Confluence Park in Denver | flickr user jessicareeder

EPA blog Greenversations just gave a shout-out to a part of Denver that looks very different now than it did a few short years ago:

Confluence Park seen from REI, across the S. Platte River | flickr user Payton Chung

While visiting Denver over Memorial Day weekend, I walked from my downtown hotel to the lower downtown area and the South Platte River. I did not expect to see a revitalized waterfront with very busy bicycle paths lining the river along with new apartments and condos.

I had the same experience! I lived in Boulder before from 2005-2007, left, and came back in 2009. On my first trip back to downtown Denver, I was really impressed with the changes. The river is a much more prominent part of the city now thanks to that area, which is called Confluence Park (due to the confluence of the South Platte River and Cherry Creek).

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.

Veterans Green Jobs adds,

While homeowners will receive the benefit of shaded, cooler homes and lower utility bills in summer, veterans gain an opportunity to prepare for career opportunities in urban forestry.

“I studied soil sciences and forestry at Ohio State,” says Frederick Sales, a Veterans City Canopy program crew member. “Here I am today at 55 years of age. This work is making me feel youthful again because it’s what I intentionally wanted to do in school. As for the future, I would like to have my own crew some day.”

Read more from Denver tree program trains veterans to be urban foresters at the Post.

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.

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.

Loretta Pineda, the agency’s director said Cotter has been directed to resume treating the water and submit a new plan within two weeks.

“Protecting the public and drinking water supplies is our top priority,” Pineda said. “We have concluded that Cotter’s plan will not accomplish the goal of protecting Ralston Reservoir.”

State officials said they would begin enforcement proceedings against the company.

Denver-based Cotter didn’t return a call for comment after business hours Thursday.

The contamination is coming from the Schwartzwalder mine northeast of Golden, which operated from 1953 until May 2000. High concentrations of uranium have been found in Ralston Creek, which feeds the reservoir.

Recent water-quality tests showed that uranium levels in Ralston Creek below the mine were 13 times higher than the public health standard.

Water managers are pressuring regulators to force Cotter to clean up the contamination, but say drinking water in the reservoir is still safe.

Cotter’s plan rejected by the state included water monitoring and creation of a wetland to trap the uranium.

Biking around Denver is about to get cooler and easier. This Earth Day, April 22, Denver will be the launching point for B-cycle‘s bike sharing program. From 8 a.m.-9 a.m. you can join Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper and Jonny5 of Denver musicians Flobots at the Civic Center Park for Denver B-cycle’s Earth Day Launch Event.

According to Denver B-cycle:

Denver B-cycle is the first large-scale municipal bike sharing system in the United States. We are placing dozens of special bike stations (B-stations) in downtown Denver as well as the Cherry Creek and Denver University neighborhoods. Denver B-cycle members will be able to pick up one of the red bikes at any B-station and drop it off at any B-station

…

It’s an affordable, clean and fun way to get around town that’s good for your health, your pocket, and your environment.

With B-cycle, you don’t need to worry about finding a parking space or having to lock up your bike wherever you go. Pick it up when you need it and drop it off when you don’t. Plus, the Fenders, skirt guards and chain guards keep your clothes clean and there’s a basket to safely hold your belongings. Even after paying a membership fee, B-cycle is cheaper, easier, and better for the environment than driving.

Click here to find out more about Denver B-Cycle or register here. Or check out Earth Day events in Boulder.

And here’s a little bike love in music video form: Flobots – “Handlebars”

Click here to view the embedded video.

–Lindsay Gulisano

Tour de Fat 2010 is coming up! | flickr user ret0dd

Need more stuff to look forward to this summer? How about an annual bike, beer and recycling party? The Colorado stops on the 2010 Tour de Fat are mighty far away (Sept. 4 in Fort Collins, Sept. 11 in Denver), but that doesn’t mean you can’t start brainstorming your wacky outfit for it — or start building your crazy bike, if that’s more your speed.

Tour de Fat encourages everyone to embrace their inner-cyclist and ride the streets as a cohesive carnival of creativity. Each show begins with a costumed bike parade that stops traffic and turns heads along the way. (Costumes are highly encouraged!)

Tour de Fat seeks to leave as small an environmental imprint as possible and composts and recycles waste from each tour stop. The waste diversion rate for 2009 was 94 percent.

Tour de Fat is free to participants, but beer and merchandise proceeds go to local cycling non-profits. So far, Tour de Fat events have raised more than $1.25 million for philanthropy.

All musical acts perform on a solar-powered stage with decorations made from recycled materials, trucks and transport use biofuel sourced from recycled waste oils, and all vendors operate off the grid.

This is a pro-bike celebration, not an anti-car rally…non-cyclists are more than welcome to join the festivities.

via BeerAdvocate!

How walkable is Denver? | flickr user jared

First off, Boulder isn’t big enough to be considered for this list — I think the smallest city on the list is Portland, Ore. (pop. 582k) — so don’t ask where it fell.

But I think it’s interesting to look at this list, put together by Walk Score:

1. San Francisco, Calif.
2. New York, N.Y.
3. Boston, Mass.
4. Chicago, Ill.
5. Philadelphia, Penn,
6. Seattle, Wash.
7. Washington D.C.
8. Long Beach, Calif.
9. Los Angeles, Calif.
10. Portland, Ore.
11. Denver, Colo.
12. more cities

By the looks of it, the scores sort of hone in on specific neighborhoods, so it’s not making an argument about getting from DU to DIA — it’s about having walkable neighborhoods.

From the site’s description of walkable city criteria:

The cities at the top of the Walk Score rankings have density, mixed use, transit, short blocks—and almost everything else on our walkability checklist. Most importantly, these cities have lots of destinations near each address, which is the strongest indicator of whether people walk.

By those criteria, I’m inclined to agree that you can walk, bus and train your way through certain parts of L.A. more easily than you can in Denver — because Denver’s most walkable neighborhoods don’t support as much residential population as do L.A.’s walkable neighborhoods.

What do you think? Have you lived in other cities that rate ahead of Denver?

Denver International Airport | flickr user ishmaelo

Thanks, Planet Green, for this chuckle:

“Greenest” Parking Lot Planned For Country’s Largest Airport

In the biggest ironic headline of the year (so far), the world’s greenest parking facility will soon be open at Denver International Airport (DIA), the largest and fifth-busiest airport in the country.

Members of WildEarth Guardians dress as clowns and wear Gov. Bill Ritter masks during a protest outside the state Capitol on Wednesday | Denver Post

Front Range environmentalists gathered in Denver yesterday to tell the governor to quit “clowning around” when it comes to climate change.

The state’s air quality commission will take public comment tonight on Xcel Energy’s request to renew its air permit for the Cherokee coal plant in Denver. Earlier this year, Xcel also sought to renew its air permit for the Valmont coal plant in Boulder.

The clown-protesters — wearing wigs and Ritter masks — said that the state shouldn’t issue any permits until coal plants are forced to deal with their carbon dioxide emissions, but the state says it has no authority to do that.

Read more about the protest at DenverPost.com.

With U.S. 36 in the background, Barbara Bowes of Boulder rides the South Boulder Creek Trail. The new plan for 36 would connect this trail into a larger network, stretching from Boulder to Denver.

For almost a decade, communities up and down the U.S. 36 corridor from Denver to Boulder have been struggling with what to do about the congested highway — which is only projected to get worse as the local population continues to grow.

Now a compromise has finally been reached, and it includes some big wins for alternative transportation… like a bike path that runs all the way from Boulder to Denver.

Now all the plan needs is some money.

From the Daily Camera:

A bus trip down U.S. 36 from Foothills Parkway to Denver’s Union Station would only take 24 minutes if an updated package of proposed improvements is approved, financed and built.

The upgrades to the U.S. 36 corridor — outlined in the project’s newly filed environmental impact statement — would add a “managed lane” along the median in both directions. Buses and high-occupancy vehicles could use the lane for free, and excess capacity could be sold to single drivers who are willing to pay for access.

The latest version of the plan also would add climbing lanes up Davidson Mesa in both directions and include a parallel bikeway that would connect existing regional trails, such as joining the South Boulder Creek trail in Boulder with the Coal Creek Trail in Louisville.

“There’s been a lot of hard work by a lot of people to come up with a compromise that fits the needs of communities along the corridor,” said George Gerstle, Boulder County’s director of transportation. “What’s being proposed is a very progressive approach to solving a mobility problem.”

Read the full story at DailyCamera.com, or read about how to take advantage of Boulder’s bike paths and bus system right now at BigGreenBoulder.