Don’t forget to celebrate Earth Day today. Take a bike ride around North Denver for example. The saucer magnolias on Wolfe St. just south of Berkeley Park are in their glory as are pears all over the neighborhood. Redbuds are just starting to bloom and of course you have the early bulbs like tulips, daffodils and hyacinths to gawk at.

Here are some tips for making every day earth day from the Summit Daily News.



From The Denver Post (Scott Willoughby):

As the Aspen/Snowmass director of community and environmental responsibility, Schendler’s concerns for the disconcerting dust and dirt layers that have blanketed the slopes of his local ski areas along with mountains throughout the state this spring are considerably more comprehensive. And like so many observers of the reddish-brown dust layers that seem to be playing a more prominent — if not permanent — role in Colorado’s precious spring snowpack, he has more questions than answers. “There’s no question that it’s happening. But there’s always been dust out there, so has this always happened? Is it getting worse? All we know for sure is that it’s really bad,” Schendler said. “Our CEO has come into my office after these storms very agitated and said, ‘Auden, climate change may put us out of business eventually, but this is right now and this is a serious problem.’ Essentially your product is damaged.”

Along with its spectacular mountain scenery, Colorado’s most prized commodity arguably is its snow. Skiers and snowboarders are drawn by the millions annually to sample the celebrated snows of the Colorado Rockies, followed in spring and summer months by whitewater rafters, kayakers and fishermen savoring the snowmelt-fed rivers and streams. That’s not to mention the millions who depend upon the fresh water supply simply for survival…

Thanks to scientific studies conducted by former Coloradan Tom Painter at the Snow Optics Laboratory at the University of Utah, this much is known: In 2005 and 2006, dust-covered snow melted up to 35 days earlier than a purely clean snowpack would have in Colorado’s San Juan Mountains. Last year — which included 12 measurable winter/spring dust storms — snow melted 48 days earlier in the same area…

[Jeff Deems, a research scientist at the NOAA Western Water Assessment and the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado in Boulder said,] “…the biggest impact is hydrologic. We’re seeing earlier and faster runoff, which makes it harder to manage resources. In the West, we depend on the snowpack as a reservoir. We can store a lot more water in the snowpack than in our surface reservoirs. If you melt everything off a month early and melt it off faster, that’s a big challenge for water managers.”[…]

As for the origin of the dust episodes impacting the Colorado snowpack, the scientists have that one figured out. Collaborating with Chris Landry at the Center for Snow and Avalanche Studies in Silverton, Painter and Deems examine the effects of the dust events on the snowpack. Using satellite observations and weather modeling tools, they have traced the origin of the dust to the Colorado Plateau in the Four Corners region, where impacts of years of disturbance of the fragile desert topsoil have created large quantities of dust just waiting for a strong wind to carry it away. “Basically any activity that disturbs the soil crust and vegetation in the desert causes dust,” Deems said. “When we go out and disturb it — whether by drilling, plowing, driving, cow’s hooves, mountain bikes or feet — then all of the sudden the dust is ready to be blown away by the next wind storm.”[…]

For Schendler and those who depend on snow, the ultimate question remains: What can be done to stop it? “Recognizing the driving mechanism, that topsoil disturbance, is the key. Looking for solutions that minimize and reduce the disturbance to desert dust-emitting regions, that’s the overarching goal,” Deems said. “As recreationists enjoying the desert, it’s a matter of awareness, paying attention to public land use issues, as well as being careful about where we camp and how we travel, minimizing our impact on the land. Just some common sense.”

From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):

“The runoff started Friday (April 9) and some sites are melting off,” said Roy Vaughan, manager of the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project for the Bureau of Reclamation…

Runoff has occurred earlier than historic records indicate for the past decade, and sometimes in an unusual way. Last year, there were three distinct runoffs through mid-June. The patterns — or lack of them — have required Reclamation to stay on top of imports into the Arkansas River basin from the Western Slope. “Our guys are setting up the system and should be ready to start sending water through the (Boustead) Tunnel shortly,” Vaughan said…

“There was a drastic warm-up in the Wet Mountain Valley, and the flow on Grape Creek went from 20 cubic feet per second to 700 cfs overnight,” said Steve Witte, Water Division 2 engineer…

…this year’s weather patterns look like other years where Reclamation has brought over an average amount of water — between 50,000 and 55,000 acre-feet — so there should be ample water to bring over. There is plenty of space to store the water in Turquoise and Twin Lakes as water was moved to Lake Pueblo over the winter months, Vaughan said. Reclamation was granted a waiver Thursday by the Army Corps of Engineers to continue storing water in Lake Pueblo because snowpack is below average. The waiver allows for storage of up to 10,000 acre-feet in the portion of the reservoir normally reserved for flood control after April 15. The move allowed storage of more than 6,400 acre-feet that otherwise would have been evacuated, Vaughan said. By May 1, as more water is stored, used and evaporates, the current level in Lake Pueblo, 263,000 acre-feet should drop by about 10,000 acre-feet.

From The Colorado Springs Gazette (R. Scott Rappold):

For the second year in a row, heavy winds out of the south and west have coated the mountains – the source of Colorado Springs’ water – with a layer of reddish-brown dust from the deserts of Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. The dust absorbs heat from sunlight and melts the snow more quickly.

Snowpack in the Arkansas River Basin, 107 percent of average three weeks ago, was at 87 percent Friday. The Upper Colorado River Basin dropped from 78 to 73 percent of average in the same period. At the same time, river levels are rising. The flow of the Arkansas River near the mouth of the Royal Gorge doubled in the past week, from 400 cubic feet per second to 800. In southwest Colorado, melting snow combined with a fresh storm caused flooding fears for this weekend.

“The combination of the dust being on the surface (of the snow) and the warm air temperatures, we’re getting a pretty good surge,” said Kimberly Buck, assistant to the director of the Center for Snow and Avalanche Studies in Silverton…

[Colorado Springs] Utilities has reservoir space available to capture the runoff, he said. Utilities’ storage was at 79 percent of capacity at the end of March…

…there was good news in the forecast. A spring snowstorm Friday was expected to drop up to a foot in southwest Colorado and a few inches in the central mountains, enough to cover the dust.

From The Aspen Times (Carolyn Sackariason):

The red dust blanketing area mountains and virtually every surface in town is a result of oil and gas development and off-road vehicle activity in southeastern Utah, according to David Garbett, staff attorney with Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. He informed the Aspen City Council on Monday of the effects the dust has on the community. The snow stained by dust melts faster because it absorbs more solar energy, which affects the snowpack in Aspen and surrounding areas…

Beyond an expedited snowpack and quicker spring runoff, dust-covered snow affects Aspen’s water supply, officials said. The city’s water department has to spend more money in increased treatment chemicals to remove the dust, which resists coagulation. It makes its way through the city’s filters and is difficult to remove, according to city officials. “Water treatment plants in Colorado are experiencing this phenomena throughout areas affected by these storms,” wrote Chuck Bailey, the city’s water treatment plant supervisor, in an e-mail regarding the issue. “It is usually temporary during spring/summer runoff, but still a new challenge to us.”

Destabilization of the soil on the Colorado Plateau in Utah is the primary cause of the local dust storms, contrary to other reports that it’s from rockslides in Mexico or weather events as far away as Mongolia, Garbett said…

A cold front was expected to move across Utah and Arizona, generating strong south-southwesterly winds with gusts potentially reaching 50 mph. The strong winds were expected to cause blowing dust in parts of Arizona, Utah, New Mexico and Colorado, which could be transported long distances, causing hazy skies and restricted visibility at times even in areas where the winds are lighter.