Big Pivots
The East Troublesome Fire photographed on Oct. 20, 2020 by Brad White, fire chief of the Grand Fire Protection District in Granby.
Colorado’s scariest wildfire in 2020 was not its largest. East Troublesome shocked because of its sprint and then its leap. It grew by 87,000 acres in a fiery dash across the headwaters of the Colorado River and past Grand Lake, most of that in just a couple hours. Smoke plumes rose 40,000 feet. The winds, variously estimated at 50 to 100 mph, were strong enough to bend over lodgepole pines.
Then embers vaulted across two miles of treeless tundra at the Continental Divide, raining into the Estes Valley, at the eastern gate to Rocky Mountain National Park.
Dale G Armstrong
I often wonder who eats more bugs as I sit on the banks of our rivers. The fish or birds and bats? The ouzels here in the Roaring Fork Valley are as fat as little Santas, and watching the swallows pick off caddis and drakes on the surface with their silent, graceful flight is always a sight to behold. Hummingbirds do their share of damage with midges in the mornings, too. Just like ocean fishing, all fly-fishers here take their cues from bird pandemonium over the water during a solid hatch.
While waiting for the green drake hatch to commence here in Basalt recently, I started to wonder if the fish take their cue from the birds and bats on this particular hatch. More interestingly, the green drakes really started to pop when I noticed fewer and fewer swallows, and more bats entering the picture. Anyone who has spent real time on the water has had a bat or swallow grab their fly right out of the air, and sometimes right off the water’s surface.
11 Colorado ghost towns to visit this summer gazette.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from gazette.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Courtney DeVito is new human resources director; Rob Schober is capital asset director
Courtney DeVito has been appointed as the human resources department director and Rob Schober has been promoted to capital asset director, City of Aspen officials announced Thursday.
Schober’s most recent title was asset management project manager in the capital asset department, and DeVito was serving as the interim director of human resources for the city.
Schober’s salary is $124,800 and DeVito makes $126,000 annually.
DeVito has more than 17 years of human resources experience, including nine with the city.
She started with the organization as a risk analyst in 2012 and has served as the department’s deputy director and interim director.
Hotel group bullish on Basalt Mountain Inn after purchase for $3 6M aspentimes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from aspentimes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.