that out. The teams were close in rebounds (3230 in favor of Weldon Valley), steals (5-3, Weldon Valley) and turnovers (13-16, with fewer by Prairie).

But Prairie led in shooting percentage 68%-32% (combining foul shots, field goals and 3-pointers).

Coach Bringelson added, “Weldona played really tough, I thought, even when they got down.”

Head coach Greg Edson of Weldon Valley said, “We struggled on transition D, not getting back well. But the kids fought hard throughout the whole Weldon Valley Warriors’ Cade game. Offensively, we’re getting better.” He also Groves surveys the court layout in credited the Mustangs’ top scorer, “Andy Long is a preparation for taking a foul shot, heck of a basketball player. Give him a step or two Saturday, January 31 at Weldon and he’ll knock down the shot.”