“Are we sitting ducks?”

Issue No. 142 — Living on the edge of disaster ☼ Daytripping in Georgetown ☼ Loving an awful protagonist

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Jun 30, 2024 - 08:59
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“Are we sitting ducks?”

Good morning, friends!

Happy Independence Day week, that vexing and yet glorious period of parades, patriotic music, picnics, professional fireworks and, depending where you live, flat-out panic that some joker with a trunkload of bottle rockets from Wyoming is going to burn down the neighborhood.

My profession and my upbringing in wildfire-prone Boulder County probably leave me more tuned up to this risk than most people. Blame it on being able to see the Black Tiger fire, considered the first big wildfire in the space where civilization meets the forest, from my bedroom window in 1989. Or on that one day in June 2012, soon after an entire neighborhood on the western edge of Colorado Springs burned, when a colleague helpfully offered that he’d found a new mapping tool that showed my house in Lafayette and his in Broomfield were at elevated risk for burning in a wildland fire.

And so I knew. But what was I supposed to do with the information? I can’t control people who toss a smoldering cigarette butt into dry grass or stop the random lightning strike. The one thing I can do is get to know my neighbors, which this week’s cover story by Kevin Simpson shows could be crucial to keeping the next fire from being the worst fire.

Cameras above Boulder on Dec. 30, 2021, caught a view of the Marshall fire as it swept across open space and into Superior and Louisville. (Provided by NOAA)

For me, it was Waldo Canyon and then Black Forest. Wildfires that transported the idea of climate change-driven conditions — and the risk those presented — from Colorado’s vast forests to my own suburban backyard. My wife and I bought a “go bag” in case wildfire found its way to our neighborhood, squirting through natural entryways such as open-space grasslands into the so-called “built environment,” and we needed to beat a hasty retreat. The unthinkable had suddenly become … thinkable. And that nightmare scenario was reinforced two years ago, when the Marshall fire in Boulder County destroyed more than a thousand homes like ours.

Now, more and more Coloradans who live in the so-called wildland-urban interface (or woo-ey, in wildfire vernacular) have turned to increasingly more detailed, and publicly available, interactive maps and data that calculate in sometimes frightening detail the odds that their homes might become another wildfire statistic. Knowledge is good, and another facet of this week’s cover story is the research on fire-resistant materials and building systems that can aid in mitigation efforts. But the next challenge — and it can seem daunting — is nudging entire communities to concerted action.

READ THIS WEEK’S COLORADO SUNDAY FEATURE

The camera angle, such as low or high and wide or tight, define the visual purpose of the moment. Tight shots can show intensity, wide shots offer viewers a sense of place, and low angles make the subject appear powerful. Here are our recents from across the state by the Sun photo team.

Spectators monitor results for Jeff Crank, congressional candidate for District 5, during a watch party Tuesday at Boot Barn Hall in Colorado Springs. (Olivia Sun, The Colorado Sun via Report for America)
Colorado Springs School for the Deaf and Blind Superintendent Tera Spangler interacts with the alumni during the reunion celebrating the school’s 150th year Friday on campus in Colorado Springs. Spangler is the first deaf superintendent of the school. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)
An Erickson firefighting helicopter goes airborne after refilling its water tank at Lake San Isabel while fighting the Oak Ridge wildfire on Monday near Beulah. (Mike Sweeney, Special to The Colorado Sun)
Stanford University graduate student Sam Pierce looks for a water sensor June 14 in the East River Valley near Gothic. Pierce is helping hydrologist Rosemary Carroll in her ongoing study of how snowmelt influences the amount of groundwater that feeds into mountain streams and how that in turn recharges the surface flow of rivers throughout the year. (Dean Krakel, Special to The Colorado Sun)
An American flag waves atop a customized radio mast as members of Rocky Mountain Ham Radio participate in their annual field day June 22 high on a hill in Park County. (Andy Colwell, Special to The Colorado Sun)
The Georgetown Loop Railroad rumbles across a bridge Wednesday on one of its daily excursions. (Kevin Simpson, The Colorado Sun)

Life comes at you pretty fast, warned the wise teen philosopher Ferris Bueller. As a corollary to that, I would add that summer vacation season moves with particular speed — witness that tomorrow July is upon us and it’s all downhill till Labor Day. So it was with all of this in mind that my wife and I resolved to steal away on a weekday morning to catch the Georgetown Loop Railroad for some day-trip immersion in mountain scenery while soaking up a little local history and enjoying lunch and ice cream dessert in town afterward.

It’s one of those fun excursions that sometimes hide in plain sight: long a Colorado institution, easily accessible (at least when Interstate 70 is functioning), reasonably priced ($35 base price for adults, $29 for kids) and just mainstream touristy enough to be overlooked by longtime residents.

We’d taken visiting relatives on the train ride — a little over an hour long, unless you tack on an optional mine tour along the route —roughly 27 years ago. This time, just the two of us hopped aboard to enjoy the sights, sounds (plenty of train whistles augmented by a witty but not-too-intrusive historical narration, plus a soundtrack of every old-timey train song ever recorded) and that evocative locomotive aroma. I never would have thought that we’d purchase the optional photo snapped by a staffer as we boarded the train. But dang, it was good; and we did.

All in all, it’s a compact yet efficient mountain foray for when you may be trying to slip some entertaining getaways into that time of year that seems stuck on fast-forward.

EXCERPT: The hot mic strikes again. Narrator/protagonist Brynn Cornell, a rising national TV star whose public image leans into her small-town roots, reveals her true and not-so-nice feelings about her Colorado mountain upbringing when she thinks she’s off the air. In Bethany Turner’s 2024 Colorado Book Award winner for Romance, this sets the stage for exile, redemption and, of course, love.

READ THE SUNLIT EXCERPT

THE SUNLIT INTERVIEW: The origin story behind Turner’s award-winning book literally revolves around its (fictional) geographic origins. The author long ago created the imaginary town of Adelaide Springs, Colorado, but had to wait years before she settled on the characters who would populate it. That wasn’t the only challenge she faced. Here’s a portion of her Q&A:

SunLit: What were the biggest challenges you faced in writing this book?

Turner: Brynn Cornell is not very likable in the beginning of this book. I knew that would be the case and I had no desire to skirt around that. It was a challenge, however, to embrace the negative side of my primary protagonist’s personality while still creating a character readers would want to stick with and root for.

Ultimately, the story is about Brynn’s redemption and healing, and in order to get her where she needed to go, we needed to first see her at her worst. The adage “hurt people hurt people” very much applies to Brynn, but ultimately, she is deep and layered and has a great capacity for love and compassion.

READ THE INTERVIEW WITH BETHANY TURNER

A curated list of what you may have missed from The Colorado Sun this week.

A steady stream of people marched up a small hill near Bellvue to visit and photograph the mysterious monolith that appeared a week ago today. (Parker Yamasaki, The Colorado Sun)

???? Yes, we did have a primary election in Colorado last week. And there were very few surprises. U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert will represent the GOP in the 4th Congressional District race in November. Only four of 18 candidates endorsed by the state GOP won their races. A hugely expensive state Board of Education race may have shifted how charter school applications rejected by districts get a rehearing by the state. Wondering about a race I didn’t mention? Click here to scroll through all our coverage.

???? The U.S. 50 bridge over Blue Mesa Reservoir will reopen to some traffic as planned on July 3, Olivia Prentzel reports. But why did it close in the first place if the feds had issued warnings years ago about the welding techniques used to build it? Nancy Lofholm looked into the records and the inspections.

???? More federal money is flowing toward Colorado Springs to help expand microchip manufacturing. Tamara Chuang checked out what the latest tranche hopes to achieve.

???? Twenty-nine questions posed to residents of Colorado mountain communities about their quality of life yielded one main take away, Jason Blevins reports: Towns are too crowded with visitors.

???? Research in the East River Basin above Crested Butte shows that groundwater is much more susceptible to climate change than originally thought. Shannon Mullane asked what happens when those vast, underground aquifers drop.

???? We’ve got ourselves a monolith! While the one planted in a cow pasture in Bellvue might not be exactly the same as the 246 other shiny, unidentified objects that have popped up unexplained all around the world since 2020, Parker Yamasaki paid a visit and reports that people are having fun sipping Monolith Mochas and talking about its origin.

Thanks for checking in with us again this Colorado Sunday, fam. Be careful with the fireworks (if you live in a town that allows them) and we hope to see you here again next week — with all your fingers.

— Dana & the whole staff of The Sun

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