October 9, 2014 · The Denver Post
By Bruce Finley, Denver Post Staff Writer
Environment, Water
Federal water engineers on Thursday launched the long-planned and controversial Chatfield Reservoir water supply project, closing a deal with Colorado sponsors.
Audubon Society opponents filed a lawsuit in federal court trying to block construction.
A reallocation of the South Platte River water that is captured in the reservoir, created in 1975 for flood control, is expected to add 2.8 billion gallons a year to water supplies.
But the project will inundate 10 percent of the premier state park.
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September 24, 2014 · The Denver Post
By Bruce Finley, Denver Post Staff Writer
Environment, Forests, Wildfire
Wildfires along Colorado’s Front Range, long assumed to be intensifying, may not be when understood in historical context before 20th-century firefighting, a new study finds.
The findings could complicate the analysis of whether thick forests should be thinned.
University of Colorado researchers, led by fire ecologist and geography professor Tom Veblen, analyzed 8,000 tree-ring samples, starting in 1996, and concluded that severe fires have been an inherent part of mountain ecosystems.
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September 11, 2014 · The Denver Post
By Bruce Finley, Denver Post Staff Writer
Environment, Forests, Wildfire
The main evergreen and aspen tree species making up Rocky Mountain forests are dwindling and likely will die out dramatically by 2060, according to a report by science advocacy groups.
It’s not clear what will replace them.
The Union of Concerned Scientists and Rocky Mountain Climate Organization report, unveiled Wednesday, draws on U.S. Forest Service data documenting tree deaths and projecting future growth based on climate.
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August 28, 2014 · The Denver Post
By Bruce Finley, Denver Post Staff Writer
Environment, Wildlife
LEADVILLE — Circling in captivity, Colorado’s imperiled state fish — the greenback cutthroat trout — shuns traditional fish food.
Its federal biologist caretakers at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Leadville National Fish Hatchery try to entice the fish by dispensing grated beef liver, fresh shrimp and imported $11-a-pound Otohime morsels from Japan.
Decades of inbreeding also have rendered the greenback cutthroat extra susceptible to sickness. And when humans approach, the trout bangs against the concrete tank walls.
So hatchery manager Ed Stege fills the tanks with purified water and, as much as possible, shields the fish from visitors.
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July 29, 2014 · The Denver Post
By Bruce Finley, Denver Post Staff Writer
Energy, Environment, Natural Resources, Oil and Gas Drilling, Pollution, Water
Oil and gas spills are happening more often in Colorado — at a rate of two a day this year — and usually without anyone telling residents.
Colorado has seen nearly as many spills so far this year as were recorded in all of 2013 — a reflection of greater drilling activity, new reporting requirements and, the state says, tougher enforcement.
While the American Petroleum Institute industry trade group recently announced new standards encouraging companies to communicate more robustly with communities, API says this doesn’t include conveying details of spills — a task left to government.
State rules require companies to report spills to a Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission database, the owner of land where a spill happens, state health authorities if contaminants reach water, and a local government designee. But government officials generally don’t announce spills or otherwise notify nearby residents.
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July 29, 2014 · The Denver Post
By Bruce Finley, Denver Post Staff Writer
Environment, Oil and Gas Drilling
Oil and gas spills are happening more often in Colorado — at a rate of two a day this year — and usually without anyone telling residents.
Colorado has seen nearly as many spills so far this year as were recorded in all of 2013 — a reflection of greater drilling activity, new reporting requirements and, the state says, tougher enforcement.
While the American Petroleum Institute industry trade group recently announced new standards encouraging companies to communicate more robustly with communities, API says this doesn’t include conveying details of spills — a task left to government.
Read More
July 14, 2014 · The Denver Post
By Bruce Finley, Denver Post Staff Writer
Environment, Wildlife
Bouncy, big-eared icons of the American West, deer are declining rapidly across Colorado and other states — forcing difficult decisions.
The causes vary from energy development to hard winters and aren’t always clear.
But dwindling numbers already have driven cutbacks on deer hunting, reducing potential funds for land conservation.
State wildlife biologists are scrambling to reverse the declines. This is spurring scrutiny of intensifying oil and gas drilling on federally managed deer habitat.
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July 6, 2014 · The Denver Post
By Bruce Finley, Denver Post Staff Writer
Environment, Wildlife
Bald eagles are popping out in healthy numbers around Colorado, where historically they were rare, a dramatic adaptation that lifts spirits. State wildlife biologists once deemed such a comeback impossible. Damming rivers to form reservoirs lured geese, created cottonwood nesting habitat and put water year-round in the South Platte River, which otherwise ran dry in late summer.
Using the deadly pesticide DDT was banned. Bald eagles augmented their fish-and-fowl diet by snapping up prairie dogs. And bald eagles proved increasingly resilient amid rapid urbanization.
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June 5, 2014 · The Denver Post
By Bruce Finley, Denver Post Staff Writer
Environment, Wildfire
ROCKY MOUNTAIN ARSENAL NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE — The dwindling of open space where bison can roam is hurting federal efforts to restore herds, forcing refuge managers to kill hundreds of bison and search for land links between protected areas.
But the bison on fenced preserves continue to multiply — 11 calves were born here this spring after recent forced herd reductions. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell says she is working on ensuring large landscapes nationwide, increasingly by collaborating with private property owners.
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May 29, 2014 · The Denver Post
By Bruce Finley, Denver Post Staff Writer
Environment, Oil and Gas Drilling
MEAD — Oil and gas companies are erecting a new style of walls around drilling and frack sites as the boom expands into Front Range communities.
Made of earthen-color fabric on steel frames up to 32 feet high and 800 feet long, the walls shield industrial machinery from a high school and wetlands greenbelt in Greeley, prairie homes in Windsor, and kids riding bikes and skateboards in Mead.
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It is the latest innovation for companies equipped with horizontal drilling technology that are trying to solve a puzzle: how to extract more fossil fuels from under where people are living and minimize impact.
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A journalist and lawyer, Bruce Finley has investigated local, national and international issues with on-site reporting in more than 40 countries. In his position as a staff writer for the Denver Post, he is focusing on environment-related news including water challenges, the oil and gas boom and wildfire.
