Executive Summary

Aspen Journalism took important steps forward in 2022, deepening our role as a provider independent, in-depth and investigative reporting that serves the community and is unique in the regional medial environment. 

2022 was Aspen Journalism’s first full year under the leadership of Curtis Wackerle, who joined the organization as editor in July 2020 and who assumed the role of editor and executive director in September 2021 upon the departure of founder Brent Gardner Smith. Wackerle was successful in keeping the organization on firm financial footing while upholding our commitment to thorough and thoughtful journalism. While working with our two full-time working with Aspen Journalism, he helped the organization expand its coverage to more topics beyond water than ever before including environment, housing, transportation, land use, social justice, public health and history.  

Editorial production was led by Heather Sackett, who has been the lead reporter on our water desk since 2019. She continued her practice of barnstorming the state, going wherever the story took her as she solidified her reputation as one of the region’s leading water reporters. She brought important stories to light as declining reservoir levels in the Colorado River basin threatened billions of dollars worth of agriculture and water security for 40 million people, prompting an unprecedented call for water conservation. In addition, there is no one in media more well-versed in water policy and politics as they relate to the Roaring Fork watershed and the headwaters of the Colorado, Blue, Yampa and White rivers. 

2022 was also the first year under a renewed three-year funding cycle with the Catena Foundation that supports our water desk— underwriting that provides for the desk’s sustainability and deepens the foundation’s investment in our work. Proceeds from the grant helped us cover a portion of data editor Laurine Lassalle’s full-time position, recognizing that she supplements Sackett’s reporting with clarifying data visualizations. Lassalle also maintains her own portfolio of in-depth and investigative reporting on a number of topics, including Aspen-area transportation patterns, higher composting rates at the county landfill and varies attitudes and outcomes related to COVID-19 across Colorado’s Western Slope. 

We continued broadening our reach in 2022, with 22 different news media outlets that published our work. Indeed, most of our stories are picked up by multiple news outlets, helping us reach an audience that on any given day can number in the hundreds of thousands per story. We collaborated with Aspen Public Radio, providing dozens of broadcast “readers” encapsulating our stories. We grew the audience for our newsletter The Roundup, which shares insights behind our reporting. We were part of a cohort of eight local news organizations led by the Colorado Media Project that met twice a month to better understand how we can serve the Spanish-language community. We hosted a public event at the Hotel Jerome where Wackerle co-moderated a discussion with New York Times Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Tom Friedman in partnership with the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies, followed by a private reception for AJ supporters with Friedman.  

Demonstrating the effectiveness of our model, which channels public and institutional support into tangible in-depth and investigative reporting that has an impact on the community, Aspen Journalism in 2022 received word that we had been honored with 15 awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Colorado Press Association, for work published in 2021. In addition, we learned in 2023 of 10 awards for our 2022 work.  

Aspen Journalism’s History and Nonprofit Newsroom Model

The nonprofit newsroom model was pioneered at a local level by Aspen Journalism’s founder, Brent Gardner-Smith, spurred by the contraction plaguing newsrooms across the country in the wake of the Great Recession. Gardner-Smith, who began his journalism career in Aspen in 1984, understood that the local commercial news industry had challenges in being able to facilitate in depth and investigative journalism from experienced professional reporters over the long term. While earning his master’s degree from the Missouri School of Journalism, and inspired by an internship in 2010 at the national nonprofit newsroom ProPublica, Gardner-Smith developed a plan to launch a local, investigative, nonprofit news organization serving those with a stake in Aspen, the Roaring Fork Valley and the greater upper Colorado River basin.  

The model was to establish a fail-safe for the local press to ensure that the community always has access to high-quality investigative reporting. Gardner-Smith founded Aspen Journalism as a 501c3 nonprofit corporation located in Aspen, Colorado, in January of 2011. It published its first story a short time later. The organization under Garnder-Smith developed a niche for covering water policy and politics in the headwaters basins of the Colorado River, as well as providing in-depth coverage of social and environmental issues affecting Colorado mountain communities. 

For its first half-dozen years, Aspen Journalism never had more than one full-time employee, plus the equivalent of a half to three-quarters of a full-time position’s worth of freelance journalism and other support. Beginning around 2018, the organization sought to actively grow the scope of its editorial production, with the establishment of of the Connie Harvey Environment Desk. Since then, Aspen Journalism has had a staffing capacity of between 3.75 and 4.75 full-time-equivalent employees.

In 2019, Gardner Smith hired Sackett, passing the torch of water reporting while evolving his role into the editor and executive director helping manage more freelancers and raise more to sustain our efforts. In 2020, Wackerle joined the staff as the editor in chief and reporter covering environment and social issues, before assuming the duties of editor and executive director in August 2021. Lassalle began working on a part-time basis for Aspen Journalism in 2020, applying her specialty as a data reporter to our efforts at covering local impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Her role became full time in 2021. 

By the numbers, in 2022 we published: 

58 Investigative Stories

41 Water Desk Stories

6 Environment Desk Stories

5 Social Justice Desk Stories

4 Local Public Data Desk Stories

2 History Desk Stories

187 Data Updates

52 Data Dashboard Updates

135 Tracking the Curve Updates

46 Newsletter Editions

39 Editions of The Roundup

7 Editions of The Runoff, launched February 9, 2022

75 Water Meetings Attended 

135 readers, which aired a total of at least 200 times, written for Aspen Public Radio

For a complete list of the stories published and meetings attended in 2022, click here. 

Aspen Journalism 2022 Staff

Curtis Wackerle, Editor and Executive Director

Heather Sacket, Managing Editor and Water Desk Editor

Laurine Lassalle, Data Desk Editor

Besides our full-time staff, Aspen Journalism worked with 10 freelance journalists in 2022:

Luna Anna Archey
Dan Bayer
Tim Cooney
Catherine Lutz
Amy Hadden Marsh
Hector Salas
Will Sardinsky
Sarah Tory
Andrew Travers
Kaya Williams
Dale Ulland

We also worked with marketing, social media and web production contractor Claire de L’Arbre, received fundraising and development support from Rebecca Mirsky, and Dara Gever assisted with grant writing. 

We estimate our annualized total staffing capacity for the year at 4 FTE. 

Aspen Journalism 2022 Board of Directors 

Mark Harvey, President
Tim McFlynn, Vice President
Denise Jurgens, Treasurer
Cristal Logan
Pete McBride
Michael McVoy
Jane Pargiter
Harry Teague

Awards Won in 2022 (for work produced in 2021)

Colorado Press Association, six awards, more information here.

• First Place: Best Agriculture Story
  Kremmling bird count studies how birds use irrigated agriculture by Heather Sackett, Water Desk
• First Place: Best Environmental Story
  In Coal Basin, a hidden source of climate pollution by Sarah Tory & Luna Anna Archey
• First Place: Best Business News/Feature Story
  More intense backside land use a sticking point for Pandora’s by Curtis Wackerle, Environment Desk
• First Place: Best Newsletter
  The Roundup: A weekly newsletter showcasing Aspen Journalism’s original stories, insights from our newsroom and a selection of what we’re reading by Curtis Wackerle, Editor and Executive Director 
• First Place: Best Informational Graphic
  Click image to see interactive graph on aspen journalism.org by Laurine Lasalle ,Data Desk Manager
• Second Place: Best Informational Graphic
  Lake Powell hits record low by Laurine Lasalle, Aspen Journalism

Society of Professional Journalists, nine awards, more information here. 

• First Place: Climate Reporting
  Covering river systems and aridification in the upper Colorado River basin by Heather Sackett, Water Desk
• First Place: Social Justice Reporting
  2020 census highlights the relationship between resort communities and downvalley locales by Laurine Lasalle, Data Desk Editor
• First Place: Business: Enterprise Reporting
  More intense backside land use a sticking point for Pandora’s by Curtis Wackerle, Aspen Journalism
• Second Place: Agriculture and Environment: Feature
  Kremmling bird count studies how birds use irrigated agriculture by Heather Sackett, Aspen Journalism
• Second Place: Health: News
  A growing toll from bike and e-bike accidents by Laurine Lasalle, Data Desk Editor
• Second Place: Agriculture and Environment: News
  In Coal Basin, a hidden source of climate pollution by Sarah Tory and Luna Anna Archey, Environment Desk. 
• Third Place: Extended Coverage
  Backcountry motorized recreation pains remote mountain town by Curtis Wackerle, Aspen Journalism
• Third Place: Agriculture and Environment: News
  Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness overnight overuse continues to increase by Curtis Wackerle, Aspen Journalism
• Third Place: Social Justice Reporting
  As Latino COVID vaccinations lag in the region, activists push for systemic change by Hector Salas and Laurine Lasalle, Aspen Journalism

2022 Stories Produced

Find 2022 stories, dashboards, and newsletters produced, and water meetings attended here.

WATER DESK

Our water desk, staffed by Heather Sackett, produced 41 stories as Sackett covered 75 water meetings across the state of Colorado and in neighboring states. 2022 was Sackett’s fourth year on the water beat, in which she continued to show why Aspen Journalism has long been recognized for the depth and quality of its water coverage.

In February, Sackett published an investigation into so-called “ditch inventories” — records developed typically by conservation districts that take stock of members’ irrigation infrastructure, examining conditions on the ground and where improvements are needed. But while these studies are often funded with tens of thousands of dollars in public money, from sources including the Colorado Water Conservation Board and the Colorado River District, they tend to be treated as private information by those who commission them. Sackett dove into records-accessibility issues, cultural phenomena around transparency in irrigation and why these studies could hold the key to water conservation.  

Sackett’s reporting also kept readers in the know as historic drought conditions and increasing demands put unprecedented pressure on the Colorado River basin water system. After Lake Powell declined to record lows in late winter 2022, the federal Bureau of Reclamation sent shockwaves through the West when it announced that basin-wide cuts of 2-4 million acre feet per year would be needed in the near future in order to avoid catastrophe. Sackett covered how water managers and users in Colorado grappled with the various forecasted scenarios, while staying on top of a renewed federal effort to pay farmers and ranchers to cut back on their water use.

Other 2022 water desk highlights included Sackett’s coverage of how one long-time rancher was impacted by the state’s water-abandonment process; how advocates seeking to strengthen protections for water devoted to the environment and recreation battled for influence; and how efforts played out in the Crystal River basin to ensure future water supplies and protect extraordinary scenic and environmental values.

For a complete list of water desk stories published and water meetings attended in 2022, see below. 

ENVIRONMENT DESK

Our Connie Harvey Environment Desk published seven stories in 2022. These stories were impactful and award-winning, written by freelancers Sarah Tory, Amy Hadden Marsh and Kaya Williams, and in-house journalists Laurine Lasalle and Curtis Wackerle. 

Sarah Tory authored her second piece for Aspen Journalism in two years — the first was in October 2021 — about burgeoning plans to deal with potentially high levels of methane leakage from shuttered coal mins in Coal Basin, located near Redstone. Tory’s 2022 reporting helped unpack a central question: How can the global benefits of a project that would reduce heat-trapping emissions be reconciled with the impacts the project would inevitably have on the local environment? 

Amy Hadden Marsh supplied two in-depth stories concerning the Uinta Basin Railway (UBR), its backers and the mounting obstacles that it confronts. Marsh, a freelance journalist and longtime resident of the Roaring Fork Valley, delved into the legal and environmental issues raised by the project that would create a significant new link in the global oil supply chain. Concern over the potential of between three and 10 new oil trains per day on the tracks passing through Glenwood Canyon on their way up the Colorado River’s headwaters as a result of the $1.5 billion rail line across the Tavaputs Plateau has brought together local governments, federal elected officials and national environmental watchdogs, squaring off against state and oil industry officials in Utah.

Other stories from the Connie Harvey Enviroment Desk include coverage from freelance journalist Kaya Williams on plans to add new recreational amenities at the 22-acre Town Park in Snowmass Village. 

In-house data journalist Laurine Lasalle dove into the data showing compost hitting a record high in 2021 at Pitkin County landfill, a trend made possible by resident participation, rather than the 10% of restaurants that compost organic waste, a number that has remained relatively stagnant since 2017. 

Curtis Wackerle continued the thread on Marble’s off-highway vehicle woes, examining findings of a stakeholder group formed in 2021 to explore new management strategies in response to increased off-highway vehicle traffic on the Lead King Loop near Marble. While many of the participants envisioned an end game a permit system for off-highway recreational vehicles traveling the remote and scenic back country roads, they found parking in town to be at the heart of the issue. The environment desk also continued its focus on land use, with Wackerle and Gardner-Smith teaming up to cover the status of a controversial proposal to develop two new hotels and a new ski lift in the historic Lift 1A neighborhood at the base of Aspen Mountain. 

For a complete list of environment desk stories published in 2022, see below. 

SOCIAL JUSTICE DESK

The social justice desk, established April 2021, grew into its second year with stories from award-winning freelance journalists Andrew Travers and Hector Salas, and staff journalist and data desk editor Laurine Lassalle in a collaborative series with Caroline Llanes of Aspen Public Radio. 

Salas’ reporting on a cluster of Rifle-based freelance housekeepers was an important piece shedding light on an industry that is both huge in its scope and remarkably fractured. 

Lassalle’s two-part series with Caroline Llanes of Aspen Public Radio involved gathering data on COVID-19 case counts and rates, as well as deaths and vaccinations, from six Western Slope counties, in order to take stock of how attitudes and outcomes related to the pandemic differed  depending on community characteristics. 

Andrew Travers, a longtime local journalist, filed his first stories for Aspen Journalism in 2022, covering for our social justice desk affordable housing efforts in the Roaring Fork Valley. His stories broke news about a new ‘intervention model’ being tested with the purchase of a 20-unit mobile-home park outside of Glenwood Springs for $2.4 million in an attempt to buck the trend of displacement and affordable-housing destruction at the hands of private-equity groups buying Colorado mobile home communities. He also informed readers about  Habitat for Humanity of the Roaring Fork Valley’s initiative to build a modular home manufacturing plant to aggressively combat the housing crisis rippling from Aspen to Parachute.

DATA DESK

Aspen Journalism established a data desk, staffed by Laurine Lassalle, when Lassalle began working part-time for Aspen Journalism in May 2020, which was when she took over our Tracking the Curve local COVID-19 data project; since then and through March of 2022 she updated our local coronavirus info post five days per week. From March through November 2022, Tracking the Curve was updated twice per week; from November until we discontinued the posts due to shifts in the pandemic in March 2023, she published one post per week. Each post was loaded with data presentations around case rates, hospitalizations, vaccinations, testing rates and wastewater testing. 

Lassalle also puts out a weekly Data Dashboard, sharing updates on a revolving suite of metrics focused on local environmental and quality of life factors such as streamflows, traffic, precipitation, air quality and Lake Powell water levels. She has also conducted investigations into public health and environmental issues that have resulted in stand-alone news stories including coverage of Aspen area traffic patterns and waste reduction efforts.

Lassalle also formatted much of her reporting into broadcast readers that aired on Aspen Public Radio.

HISTORY DESK

Tim Cooney, writing for the Aspen Journalism History Desk, published a two-part series taking readers on a slow ride through Aspen’s history as seen from the driver’s seat. Cooney’s meticulous review of the historical record traces the development of a socioeconomic system based on transitioning wagon roads to highways, beginning with the arrival of Aspen’s first car in 1906 in part one. Part two follows the evolution of local car culture and infrastructure post 1940s, educating most of us newbies on the downtown sports car races that were among the growing town’s most anticipated events in the 1950s and the legacy of the Woody Creek racetrack. The work was the latest in a long list of stories, dating to 2015, from Cooney exploring Aspen history.

Website, Newsletter and Media Reach

Aspen Journalism continued building its regular newsletter, The Roundup, into an important platform for communication with our audience. The newsletter, in 2022 written mainly by Wackerle, incorporates insights from our newsroom about the stories published, while compiling all our recent content into one place. The newsletter, which was first expanded in 2021, was honored in 2022 in the Best Newsletter category in the Colorado Press Association awards for work published in 2021.

We also launched The Runoff in 2022, which is our water desk newsletter written by Heather Sackett that includes news items not covered in other Aspen Journalism stories and a roundup of our original water reporting. We published seven editions in 2022. 

Aspen Journalism also launched a redesigned website in February 2022. In 2022, we hosted 70,001 readers on aspenjournalism.org.

We continued our collaborative partnership with The Aspen Times and its sister papers across the Colorado high country owned by Swift Communications: Vail Daily, Glenwood Springs Post-Independent, Steamboat Pilot & Today, Craig Press, Sky-Hi News and Summit Daily News. Each of our water, environment, social justice and data stories ran in the Times. Most were picked up by at least one of the other mountain town papers — with some stories running in each publication. With each pick-up via the Swift network, we estimate a circulation of roughly 25,000 readers between print and online editions. In August, at the paper’s request, we also began directly sharing our water desk stories with the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, the Western Slope’s largest newspaper with a print circulation of over 25,000 and a weekly online audience of at least 90,000, which ran six AJ stories in 2022. Our history desk stories ran exclusively in the Aspen Daily News.

Aspen Journalism also saw our work published by a variety of other news organizations, including Sentinel Colorado, based in Aurora, which ran two of our stories in 2022, and the online Colorado Sun, which reaches a statewide audience and picked up one story in 2022. We also directly collaborated with Aspen Public Radio on three stories, co-bylining pieces on COVID-19 and local land use their journalists. When our work touches on an issue relevant to a specific location, we often reach out to the editors of the local paper and offer them the story. We posted many of our stories to the AP StoryShare platform, where it is available to media organizations statewide. 

Heather Sackett also appeared on public affairs programs to discuss her reporting on both Aspen Public Radio and KDNK. 

• March 17, “Lake Powell plug for Colorado River film “A River in the Red”,  APR
• April 14, “Get Out,”  KDNK
• Sept. 2, “One huge game of chicken,” APR
• Oct. 11, “Get Out,” KDNK

In total, 22 media outlets published our work in 2022.

They were:

The Aspen Times
Aspen Public Radio
Glenwood Springs Post-Independent
Vail Daily
Steamboat Pilot & Today
Sky-Hi News
Craig Press
Summit Daily News
Aspen Daily News
Sopris Sun
Ouray County Plaindealer
The Colorado Sun
The Aurora Sentinel
Montrose Daily Press
KKCO 11 Grand Junction
Pagosa Springs Sun
Rio Blanco Herald-Times
Grand Junction Daily Sentinel 
Yellow Scene Magazine
Coyote Gulch
Longmont Leader
Colorado Springs Gazette

Revenue and expenses

Click here to interact with revenue and expenses chart above.

2022 was a successful year financially, with $426,565 raised and $386,300 spent. 

On the expense side, salaries, benefits and the taxes and fees to cover our three full-time employees accounted for 58% of our total spending. Another 13% was dedicated to paying freelance journalists, a contractor who assists with social media, newsletter and website management and covering other newsroom expenses including travel, newsgathering costs, training and libel insurance. Remaining expenses were divided mostly between overhead (including office rent and telecom fees, website hosting and accounting and legal services) and marketing and development costs.

One of the main pillars of our fundraising is an annual grant from the Carbondale-based Catena Foundation, which focuses on environmental and social justice issues and is endowed by Sam Walton, grandson of Wal-Mart founders Sam and Helen Walton. Catena underwrites Aspen Journalism’s water reporting efforts with grant funding approved in three-year cycles. In 2022, we began our second three-year cycle, with a contribution in January of $143,000. Our previous three-year grant from Catena generated $100,000 per year. This funding provides for Water Desk Editor Heather Sackett’s salary and benefits and a portion of the salaries and benefits of Editor and Executive Director Curtis Wackerle and Data Editor Laurine Lassalle. It also covers travel and newsgathering expenses for the water desk, as well as a portion of the organization’s overhead.

Our end-of-year campaign, with support from NewsMatch, a program of the Fund for Nonprofit News at The Miami Foundation, and the Colorado Media Project, is also a major pillar of our fundraising strategy. NewsMatch and the CMP provide funds to match donations of up to $1,000, helping us rally community support, which we solicit via a direct mail and email push highlighting the benefit Aspen Journalism provides. Besides raising the lion’s share of our community contributions of less than $1,000 during this cycle, most of our philanthropic-level donors, who give $1,000 or more, also give at the end of the year. Between November and December in 2022, we raised $123,769 from 186 donors. This enabled us to unlock $19,000 from NewsMatch and $5,000 from the Colorado Media Project — revenue that came in spring of 2023. In spring 2022, we received $17,000 from NewsMatch and $5,000 from Colorado Media Project, based on our performance during the 2021 end-of-year campaign.

Aspen Journalism also received grants from the city of Aspen ($19,322) and Pitkin County ($15,000) in 2022. These are competitive grant programs awarded annually, with applications reviewed by a committee of community members.

We also received significant funding from the New-Land Foundation ($35,000) in support of our environment reporting, from Mark Harvey, the president of Aspen Journalism’s Board of Directors ($25,000), and from Robert Pew and Susan Taylor of Woody Creek ($18,000) in support of local, in depth and investigative journalism. Other major donors, and additional details, are listed below. 

We believe our donors support us because they value facts and the truth and are hoping for a future that includes a vigorous free press and a vital democracy. So we honor them by working hard to turn their well-founded hope into well-grounded truth, because well-informed citizens make better decisions. Thank you to all who make this possible.

2022 Aspen Journalism revenue from donor source: 

• $259,322 raised from Foundation grants (excluding contributions that are essentially individual or family donations), including any portion of a multi-year grant specifically allocated as 2022 revenue.
• $31,628 raised from individual donations from Community Level donors (less than $1,000).
• $33,370 raised from individual donations from Philanthropic Level donors ($1,000-$4,999).
• $102,000 raised from individual donations from Publisher Level donors ($5,000 or more; including gifts that are essentially individual donations given through a foundation).

2022 PHILANTHROPIC DONORS 

Individual donors who sustained Aspen Journalism with gifts of $1,000 or more during 2022 gave 28% of total contributions. 

$25,000 Mark Harvey

$18,000 Robert Pew and Susan Taylor
$7,000   Jill Soffer / Our Part Foundation
$6,500   Ann and Tom Friedman
$6,000   Andrea Booher
    Ann Harvey
  Judith Steinberg
$5,000  Kate and Rick Ridgway Holstrom
  Maggie and Nick DeWolf Foundation
 Marcie and Robert Musser
 Melony and Adam Lewis
 The Penner Family Foundation
$4,000  Pete McBride
$3,100   Michael Lipkin and Jody Guralnick
$3,000   Marianne and Dick Kipper
 Peter Looram
$2,500   Jacolyn and John Bucksbaum 
 Michael McVoy and Michal Brimm
$1,500   Mary and Hugh Wise
 Sue Edelstein and Bill Spence
 Terri Slivka
$1,250   Amory and Judy Lovins
$1,020   Felicity Huffman
$1,000   Andy Wiessner
 Barbara Reese
 Bob Purvis
 Curtis Robinson
 David Hyman and Barbara Reid
 Jim and Dianne Light
 Judith Barnard and Michael Fain
 Kate Bulkley
 Lynne Angel
 Richard O’Connell 
 Sara Ransford

2022 COMMUNITY SUSTAINERS

Individuals who support Aspen Journalism with a total annual gift between $500 and $999 provided 12% of total contributions.

$821    Claire de L’Arbre

$814    Pam Moore

$810 Tim McFlynn

$800 Mary Conover

$582 Frank Peters and Marjory Musgrave

$520 Ken Ransford

$510 Patricia Stranahan

$500 Alfred Gardner Jr. 

Anne Ware

Blanca and Cavanaugh O’Leary

David Frey

Deborah Bradford

Gregory Long

Harry Teague

Hensley and James Peterson

Kay Bucksbaum

Lindsay and Thomas Gorman

Loren Jenkins

Marcella Larsen

Ruth Carver

Skip Berhorst and Donna Fisher

Terry Baltimore

Tom and Kathie Wilson

Plus 137 community donors who gave less than $500.

2022 FOUNDATIONS & GRANTS

Foundation and grants funding (excluding contributions that are essentially individual or family donations), including any portion of a multi-year grant specifically allocated as 2022 revenue, represented 60% of 2022 contributions.

$143,000 Catena Foundation
$35,000 New-Land Foundation
$19,322 City of Aspen
$17,000 The Fund for Nonprofit News at the Miami Foundation (NewsMatch)
$15,000 Pitkin County
$8,000 Aspen Business Center Foundation
$7,000 Maki Foundation
$5,000 Brett Family Foundation
$5,000 Martens Foundation
$5,000 Colorado Media Project

2022 stories, newsletters, and water meetings produced and attended by Aspen Journalism

Stories Produced

Water Desk

Dropping reservoirs create ‘green light’ for sustainability on Colorado River
By Heather Sackett, January 15
The Aspen Times, Steamboat Pilot & Today, Summit Daily, Craig Press and Vail Daily

State water education campaign focuses on individual actions
By Heather Sackett, January 28
The Aspen Times, Craig Press, Vail Daily Sky-Hi News and Steamboat Pilot & Today

River District addresses controversial water speculation bill
By Heather Sackett, February 4
Vail Daily, The Aspen Times, Sky-Hi News and Steamboat Pilot & Today

Popular ditch inventories remain private despite being publicly funded
By Heather Sackett, February 6
The Aspen Times and Vail Daily

Kremmling rancher picked to replace Schwartz on state water board
By Heather Sackett, February 15
The Aspen Times, Vail Daily Glenwood Springs Post-Independent, Summit Daily and Sky-Hi News

Groups try again to secure water for recreation
By Heather Sackett, February 19
The Aspen Times, the Steamboat Pilot & Today, Sky-Hi News, Glenwood Springs Post-Independent and Vail Daily.

Rancher grapples with abandonment listing
By Heather Sackett, February 27
Steamboat Pilot & Today, Sky-Hi News Vail Daily, Craig Press, The Aspen Times and Glenwood Springs Post-Independent

Turf replacement bill gains ground
By Heather Sackett, March 4
The Aspen Times, Craig Press and Vail Daily

Lake Powell to dip below target elevation
By Heather Sackett, March 11
Craig Press, Steamboat Pilot & Today, The Aspen Times, and Vail Daily

Ruedi Reservoir at lowest level in two decades
By Heather Sackett, March 25
The Aspen Times, Glenwood Springs Post-Independent and Vail Daily

Glenwood Springs secures water right for whitewater parks
By Heather Sackett, April 6
The Aspen Times, Glenwood Springs Post-Independent, Sky-Hi News, Vail Daily and Summit Daily

Spring runoff forecast looks better than last two years
By Heather Sackett, April 13
The Aspen Times, Glenwood Springs Post-Independent, Steamboat Pilot & Today and Craig Press

Lawmakers suspend attempt at legislative fix for water speculation
By Heather Sackett, April 23
The Aspen Times, Glenwood Springs Post-Independent, Vail Daily, Steamboat Pilot and Today and Craig Press

Stream management planning watered down by agriculture
By Heather Sackett, May 7
The Aspen Times, Glenwood Springs Post-Independent, Vail Daily, Steamboat Springs Pilot & Today and Craig Press

Marble quarry must build bridge, culvert and improve stream for Clean Water Act violation
By Heather Sackett, May 13
The Aspen Times and Glenwood Springs Post-Independent

Pitkin County agrees to fund ditch piping project
By Heather Sackett, May 27
The Aspen Times

Early peak runoff for Western Slope rivers
By Heather Sackett, June 3
Vail Daily,  The Aspen Times, Glenwood Springs Post-Independent, Steamboat Pilot & Today and Craig Press

Declining levels at Lake Powell increase risk to humpback chub downstream
By Heather Sackett, June 13
The Aspen Times, Glenwood Springs Post-Independent, Craig Press and Vail Daily

Race is on for Colorado River basin states to conserve before feds take action
By Heather Sackett, June 17
Vail Daily, The Aspen Times, Craig Press, Steamboat Springs Pilot & Today, Glenwood Springs Post-Independent and Aurora Sentinel

State officials looking for engagement on updated water plan
By Heather Sackett, July 3
Steamboat Pilot & Today, The Aspen Times, Summit Daily, Vail Daily and Sky-Hi News

Recent drop in Lake Powell’s storage shows how much space sediment is taking up
By Heather Sackett, July 8
Vail Daily, The Aspen Times, Glenwood Springs Post-Independent Steamboat Pilot & Today and Craig Press

Crystal River rancher, Water Trust again try to boost flows
By Heather Sackett, July 9
The Aspen Times and Glenwood Springs Post-Independent

Opinions differ on timeline as Crystal River Wild & Scenic efforts move ahead
By Heather Sackett, July 18
The Aspen Times

Red Mountain Ditch declines offer of grant money from Pitkin County
By Heather Sackett, July 31
The Aspen Times

West Slope water managers ask: What authority do the feds have?
By Heather Sackett, August 4
Sky-Hi News, Glenwood Springs Post Independent, Summit Daily News, Aspen Times, Vail Daily, Pagosa Springs Sun, KKCO 11 News and Yellow Scene Magazine

Basalt whitewater park to get next round of enhancements
By Heather Sackett, August 11
The Aspen Times

Grizzly Reservoir to be drained next summer for rehab work
By Heather Sackett, August 14
The Aspen Times

Vague and voluntary proposals may do little to help Colorado River
By Heather Sackett, August 26
Glenwood Springs Post Independent, The Aspen Times, Steamboat Pilot & Today, Craig Press, Grand Junction Sentinel and Montrose Daily Press

Maybell project addresses problems for irrigators, boaters, fish
By Heather Sackett, September 9
Steamboat Pilot & Today, The Aspen Times, and Craig Press

Wolf Creek reservoir project to have additional public engagement
By Heather Sackett, September 20
The Aspen Times, Summit Daily, Steamboat Springs Pilot & Today, Craig Press, Grand Junction Sentinel and Rio Blanco Herald-Times

Agencies looking into water quality on Lincoln Creek
By Heather Sackett, September 26
The Aspen Times

Army Corps of Engineers: Marble airstrip work is noncompliant
By Heather Sackett, September 30
The Aspen Times and Glenwood Springs Post-Independent

Stream restoration projects focused on beavers present ‘unsettled’ issue
By Heather Sackett, October 7
The Aspen Times, Vail Daily, Summit Daily News and Longmont Leader

Recreation groups ask for more inclusion in state Water Plan
By Heather Sackett, October 14
The Aspen Times, Glenwood Springs Post-Independent, Summit Daily and Vail Daily

Aspen’s water use stays steady
By Heather Sackett, November 14
The Aspen Times

Four things to know about the lower Colorado River basin
By Heather Sackett, November 16
Vail Daily, Summit Daily, Sky-Hi News, Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, Steamboat Pilot & Today, The Aspen Times, Craig Press and Glenwood Springs Post-Independent

RWAPA unveils valley-wide outdoor watering standards
By Heather Sackett, November 19
The Aspen Times and Glenwood Springs Post-Independent

Studies tackle water-replacement options for shortages on Crystal River
By Heather Sackett, December 2
The Aspen Times and Glenwood Springs Post-Independent

White River call ‘significant’ for water users
By Heather Sackett, December 8
Steamboat Pilot & Today and Craig Press

Upper Colorado River officials release details of water savings program
By Heather Sackett, December 10
The Aspen Times, Glenwood Springs Post-Independent, Sky-Hi News and Vail Daily

Upper basin moves closer to water conservation program
By Heather Sackett, December 18
The Aspen Times, Vail Daily, Steamboat Pilot & Today, Craig Press, Glenwood Springs Post-Independent and Grand Junction Sentinel

Environment Desk

Compost hits record high in 2021 at Pitkin County landfill
By Laurine Lasalle, April 15
The Aspen Times

Parking reservations, not permit system, eyed as solution to Marble’s OHV woes
By Curtis Wackerle, May 2
The Aspen Times and Glenwood Springs Post-Independent

Uinta Basin Railway faces obstacles
By Amy Haddon Marsh, July 1
Vail Daily and The Aspen Times, and Glenwood Springs Post-Independent

Plan for amenities at Snowmass Village wetlands stirs conversation on impact 
By Kaya Williams, September 30
The Aspen Times

Lift One Corridor hotel developers say they are working together
By Curtis Wackerle and Brent Gardner-Smith, November 25

Uinta Basin Railway opposition unites Colorado towns, Utah backcountry residents 
By Amy Haddon Marsh, December 13
Glenwood Springs Post Independent

Dealing with methane escaping from Coal Basin’s shuttered mines sparks debate
By Sara Tory, December 16
The Aspen Times and Glenwood Springs Post-Independent

Social Justice Desk

The most tenacious freelancers of the new West
By Hector Salas, March 19
The Aspen Times and Glenwood Springs Post Independent

Habitat for Humanity eyes manufacturing homes locally as future housing solution
By Andrew Travers, November 27
Aspen Daily News

With $2.4 million purchase, nonprofit is testing ‘intervention model’ to keep trailer parks out of private equity’s hands
By Andrew Travers, December 2
The Colorado Sun

History Desk

From wagon road to two-lane: Aspen’s history by car, part one
By Tim Cooney, March 16
 Aspen Daily News

Drive here please, said Aspen in the Quiet Years: Aspen’s history by car, part two
Tim Cooney, March 16
Aspen Daily News 

Local Public Data Desk

Tracking the Curve was updated ____

Aspen in 2021 saw one of its lowest car counts in decades. So why does it feel like local traffic is at a breaking point?
By Laurine Lassalle, Mar. 6

As more sanitation districts test wastewater for COVID-19, questions remain on interpreting the data
By Laurine Lassalle, August 23

Across the Western Slope, pandemic attitudes and responses varied from county to county
By Laurine Lassalle and Caroline Llanes (Aspen Public Radio), September 26
Aspen Public Radio

Resort communities saw lower COVID-19 death rates than more western rural counties
By Laurine Lassalle and Caroline Llanes (Aspen Public Radio), September 27
Aspen Public Radio

COVID-19 Desk

As more sanitation districts test wastewater for COVID-19, questions remain on interpreting the data
By Laurine Lassalle, August 23
Glenwood Springs Post-Independent, Vail Daily and Aspen Times

Across the Western Slope, pandemic attitudes and responses varied from county to county
By Laurine Lassalle and Caroline Llanes (Aspen Public Radio), September 26
Aspen Public Radio

Resort communities saw lower COVID-19 death rates than more western rural counties
By Laurine Lassalle and Caroline Llanes (Aspen Public Radio), September 27
Aspen Public Radio

Data Dashboard

Data dashboard: Christmas Eve snowstorm boosts snowpack above historical averages
By Laurine Lassalle, Jan. 4

Data dashboard: New record high December occupancies for Aspen and Snowmass
By Laurine Lassalle, Jan. 18

Data dashboard: Lake Powell approaches critical water level
By Laurine Lassalle, Jan. 25

Data dashboard: Local school enrollment up slightly from last year but remains down from 2019
By Laurine Lassalle, Feb. 1

Data Dashboard: Snowpack at Independence Pass down to 90% of average
By Laurine Lassalle, Feb. 9

Data Dashboard: Lake Powell is only four feet away from critical water level
By Laurine Lassalle, Feb. 15

Data dashboard: Aspen records 70% occupancy in January
By Laurine Lassalle, Feb. 22

Data dashboard: Last week’s snowstorm increases snowpack
By Laurine Lassalle, Mar. 1

Data dashboard: Lake Powell is about to drop below target elevation
By Laurine Lassalle, Mar. 8

Data dashboard: Lake Powell elevation inches closer to threshold
By Laurine Lassalle, Mar. 17

Data dashboard: Aspen records its highest February occupancy
By Laurine Lassalle, Mar. 22

Data dashboard: Lake Powell’s water level keeps plummeting
By Laurine Lassalle, Mar. 29

Data dashboard: Spring temperatures boost Crystal and Colorado rivers’ streamflows
By Laurine Lassalle, Apr. 6

Data dashboard: Local streamflow keeps increasing with warmer temperatures
By Laurine Lassalle, Apr. 12

Data dashboard: March occupancy in Aspen nears pre-pandemic levels
By Laurine Lassalle, Apr. 19

Data dashboard: Warmer temperatures increased local streamflow
By Laurine Lassalle, Apr. 26

Data dashboard: Lake Powell water storage back on the upswing
By Laurine Lassalle, May 4

Data dashboard: Local streamflows on the rise as snowpack shrinks
By Laurine Lassalle, May 10

Data dashboard: Temperatures on the rise, local streamflow above average
By Laurine Lassalle, May 17

Data dashboard: Did the rivers already peak? It’s possible but ‘it depends’
By Laurine Lassalle, May 24

Data dashboard: Glenwood soil moisture improves over 2021
By Laurine Lassalle, Jun. 2

Data dashboard: Roaring Fork Basin snowpack making its last stand
By Laurine Lassalle, Jun. 7

Data dashboard: Streamflows exceed May peak in many local reaches
By Laurine Lassalle, Jun. 14

Data dashboard: Aspen sees above-normal high temperatures all but one day so far in June
By Laurine Lassalle, Jun. 21

Data dashboard: Local streamflow down as low as 50-60% of average
By Laurine Lassalle, Jun. 28

Data dashboard: Local streamflow on the decline
By Laurine Lassalle, Jul. 12

Data dashboard: June sees above-average precipitation at Aspen airport
By Laurine Lassalle, Jul. 19

Data dashboard: An important caveat for summer’s occupancy rate
By Laurine Lassalle, Jul. 27

Data Dashboard: Streamflow percentages get a boost
By Laurine Lassalle, Aug. 3

Data dashboard: Last week’s rainfall doubled the Crystal’s streamflow
By Laurine Lassalle, Aug. 11

Data dashboard: Roaring Fork is running at 80% of average
By Laurine Lassalle, Aug. 16

Data dashboard: Fork flows above average at Emma, below minimums at Aspen
By Laurine Lassalle, Aug. 25

Data dashboard: August is the rainiest month of the year so far
By Laurine Lassalle, Aug. 31

Data dashboard: Smoke from out-of-state wildfires impacts local air quality
By Laurine Lassalle, Sep. 14

Data dashboard: Local streams are flowing closer to normal
By Laurine Lassalle, Sep.22

Data dashboard: Total summer occupancy at Aspen and Snowmass lodges is down from 2021
By Laurine Lassalle, Sep. 27

Data dashboard: River levels rose this weekend after recent rainfall
By Laurine Lassalle, Oct. 4

Data dashboard: Lake Powell’s elevation has gained one foot
By Laurine Lassalle, Oct. 11

Data dashboard: Aspen’s September precipitation was below average
By Laurine Lassalle, Oct. 18

Data dashboard: Construction skews car count data, but July numbers were down
By Laurine Lassalle, Oct. 26

Data dashboard: September occupancy in Aspen and Snowmass hotels is down from 2021
By Laurine Lassalle, Nov. 3

Data dashboard: Snowpack is back and above average in the Roaring Fork basin
By Laurine Lassalle, Nov. 9

Data dashboard: Early snowpack remains above average
By Laurine Lassalle, Nov. 16

Data dashboard: Summer occupancy was down from last year
By Laurine Lassalle, Nov. 23

Data dashboard: Basin snowpack is 106% of average as temperatures chill
By Laurine Lassalle, Nov. 29

Data dashboard: Roaring Fork Basin snowpack up 38% since last week
By Laurine Lassalle, Dec. 6

Data dashboard: Roaring Fork basin snowpack remains above average
By Laurine Lassalle, Dec. 15

Data dashboard: December occupancy pacing behind last year
By Laurine Lassalle, Dec. 21

Data dashboard: Lake Powell about to reach critical level
By Laurine Lassalle, Dec. 27

Newsletters Published

The Runoff

Welcome to The Runoff
By Heather Sackett, February 9

The Runoff | A huge expanse of irrigated land
By Heather Sackett, March 15

The Runoff | Anti-speculation efforts frustrated
By Heather Sackett, April 26

The Runoff | River District in D.C., streamflows stressed and a possible double peak
By Heather Sackett, June 8

The Runoff | In dog days of summer, streamflows diminish but demands don’t
By Heather Sackett, August 3

The Runoff | Where the grant money flows
By Heather Sackett, September 30

The Runoff | From panic to acceptance
By Heather Sackett, December 28

The Roundup

The Roundup | On the good foot to start a new year
By Curtis Wackerle, January 5

The Roundup | On the good foot to start a new year
By Curtis Wackerle, January 18

The Roundup | Watching the snowpack like a hawk
By Curtis Wackerle, January 25

The Roundup | Water savings plan focuses on individual efforts
By Curtis Wackerle, February 1

The Roundup | New face at the CWCB, ditch inventory transparency quest
By Curtis Wackerle, February 15

The Roundup | Recreation’s new water strategy
By Curtis Wackerle, February 23

The Roundup | Abandonment’s central role in water management
By Curtis Wackerle, March 1

The Roundup | Undermining the central bargain of recent traffic planning
By Curtis Wackerle, March 8

The Roundup | ‘The economic framework is labor intensive’
By Curtis Wackerle, March 22

The Roundup | Ruedi water managers awaiting ‘April hole’
By Heather Sackett, March 29

The Roundup | Recreation and an uneven playing field
By Curtis Wackerle, April 6

The Roundup | Aspen Journalism wins nine awards from the Society of Professional Journalists
By Curtis Wackerle, April 12

The Roundup | Composting for landfill sustainability
By Curtis Wackerle, April 19

The Roundup | Slow moving over rocky terrain
By Curtis Wackerle, May 4

The Roundup | How stream management mandates are playing out
By Curtis Wackerle, May 10

The Roundup | Laying the groundwork
By Curtis Wackerle, May 18

The Roundup | The ups and downs of river flows 
By Curtis Wackerle, May 24

The Roundup | Pipe the ditch, save the water
By Curtis Wackerle, June 1

The Roundup | Add invasive fish to problems associated with Lake Powell
By Curtis Wackerle, June 15

The Roundup | A moment of reckoning for water in the West
By Curtis Wackerle, June 21

The Roundup | Environmental groups try to stop that train
By Curtis Wackerle, July 6

The Roundup | Data mining reveals a drop in the bucket
By Curtis Wackerle, July 13

The Roundup | Opinions differ on timeline as Crystal River Wild & Scenic efforts move ahead
By Curtis Wackerle, July 19

The Roundup | Now is the time to understand more so we may fear less
By Curtis Wackerle, July 28

The Roundup | Grizzly Reservoir to be drained next summer, Basalt wave adjustments this fall
By Curtis Wackerle, August 16

The Roundup | COVID-19 wastewater tracking is a new, interesting and enigmatic tool
By Curtis Wackerle, August 25

The Roundup | Voluntary proposals and the writing on the wall
By Curtis Wackerle, September 2

The Roundup | Maybell project aims to benefit irrigators, boaters and fish
By Curtis Wackerle, September 15

The Roundup | Extra public outreach to address new dam project
By Curtis Wackerle, September 22

The Roundup | Analyzing our collective history, a reminder we’ve been through something bigger
By Curtis Wackerle, September 27

The Roundup | Crystal River streambank stabilization scope noncompliant
By Curtis Wackerle, October 5

The Roundup | Beavers are having a moment, but will they wind up in water court?
By Curtis Wackerle, October 12

The Roundup | Recreation groups ask for inclusion in Water Plan
By Curtis Wackerle, October 18

The Roundup | The importance of out-of-district fundraising in CD-3
By Curtis Wackerle, October 28

The Roundup | Reporting spans the Colorado River basin
By Curtis Wackerle, November 16

The Roundup | Multiple angles on future growth
By Curtis Wackerle, December 1

The Roundup | ‘Intervention model’ in practice, Crystal clear water shortages, Maroon Bells bike trips
By Curtis Wackerle, December 8

The Roundup | Newsroom staying warm with heavy helping from the environment, water and data desks
By Curtis Wackerle, December 22

Water Meetings Attended

Jan. 12: Yampa Roundtable

Jan. 18-19: River District

Jan. 20: Pitkin County Healthy Rivers

Jan. 24-25: CWCB

Jan. 26-28: Water Congress

Jan. 31: Colorado Basin Roundtable

Feb. 17: Pitkin County Healthy Rivers

March 9: Arkansas Roundtable, Yampa Roundtable

March 16-17: CWCB

March 17: University of Utah Tribes and Water Conference

March 21: Gunnison Roundtable

March 23: Colorado Basin Roundtable

April 19-20: River District

April 21: Water speculation hearing, Senate Ag & Natural Resources Committee

April 25: Colorado Basin Roundtable

May 3: River District state of the river, Garfield County

May 5: North Fork Gunnison tour*

May 11: Yampa Roundtable

May 17-19: CWCB

May 19: CWCB water availability task force

May 19: Pitkin County Healthy Rivers

May 20: CROS call

May 23: Colorado Basin Roundtable

May 24: Pitkin County BOCC work session

June 16-17: Getches Wilkinson Center conference, CU Boulder

June 22: HUP call

July 13: Yampa Roundtable

July 18: Gunnison Roundtable

July 19-20: River District

July 20-21: CWCB

July 25: Colorado Basin Roundtable

July 27: HUP call

July 29: Twin Lakes Diversion tour*

Aug. 3: HUP call

Aug. 10: HUP call

Aug. 23-25: Water Congress

Sept. 1: Town of Marble

Sept. 13: Town of Carbondale

Sept. 14: Yampa Roundtable

Sept. 15: BLM, Wolf Creek proposal

Sept. 15: Pitkin County Healthy Rivers

Sept. 16: River District seminar

Sept. 19: Gunnison Roundtable

Sept. 20-21 CWCB

Sept. 26: Colorado Basin Roundtable

Oct. 6: Town of Marble

Oct. 18-19: River District

Nov. 1-4: Lower Basin tour*

Nov. 11: Ruedi Water and Power Authority

Nov. 16-17: CWCB

Nov. 21: Gunnison Basin Roundtable

Nov. 28: Colorado Basin Roundtable

Dec. 14-16: CRWUA Conference

Dec. 14: UCRC

• *North Fork Gunnison tour, Twin Lakes diversion tour and Lower Basin tour were not public water meetings.