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The environment desk at Aspen Public Radio covers issues in the Roaring Fork Valley and throughout the state of Colorado including water use and quality, impact of recreation, population growth and oil and gas development. APR’s Environment Reporter is Elizabeth Stewart-Severy.

July showers bring August campfires

Courtesy of Sam Howzit

Pitkin County Sheriff Joe DiSalvo has lifted the county-wide fire ban.

After one month of restrictions, local fire chiefs now say that the danger is waning. A few weeks of July showers have brought the fuel-moisture level in the county back to near-normal levels. Aspen Fire chief Rick Ballentine said this doesn’t necessarily mean we’re out of the woods.

 

“If the weather pattern goes back to very dry, very hot and very windy, there’s quite a bit of grass and other vegetation that’s grown up,” Ballentine said. “If that goes dry, it just becomes ladder fuel for bigger fires.”

Restrictions on White River National Forest land will lift on Friday, and officials with the Bureau of Land Management said they plan on the same timeline for the Colorado River Valley.

 

Aspen native Elizabeth Stewart-Severy is excited to be making a return to both the Red Brick, where she attended kindergarten, and the field of journalism. She has spent her entire life playing in the mountains and rivers around Aspen, and is thrilled to be reporting about all things environmental in this special place. She attended the University of Colorado with a Boettcher Scholarship, and graduated as the top student from the School of Journalism in 2006. Her lifelong love of hockey lead to a stint working for the Colorado Avalanche, and she still plays in local leagues and coaches the Aspen Junior Hockey U-19 girls.
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