Special to the Post Independent
Graduates of CMC s Roaring Fork campuses line up before the start of commencement on Saturday.
Photo by Stephanie Stocking
Commencement at Colorado Mountain College is always a special day, but this year was different.
And, not different because students wore masks or because they had to physically distance. Different, in that commencement was not just a fleeting moment of joy. It was a triumphant celebration for hundreds of students who overcame hardship after hardship to get to this point.
Students, who in the face of a devastating pandemic, ruthless wildfires and divisive civil unrest, had the courage to push forward and make this one of the largest graduating classes in the history of Colorado Mountain College.
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“Things can turn on a dime around here, and I’m hoping it does with some moisture coming in,” said Jim Genung, a fire manager and fuels specialist based in Rifle. “But I gotta say, it’s starting to look a little bit like we’re going to head into a busy summer again.”
Genung’s jurisdiction with the Upper Colorado Interagency Fire Management Unit includes both Bureau of Land Management and White River National Forest land.
Because indicators are pointing to another busy season, he says, the people who monitor wildfires are in a “heightened state of awareness” looking at this year’s conditions.
Carbondale’s MinTze Wu recordign her story for the new podcast “Origin Stories.”
Carbondale’s Amy Kimberly recording her episode of the new podcast “Origin Stories,” produced by the Women’s Voices Theater Project.
Kristin Carlson recording her episode of “Origin Stories.”
Members of the Women’s Voices Theater Project photographed in 2019. The group canceled its 2020 and 2021 in-person shows due to the pandemic, and has instead produced two storytelling podcasts.
Women’s Voices Theater Project members Trary Maddalone LaMee, Julie Comins Pickrell, Cassidy Willey, and Gabriela Alvarez Espinoza in a 2019 rehearsal. IF YOU LISTEN …
To hear the first episode of the Women’s Voices Theater Project podcast “Origin Stories,” visit http://www.voicesrfv.org
Scott Condon/Aspen Times file
The dry, warm month of April prevented the snowpack from building and sunk the chances to fill Ruedi Reservoir this summer, according to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
“It’s not good at all,” said Tim Miller, a. U.S. Bureau of Reclamation hydrologist who manages water levels at the reservoir. “We took a pretty good nosedive from April to May.”
The snowpack in the upper Fryingpan Valley was only about 60% of median as of May 1, he said. Forecasts are for runoff into the reservoir to be only about 55% of average.
Ruedi Reservoir is at about 60% full right now. It holds 102,000 acre-feet of water. It would need about 42,000 acre-feet to fill.
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