Mountain Town News
By Allen Best
Seeding is believing
DENVER, Colo. – A half-century after cloud-seeding began in the West, it continues to be regarded by many as something akin to chicken-noodle soup for colds. Or, on the more sinister side, snake oil.
But water authorities in thirsty states of the American Southwest have no such doubts. For several winters, they have been increasing their budgets for seeding clouds passing over the mountains of Colorado, where about half of the total volume in the Colorado River originates.
“We’re believers down here,” says Tom Ryan, resource specialist with the Metropolitan Water District of Southwestern California. “The lower-basin folks believe it works. We believe that the science is adequate to move forward.”
While still relatively small, just $152,000 this winter, the money from lower-basin states has more than tripled since 2006. The money has been used to spew silver iodide particles into clouds over the San Juan Mountains, the Gunnison Basin, and Grand Mesa, all regions with ski areas. The states also contributed to renewed seeding operations at Winter Park in partnership with ski-area operator Intrawest.
The lower-basin states see cloud-seeding as a viable way to increase water in the stressed Colorado River Basin. On behalf of those states, consulting firm Black & Veatch two years ago completed a study that evaluated ways to augment existing water supplies. Desalinization was deemed highly effective but extremely expensive.
Cloud-seeding, along with removal of thirsty tamarisk plants, an invasive species found along rivers, was deemed most cost-effective. It’s relatively inexpensive, requires few permits, and can be rapidly deployed.
But seeding operations remain under a general cloud of suspicion during any season. Cloud-seeders insist they can augment snowpacks 10 percent to 15 percent – provided they have clouds to seed. Seeding, they say, cannot break a drought.
Wanting firmer evidence the Wyoming Legislature appropriated funding for experiments using control groups. After three winters of tests in the Sierra Madre and Medicine Bow ranges of southern Wyoming, scientist Dan Breed reports “teasers” and “trends,” but not enough cases for conclusions with strong confidence levels.
Colorado hopes for more bear kills
ASPEN, Colo.— The Colorado Division of Wildlife wants to encourage hunters to kill more bears in the Aspen and Vail areas. Last year, 630 hunting licenses were available. But wildlife biologists propose to make 1,200 licenses available this year.
Why so many? Especially now that they cannot use dogs, bear hunters seem to have a very low rate of success. Last year, for example, only 33 bears were killed by hunters in the Aspen, Vail, and Glenwood Springs area, a success rate of just 5.2 percent, an agency spokesman told the Aspen Times.
In contrast, police and wildlife officers killed 20 bears in the Aspen area last year after various conflicts.
Has the bottom been reached?
JACKSON, Wyo. – Economic analyst Jonathan Schechter seems to have correctly predicted last autumn the bottoming-out of the real estate market in Jackson and Teton County – a bottoming that seems to have been occurring in other resort markets as well.
More recently, he took on the challenge of the economy there more broadly. Given the challenge of predicting economic highs and lows, he says he might have more wisely quit while ahead.
But he plunged ahead, studying the classified advertisements of the Jackson Hole News&Guide, in which his analysis appears, going back to January 2005. Specifically, he measured two barometers: the column inches of help-wanted and rental housing listings.
The help-wanted ads suggest the economy crested in the winter of 2007-2008, then began slowing in spring of 2008, around the time that investment bank Bear Stearns imploded. After that, he reports, things went into an 18-month free fall, finally stabilizing late last year.
Rental-housing ads hit an all-time low in summer of 2008, lagging a bit behind the peak in help-wanted advertising. Mirroring the help-wanted ads, rental housing ads peaked this past fall, and since then have leveled out.
Law and disorder
REVELSTOKE, B.C. – Along the TransCanada Highway, worries seem to be mounting about the potential for lawlessness in resort towns.
In Revelstoke, town councilors were fretting whether a proposed bar that purports plans to serve wine by the glass in genteel surroundings would, given the chance, degenerate into another darkened gin mill that breeds drunkenness and disorder.
“I am not swayed by the idea of it being a high-brow wine bar,” said Mayor David Raven. But he, and other councilors, were also worried about a recommended denial of a liquor license sending out an anti-business and anti-change signal, reports the Revelstoke Time Review.
In Banff, meanwhile, city councilors were negotiating with provincial authorities about a planned reduction of police by about a third. “It’s very important that Banff is perceived as a safe and secure community,” said Mayor John Stutz. “Certainly we are one of Canada’s gems, and there is an expectation of that.”
