Denver Water getting early clues to how burn area will impact water quality during the spring runoff Author: Cory Reppenhagen Updated: 9:25 PM MST March 2, 2021
PARSHALL, Colo. One of the many large wildfires that burned in Colorado last summer was near the Williams Fork reservoir. The fire scorched the hills standing above the river but Denver Water said they were lucky it didn t come too close to the reservoir.
The water utility said they still do expect some impacts to water quality in the area as a result of the Williams Fork fire. That will likely come during the spring runoff, so they dispatched water sampling crews to the headwaters to sample and test the water.
The confirmation of always-lethal chronic wasting disease among the ranks of the Jackson Elk Herd is spurring discussions about how to best detect its presence as it spreads through the natural environment.
The vector of CWD is called a prion, which is a misfolded brain protein known for its near indestructibility and knack for persisting in the natural environment, including in soil and water. Since just a single elk to date has tested positive for CWD, itâs likely that prions have been deposited locally only at trace levels â so far. Nevertheless, National Elk Refuge biologist Eric Cole is one person on the hunt for some type of test or monitoring system to track its spread as more elk and deer become infected and prions accumulate on the landscape.
Increasing Numbers of U.S. Residents in High-Risk Wildfire and Flood Zones Millions of Americans are living on properties that are at-risk for climate change-related disasters. The solution to the problem is far more complicated than just telling residents to move. Anuradha Varanasi, Earth Institute | February 4, 2021 | Analysis
The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) estimates that around 13 million Americans are living within a 100-year flood zone. But over the last few years, researchers have found that the government’s estimates are far lower than the ground realities.
A 2018 study published in the journal Environmental Research Letters states that, taking into account the risk of flooding from rivers, about 41 million people are exposed to flood risk. That roughly equals three times more than FEMA’s estimates of residents who live in areas with a 1 percent chance of floods striking during a
How The Poudre and Big Thompson Rivers Got Their Names
The Poudre and the Big Thompson are stunningly beautiful rivers in Northern Colorado that can put the rivers of Montana to shame. Do you know where their names come from?
It s a shame that I am not more of an outdoorsman, living here in the breathtaking outdoors of the Fort Collins area. I ll have to find a way to change that.
Having grown up in Loveland, I m pretty aware of the Big Thompson River that travels from Rocky Mountain National Park down through its namesaked canyon out into Weld County to meet up with the South Platte River.