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
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People frolic outside on Boulder open space
Here’s a video of, well, people frolicking on open space near Boulder. It’s all part of this crazy thing known as the Boulder International Fringe Festival. Check it out for yourself: www.boulderfringe.com.
Rogue composters no more
There's good news for Boulder residents without curbside compost service. Photo Credit: Orin Zebest.
I’ve gone so far as to sweet-talk a Whole Foods employee into letting me put a giant bag of frozen vegetable peels in their compost bin, even though it’s officially against their policy. A friend of mine took her scraps to a local bar out of desperation.
If you’ve ever stared wistfully at a neighbor’s curbside compost bin, perhaps even boldly throwing your own scraps inside, you’re not alone:
“Multi-family units are the holy grail, the ultimate challenge for recyclables and compostables,” says Dan Matsch, manager of the compost department at the nonprofit recycler Eco-Cycle. “You have a whole bunch of diverse people living in the same building. You have limited capacity.”
Happily, Boulder residents who live in multi-unit buildings without curbside service don’t have to continue being rogue composters. Matsch offers up painless, above-board ways to compost, and Shireen Miller, the city’s residential sustainability expert, describes how to get management on board with the bin: Composting without curbside.
After writing this, I talked to a couple of my neighbors and we came up with an informal plan to request service. With any luck, we’ll all be a legitimate composters soon.
Dear Sierra Club, why are you so fickle?
Sierra Club released its Cool Schools on Monday.
Yesterday, the Sierra Club released its “cool schools” ranking of the most eco-awesome colleges and universities in the country. Last year the University of Colorado at Boulder ranked #1. This year, #13.
CU wasn’t the only one on a roller coaster ride. According to a blog on the Chronicle of Higher Eductaion’s website:
Last year, the University of Colorado at Boulder ranked No. 1, while Green Mountain College was 35th. This year, CU is at 13th and Green Mountain is tops.
Dickinson College went from 19th in 2009 to No. 2, and Stanford University zoomed up from 26th to 5th. Yale University went from 14th to 26th, and Emory University fell 10 notches to 42nd.
You might assume from such fluctuations that sustainability programs went haywire in the past year. But little changed, it seems, other than Sierra‘s ranking methodology. Energy issues were given more weight in this year’s survey, Sierra editors say, but that answer probably won’t satisfy the longtime critics of these green ratings.
And the new emphasis on energy sources are what hurt CU. Dave Newport, director of CU’s Environmental Center, told the Camera that the university is at the whims of Xcel Energy, which still relies heavily on coal.
Read more about CU’s slip in Sierra’s green rankings at DailyCamera.com.
Goodbye Valmont? (Goodbye 44 pounds of mercury)
Protesters outside Valmont coal plant earlier this year.
After years of Xcel Energy arguing that there’s no conceivable way they would shut down the coal-burning generator at Valmont Station east of Boulder (in part because the boiler is one of the most efficient in the utility’s system), the company announced Friday, that actually they will shut the plant down by 2017.
For activists who have staged a number of protests at the plant over the last couple of years, the announcement was good news. (But better news, some said, would have been an announcement that the plant, which spews 44 pounds of mercury into the air every year, would close immediately.)
The three natural gas-fired generators a the plant will continue operating.
Read the full story at DailyCamera.com.
Car ownership: Who needs it?
“You’ll have to buy a car when you move out West,” they told me. “What a pain!”
Moving here from New York City, I discovered that Big Apple residents aren’t the only ones who can easily forgo car ownership. Living in Boulder without a vehicle parked in the driveway is possible, and it doesn’t have to involve being horribly inconvenienced or stranded.
The secret is having a serviceable bike, a few bucks for the bus, and a membership to the city’s local nonprofit carsharing organization called eGo CarShare:
“When you don’t have a car right in your driveway, you have to put some thought into it: Maybe I can just walk — it’s just down the street,” says Stephanie Sufilka, a Boulder resident who hasn’t owned a car in four years. Instead, she and her husband rely on the local nonprofit carsharing organization eGo CarShare.
CarShare members pay a nominal fee per hour and per mile — gas and insurance are included. Carsharing tends to be ideal for short trips like running an errand or transporting something heavy. Members get a discount on rentals at Enterprise, which is better for longer trips.
The organization has several vehicles, including a pickup truck, parked around Boulder and in Denver. Spotting them is easy: the signs say “Park your eGo here.”
Boreal toad disappearing, not listed as endangered
Tina Jackson, aquatic/herptile coordinator for the Colorado Division of Wildlife, holds a toad that has been implanted with a chip to track its health and movement during a visit to a Chaffee County, Colo. site on Friday, July 16, 2010. (AP Photo/The Gazette, R. Scott Rappold)
CHAFFEE COUNTY, Colo. (AP) — Number 146227157A struggled and chirped, clearly unhappy about being plucked from the bushes to be swabbed and scanned.
This mountain beaver pond, below Cottonwood Pass in Chaffee County, is the last stronghold for its kind in Colorado, the only place where the boreal toad has what is considered a viable population. The Colorado Division of Wildlife is concerned enough about the future of the species that experts implanted a microchip in the toad’s back to track its health and movements.
“He’s a natural part of our environment and we don’t want to lose him in this state,” DOW aquatic/herptile coordinator Tina Jackson said Friday, cradling the toad in her latex-gloved hands.
But we are losing them. Over the past 30 years, boreal toads have disappeared from 90 percent of breeding sites in Colorado, victims of an imported parasitic fungus that has devastated amphibian populations worldwide. Read more
Thunderbird Lake in Boulder: Let it go dry or fill it with tap water?
The lake at Burke Park in south Boulder is called Thunderbird Lake. And it just doesn’t seem to want to be a lake all that much. When it started drying up a few years back, the city wondered what to do — and decided to keep it full with city water. Now it’s time to revisit that decision. Read more
And if you lived near the Arkansas River…?
High Country News’ Ed Quillen lives relatively close to where Christo’s “Over the River” installation would be placed over the Arkansas River. We already posted on that subject, but here’s his handy summary:
Since this involves federal land, an Environmental Impact Statement is required (paid for by Christo), The Bureau of Land Management is the lead agency. About two weeks ago, the BLM released a draft environmental statement; the Pueblo Chieftain ran a pretty good summary, and all thousand-plus pages are available on-line, with a comment deadline of Aug. 30 before the final EIS is prepared.
So where does a guy who lives near there fall on the art vs. river debate? He says he’s “agnostic.”
Goatscaping back in Boulder
A goat chews on weeds on the dam face of the Boulder Reservoir on Wednesday. | Photo: Greg Lindstrom / The Camera
Goatscaping is one of my favorite blog topics.
So you know I’m going to let you know about Boulder bringing in 300 goats to eat weeds at Boulder Reservoir, which means not using chemicals. Every time I read about this topic, I learn something new. Here’s this week’s tidbit: Read more
Cool bottled water graphic
Check out this cool poster. Found via mi amigo Brian.
Via: Term Life Insurance
