Satellites aim to protect Sudanese

February 21, 2011 · The Denver Post
By Bruce Finley, Denver Post Staff Writer
Human Rights, International

LONGMONT — Human-rights activists, Hollywood stars and private Colorado satellite controllers have teamed up to try to prevent atrocities in Sudan.

Their scheme starts with three fridge-size satellites tilting in space — like giant digital cameras that can zoom in anywhere — capturing details down to gun barrels on tanks.

That imagery from volatile Sudan, which just held elections after a war that killed 2 million, then moves from DigitalGlobe’s control room here to activists coordinated by the Washington D.C.-based Enough Project. They post the images, with analysis, on the Internet (satsentinel.org).

The idea is that, if people everywhere can see atrocities in the making, they’ll blizzard leaders with messages demanding swift preventive intervention.

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“Go forth and be sheep,” says biologist moving bighorns to Hayman fire area

February 13, 2011 · The Denver Post
By Bruce Finley, Denver Post Staff Writer
Environment, Wildlife

FOURMILE CREEK – A swath of Colorado’s most fire-ravaged forest last week became home to a band of Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, a species that has made the best of degraded land before.

Across the western U.S., Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep have been hammered by respiratory disease, some of it spread from domestic livestock, and other stressors, such as development eclipsing their habitat and competition with non-native mountain goats for terrain.

A statewide sheep population estimate from 2001 of 8,000 this week was revised to 7,600.

But bighorn sheep are revered here as Colorado’s official state animal.

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Colorado has more ailing dams, less money to fix them

February 7, 2011 · The Denver Post
By Bruce Finley, Denver Post Staff Writer
Environment, Water

Colorado has so many deficient dams restricted from holding water that, if owners were to fix them, the state would gain four Chatfield Reservoirs worth of coveted water-storage capacity.

A review of state dam safety records also shows that a breach at any of 21 “high hazard” dams today likely would kill people living or working nearby. Failures at another 33 deficient “significant hazard” dams would cause major property damage.

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