Latest news with #ColoradoNewsline
Yahoo
05-07-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Herd mentality: Goats deployed by some Colorado cities for better environmental results
Goats graze along the Colorado Riverfront Trail in Grand Junction in 2025. (Sharon Sullivan for Colorado Newsline) Pedestrians and bicyclists along the Colorado Riverfront Trail in Grand Junction may have noticed something out of the ordinary this spring. In some fenced-off sections near Blue Heron Lake, 700 goats are grazing on an array of invasive species such as tamarisk, Russian olive, kochia, and Russian knapweed. Grand Junction is using goats to combat noxious weeds to make more room for native plants like cottonwood trees and willows. At the same time, they are lowering the risk of wildfire in this hot, dry, high-desert landscape by reducing the vegetative fuel load. 'It can be hard to stop a fire where there's lots of vegetation,' said Rob Davis, Grand Junction forester and open space supervisor. 'If it gets going on a windy day, and there's lots of downed debris …with 9 inches of precipitation a year, and high summer temperatures, the fire risk is high. Using goats for grazing is an environmentally-friendly strategy to help us reduce fire risks and knock down some of our invasive weeds.' Plus, people out recreating enjoy seeing the goats, Davis added. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX 'There's that added benefit that people just like it,' he said. A goatherder watches over the goats and nudges them down the trail after they've sufficiently grazed a patch of dead or unwanted vegetation. Goats will typically leave the mature cottonwoods and willows alone. However, the city sometimes places a fence around young trees to keep the goats from munching on the saplings. On the Front Range in Boulder County, the town of Superior has brought in a herd of 300 goats to graze on its open spaces for both weed control and fire mitigation. The catastrophic Marshall Fire in 2021 destroyed more than 1,000 homes in the region. Superior first began using goats in 2019, as a sustainable method for vegetation management. After the Marshall Fire the town 'doubled down' on using goats for fire mitigation, said Leslie Clark, director of Superior's parks, recreation and open space. Superior evaluates its open space properties annually to prioritize where to graze the goats each summer and winter, Clark said. Properties are monitored to gauge results before and after grazing. 'Initial results look positive,' Clark said. 'People like the results. The goats reduce the vegetative fuel that contributes to wildfire risk. The goats leave the area looking natural. The city later reseeds the areas with native species to improve biodiversity and reduce the number of noxious weeds.' People like the results. The goats reduce the vegetative fuel that contributes to wildfire risk. The goats leave the area looking natural. – Leslie Clark, director of Superior's parks, recreation and open space Using goats for weed control and fire mitigation is not new. Lani Malmberg, owner of Colorado-based Goat Green, said she was the first company to offer this type of fire mitigation work 25 years ago. She and her goats have been featured in The New York Times, the L.A. Times, and other national publications. She now runs her Goat Green grazing business with her son Donny Benz and his fiancée. Malmberg, 68, said she conceived the idea of using goats decades ago while studying botany, biology and environmental restoration at then-Mesa State College in Grand Junction. She said she watched how knapweed took over a cornfield while working a summer job in Colorado. It occurred to her then, 'Someone ought to run a business to eat the problem,' Malmberg recalled. 'Now there are a lot of goat businesses' — and she has trained people at some of them. Lockheed Martin uses 1,200 of Malmberg's goats for fire mitigation at its facility in Littleton. Goat Green has done grazing projects for many Colorado cities in the past, including Castle Rock, Colorado Springs, Castle Pines, Broomfield, Golden, Glenwood Springs and Carbondale. 'Over the past 30 years I have worked in all the Western states, doing fire mitigation in California, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Montana and Nebraska,' Malmberg said. When asked where her company is based, she replied, 'Under my hat — wherever I'm on contract.' 'Fire mitigation is a big deal. Open space (managers) are clamoring to get goats. People are jumping into it. It's an alternative to machinery and chemicals.' Superior pays for the goat service via grants from FEMA and Boulder County, with matching grants provided by the town of Superior. The program is funded from 2025 through 2027. Louisville has used goats to control noxious weeds for several years, said Nathaniel Goeckner, the city's natural resource supervisor. Louisville contracts with Goats on the Go, in Boulder County, to graze 200 goats on open space around Louisville. Depending on the vegetation, the city also uses cattle for fire mitigation work, Goeckner said. Its grazing program is paid for with grants from Boulder County and a city sales tax. Longmont also uses goats — though not for fire mitigation, said Jim Krick, ecosystem manager for Longmont's Parks and Natural Resources. The city has brought in goats since 2023 for weed control — targeting kochia in particular, where it competes with native plants. The goats are brought in just before the weeds form and spread their seeds, Krick said. Longmont typically grazes goats on an acre per year based on its budget. Grand Junction contracts with Ecological Grazing Service, owned by Jennifer Studt, who, along with her husband, raises goats and sheep on a ranch in nearby Loma. She hires a goatherder who stays with the goats the entire time, moving his small camper, and the goats, down the trail when an area is sufficiently grazed. Studt says goats do particularly well here because they have a more resilient stomach. They can eat poisonous plants like Russian knapweed, which is highly toxic to most animals — but not goats, she said. And, whereas Russian olive seeds pass through other animals' dung, which then gets repopulated elsewhere, in a goat's gut the seed won't survive, Studt said. Therefore, goats don't spread noxious weeds. Studt's goats began grazing along the riverfront May 23 and will finish eating their way along the trail by the end of this month. They'll return in late October, when other annual weeds begin to germinate. 'There are bucket loads of dead noxious weeds here,' Studt said. 'And while goats will eat live plants too, they really like the crunchy, dead material — a lot of other animals not so much. Goats like a lot of roughage in their diet. We're taking something noxious, poisonous to other animals and turn it into fertilizer which helps overall soil health — which helps the native plants come back.' Using goats to reduce fuel loads, and invasive plant species is a more environmentally friendly method than using chemicals, Davis said. The Grand Junction program is funded through the city's operating budget. Although using goats doesn't necessarily eliminate the use of herbicides, it reduces the amount of chemicals used in grazing areas, said Grand Junction spokesperson Kelsey Coleman in an email to Colorado Newsline. The town of Superior contracts with Goat Bros, which Clark said offers educational days when the public can meet the goats close up, and learn how goats improve the environment. 'It's an opportunity to get closer to the goats,' Clark said. 'We don't want people interacting with them, otherwise — they're working.' Colorado Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Colorado Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Quentin Young for questions: info@ SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Public lands sell-off plan draws blowback among Colorado Democrats
U.S. House Assistant Minority Leader Joe Neguse, a Lafayette Democrat, speaks at a press conference on protecting public lands May 28, 2025, at the Lake Estes Marina. (Lindsey Toomer/Colorado Newsline) Democratic members of the Colorado congressional delegation criticized a recent proposal by U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, a Utah Republican, to allow the federal government to sell off more than 2 million acres of public land. The proposal covers 11 Western states, including Colorado. Introduced Wednesday, the proposal would target 'underused' public lands to sell for housing development, roads, water infrastructure and other projects, according to Lee. During a remote news conference Friday, the proposal drew disapproval from U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, as well as Reps. Joe Neguse of Lafayette, Jason Crow of Centennial and Brittany Pettersen of Lakewood. '(This proposal) is a five alarm fire for hunters, for fishermen, for conservationists, for recreationists and for everyday Colorado folks who enjoy these lands and who are committed to preserving them for future generations,' Neguse said. 'The fact that they are potentially trying to auction off these lands to pay for President (Donald) Trump's reckless tax agenda, tax cuts for billionaires and large corporations, in my view, is shameful.' Neguse represents Colorado's 2nd Congressional District, 60% of which is made up of public lands. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Lee's proposal would insert the public lands sell-off measure into the GOP 'big, beautiful' tax and spending bill, which was passed by the House and is now before the Senate. Under the proposal, state and local governments would have priority to purchase the federal lands, and areas that already have a designation — like national parks, national monuments and mining claim sites — would be safe from sale. Public lands advocates fear for Colorado's national parks under Trump budget proposals Colorado is home to 23 million acres of federal public lands, which play a significant role in many local economies. Sarah Shrader, the president of the Grand Valley Outdoor Recreation Coalition in Grand Junction, called on Congress to save Colorado's public lands from sale. 'These lands must remain protected, accessible and managed for the benefit of everyone, not just a few,' Shrader said. 'It's an economic imperative, an environmental responsibility and a moral commitment to future generations.' Tony Prendergast, a hunting guide and rancher based in Crawford, pointed to the widespread support of his community for the protection of public lands, regardless of their political affiliation. 'There's nothing like this issue that will fire up people like me to get involved politically,' Prendergast said. 'The depth of the anger I feel, and the disappointment in those elected officials who are putting this proposal forward and those who will support this, is intense for me.' After bipartisan opposition to a recent public land sale proposal in the House, the plan was axed. Bennet said he hopes there will be enough common ground to defeat the Senate proposal through continued negotiations. 'Public lands make Colorado, Colorado,' Bennet said. 'They make the West, the West. They're the foundation of our economy, and they represent treasured parts of our culture, our geography and our history.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Sen. Bennet, Colorado advocates slam GOP-proposed cuts to food assistance
U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet speaks to Colorado food access advocates during a remote roundtable Thursday about proposed federal food assistance cuts. (Delilah Brumer/Colorado Newsline) Democratic U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet joined a roundtable Thursday with Coloradans who would be hurt by proposed cuts to federal food assistance. They ranged from a grocery store manager in rural Baca County to a farmer from Wellington, north of Fort Collins. The conversation comes as Congress considers billions of dollars of cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which provides monthly support for low-income families to buy groceries. '(Cuts) would have a material effect on communities throughout Colorado, both urban and rural,' Bennet said. 'It's going to affect everybody, no matter where they live, and at a time when they need, desperately, help to just feed their families.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The House narrowly passed its version of the GOP tax and spending bill last month, which for the first time would require states to shoulder some of the cost of SNAP — up to 25% — starting in 2028. Members of Colorado's House delegation voted along party lines for the bill, with the GOP in favor and the Democrats opposed. Senate Republicans are pushing for more moderate SNAP cuts compared to their House counterparts. 'These cuts would be devastating,' Bennet said during the remote roundtable. 'Now we know what the scope of the Senate cuts are versus the House cuts, and in either case, it's the largest cuts that have ever been proposed.' On Wednesday, Senate Agriculture Chairman John Boozman said the Senate GOP plan would result in federal savings of '$52 or $53 billion.' Both chambers' plans would tie the percent of the cost burden of SNAP on a state to the rate of that state's payment errors. Under the Senate plan, states with error rates at 5% or lower would continue to pay nothing for SNAP, while states with error rates at 10% or higher would pay for 15% of benefits, Boozman said. The Senate plan would also create two levels for states with error rates between 5% and 10%. Colorado's SNAP payment error rate is 8.61% as of 2023, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This puts Colorado on a better track than the national average, which is 11.7%. Laurel Smith, a farmer in Larimer County, said any SNAP cuts would mean a significant loss of revenue and 'a reduced quality of life for the community.' 'For my farm stand and my farmers market booth, 65% of my revenue comes from SNAP sales, that's how much our community members desire SNAP,' said Smith, who herself used SNAP benefits when she was in her 20s to supplement her food budget. Libby Triebel, a single mother of four who lives in Colorado Springs, said she often 'barely scrapes by,' even with SNAP, which gives recipients an average of $6.16 per day for food. 'I do my best, and I make sure (my kids) don't go a day without having their stomachs full,' Triebel said. '(Cuts) would be harmful, on these families out here that are just making it by to survive, and these kids don't deserve that.' About 159,000 Coloradans could lose SNAP benefits under House Republicans' tax and spending bill, according to an analysis released Thursday by the left-leaning Center for American Progress. SNAP cuts are largely unpopular among Colorado voters, though many want to see lower error rates. Just 19% of Colorado voters want to see Congress decrease spending on SNAP, while 46% want to see it increase, 29% want it to stay about the same and 6% are unsure, according to a poll released Tuesday by Healthier Colorado. During the roundtable, food bank leaders warned that any cuts to SNAP would add a greater burden on their organizations, which are already stretched thin. For Thai Nguyen, the founder of Kaizen Food Rescue, feeding Coloradans is deeply personal. Nguyen, who was a refugee and homeless in her youth, knows what it's like to not have access to healthy, fresh produce. Through her organization, she works to pay forward the help that she received from SNAP. Kaizen Food Rescue has served food to more than 57,000 people in the Denver metro area so far this year. 'We're trying to just pretty much empower our communities and create a sense of belonging,' Nguyen said. Regardless of potential SNAP cuts, Kaizen Food Rescue is already reeling, after a $20 million Environmental Protection Agency grant it had been awarded for an on-site farm was recently revoked, according to Nguyen. As congressional budget negotiations continue, Bennet urged the roundtable members to continue to push for the nutritious food support they want to see for their communities. 'Please continue to lead this fight, to champion this fight,' Bennet said. 'It's a fight worth having.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Colorado put on notice by military deployment against civilians
Poncho Espino, an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, speaks to the crowd during an anti-ICE protest at the Colorado Capitol on Tuesday. (Quentin Young/Colorado Newsline) The threat that the Trump administration would illegally deploy military forces in Colorado to advance its authoritarian agenda has loomed over the state for months. Now that the president has ordered troops into action against protests in California that local authorities insist were already under control, Colorado is increasingly at risk of similar federal incursions. But while the likelihood of such escalation has gone up, the state appears no better prepared to do anything to stop it. Trump administration officials, including the president, have openly said since before the November election they would deploy military units for domestic law enforcement purposes, including immigration enforcement and against protesters. They weren't bluffing. In recent days, the administration deployed active duty Marines and thousands of California National Guard troops, against the will of the state's Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, in response to protests in Los Angeles. Protesters object to the escalating and cruel tactics used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents as part of a mass deportation program. Though some violence and vandalism has accompanied the protests, local authorities say they were mostly peaceful and that they can handle the situation without the help of war-trained fighters. But President Donald Trump appeared eager to pounce on this pretext. He used L.A. as a 'test case for what happens when the federal government moves in and takes the authority away from the state, or away from local government,' said Mayor Karen Bass. That means Colorado is on notice. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Trump during his campaign and in his second term in office often has singled out Colorado as a target for aggressive immigration enforcement. His administration has sued Colorado and Denver, alleging they have enacted unconstitutional 'sanctuary' policies for immigrants, and ICE has conducted multiple raids and other operations in the state. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, who is commander-in-chief of the Colorado National Guard, in some instances has said he would not condone National Guard troops, from Colorado or another state, being used for immigration enforcement. Last month he said he would have 'deep reservations' about such a deployment, a statement that fell short of a refusal. This week a spokesperson for Polis told Newsline that 'the Governor has been clear that he would not support federal overreach to activate the National Guard outside of regular order.' But if his preparation for a possible showdown over military deployments in Colorado goes beyond statements, it's not public. In contrast, at least one other Democratic governor, Bob Ferguson in Washington, met with his state's National Guard commander to discuss the situation in L.A. and how leaders could respond to such abuses in their state. And Polis' posture on immigration abounds in contradiction. The Democrat has aligned himself with aspects of Trump's mass deportation efforts. A state official this month alleged in a lawsuit that Polis improperly directed the state Labor Department to release the personal information of sponsors of unaccompanied immigrant children to ICE. Polis too often lets his inner MAGA show, and that leaves Colorado residents with little confidence he'll effectively resist if Trump sics military forces against them. A memo that Trump issued Saturday federalizing thousands of National Guard members and authorizing use of the regular military around ICE operations does not limit its scope to L.A., and it covers any 'violence and disorder' that might 'threaten to continue.' ICE is preparing to escalate tactics, starting in five Democratically run locations — Seattle, Chicago, Philadelphia, Northern Virginia and New York — MSNBC reported Tuesday. Newsom, in a defiant televised address Tuesday, warned, 'California may be first, but it clearly will not end here. Other states are next.' U.S. Rep. Jason Crow, a Democratic resident of Centennial, who represents a district that includes the ICE detention center in Aurora, sounded a similar warning this week. 'The President's order doesn't even mention California, and authorizes the use of ANY personnel, in ANY location, for ANY length of time,' Crow wrote on social media. 'This is a dangerous slippery slope that should concern Americans everywhere.' Meanwhile, Republican state representative and Colorado governor candidate Scott Bottoms promises to deploy military units against fellow Coloradans if he's elected, and Trump sycophant U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert of Windsor has repeatedly cheered the domestic military deployments in California. Opposition to ICE in Colorado is growing. On Tuesday, protesters clashed briefly with Denver police, who fired chemical munitions to clear a street and arrested 17 people. The presence of military units almost certainly would have exacerbated the conflict. And Coloradans have little assurance state leaders would do much to preclude a military presence in the first place. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Coloradans march to Aurora ICE facility to show solidarity with L.A. protests
Demonstrators marched to the ICE detention center in Aurora on Monday to show solidarity with anti-ICE protesters in Los Angeles. (Chase Woodruff/Colorado Newsline) A crowd of about 150 demonstrators marched on Monday from an Aurora park to the gates of Colorado's only Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center, in an 'emergency protest' in solidarity with an anti-ICE protest movement in Los Angeles that has become the target of an escalating federal crackdown. Outside the Aurora ICE Processing Center, operated by private prison firm GEO Group, marchers joined a weekly vigil for Jeanette Vizguerra, a prominent immigrant rights advocate and grandmother detained by ICE earlier this year, and other detainees held in the facility. 'This fight continues,' Vizguerra, speaking from inside the facility on a video call with her daughter Tania Baez, told Newsline in a brief interview. 'This is solidarity — L.A. and the same here in Colorado, the people are very progressive. I'm very proud of my community, and I'm thankful for the support.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Vizguerra, who has lived in the U.S. since 1997, became a high-profile figure in the immigrant rights movement during the first Trump administration. She was detained in March after the Trump administration reinstated a 2013 removal order against her that had previously been stayed. Her lawyers have alleged in federal court that her arrest was in retaliation for protected speech. Vizguerra later addressed the crowd, telling them she wished to share the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, which she accepted from within the ICE facility last week, with all of her fellow activists. She noted that June 17 will mark three months since she was taken into custody. Monday's demonstration came after protests erupted in Los Angeles over the weekend following a series of ICE raids targeting workers at a downtown clothing wholesaler and outside a Home Depot in the predominantly Latino suburb of Paramount. Federal agents in tactical gear shot tear gas and flash-bang grenades and arrested dozens of protesters they accused of obstructing the operations, including union leader David Huerta, who was charged by federal prosecutors Monday with a felony count of conspiracy to impede an officer. Another anti-ICE demonstration is planned for the Colorado Capitol on Tuesday. President Donald Trump has ordered thousands of California National Guard soldiers to be deployed to the city over the objections of Gov. Gavin Newsom and local leaders, the first such action by a U.S. president in 60 years. Thousands of demonstrators subsequently converged on a federal building in downtown L.A. to protest the Trump administration's attempted crackdown, where police fired tear gas and less-lethal projectiles at protesters and journalists over several hours on Sunday, and similar scenes continued into Monday evening. Trump officials, highlighting scattered acts of vandalism like the burning of several empty autonomous vehicles near the site of Sunday's demonstration, have described the weekend's events in sensational terms. Trump has baselessly described demonstrators as 'paid insurrectionists' and signed an executive order calling the protests 'a form of rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States.' On Monday, a detachment of roughly 700 U.S. Marines were also ordered by Trump to deploy to L.A. and tasked with 'crowd control and establishment of security perimeters' around federal property, U.S. Northern Command announced. U.S. Rep. Jason Crow, an Aurora Democrat and Army veteran, said in a statement that Trump's move 'threaten(s) the integrity and public trust of our military.' 'Introducing military personnel into domestic law enforcement situations is an escalation and can put both the military personnel and civilians on the ground at additional risk,' Crow said. 'I urge President Trump to reverse course and allow state and local law enforcement officials to respond.' In his second term, Trump and his advisers have laid out plans for 'the largest domestic deportation operation in American history,' vowing to deport all of the estimated 12 million people living in the country without permanent legal status. After a relatively slow start, Trump's mass deportation program has kicked into a higher gear in recent weeks. ICE agents have begun arresting individuals and families outside federal immigration courts, reversing a longstanding policy that avoided such arrests so as not to deter immigrants from going through lawful court proceedings. A series of high-profile raids at restaurants and other workplaces have occurred in cities across the country after Trump adviser Stephen Miller reportedly pressured the agency to broaden the scope of its enforcement operations. 'Why aren't you at Home Depot? Why aren't you at 7-Eleven?' Miller asked ICE leaders on May 20, according to the Washington Examiner. In the same meeting, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem reportedly told agency officials they 'need to do more.' The share of people in ICE detention with no criminal record had risen to nearly 25% as of June 1, a sharp uptick from 6% in January, according to the American Immigration Council. In and around Denver, ICE has struggled to produce arrests of large numbers of people with extensive criminal histories. The agency launched a high-profile raid in February that it said would target more than 100 members of a Venezuelan gang, but admitted soon afterwards to Fox News that out of 30 arrests made that day, only one detainee was suspected of ties to the gang, Tren de Aragua. Instead, ICE has resorted to arrests of otherwise law-abiding immigrants, including a family with a 1-year-old, attending hearings at federal immigration court in Denver; at least two raids on underground nightclubs in Colorado Springs and Denver that federal agents subsequently said produced no criminal charges; and the detention of Vizguerra, a well-known local figure who was taken into custody outside her workplace, Target. Demonstrators outside the Aurora facility on Monday cheered the news of the release of Carla Medina, a Honduran immigrant and mother of two who was detained in October while attempting to deliver a DoorDash order to Buckley Space Force Base. Medina subsequently won her asylum case. 'Carla being free is a win. It represents everything that we've been chanting for the last couple months,' said Andrea Loya, director of Casa de Paz, a nonprofit that provides welcoming and support services for people released from the Aurora detention center. 'We're here standing up because what's going on with our neighbors — here, in L.A., in New York, in Chicago, all across the U.S. — that is not fair to these people.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
