Colorado
The Colorado River Is Dying. Can Its Aquatic Dinosaurs Be Saved?
To maintain these Glen Canyon generators spinning, Lake Powell wants extra water. However with out huge cuts in consumption, the apparent resolution for filling the reservoir is stealing the water from someplace else within the system. Flaming Gorge reservoir on the Inexperienced River, which additionally occurs to be the habitat for the razorback suckers raised on the hatchery, is without doubt one of the few reservoirs within the basin that’s anyplace close to capability, and thus a ripe goal for state businesses seeking to keep away from different, painful cuts to water consumption.
The Bureau of Reclamation introduced earlier this 12 months that it might launch 500,000 acre-feet of water from Flaming Gorge to attempt to stabilize the reservoirs downstream. Within the quick time period, Breen says, these releases must be good for the endangered fish, as they’re timed to learn the razorback sucker’s reproductive cycle. However it’s in the end robbing Peter to pay Paul. The Inexperienced River water flows have already fallen 20 p.c since 2000, and the Colorado River Basin has been oversubscribed for many years, with states claiming rights to extra water than stays within the river. Its main reservoirs have been drained because the winter snowpack has diminished. It was a file 107 levels Fahrenheit in Salt Lake Metropolis this week.
“The system is approaching a tipping level, and with out motion we can’t shield the system and the thousands and thousands of Individuals who depend on this crucial useful resource,” M. Camille Calimlim Touton, commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation, mentioned throughout a information convention in August. “Defending the system means defending the folks of the American West.”
In the meantime, the most important ongoing menace to the Colorado’s endangered fish is different, non-native fish. Solely 12 fish are native to the Higher Colorado River Basin, Breen says. However now greater than 50 species compete within the rivers. Many who had been deliberately launched to advertise sport fishing are extremely predatory in a method the razorback and others haven’t advanced to outlive.
“Hotter, low flows additionally profit invasive fish species like smallmouth bass, exacerbating the issues posed by that species,” a Fish and Wildlife Service spokesperson instructed me in an e mail. “These non-native, smallmouth bass spawn and hatch in summer time, as do the Colorado pikeminnow, and develop at a a lot sooner charge than native fishes.”
The restoration program spends greater than $2 million a 12 months attempting to remove the non-native fish from the Inexperienced River and elsewhere within the system—a transfer that’s not all the time well-liked with native anglers who prefer to fish for the bass. “For the file: I really like smallmouth bass,” says Breen. “I grew up fishing for smallmouth bass within the Midwest. However that’s the place they’re imagined to be. Bass are very predacious, they usually’re not imagined to be in that river.”
The smallmouth bass invasion had been considerably contained to the higher Colorado watershed, however this summer time, because the river has dried up, the reservoir in Lake Powell is permitting heat water to circulate by means of the Glen Canyon dam, and with it, the smallmouth bass. A lot to the dismay of conservationists and wildlife managers, the bass at the moment are beginning to achieve a foothold in Grand Canyon, the final pristine habitat for the humpback chub, one other native Colorado River fish whose standing had been downgraded by the Fish and Wildlife Service from endangered to threatened. The arrival of the bass may undo all that progress.
Colorado
'Thanksfest' giving back more than a meal to Colorado Springs families in need
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) – This weekend was Thankfest, an event started by Vaughn Littrell, to give back to families in need. This year 250 families got all the ingredients they needed for Thanksgiving and more.
The families were chosen ahead of time through the CPCD Head Start Program. They help serve our community’s most vulnerable children and families.
The giveaway was a chance for families to come down and do some shopping for free. It was more than just getting food, families also received all the kitchen tools they would need to cook too.
It wasn’t just food either. Clothes and shoes were also available for those who needed them.
“Some of our families are in really, really bad situations. They need they need help. You know, and it’s this is a this is a tangible way that we can do something. We can’t do everything, but you can do something. We’re excited to be able to bless these families,” Vaughn Littrell told KRDO13.
Vaughn says he started the giveaway with just a few families. He says he knows what it is like to struggle, and wants the giveaway to keep growing so he can help more people.
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Colorado
I-70 closed near Vail, Silverthorne for safety concerns, weather hazards
Interstate 70 closed near Vail and Silverthorne on Sunday for “safety concerns” as snow battered the Colorado mountains, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation.
The eastbound interstate was closed between Exit 180 for East Vail and Exit 190 for Vail Pass Summit, about 1 mile west of Copper Mountain, as of 6 p.m. Sunday, CDOT officials said.
CDOT cameras in the area of the closure showed snow-covered roads and white-out conditions.
Westbound I-70 was also closed at 6 p.m. Sunday between Exit 216 for U.S. 6 near Loveland Pass and Exit 205 for Colorado 9 near Silverthorne, according to CDOT.
Multiple Waze users reported “weather hazards” in both closed sections of I-70.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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Colorado
Shedeur Sanders shoves referee, ‘lucky’ to avoid ejection as frustrations boil over in Colorado loss
There was certainly a scenario Saturday night where Colorado would’ve needed to navigate the final 20 minutes of its upset loss to Kansas without star quarterback Shedeur Sanders.
Sanders, the son of Buffaloes coach Deion Sanders and a projected top pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, shoved referee Kevin Mar after taking a sack on third down with Colorado trailing by nine in the third quarter, and he was “lucky” that didn’t result in an ejection, Fox rules analyst Mike Pereira said on the broadcast.
“There’s no question that he does,” Pereira said when asked about Sanders shoving Mar. “Look, I get why he’s upset because people are almost climbing over him after he was down, but, you know, the officials can use their hands all they want to try to keep order. But you cannot come back as a player and push an official.
“In the chaos, the officials don’t see it, but he’s lucky that he wasn’t ejected from the game.”
After the sack, Sanders approached Mar from behind — who was surrounded by a cluster of players — and shoved the longtime official with his right arm.
By that point, three other referees had moved closer to the scuffle and attempted to separate the players and Sanders while protecting Mar.
Sanders, who finished 23 of 29 for 266 yards and three touchdowns during No. 16 Colorado’s 37-21 loss, wasn’t penalized on the play, but his frustrations had started to boil over.
The game featured plenty of physical hits, with Colorado’s College Football Playoff hopes at stake and Kansas attempting to claw its way toward becoming bowl eligible.
At one point in the first half, defensive end Dean Miller lowered his head and flung himself toward Sanders’ knees while he attempted a pass.
“I mean, I just don’t know how that’s legal overall,” Sanders told reporters after the game when asked about Miller’s hit. “I ain’t understand that, but, you know, it is what it is. There was a couple plays like that.”
The Buffaloes trailed 17-0 at one point but managed to trim its deficit to two points early in the third quarter, when Travis Hunter — also projected as a top pick in the upcoming NFL draft — and Sanders connected on a touchdown pass.
But Devin Neal accounted for the final two touchdowns, providing the Jayhawks with some cushion and ensuring Colorado was on its way to ending the night in a four-way tie atop the Big 12 standings.
Deion said after the game that Colorado had become “intoxicated with the success.”
“We started smelling ourselves a little bit,” Deion said, according to ESPN. “… We got intoxicated with the multitude of articles and the assumption that we’re this and the assumption that we’re that. And we did not play CU football. Therefore, we got our butts kicked. It is what it is.”
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