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Happy Colorado Sunday, all. I hope you’re enjoying these first few days of spring as much as I am.
Up here at the backyard barnyard, hints of the change of season are suddenly evident. The periwinkle vinca is in bloom. Daffodils are pushing up through thick layers of leaves in the perennial borders, and garlic I thought was lost to the spade is standing tall and green in the garden. My two elderly hens are giving eggs every now and then, and by some miracle, the bees survived the winter and on warm days are flying out and returning to the hive with pale pollen packed tight to their hind legs.
It’s a tiny spread, but I do think about managing it in ways that are best for the environment and also have good outcomes, like honey and vegetables, for people. My place is a far cry from the Park County ranch that stars in Tracy Ross’ cover story this week, but I like to think that I share some values with Dave and Jean Gottenborg, who say they’re managing their place with the idea in mind that they are only temporary caretakers of something with extraordinary environmental value.
Poetry and conservation converge in ranch management
Park County rancher Dave Gottenborg lays down barbed wire fencing when elk are migrating through. It’s a small part of the conservation-minded ethos that guides management of the Eagle Rock Ranch near Jefferson. (Olivia Sun, The Colorado Sun via Report for America)
If you’re familiar with the poet Wendell Berry, chances are you’ve read “The Peace of Wild Things,” about how, when despair for the world grows in him, he “wakes at the least sound / in fear of what (his) life and (his) children’s lives may be” and goes outside to lie in “the peace of wild things.”
It’s a beautiful poem, evoking the power of the natural world to sustain us. But the Berry poem that feels more apropos of my story this week is “Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front.”
“Manifesto” calls the reader to do things that defy social norms, comfort, even reason. It warns the reader against the lure of “the quick profit, the annual raise, vacation with pay.” But Berry offers alternatives, too: “Love the Lord. Love the world. Work for nothing,” and more importantly, ask questions and “invest in the millennium.”
Dave Gottenborg, the subject of my story this week, loves Berry’s work, I think because it helps guide him in his own work. Gottenborg made good money in a small oil and gas company and then used some of it to buy a ranch with his wife, Jean, in Park County. It’s a beautiful spread, 3,000 acres, and the best part is how the Gottenborgs ranch it. They take a conservation-first approach that puts all creatures — sentient and not — on equal footing with humans.
Dave’s inspiration to do that was the great conservationist Aldo Leopold, author of “A Sand County Almanac.” I might be overwhelming you with literary references here, but they’re important. With Berry and Leopold looking over his shoulder, Gottenborg has been refining his conservation ethic on Eagle Rock Ranch for just over a decade. And the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association thought highly enough of his and Jean’s work that they awarded them its commercial producer of the year award.
They’re also thinking of ways they and other ranchers can enhance and elevate conservation on their own ranches to add to their profit margins. That might just help them as we move into a future in which $20 billion in conservation agriculture funding in the Farm Bill is being hotly debated in Congress. I hope you’ll read the story to see how Dave and Jean, inspired by Aldo and Wendell, are pushing themselves all the time to show the world the benefits of conservation ranching.
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In case you missed it, we’ve curated our own visual feed of reporting to catch you up. Here are a few of our favorite recent images of everyday places, people and moments from every corner of Colorado.
Abigail Heath browses the Printed Page Bookshop after an introductory book-collecting class at the bookshop March 16 in Denver. (Andy Colwell, Special to The Colorado Sun)
Vehicles travel along Interstate 70 in Glenwood Canyon on March 12 near Glenwood Springs. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)
Chemist Alan Frey adds an isotope dilution standard to a water sample Tuesday at the Klein Water Treatment Facility in Commerce City. The facility tests local samples for emerging contaminants and volatile organic compounds every two weeks. The South Adams County lab is one of a few municipal utilities that run their own water samples. (Olivia Sun, The Colorado Sun via Report for America)
Volunteers Eida Altman, left, and Mint Hiwaga of the Denver Metro Tenants Union knock on doors Thursday at the Felix in southwestern Denver to collect resident information about faulty units. Volunteers have visited the complex multiple times in recent months seeking to improve tenants’ housing conditions, like having hot water, proper heat or trash collection. (Olivia Sun, The Colorado Sun via Report for America)
Nobel Woldu crochets a pink hat March 11 at Challenge School in Aurora. Nobel, 14, joined the school’s new Crochet Club and learned how to crochet with help from her mom and the club’s founder, student Alexandra Schmidt. (Erica Breunlin, The Colorado Sun)
A hub in Hygiene where cycling and coffee intersect
Cyclists gather up outside the Mountain Fountain in Hygiene. (Mountain Fountain)
I remember the first time I biked 50 miles for a blueberry muffin. The muffin itself was very mediocre, but the way it served as a beacon of hope, rest and sugar at the route’s apex was something just short of spectacular. This is the logic of the coffee ride. It’s a way to break up a route into digestible chunks, ensure a mid-ride caffeine spike, and create a space to gather with other cyclists — even if that means deliriously sipping an espresso next to someone you just met.
Some places deliberately position themselves at the intersection of coffee and cycling. The Rapha Clubhouse in Boulder, for instance, has woven these two cultures together so thoroughly that it’s hard to tell whether it’s a bike-themed coffee shop or a coffee-themed bike shop. Last year, Bicycle Colorado led a series of coffee commutes, group bike rides that left from various coffee shops around Denver.
Other spots have a lucky geography, like The Mountain Fountain in Hygiene. If you’ve lived in Colorado long enough, you may remember The Mountain Fountain as Clark’s Food Store, Mary’s Market or the Purple Door Market, but in almost every iteration, the low brick building has been a popular spring and summer spot for cyclists to gather.
Its location, at a three-way intersection surrounded by farms, makes a perfect 30-mile round trip from Valmont Bike Park in Boulder. Its outdoor seating — including a bench donated by Mountain Fountain regulars, the SOBs (seniors on bikes) — and ample bike racks create a great atmosphere for gathering. The wide deli counter, fresh pies and full-service cafe create just the right incentive to keep pedaling. Mountain Fountain owner Carrie Olson mentioned that they also keep products from Boulder-based Skratch Labs and pickle brine shots on deck for cyclists, and that water fill-ups are always free.
So squeeze into those spandex shorts and aim for the espresso machine, spring is here and summer’s not far behind.
In “The Quiet Butterfly” a painful separation and a search for a new life
“Gently, I kissed Grandma on the forehead. Feeling her soft skin on my lips and looking at her loving face one last time, I seared the moment into my memory and then quietly closed her door behind me. Forcing myself to leave the only place I considered home, I was also leaving the last person who truly saw me.”
— From “The Quiet Butterfly”
EXCERPT: A young girl leaves behind the comfort of her closest family to embark on what will become a journey of self-discovery with a mother trying to overcome her own personal issues. Author Victoria Wright’s young adult novel, “The Quiet Butterfly,” begins with a difficult departure and a cross-country drive to Denver. Along the way, Wright hints at ways protagonist Neepa will lean on the Native teachings of her ancestors to deal with bullies — including the one she harbors within herself.
READ THE SUNLIT EXCERPT
THE SUNLIT INTERVIEW: After a corporate career in finance, Wright seized the pandemic shutdown as the impetus for pursuing something that would be more fulfilling — and she turned to writing. Her first novel mirrors her own journey toward embracing her culture to learn more about her true self, and the key role nature plays in the process. Here’s a sample from her Q&A:
SunLit: Tell us about creating this book. What influences and/or experiences informed the project before you sat down to write?
Wright: My heritage always plays a role in my writing. I am multiracial but was raised Native American. Nature is just something that I have been taught to pay attention to. Animals, trees, the water speak to us and we have to slow down and pay attention to hear. Nature was speaking a lot to me, reminding me that the answers are always there, I just had to have the courage to listen.
READ THE INTERVIEW WITH VICTORIA WRIGHT
A curated list of what you may have missed from The Colorado Sun this week.
Eldora Mountain workers digging out the ski area’s Tenderfoot carpet lift March 15 after so much snow fell on the resort that it could not open. (Cullen McHale, Eldora Mountain)
🌞 It’s tax season — both personal and property — which invariably has people asking why Colorado property taxes feel so high when our taxes are comparatively low. Brian Eason has some answers. And in a completely related story, he stayed up way too late many nights last week waiting for the Joint Budget Committee to finish work on the (tax-funded) state budget.
🌞Things were a little feisty at the statehouse last week, with lawmakers ordering the feds to “do your job” and fund long-overdue repairs to an irrigation system on the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation and in La Plata County, and handfuls of competing ballot measures getting turned in to turn up the heat on debate over bills dealing with air quality and climate change. A bill that would make it illegal to buy and sell a broad swath of semi-automatic weapons made it out of committee. And lawmakers are considering a bill that would, for the first time, regulate the treatment plans and clinical practices of eating disorder treatment facilities.
🌞 A lot of people thought that by now, Coloradans would be paying less for their medications under a drug importation plan created in 2019. But U.S. drug manufacturers have tough agreements with their Canadian distributors that have mucked up the program. John Ingold reports on the wrangling going on to maybe someday get the plan launched.
🌞 All that snow that shut down Front Range schools and governments for two days also did a number on snowpack levels high in the mountains — in a good way. Shannon Mullane reports snow levels across the state are now above average and that bodes well for the water year.
🌞 Denver’s plan to scale back services to the thousands of people who arrived by bus from the border with Mexico was upset by foul weather in the forecast. Advocates for Central and South American migrants are especially worried about families with children who are living in tents, Jennifer Brown learned.
🌞 Crocheting is the latest craze among teens and tweens at Challenge School in Aurora. Kids who are hooked on the craft told Erica Breunlin the after-school club has helped them unfurl their creativity.
Thanks for spending a bit of your morning with us. We appreciate the time, especially when we are quite aware that there are cool season seeds begging to be planted. If you’d like to share the Sunday in-box camaraderie with someone, please send them to coloradosun.com/join. The more, the merrier!
— Dana & the whole staff of The Sun
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