Top 5 most-read stories last week
Colorado Parks and Wildlife/Courtesy photo
Stories in this list received the most page views on aspentimes.com from June 23-30.
As summer draws more people to Colorado’s rivers and reservoirs, conservationists are urging the public to take immediate action to protect waterways from invasive aquatic species.
The threat is both serious and irreversible, and the solution is straightforward: clean, drain, and dry your gear. Every time.
Aquatic Nuisance Species (ANS) — such as zebra mussels, rusty crayfish, quagga mussels, New Zealand mud snails, and invasive aquatic plants — have already caused lasting damage to rivers and lakes across the state.
-Westley Crouch
2. Colorado rescue teams save slew of dogs caught in ‘ruff’ summer conditions in the Rocky Mountains
If there is one thing that Coloradans love as much as the outdoors, it may be dogs.
But sometimes, the adventures humans plan — from summiting Colorado’s 14er peaks to backpacking through the wilderness — can be a little too “ruff” for their canine companions.
In the past month, search-and-rescue volunteers in the state have staged at least four missions to rescue injured or exhausted dogs from the backcountry.
-Ryan Spencer
3. A look at where Colorado’s collared gray wolves explored this June
About a year and a half into reintroduction efforts, Colorado’s gray wolves are continuing to settle into the state and explore similar watersheds, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s monthly wolf map.
Wolf activity appears to be slightly more condensed in Colorado’s central-northern counties compared to recent months, including April and May, where the wolves’ exploration started to stretch further west and south.
On the most recent map — which shows the watersheds where wolves were between May 27 and June 24 — wolves were pinpointed in Routt, Moffat, Jackson, Larimer, Grand, Summit, Lake, Chaffee, Park, Garfield, Mesa, Pitkin, and Eagle counties. It does show that watersheds in some southern counties — including Gunnison, San Juan, Hinsdale, Mineral, and Saguache counties — had wolf activity.
-Ali Longwell
4. Summer tourism to Colorado slips as mountain resort destinations get more expensive
New booking data shows consumers are hesitating to commit to Western mountain locations for their summer vacations — a consequence of ever-changing economic and political dynamics and rising daily rates compared to this time last year.
The booking pace to mountain destinations across seven Western states — Colorado, Utah, California, Nevada, Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho — fell for its sixth consecutive month in May, officially reaching its longest downward streak for 17 participating destinations since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Occupancy rates in Colorado mountain destinations, however, have been hit much harder than the others so far into the season.
-Andrea Teres-Martinez
5. Monday’s network outages caused by brush fire in Glenwood Springs
A network outage that caused varying levels of issues throughout the Roaring Fork Valley on Monday was caused by a small brush fire in Glenwood Springs.
Along Donegan Road, the fire damaged an overhead fiber optics line, according to Leslie Oliver, Comcast senior director of external communications in the Mountain West region.
While the Glenwood Springs Fire Department couldn’t be reached for comment, the Post Independent reported Monday that a brush fire on Donegan Road caused the road to be briefly closed and evacuated. The fire was first reported at 3:24 p.m. and was reported to be contained at 3:53 p.m.
-Colin Suszynski
Snowmass brush fire caused by vehicle, authorities say
A vehicle ignited a brush fire up Snowmass Creek Road on Monday afternoon.
