Mountain Biking: Rubber side down- Exploration Is Cool.So, last week I left the house like this: The grand plan was to meet Josh, drive the fat-tire bikes up to the Peak to Peak, ride down on singletrack/dirt roads, then ride the skinny tire bikes back up for the car. You know, a little something-different adventure. We got off to a rocky start, […]
- Sometimes Gadgets MatterIt’s not often that I credit an improvement in my riding to equipment. In fact, I’m willing to bet that a lot of issues with most folks are operator error rather than the need for some expensive toy. But this time, I’ve got a few exceptions. Sunglasses, for me, are a tough purchase. Not only […]
- Exploration Is Cool.
- Edgy Veggie
You are viewing the archive for the food category.
Community Food Share, Sister Carmen Center, others want to make fresh food more accessible
Bert Nett (front), John Spencer (back left) and Jane Spencer (right) plant squash seeds at an Earth's Table garden in Boulder | CAMERA/Mark Leffingwell
If there’s one thing the United States isn’t known for, it’s eating well. We’ve got a heck of a reputation for junk food out there.
For some people, it’s because there are six-packs of tiny powdered donuts in the vending machine down the hall (damn you) and they have a problem/are weak-willed*. For others, it’s simply because they can’t afford to eat fresh vegetables day in and day out.
Community Food Share, Sister Carmen Center and others in our community want to help with that second reason so, for one, they’ve set up a plot they call Earth’s Table, where veggies are grown for those in need. Read more
Veterans Green Jobs gets vets work planting trees in Denver
Veterans plant a tree | Credit: veteransgreenjobs.org
If you wanted to plant a million trees, you’d need a small army to do it — which is why Denver’s getting the help of veterans, according to the Denver Post:
The initiative was recently launched by Veterans Green Jobs, a Denver nonprofit that helps homeless veterans get the skills and experience to join the green-jobs economy.
The program has a contract to plant free shade trees in homeowners front yards as part of Greenprint Denver’s The Mile High Million program, which aims to plant 1 million trees by 2025. Over the next five growing seasons, 35 vets will plant 4,600 trees that will shade homes to reduce energy usage and lower energy bills.
Plants stolen from school’s educational veggie garden
How do you get the lamest street-cred ever? You steal plants from an elementary school’s educational vegetable garden.
The Smith Renaissance School of the Arts, located in northeast Denver, got plant-burgled recently, but is rising above it.
Two weeks ago, on a Friday, the students planted the seedlings and others that were donated. The following Monday, the plants were gone.
“One student wondered if it was a clever rabbit,” said Lindsay McNicholas, the school’s resource advocate. “It was deflating. We had just planted them. We didnt even make it 72 hours.”
Read the rest of the story at The Denver Post. Or check out photos of the students replanting the Smith Renaissance School of the Arts vegetable garden.
FLEX northern Colorado bus service launches in June
Coyote Ridge near Fort Collins | flickr user gregor_y
If you were looking to get up to Fort Collins by bus (say, for some beer or rock ‘n’ roll or for the 2010 Tour de Fat on Sept. 4), it looks like you can take the BOLT to Longmont and take the FLEX up to Fort Collins — starting in just a couple of weeks. Read more
Fremont County’s shorter workweek saving energy, money
Photo taken from Shelf Road north of Cañon City, Colorado | flickr user longhorndave
CANON CITY, Colo. (AP) — Keeping Fremont County’s administration building closed one day a week has saved more money than expected.
Last June the county switched the building’s operating hours to 10-hour work days, Monday through Thursday in a move to save an estimated $10,000 per year in utility costs.
County Manager George Sugars said a recent energy cost analysis found that the savings from closing the building for three days per week during the last 10 months of operation totaled $18,276. He says turning down heating and cooling systems from Thursday evenings until Monday mornings helped reduce costs.
Fifth graders to world: Stay on designated trails!
Hey! It’s a guest post from Deanna Williams, USFS Wildlife Biologist & Angela Mundt, USFS Wildlife Technician!
This spring, as the skis get put back in the garage and the mountain bikes get dusted off, Boulder Valley 5th graders have a message for local bikers, motorcyclists, and horse riders: Please stay on designated trails! That unmarked path may be tempting, but it might be causing serious damage to the land and our drinking water.
The Boulder Ranger District, of the Arapaho-Roosevelt National Forest, is enlisting local 5th graders to promote watershed protection, local wildlife conservation, and trail rules/etiquette. Selected artwork from the 2010 Student Wildlife Art Contest will be recognized here at BigGreenBoulder and incorporated into new educational trail signs on the Arapaho-Roosevelt National Forest.
Damage from unauthorized trails off the Peak to Peak Highway.
The art contest was inspired during efforts to repair and restore several miles of undesignated trail that was damaging a sensitive streamside area that runs east of the Peak to Peak Highway. Heavy use of these trails damaged plants, disturbed wildlife trying to raise young, and introduced sediment and pollutants into the Boulder Creek watershed.
Fifth graders participating in the contest are designing artwork around 3 themes: Read more
In the bighorn vs. mountain goat war, bighorns are losing
Bighorn sheep herd seen at the inaugural Georgetown Bighorn Sheep Festival, held Sat. Nov. 11, 2006 | Denver Post
Colorado’s native bighorn sheep population is declining (down about 10 percent from 2001 to 2009), and biologists are scrambling to find a way to bolster the breed.
The problems, according to an article in the Denver Post, include construction, disease, traffic, other live stock — and mountain goats, a nonnative species that was originally reintroduced outside of Salida.
Read more about the struggles facing bighorn sheep at DenverPost.com.
Wildfire danger lower this year, but still serious
Sean McCaffrey of the Roosevelt National Forest fire crew digs a line around the West Creek Fire west of Glen Haven last year. The fire, which burned about an acre of steep, rocky terrain, was sparked by a lightning strike. | Photo: Walt Hester, Estes Park Trail Gazette
CENTENNIAL, Colo. (AP) — Gov. Bill Ritter says wetter than usual conditions have reduced the fire danger this year but the state is ready if there is a major wildfire on the Western Slope.
Officials have warned that the continuing bark beetle infestation has left Colorado’s high country at risk of a major fire. Read more
Ralston Reservoir uranium cleanup plan not good enough, says state
DENVER (AP) — State regulators have rejected a plan by Cotter Corp. to clean up contamination from a closed uranium mine that has flowed into a creek that feeds a Denver-area reservoir.
The Colorado Division of Reclamation Mining and Safety said Thursday it doesn’t believe the plan would prevent uranium from contaminating Ralston Reservoir, which supplies some of the Denver area’s drinking water. Read more
Zero waste training in Longmont today, Monday and Wednesday
Want to do more for the environment but aren’t sure what you can do? Come to a Eco-Cycle Zero Waste Living Training and learn how to turn the small choices you make every day into a big part of the solution to our environmental crises, 2 p.m. Saturday, May 22, and Monday, May, 24, Longmont Public Library, 409 Fourth Ave., Longmont, free; Wednesday, May 26, City of Longmont Public Works Operations Building, 375 Airport Road, Longmont. For more information, call 303-651-8470.
