By Diana Vernazza Here in Southwest Colorado, the weather is beginning to turn warmer, the rivers are rising and trees slowly leafing out. The first butterflies of the season are...
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News flash: The Dalai Lama, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, just weighed in on the proposed expansion of heli-ski terrain around Silverton. Really? Truth be told, no. But have you ever noticed how the Dalai Lama is a veritable tour…
Do you know the name George Lakoff? If you don’t, you should. George Lakoff is a professor of cognitive science and linguistics at the University of California at Berkeley and an author of Don’t Think of an Elephant. It’s a…
On Friday, Donald Trump will be inaugurated as our nation’s 45th president. Here’s an odd thought: What if President Trump is exactly what America needs? How, you may ask, can a man who possesses open contempt for women, minorities, democratic…
Of the many emails we’ve received at San Juan Citizens Alliance, this may be the oddest. “I see that you are not on board with our President elect. Please remove us from your mailing list. Proud Deploreable (sic) who used…
Here’s a question for you. Can I call President-elect Donald Trump out as a dangerously uninformed and unprincipled bigot without alienating his supporters? Better question. Why am I worried about alienating someone who voted for a dangerously uninformed and unprincipled…
Photo Credit: Ecoflight In the past week, I have had the opportunity to speak with some truly inspiring people, and get this: a few were politicians. I know, sounds improbable, right? This election season, the words “politician” and “inspiring” seem…
As the father of a 3-year-old boy, I’ve become an expert on the topic of momentum. You see, my little guy has yet to cross paths with a hill he doesn’t want to race down. Grassy, rocky, dirt, paved –…
The oil and gas industry is awfully, dangerously, predictable. This week, in response to NASA fingering oil and gas operations as the primary cause of the infamous Four Corners methane hot spot, industry shills did what industry shills do: distort…
Has Animas River spring runoff been normal? Is normal safe? Definitely. Not. Got it? Late spring in the West means surging creeks and rivers. As water flows rapidly increase, so does the water’s turbidity and discoloration. Still reeling from the…
Photo Credit: Mark Pearson Victory! (Kind of.) This week, San Juan Citizens Alliance members helped persuade the federal government to give our community more time to weigh in on five parcels of public land to be leased for oil and…
What’s causing the loss of oil and gas jobs in the Four Corners region? For some readers, this question is an abstraction; for others, it is deeply personal. In the past few months, economic news for oil and gas producers…
When will the fight over Wolf Creek Pass end? This past weekend, The Durango Herald broke a story about document destruction, collusion and continued avoidance of public transparency requirements that plague the latest iteration of the slow-moving train wreck otherwise…
This holiday season I’d like to propose a corollary to Durango’s well-loved buy local movement: give local. December is a month awash in fundraising requests, and let’s face it: being on the receiving end can get tiresome. But let’s face…
Let’s talk numbers. 22: inches of fresh snow Wolf Creek Ski Area reported as of Wednesday morning. 69,701: pages of public records opponents of the Pillage at Wolf Creek just received from the federal government. 2: over-caffeinated lawyers reading those…
In his Tuesday column, “The Republicans’ Incompetence Caucus,” conservative New York Times writer David Brooks excoriated the more radical elements of the Republican Party. Sordid intra-party politics playing out in broad daylight, now that’s a writer’s ticket. And yet, I’ll…
If emotions were assigned a color, along the banks of the Animas and San Juan rivers, the color of fear is muddled orange. In the turbulent wake of the Gold King Mine accident, it is hard to miss the signs…
Photo Credit: Kathy Myrick If you are like me, you were probably hoping that by now – 6 days into the Gold King Mine release – the EPA would be giving our beloved river the “all clear.” Unfortunately, that is…
Well… that was lively. Here are a few SJCA takeaways from tonight’s EPA/Community meeting: 1. Our communities want good data on what is in the water, and the EPA has been slow in producing that data. Sure, it takes time…
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This is a sample of Animas River water taken by Mountain Studies Institute late last night in Durango. Not good folks. A lot of people have been contacting SJCA to ask what they can do. Here’s a pass at our…
It’s time. Time to take action on Wolf Creek. (not that we haven’t been taking it all along… but you know what I mean.) Next week we are sending a delegation to Washington, D.C. to meet with our elected officials…
For months people have been asking: “What can I do to help save Wolf Creek Pass?” Well, here’s a very immediate and concrete request. Next week, representatives from a number of community groups will be visiting officials in Washington, D.C.,…
Photo Credit: Mark Pearson The entire Dolores River Canyon below McPhee Reservoir is a special place to be sure. Anyone that has had the opportunity to explore the corridor via boat, foot, horseback, bike or vehicle, knows this to be…
Let’s talk about the biggest little coal mine in La Plata County you’ve never heard of. Six miles southwest of Hesperus sits the King Coal II mine. Operated by GCC Energy, a subsidiary of Mexico-based Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua, the…
We live in exciting times. Just how exciting? Check this out. What was a fairly sedate affair historically – the La Plata Electric Association annual board of director’s election – has transformed into a proxy vote for the community’s vision…
I want you to envision a day with me; it’s the day that bulldozers begin ripping apart Wolf Creek Pass to build Texas billionaire Red McCombs’ version of Vail South. Last week, that possible dark day moved closer to reality, leaving…
Photo: Mark Pearson San Juan Citizens Alliance has long prioritized protection for the Lower Dolores River. We worked with the Dolores Water Conservancy District to start the Dolores River Dialogue in 2004. In 2008, we became a stakeholder in the…
It is not often enough that we get to celebrate wins in my line work, so today let’s pause to do exactly that. A few weeks ago, San Juan Citizens Alliance and our partners won a hard-fought legal case against…
Rampant and unplanned drilling is threatening archeological sites and communities around Chaco. Despite the pleas of many, the BLM continues to permit drilling without assessing the impact to those sites, the environment or nearby communities. So, we’re suing them. Below…
The day before the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Tres Rios Field Office (TRFO) released its Resource Management Plan (RMP), the Alliance drafted a list of 10 things to watch for in the final document. I’d like to think that…
If you’ve been following the multi-year saga of the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Tres Rios Field Office (TRFO) Resource Management Plan (RMP), then you know a lot is at stake. As we highlighted in a previous post, this planning…
To see the actual IMF document referenced below, click here. It’s jarring to see your credibility attacked in a letter to the editor – a bit less so, though, after you realize the writer’s argument is baseless. In my bi-weekly…
I break the world of ideas into three categories. Good ideas, bad ideas and this idea. In 2012, Utah passed the Utah Transfer of Public Lands Act, a uniquely cynical piece of legislation that demanded the U.S. government transfer all federally…
A few weeks back I was called a bomb-thrower for the content I share in this column. Though this is far from the worst thing I’ve been called in print, it did get me thinking. Is what I write really that…
Sometimes people say outrageous things. Case in point: In response to the Obama administration announcing plans to cut methane emissions, the president of the Institute for Energy Research uttered this: “EPA’s proposed methane regulation is redundant, costly and unnecessary. Energy…
Here we go again. The fight over the Pillage at Wolf Creek is on, folks, and we need your help. Haven’t heard of this little gem? Trying to block negative thoughts in the New Year? This column is for you….
What does it mean to give thanks? I believe that the act of giving thanks is an act of sincere humility, an expression of vulnerability, connectedness and need. We express thanks for the things that sustain us, without which we…
Can democracy work if corporations are free to spend their limitless plunder to affect the outcome of community dialogue and electoral politics? Last week, our community got a firsthand look at the dysfunction that results when ill-gotten gains bump up…
Wow. A new and really hard-hitting storyline from Conservation International. Nature Doesn’t Need People, People Need Nature. Check out the storyline – told through a series of short vidoes – at natureisspeaking.org. Here’s one narrated by Julia Roberts:
What does democracy look like? Last week, I marched through the streets of Manhattan with a crowd 400,000 strong. I could hardly keep count of the number of times march participants trotted out the tried and true protest slogan: This…
The Animas River has long been polluted by run-off from old mines throughout the San Juan Mountains. At a meeting with county commissioners, the EPA announced plans to “plug” two of those mines in 2015 to slow the flow of…
It’s time. Time to make a ruckus. This weekend tens of thousands will converge in New York City to protest the uninspired, inept and cynical global response to climate change. If ever there were a time to stand up and…
Let’s talk subsidies. When the topic of renewable energy subsidies comes up, someone in the room invariably points out that such subsidies give renewables an unfair advantage over fossil fuels in the “free market.” This argument, while good sport for…
There’s nothing quite like money for getting otherwise sane people to do and say outlandish things. Case in point: Last week, I attended an Oil and Gas Community Advocates Training Program hosted here in Durango by our very own Chamber…
Here is a recent blog post from the San Juan Headwaters Forest Health Partnership (SJHFHP). The Alliance is a proud member of this collaborative effort to bring best-available science and forest management practices to play throughout the San Juan Headwaters….
It’s August – summer in transition. A quotient of light erodes from either side of every day, portending the inevitable fall. Cooling temperatures, changing smells. I feel a tinge of autumnal sadness in the still warm August days, a feeling…
Have you ever been played for a fool? Go to that place with me. Which was worse: the anger that dawned on you upon realizing you’d been had or the shame in admitting you had let it happen? I hate…
It’s the fifth of July, and it’s early. I’m alone on a dirt road in the mountains, climbing. The American flag dominates my thoughts, three archetypes rising from somewhere deep. The angry flag In 2003, I marched down Massachusetts Avenue…
Who cares about lynx? I ask this question for two reasons. One: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, by law, is supposed to care about lynx, but doesn’t. Two: Members of the San Juan Citizens Alliance care about lynx, and…
With much fanfare, two weeks back the Obama administration announced its proposed rules for regulating greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants. The resulting fireworks were quite the sight. Progressives tripped over themselves to laud the president for restoring…
Ever think we place too much emphasis on leaders? We do, too. This video shows that it’s the first follower, not the leader, that creates a movement. What lesson can we learn as community activists?
So many small organizations struggle to stay focused – especially small organizations with tight budgets that need focus more than anything else. Great short clip of Steve Jobs describing focus, or strategy, as what you say “no” to, not “yes.”
Our society has an unhealthy infatuation with the image of the reasonable man. You know the one I’m talking about. Well-coiffed, prudent, good with money – he exudes an air of paternal stability, a counterbalance to an otherwise dangerous and…
Stop the press! Something wild just happened. I, Dan Olson, found common cause with the tea party. Coming from your local environmental group, this declaration deserves some unpacking. Two Saturdays ago, I attended a “public meeting” at the Durango Community…
We are always looking for great examples of storytelling here at the Alliance. And man… did we find one with this video. Engaging, hilarious, and convincing (even if we don’t fully support the “buy this way to save the world”…
Good news! (Kind of). Once again, election season is upon us. No, no – not the 2014 midterms. I’m talking about the annual La Plata Electric Association Board of Directors election. For the uninitiated, LPEA is our electric cooperative. Unlike…
We couldn’t help it…. here’s another video from This is Reality ripping on “ clean coal. ” Too funny….!
Have you ever seen a monster? I have. A few weeks ago. He was an odd monster. He didn’t hide in the dark spots fancied by most monster-types. No, this monster stood out in the open under the glaring mid-day…
This hilarious 30 second video clip nails the false claims of clean coal. Right on.
What do you get when you put an industry insider, public-relations consultant and lobbyist in an office suite with a bag of money? The start of a government regulatory office. An industry trade association. One heck of a holiday party….
As a person who pursued sustainable business strategies at the country’s largest organizations for close to 14 years, this statement is as painful as it is honest. Green business is not just a marketing ploy. For many it was, and…
