Feds open up disaster relief loans to drought-stricken southwest Colorado

U.S. Colorado Senator Mark Udall today lauded the federal Small Business Administration for taking action to bolster businesses in the drought-stricken southwest region of the state. The office opened up low-interest disaster-relief loan program to ten Colorado counties. It’s not just the agricultural sector that is struggling, Udall pointed out in a release, but also the tourism industry and businesses tied to farming, like seed producers and farm-machinery mechanics.

Latest roadless rule sparks more debate over road building to reduce wildfire risk

Concern about an early and potentially explosive wildfire season in Colorado has fanned the flames of debate over how far into the national forest crews should build temporary roads to clear trees and reduce the fuel load around towns. The release last week of another draft of the controversial Colorado Roadless Rule further fueled the controversy. The rule would allow temporary road building a half mile into the national forest surrounding communities and tree thinning without roads another mile into the forest.

Water expert: Snowpack dangerously close to drought levels

Badly needed snowfall is expected in Colorado’s high country this week, but one expert says the state will need much more than the amount in the forecast to stave off drought on par with the one that marked the parched…

$40 million for beetle kill sparks climate-change debate that misses key point

Tuesday’s announcement by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack that the U.S. Forest Service is pumping $40 million more into coping with the ongoing pine bark beetle epidemic predictably stirred up the same old tired climate change debate.

The rice-sized beetles…

Climate Change May Lead to Global Conflict

Global warming has not only environmental and economic effects, but national security and war-and-peace implications as well, report says.

Science Sunday: Geoengineering, Parent Talk, Ice Loss

Carbon geoengineering may cause drought

One potential method for dealing with global warming that’s developed some legs recently is geoengineering. These are often huge, Rube Goldberg ideas like huge sunshades in space to cool the planet, adding iron to…

Ancient Drought Holds Clues to Warming Future

The distant past holds some bad news for western water managers in a warming world. Researchers have found evidence of a drought that lasted 60 years between the years 1118 and 1179 in the Colorado River basin.

The length…