AD SALES + SUPPORT CREW: JENNAYE DERGE jennaye@durangotelegraph.com
Aspen-area ranchers search for ways to coexist with wolves by Tracy Ross / The Colorado Sun
the cover
Whether you adore or abhor the local deer population, there is no denying there is probably nothing cuter than a baby deer./ Photo by Andy High
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Ear to the ground:
“I heard kids won’t look at what their parents send them, because it messes with their algorithms.”
– Things are so much more complicated than when we used to just go in our room and lock the door to keep them out
Let the good times roll
After its inaugural year in 2024, the Durango Vintage Bike Swap and Show is back for another round. This year’s event, which takes place Fri.-Sat., July 11-12, promises even more good times for lovers of bikes –vintage or otherwise.
One lucky contestant will get to ride away on this beaut, lovingly restored by Bicycle Bob.
“This year is going to be bigger, nuttier and better,” Peter Schertz, who is co-organizing this year’s event with founder John Sheedy, said. “There will be more side events like a semi-organized community ride, an art show and a sweepstakes for a donated vintage bicycle.”
The good times get rolling Friday at Rotary Park at 6 p.m. for a bike parade along the Animas River Trail. The parade will head north and end at the Union Social House, which is hosting the “Cyclo Bike Art Show,” featuring works by several local artists (and cyclists) including Jon Bailey, Dan Groth and Noah Leggett.
The main event – the swap and sale –takes place at Rotary Park on Saturday from 8 a.m.-2 p.m. In addition to bicycle rarities, “muscle” and BMX bikes, retro ’90s bikes, and balloon-tire classics, the day will also feature a “sweepstakes” drawing for a 1948 Westfield Columbia Vintage Bike restored and donated by “Bicycle” Bob Gregorio.
Tickets for the drawing are $10 and will be available for purchase at the art show or Maria’s Bookshop (where the bike will also be on display through Friday.) Proceeds from the sweepstakes will benefit Silver Stallion, a Navajo youth bicycle program.
“All bikes – not just vintage – are welcome,” said Schertz. “Don’t miss the fun. We are looking to make this a bigger, more fun event that will someday rival the Iron Horse bicycle race. Ha!!”
LaVidaLocal opinion
Doug’s choice
At the beginning of June, my sister and I traveled to Southern California for a workshop at the Idyllwild Arts Academy. Operating as a residential arts high school during the school year, the academy hosts a number of weeklong adult art workshops that span the course of three weeks. What sets this program apart is the range and number of Native American arts taught by accomplished Native artists. This year, workshops like “Ho-Chunk Porcupine Quill Work,” “Lakota Drum & Moccasin Work” and “Hopi Silver Inlay” filled the calendar alongside printmaking, ceramics and writing. With a scholarship provided by the academy, we were able to enroll in “Navajo Weaving,” led by two internationally acclaimed weavers, Barbara Teller Ornales and Lynda Teller Pete. Two siblings who learned how to weave in the Two Grey Hills area in New Mexico, they now travel the world to share the legacy of Spiderwoman in classes like the one we were about to take.
My sister and I split the 12-hour drive over the course of two days. On the way through the deserts of Arizona and California, the temperature rose to triple digits. It was only until we began to ascend the San Jacinto Mountains that we started to feel relief from the heat. As we neared Idyllwild, a coyote ran across the road from west to east. In Navajo tradition, Coyote is a trickster who crosses your path so you may heed a message, often warning you and asking you to reflect on future decisions. A few miles later, another darted from east to west. We proceeded carefully. Nestled between two large rock formations, Idyllwild is the ancestral home of the Cahuilla people and coincidentally reminded me of Durango. After a long drive, I found myself relishing in annoying my sister. I would loudly exclaim, “Look! It’s just like Durango!” to anything that looked remotely similar. In a way, it did feel like a homecoming. Not necessarily to the land, but to the knowledge and teachings we were about to receive.
looms were pre-set, and we began to weave within the hour. By day’s end, we discovered how Navajo weaving combines math, engineering, design, meditation, music and storytelling. However, our professors remarked how the class was not solely one of those subjects, nor was it necessarily a weaving class. The real experience is one of cultural immersion. Through the teachings passed down by generations, we get to immerse ourselves in the knowledge of artists once known.
After weaving the base of my rug, I set out to make a design. While I have grown older and more sure about myself in many aspects, I have somehow lost a bit of my confidence when it comes to creative decision-making. I’ve come to realize that this is tied to a sense of losing out on time and energy if I make a mistake, or worse yet, don’t like it. If I don’t make a choice, I don’t risk losing something I never pursued.
What calmed this was a note from the professors: these rugs are our children. Our hands need to stay present and guide them as they grow. Overthinking can hinder their growth. If we are overbearing, we might pull their wefts too tight. If we are not paying attention, their designs might become messy or never fully realized. Our negative words and thoughts can easily be captured in their wefts, so we need to take care in how we speak about them.
These were the types of lessons that were shared over the course of the workshop. Some lessons were more intimate, personal or funny. Others induced goosebumps. Later that first evening, a design stepped forward. Taking its hand for the week, we grew together. On the final morning, a spider appeared in my bathroom. Like the coyotes on the first day, I took note of the possible message it carried.
Our first day began with an introduction from our teachers, first in Navajo then in English. We learned that they are fifth-generation weavers and how their grandchildren are starting on this path as well. With their years of experience at Idyllwild, our teachers knew that it can be difficult for new weavers to begin with the intricacies of warping a loom or setting its tension. Instead, our
Thumbin’It
La Plata Open Space Conservancy receiving a $50,000 GOCO grant to help finance a conservation easement on a 67-acre property in the Animas Valley, helping to protect water quality, wildlife habitat and ecological connectivity.
Residents of Dolores banded together to say no to a dollar store – which detractors say puts local stores out of business, causes traffic and only adds to the proliferation of cheap plastic stuff. The store was voted down at a recent county meeting, but the Georgia-based developer says he’ll be back.
Hey – no big fires were started in the area over the tinder-dry 4th of July weekend. Way to go, people.
I thought a lot about my grandmother while I was there. I thought about her time as a weaver, her designs and her ancestral knowledge. I thought about my time as a child, my life’s path thus far, and where it’s going. I thought about those who had left and those who have yet to come. This workshop provided me with a safe space to think about these things and feel like I could weave bits of the past, present and future into one. Gratitude cannot fully express how I feel, but it’s a feeling that is coming to the surface. I sense another: hope.
– Doug Gonzalez
SignoftheDownfall:
Speaking of the 4th of July weekend, it was deadly in other ways, with CDOT reporting four deaths on state highways, including a cyclist, a motorist fixing a flat and a fiery head-on between a pickup and a semi on I-70.
The recent flood disasters in New Mexico and Texas, where the death toll – including dozens of young kids – continues to climb. Seems like a good case to NOT gut weather forecasting and emergency preparedness budgets.
Trump’s BBB is having local impacts, with the Durango Adult Education Center saying it will have to lay off teachers and cut GED and English language classes in light of a 40% reduction in funding. But hey, every state is getting its own Alligator Alcatraz!
Jabba the Butt
“The Empire Strips Back” is the most popular traveling burlesque show in the galaxy right now – it’s experienced sold-out success in England, France, Australia and 35 major cities across the U.S., because apparently, these are the droids you’ve been looking for. The show features “sexy stormtroopers” and wet Tshirt carwashes for spaceships, but both Darth Vader and Luke have been replaced by women, because a father/son duo would’ve killed the vibe. Chewbacca is still male because nobody wants to see a naked wookiee, and Han Solo is still played by a male actor as well, most likely because his name is bursting with obvious innuendos.
D-Tooned/by Rob
Pudim
That gut feeling
Ponder this: Embodiment is less about listening to and relating to the body, and more about listening to and relating to the world around us, through the body. … just sayin’.
We have two brains. One is in our head, and we wrongly think that it is the entirety of our mind and the only thing required for interacting with each other, our environment and whatever sense of spirituality we hold dear. We can thank Socrates, Plato and all the great thinkers for that, I suppose. But, there is another brain, and there is more to mind than what’s going on in our heads.
Our “second” brain isn’t like the first. This other brain is relational and visceral. It’s emotive. It’s the home of intuition. It requires honesty and vulnerability to access, not cleverness. It doesn’t relate through thought and ideas. It relates through energy. We know what humans are comprised of, and we know from E=MC2 that we’re only on this planet, because we are indeed made of energy. That could make one think that this second brain is a pretty big deal. So why don’t most of us know about it? I didn’t.
History suggests that as people learned to access more of the incredible capabilities of the head brain, they lost interest and connection to this second, more subtle brain. But still, we’ve all experienced life at one time or another primarily through this other brain. Most can think of a time when this connection has happened, but I’d bet by and large, it occurred through
reflex and not intent. Getting lost in the joy of snowboarding or mountain biking might be such a moment. Tears at the memory of a departed friend might do it for others. Love-making free of thought and worry. Or the birth of a child. Those are times we leave the head behind and live primarily in the space of the second brain. But, again, it happens mostly unconsciously and by way of ancient memory. While these moments are incredible, they occur infrequently and between what can seem like long stretches filled with mundane. Wouldn’t it be cool if we could have more of those second brain moments?
We all know the myth that people use only about 10% of our head brain, and we also know there is a certain truth for why that myth exists. Add to that idea that most of us have never heard of a second brain, and it can seem as though some of us are shuffling along like we’re unwittingly trying to roll an office chair with one roller brake on. I’m 59. I can claim a lot of years sitting in that chair. And, I’d give a bunch of them back for more of those too-infrequent moments spent intentionally exploring this other brain with all my office chair wheels rolling free.
The gut brain: It’s more than just the enteric nervous system talking to the head, and it’s way more than just the healthy functioning of our digestive systems. The gut brain is how and where we connect to the divine. It’s how we connect to one another. It is where we find our love for the world, and it is where we feel our highest highs and most meaningful moments. Most of us recognize these “meaningful moments” as the
stuff we live for. However, it isn’t actually the moments themselves, but how we relate to them (open, vulnerable and embodied) that makes them so special. The best experiences, after all, are felt and not thought. And while snowboarding will always bring me joy, I’m going to experience less when my head’s chewing on a to-do list only half completed instead of intentionally letting the gut pick my line and take the lead.
So … if it’s not the moments but our own intention, attention and felt interaction that makes life so awesome, maybe we have the power to turn mundane moments into more momentous ones just by exploring this gut brain. …just sayin’.
– Grant Bronk,
Durango
BigPivots
We can do better
Reflections on immigration after a visit to the ‘prison on the plains’
by Allen Best/Big Pivots
Looking back, it’s so easy to see the wrongness of Amache, the place of sagebrush and cactus amid southeastern Colorado’s sandy soils. During World War II, it was briefly the state’s 10th largest population center.
Except, of course, Amache was no city as we normally think of one. It was surrounded by barbed-wire. Guards in towers wielded guns and search lights. “Concentration camp” fits if defined as “a place where people are imprisoned not because of any crimes they have committed but because of who they are.”
In the case of Amache, JapaneseAmericans were rounded up in California and other West Coast states and put on trains to Colorado. More than two-thirds were American citizens. The action was justified under an executive order issued by President Franklin Roosevelt soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
“Successful prosecution of the war requires every possible protection against espionage and against sabotage,” said the order. Amache was quickly and shoddily created. In 1943 it housed more than 7,300 people.
The story is told well in a 2024 book, “Amache,” by Robert Harvey. His parting words haunt: “If citizens of the United States had looked less to political cheerleaders and professional patriots, and more to the constitutional democracy they were fighting to save, evacuation might never have happened.”
On the July 4th weekend, I visited Amache once again, my third or fourth trip there. American flags fluttered along county roads in the hot winds as semitrucks hauled wheat to grain elevators. Cattle huddled along fences, their tails swishing at flies, as temperatures marched north of 90 degrees.
Amache became a national historic site in 2024. The National Park Service calls it a “prison on the plains.” The federal government then had used a sugarcoated word: the Granada Relocation Center. The closest town was Granada.
All the 560 buildings cramped together amid the one-square-mile enclosure have been torn down or moved elsewhere. Only a few concrete foundations remain. A warning sign cautions that rattlesnakes might be amid piles of
rocks. Now, a new building re-creates the barracks where entire families lived and shared single light bulbs. Their spaces, about 500 square feet, were only a little larger than average hotel rooms of today.
Some of those relocated to Amache had been farmers in California. In their parched quarters in Colorado, they applied their skills. One explanatory panel tells how they used tea bags, egg shells and vegetable scraps to fertilize tiny plots to grow food.
Milton Eisenhower’s words linger. The brother of the future president, Eisenhower headed the War Relocation Authority shortly after it was formed but favored more respectful treatment of Japanese-Americans. In this, he was strongly opposed by governors of most Western states. Ralph Carr, Colorado’s governor, was an exception.
“I have brooded about this whole episode on and off the past three decades for it is illustrative of how an entire society can somehow plunge offcourse,” said Eisenhower in 1974.
Has our entire society today plunged off-course in our actions regarding immigration? Surely, somebody reading this will say: “But the immigration of today is different. We have LAW-BREAKERS crossing our southern border. OUR immigrant forebearers arrived here legally.”
I grant that critical distinction, but I
also see overlap. Today, as in 1942, it is common to demonize whole groups of people. Our president has done this time and again, painting otherwise lawabiding immigrants as criminals capable of the worst crimes. In fact, as statistics show, as a group they are, other than crossing borders to seek better lives, uncommonly law-abiding.
Do we need observance of our laws? Yes, although personally I am far more threatened by people driving 20 and 30 mph over the posted speed limits on our highways. Will a political candidate campaign about restoring law and order to our highways? I doubt it. Easier to provoke fear of “they” and “them.” Immigration is a difficult, nuanced topic. Instead, we settle for bold and often thoughtless actions. We have granted immigration police great freedom – including, apparently, the ability to violate constitutional rights. The budget reconciliation bill appropriates $45 billion for detention centers. The president wants one in every state.
As in the case of the Japanese-Americans during WWII, we have policies that don’t match the threat or the problem. We can do better today with our immigration policies. We can do better.
Allen Best ordinarily covers Colorado’s energy and water transitions at BigPivots. com but inexorably is drawn to the state’s history.■
Located in southeastern Colorado, the Amache internment camp once was a small city housing some 7,300 people of Japanese descent, many of them American citizens. It is now a historic sight./ Photo by Allen Best
StateNews
Smoke and mirrors?
CU study finds a lot of Colorado’s weed is weaker than what’s on the label
by Ben Markus / Colorado Public Radio
Nearly half of the labels on cannabis plant products recently tested in Colorado misstated the potency, according to a University of Colorado Boulder study published in the journal Scientific Reports.
Researchers found that THC, the psychoactive chemical in marijuana, was regularly inaccurately labeled on the green bud marijuana tested as part of the study – with most of those products with inaccurate labels having significantly less THC than claimed.
Like beer drinkers choosing between a Michelob Ultra and an IPA, cannabis consumers use the potency labels to choose from dozens of strains to achieve the high they want. Inaccurate labels can throw that choice into doubt.
While little is known about what potency levels are safe for consumers, a first step is accurately knowing what’s in the products, according to Greg Giordano, Senior Professional Research Assistant, and one of the authors of the study.
“It’s important that we have accurate cannabis product labels so people who do that kind of research ... know what’s in the product,” said Giordano.
CU Boulder researchers arranged secret purchases from 52 stores across Colorado from November 2022 - October 2023. A total of 277 different flower and concentrate products were lab-tested by MedPharm Research, a licensed cannabis testing facility. It found that 44 percent of the flower products were inaccurately labeled, meaning a variance of 15% or
more. Most of the inaccurate labeling inflated THC content. Edibles were not included in this study.
Concentrates, like those used in vape pens, were more likely to have accurate labels but also tended to be lower in potency than what was advertised.
Some in the marijuana industry were skeptical of CU Boulder’s results. Paul Jacobson, the president and co-founder of Rove, a company that sells marijuana products in multiple states, said that different labs can produce different results. And testing marijuana flower is difficult because some buds have higher potency than others. It’s an inexact science.
“I don’t think that there is a nefarious
thing going on, where all the farms are doing something to trick the consumer,” said Jacobson. He added that he didn’t view slightly lower potency as a consumer safety issue. “You’re smoking highpotency weed regardless.”
Mason Tvert, a spokesperson for the marijuana industry group Colorado Leads, said there is no federal standard for testing labs since marijuana is federally illegal. And consumer preferences may be leading to higher cannabis potency labeling.
“The market tends to be driven by a desire for higher potency. Companies are incentivized to submit for testing the part of the plant that is most likely to have the highest potency,” said Tvert, who added
that it’s better to have the upper level of potency on the label for consumers.
In a statement, Colorado’s Marijuana Enforcement Division said it was reviewing the study, “and looking forward to an opportunity to discuss the findings in a public forum.”
Much of the debate about marijuana safety has been focused on high-potency products, especially their effect on adolescent brain development. While it appears that most marijuana is less potent than advertised, it’s still far stronger than the 8% THC cannabis tested in the 1980s.
CU’s study closely mirrors other, less formal testing done by advocates. Earlier this year, Justin Singer, a marijuana edibles manufacturer released his own secret shopper testing results for 15 marijuana products. He also found that potency was often overstated.
“This is a much more robust and rigorous study than what we did,” said Singer, who applauded CU for systematically testing hundreds of products.
Singer said the inaccurate labeling is another example of how the state-mandated testing system doesn’t serve consumers and may also be missing dangerous contaminants like pesticides and molds.
“There are so many loopholes written into these rules,” Singer said.
Giordano, the CU researcher, said the study was funded by the Institute of Cannabis Research at Colorado State University-Pueblo. And he said future studies will examine edibles and look for possible contamination of marijuana products.
For more from Colorado Public Radio, go to www.cpr.org. ■
Flower at a marijuana grow operation in Denver./File photo - Hart Van Denburg/CPR News
LifeontheWestSlope
Seeking solutions
After recent attacks, Aspen-area ranchers look for ways to co-exist with wolves
by Tracy Ross / The Colorado Sun
(Editor’s note: The following is the first in a two-part deep dive into conflicts – and potential solutions – between wolves and ranchers on the Western Slope. The story first appeared July 6 in Colorado Sunday, a special magazine of The Colorado Sun.)
Only a few ranchers were expected to come to the meeting held in Chris Collins’ shop on the McCabe Ranch in Old Snowmass, which smelled of smoked venison sausages cooking on the grill, horses on jeans, and a mixture of sweat and anxiety.
They’d come on the evening of June 11, after the first day of the monthly Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission meeting in Glenwood Springs, where wolves were not on the agenda. The omission shocked everyone, because of what had recently happened.
Over on the Lost Marbles Ranch, which borders the McCabe Ranch in a wide valley where the price of sprawling, remote ranches reflects their proximity to Aspen, the first wolf pack to form following the start of Colorado’s reintroduction program in December 2023 had established a new den. The adult female, released in the area in January, had given birth to her second litter after breeding with a wolf introduced during CPW’s second release, in January.
That half of these wolves were from the first Copper Creek pack – celebrated or reviled, depending on your perspective – wasn’t what mattered. It was their history, starting after the adult female was released in Grand County, with four other wolves from Oregon, in front of a handpicked crowd including Gov. Jared Polis, his husband, Marlon Reis, several CPW employees and, notably, no leaders or ranchers from Grand County. The next week, five more Oregon wolves were released in Summit County.
Colorado voters by a narrow margin directed CPW in 2020 to reintroduce wolves to the state. Two years of meetings followed, during which stakeholder groups worked to develop a plan they believed could lead to the successful development of a viable, self-sustaining wolf population while minimizing wolf-related conflicts. But from the start, there was trouble.
Some of the wolves brought from Oregon were known to have preyed on livestock, and releasing known attackers went against Colorado’s wolf management plan. Two of those wolves were released in Grand County. Not long after a reporter made the discovery about the livestock-eating wolves, a wolf released in Grand County and one in Summit County – neither known to have killed livestock in Oregon – paired up and started preying on nearly two dozen cattle and sheep on Grand County ranches.
A long, tense standoff between the ranchers and CPW leadership began. The ranchers wanted the male wolf killed, as is allowed under the state’s 10(j) permit that designates Colorado’s wolves, though on the federal endangered species list, an experimental population.
But CPW declined because the female was pregnant and the agency had yet to define the number of times a wolf could harass or kill livestock before wildlife officials could kill it.
Instead of killing any wolves, CPW
trapped the adults and four of five puppies, by then known as the Copper Creek pack, and moved them to a wildlife sanctuary. Then, in mid-January, wildlife officials relocated the pack again, to private property in Old Snowmass, when CPW translocated 15 wolves from British Columbia to Eagle and Pitkin counties.
By February, ranchers say, local livestock started disappearing. On March 3 and 13, wolves killed two yearling heifers. Then, two months later, the reason the Old Snowmass ranchers were gathered happened. Over Memorial Day weekend, wolves from the pack killed two calves and severely injured one on a ranch in the Crystal Valley, near Carbondale, and the McCabe and Lost Marbles ranches in the Capitol Creek Valley. Range riders hired by CPW to keep watch over local herds responded, but they were sent to the wrong location and in not nearly enough time.
Wildlife officials ended up killing one of the wolves – a yearling Copper Creek male. But as had happened in Grand County the previous spring, Copper
Creek wolves continued targeting cattle, and ranchers across Pitkin and Garfield counties feared the attacks would spread. So they’d come together to try to figure out how to take their fate with the pack into their own hands. Note: It wasn’t the fate of the wolves.
At the June 11 meeting, killing the wolves wasn’t on the table. Instead, the ranchers were trying to get creative. The plan they came up with sounded preposterous: Ask someone – a wildlife group, a nongovernmental organization, a big celebrity or private individual worth millions – to pay them to accept and live with the wolves.
But given the situation at hand, every possible solution was on the table.
A wolf contingency plan
Inside the shop, the ranchers stood wide-legged, cowboy hats tilted. They wore dust-smeared shirts and dirty jeans, the wardrobe of outdoor workers. Most were men, some with wads of chew the size of ping pong balls in their lips. Sunscorched faces. Leathery necks.
Crystal River Ranch cows in a pasture in view of Mount Sopris in Carbondale on Wed., June 11. / Photo by Kelsey Brunner, special to The Colorado Sun
Tom Harrington, president of the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association, called the meeting to order. Wolves had hit the Crystal River Ranch, which he manages for wealthy philanthropist and conservationist Sue Anschutz-Rodgers, “but I joke with people that we’re kind of in the club as a junior member,” he said, “because we only had one calf killed and one injured that we haven’t confirmed yet.”
Harrington then thanked Tai Jacober, a fellow rancher and CPW commissioner, for “doing a fantastic job” at a meeting earlier in the day “putting those guys on the map” and telling officials, “what you did was absolutely wrong, contrary to the plan. You created a shitstorm, and what are you gonna do to fix it?”
“Those guys” were Brad Day and Mike Cerveny, who both lost calves during the Memorial Day attacks. They said a dozen calves and cows had disappeared from their ranches the weeks before, and Day described nearnightly events where he witnessed wolves harassing his herds. Both also had found evidence, they said, of wolves killing their livestock in half-eaten carcasses, hair in wolf scat and the spinal column of a calf with wolf tracks around it.
According to CPW, a rancher can shoot a wolf if they catch it in the act of attacking their livestock. CPW officials can also kill a wolf if its actions meet the criteria of “chronic depredation.” And the agency can issue a lethal take permit retroactively to a landowner who kills a gray wolf caught in the act on their private land or state or federal grazing allotment. The landowner must provide evidence of the attack “within 24 hours, unless impractical, but no later than 72 hours” after.
At the meeting, Day, Cerveny and other ranchers were growing increasingly worried about their livelihoods and futures because they didn’t know if the Copper Creek pack was going to stay and produce more wolves, leave of their own accord or be removed. CPW held a special meeting July 7 to discuss the fate of the wolves, but no official action was taken.
According to state statute, livestock owners can be reimbursed fair market value of an animal proved to have been killed by a wolf up to $15,000. They can receive reimbursement of up to $15,000 for veterinary costs. And compensation is available for missing calves or sheep in open range settings as well as “indirect losses” such as decreased weaning weights and decreased conception rates on a case-by-case basis.
But to prove a suspected kill, “you have to have the hide and show scratches, bites, contusions, things like that,” Day said later. “And the calf Jeff found was all gone. It was just a backbone.”
The recent deaths and their impact were why Lowell Cerise, a friend of Day’s who grew up on a ranch in the Roaring Fork Valley, had come from Idaho to meet the ranchers. Cerise encouraged Day to call the meeting because Cerise had experience with wolf reintroductions, having lived through the northern Rockies version in the 1990s.
One of 15 gray wolves that was captured in British Columbia and released in Eagle and Garfield counties in January. The relocated Copper Creek pack was also released in January on private land in Old Snowmass./
“With the current trajectory you’re on, it looks to me like a potential outcome is, there will be no benefits of having these wolves here to you guys,” he said. “I mean, Brad’s life the last month or two I don’t think is the life that he wants to continue. You know, it’s kind of taking the joy out of ranching.”
“I think this Copper Creek pack is what’s responsible for all the problems,” said Bill Fales, who started ranching near Carbondale in the 1980s and helped start the Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust in 1995. “They killed in North Park. Then (CPW) captured them against their will and brought them here. I’m not hearing of other wolves killing around the state,” Fales added. “And I think that’s why we gotta hammer on CPW, get on them to capture this pack. Put them away for life or euthanize them like they should have done last week.”
“How’s that working out so far?” asked Ted Nieslanik, a third-generation rancher in the Roaring Fork Valley.
“It’s totally against the plan,” Cerveny said. “Why aren’t they following the plan? That’s what we got to hammer them on.”
Cerise listened and nodded, but he was focusing on a solution.
He had a promising one, he thought, because news of the Copper Creek female having a new litter of puppies was reaching the public, and people were riled up about CPW killing the Copper Creek yearling, and word was getting out about other Copper Creek wolves harassing Day’s livestock. “So the conservation world, that extreme-wolf world, is terrified Brad is going to go find one of the wolves killing a calf tonight and shoot it,” he said.
All those elements, he believed, put both the wolves and the ranchers at “peak emotional value” for “a voter base that probably didn’t understand the ramifications of what they were voting for,” which potentially made those voters sympathetic to the wolves and ranchers. Why? It had become clear that proving a wolf kill was incredibly hard. And even if some ranchers hadn’t been impacted yet, space in the region around their ranches was “tight.” And when 20 head of cattle lost without compensation “turned into 40, 50, 60, 80 head … I don’t care how much you want to stay in ranching and how proud you are of your history, you cannot afford to do it,” Nieslanik said.
Not everyone at the meeting was in the same boat: As Anschutz-Rogers’ ranch manager, Harrington could realistically lose some cattle and stay in business. Same with the Collins family, who own the McCabe Ranch, valued not long ago at $50 million. The McBride family, owners of the Lost Marbles Ranch, had diversified, putting their ranch in a conservation easement in exchange for the ability to sell their development rights for millions of dollars.
But if Day, who landed at the McCabe Ranch 30 years ago and is “the scrappiest, hardest-working person” Cerise says he has ever known, and who raises cattle with the Collins’ herds, “runs into a situation where the Copper Creek pack keeps expanding,” he says he doesn’t know where he’d go.
Cerveny leases his land from the McBride family and is in a similar situation. Nieslanik isn’t exactly getting rich on his ranch – he doesn’t take vacations and says he can’t afford to send his kids to college. And, this was important, because even if the state continues to compensate ranchers for livestock kills fairly, how will it keep up when just two Grand County ranchers received $580,000 for livestock claims in January, the ranchers wondered.
But Cerise thought if they could somehow appeal to the sympathies of the right people, who understood, or romanticized, the value of ranching and what it brought Pitkin County, maybe they’d consider a deal that paid ranchers a yearly sum.
Then the ranchers could afford to keep ranching despite their cattle being lost, and the wolves could keep wolfing, in “a wolf-friendly zone, in the eastern half of Garfield County and in Pitkin County, maybe, where if you find a wolf kill, you don’t call CPW. You just live with it,” Cerise said. ■
The most fun outdoor Sunday brunch in Durango!
10 a.m.-1 p.m., featuring a new DJ every week and brunch dishes from all our food trucks
This week’s live music: 7/10, 6-9pm, Matthew McDaniel 7/11, 7-10pm, Banjo Joe • 7/12, 6-9pm, Pete Giuliani Band 7/12, 10-12 pm, DJ Swerv • 7/13, 10am-1 pm, Noonz
Photo courtesy CPW
1101 Main Ave. • DGO, CO
A long road
Bicycles, not cars, were the original drivers in building nation’s roadways
by Jennaye Derge
Last fall, I decided to take a solo bike tour up the California coast from L.A. to San Francisco. One evening, around dusk, I was riding my bike on California State Highway 1 (also known as the “PCH”.) I was beyond tired from a long day of pedaling on a heavy bike, and white-knuckling while cars passed me way too close, going way too fast, when suddenly, a semi-truck appeared behind me.
If you’ve ever been on Highway 1, you know that sections of the road are skinny, crumbling and have no shoulder. The full width of the road butts up to either a rock retaining wall, or a soft sand pit, and if you are a cyclist, and there is a semi-truck behind you – or any other vehicle for that matter – there really isn’t anywhere to go to get out of the way.
So, this particular evening, while I was just trying to get to camp, I held my space on the edge of the road, and I continued to pedal while the truck inched closer behind me. I was expecting it would pass when traffic was clear (which was easy enough). Instead, the semi blew its horn on my back. The shock sent me off the road and straight into the soft sandy shoulder, where I stood, silently shaking and then, eventually, crying.
Ironically, I read about the Good Roads Movement just a few months prior to this incident. The article was about cyclists in the 1880s – some of the original road users – championing for better roads for all, including the semi-truck that just ran me off the road. It was cyclists who first fought to improve road conditions and petitioned local governments to take better care of our roadways so we could all get around easier and safer.
Although interesting to me as a cyclist and advocate, the Good Roads Movement should be interesting to anyone that is a road user. The grassroots movement started in the late 1870s in Newport, R.I., and became an official roadway improvement movement in 1880. It was founded by a group of bicycle commuters and racers who were tired of riding on ravaged and rutted roads
that were being destroyed by – get this – vehicles.
Heavy steel wheels and clompy horse hooves from horse carriages wreaked havoc on the roads. So, cyclists partnered up with ranchers and farmers, who at the time privately owned many of these roadways, to brainstorm a solution for the problem.
Through this cyclist/farmer (and eventually mail deliverers) partnership, the Good Road Movement took shape to fix the vehicle-damaged roads and incentivize larger action. The efforts spread nationally, and the original group of cycling advocates helped form the League of American Wheelmen. By 1898, the Wheelmen had 103,000 members and created a national movement demanding federal and state funding take over the responsibility of road maintenance and building. Which, fun fact, is how and why our streets are now governmentowned instead of owned privately.
It is said that the Good Roads Movement, the Wheelmen and their coalition of farmers, legislators and other partners, are what fueled the expansion of
roadways throughout the United States. There was even the Good Roads magazine that had a circulation of 1 million, as well as the “The Gospel for Good Roads” pamphlet.
This was all done mostly for and by cyclists until, eventually, the auto industry caught up and caught on.
The auto industry got involved with the Good Roads Movement around 1910, and lobbies such as the American Automobile Association (AAA) joined the campaign and took up their battle alongside the National Good Roads Association. As motor vehicles gained popularity, so did long distance travel and, therefore, long distance interstate roadways. Eventually, under President Woodrow Wilson, The Federal Aid Road Act of 1916 was signed, and 18 years later, in 1934, California Highway 1 was built, and semi trucks have been pushing cyclists off the road ever since.
History doesn’t always write the rules, and when it comes to our current road culture, that is certainly the case. Historically, cyclists were the first advocates for better roads, but that doesn’t change how our culture sees cyclists vs. how we see motor vehicles. Cyclists will continue to be treated as inferior and “not allowed” on roads.
Closer to home, in Durango, we will continue to have to navigate our own bad roads. Roads with poorly marked shoulders, no bike lanes, and potholes and erosion caused by motor vehicles. Roads where there is overgrown brush, broken glass, trash cans or gravel and where it’s often impossible to get to where you’re going without having to dodge an inattentive driver. Roads that don’t quite seem to want to acknowledge cyclists; faded paint simply alludes to bike infrastructure and is generally hardly noticeable or half paved over.
The Good Roads Movement is officially over – instead favoring a movement for faster, wider highways, more parking and bigger trucks. A movement where cars will continue to pass too close and too fast, and semi-trucks will continue to blast their horns on cyclists’ backs when they’re just trying to find a nice place to camp. ■
A view of a shoulderless California road during a traffic-intense bike tour last fall. / Photo by Jennaye Derge
This grill is on fire
This smoky summer ‘quad-fecta’ is like a party in your mouth
by Ari LeVaux
It’s the season of outdoor grilling, brought to you by the licking flames that make food taste better. Without a fire, of course, there is no smoke. But some fires are smokier than others.
Those grillers who prefer the convenience and precision found in the knobs of a gas grill probably won’t get their share of that airborne blend of aromatic oxidized particulates. Grillers who build an actual fire, meanwhile, can find themselves with more smoke than they know what to do with.
And then there is the question of what to put on the grill. You can make an argument for many ingredients that are exceptional on the grill, and I won’t argue. But I have a formula that’s applicable anywhere produce and meats are sold, a “quad-fecta,” if you will, of corn, zucchini, green chile and meat – or similar meaty element. My vegetarian advisor suggests a large, fresh portobello cap. A port is earthy, juicy (thus smoke-producing), and structurally strong enough not to fall apart when being manipulated. It will shrink but still juice when you bite into it and has a great mouthfeel and umami flavor. You can simply oil and salt the portabello or marinate it if you want more acidity.
These ingredients not only go great together, but each enhances the flavors of the other participants through their smoke. Even on a gas grill, corn husks will burn, zucchinis will blacken, and green chiles will blister and flavor the atmosphere, as the meat drips grease onto the flames, enhancing the smoke seasonings. I prefer a built fire, but to each their own. As the smoke rises to your blinking face, enjoy the most savory aromatherapy a set of nostrils could embrace. Put the lid down and let the smoke build up, pushing those flavors into the food.
The Veggies
First and foremost, start the grill or fire. Then, remove the butter from the fridge to let it soften. Season meat with olive oil, salt, pepper and pressed garlic.
Trim each ear of corn by pulling about an inch of husk from tip to base, exposing a stripe of kernels. Place the ears on the grill with that stripe facing up, followed by the zucchini and green chile.
As the kernels shrink and brown in the dry heat, they concentrate their flavor while being bathed in smoke from their own husks. After about 20 minutes without turning, the corn will be nicely browned and smoked.
The green chile, whether it’s from Hatch, Anaheim, your backyard or a local farmstead, is the soul of the grill, in part because it adds the best smoke. If you can’t find any decent specimen of the Hatch varieties, some big jalapeños will always do the trick. Grill and turn until they are blistered but not burned.
Unless the zucchini is really big, I’ll cook it whole, turning it until the out-
Summummer is heaeating up
We’ve got shorts, tanks, sandals and swimsuits for the water and the trails from brands like Chacos, Patagonia and Kühl
side is charred and the inside is soft. This should take about 20 minutes on medium heat. Cut into rounds before serving.
While the vegetables are grilling, prepare the following sauce for the corn. Quantities are per ear of corn, adjusted for the fact that it will also be used on meat and other veggies.
Corn Sauce
1 tablespoon softened butter
1 tablespoon mayo
2 teaspoons garlic
1 teaspoon red chile powder
2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
Salt and pepper to taste
Smear it all together, like a mayonnaise-ey compound butter.
When it’s nearly time to eat, add the meat to the grill and find a chill spot for the corn, and flip the corn so the exposed stripe of kernels faces down for a few minutes of final extra browning. Pull the ears off the grill and wait impatiently until they are cool enough to touch and not burn yourself.
I like to rotate steaks on the same side for a few minutes before flipping them. This gives the meat a pleasing hashmark pattern. And again on the other side a few minutes before serving.
Burger also works well in the trifecta, preferably cheeseburger, accompanied by bun, ketchup, tomatoes, pickles, onions and all that.
When eating green chile or jalapeño, start with a nibble of the tip to figure out if it’s a hot one. If it is, carefully remove the seeds and consume responsibly. If the chile is not hot, you can eat it whole – peel, seeds and all.
At the risk of too much micromanagement, here is an optional suggestion for consuming this meal. Start with a bite of meat or protein-like item, followed by a sip of wine if appropriate. While chewing meat, use a piece of green chile as a spoon to smear corn sauce onto the corn, and then bite the corn, chewing together with meat and hopefully wine. Then add the green chile to your mouth, followed by a slice of zucchini, and chew it all together. Enjoy the harmony of the firelicked flavors colliding in your lips. Followed, inevitably, by another sip. ■
Stuff to Do
Thursday10
Ancient Rocks of the Vallecito Valley geology hike, 9 a.m.-1 p.m., Vallecito Trailhead
Walk & Wonder, a walkers’ meetup, Thursdays, 11 a.m.-12 noon thru Aug. 31, White Rabbit Books & Curiosities, 128 W. 14th St., Ste C-2
Music in the Mountains free concert with the Zelter String Quartet, 11 a.m., Cottonwood Park, 373 Hermosa Meadows Rd., and 2 p.m., Three Springs Plaza, 151 Heritage Lane
HOPE Network connection, community and care for anyone facing cancer, 2:20-3:30 p.m., 1701 Main Ave., Ste. C
Crafternoons Journal Making, 4-5:30 p.m., Durango Public Library, 1900 E. 3rd Ave.
Bike Maintenance Clinic, 5-6:30 p.m., Pine River Library, 395 Bayfield Center Dr., Bayfield
Ska-B-Q with music by La La Bones, 5 p.m., Ska Brewing, 225 Girard St.
Escape the Badlands plays, 5:30 p.m., Purgatory Resort
Concert Hall at the Park presents Nefesh Mountain, 5:30-7:30 p.m., Buckley Park
Spanish Conversation Hour, 5:30-6:30 p.m., Durango Public Library, 1900 E. 3rd Ave.
Weekly Dart Tournament, 5:30 p.m., Union Social House, 3062 Main Ave.
Devin Scott plays, 5:30-8:30 p.m., James Ranch Grill, 33846 HWY 550
Matthew McDaniel plays, 6-9 p.m., 11th St. Station, 1101 Main Ave.
Clark Andrew Libbey plays, 6-9 p.m., Durango Hot Springs, 6475 CR 203
Jason Thies plays, 6-9:30 p.m., Office Spiritorium, 699 Main Ave.
Trivia Night on the Plaza, 6:30-8:30 p.m., The Powerhouse, 1333 Camino Del Rio
Trivia Night hosted by Aria PettyOne, 7:30-9:30 p.m., Starlight Lounge, 937 Main Ave.
Open Mic, 8-11 p.m., The Tangled Horn, 275 E. 8th Ave.
71st annual Four Corners Gem and Mineral Show, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., La Plata County Fairgrounds
San Juan Nature Walks, 10 a.m.-12 noon, Andrews Lake upper parking area
Music in the Mountains free concert with Kodachrome, 2 p.m., Claire Viles Park, 245 E. Park Ave.
Donny Johnson plays, 5-8 p.m., Serious Texas BBQ S., 650 S. Camino del Rio
Nikki Moon “Elemental Gaze” opening reception, 5-8 p.m., Studio &’s The Recess Gallery, 1027 Main Ave.
The Maxwells play, 5 p.m., The Nugget, 48721 HWY 550
Pete Giuliani plays, 5-8 p.m., The Oxford, 119 W. 8th St.
Bike Swap Kick Off Community Ride, 6 p.m., meet at Rotary Park
Bicycle Art Show, 6 p.m., The Union Social House, 3062 Main Ave.
Tom Ward’s Downfall plays, 6-8 p.m., Durango Winery, 900 Main Ave.
Friday Nights at Fox Fire, 6-9 p.m., Fox Fire Farms Winery, 5513 CR 321, Ignacio
Sean O’Brien plays, 6-9 p.m., The Union Social House, 3062 Main Ave.
Clementine, Ragged Oak & Ryan Cassata, pop rock show, 6:30 p.m., The Hive, 1175 Camino del Rio
Music in the Mountains free concert with Kodachrome, 6:30 p.m., Buckley Park
Maria’s After Dark, benefit for Maria’s Literary Foundation, 7-9 p.m., Maria’s Bookshop, 960 Main Ave.
A Night of Improv, 7-9 p.m., Durango Arts Center, 802 E. 2nd Ave.
Banjo Joe plays, 7-10 p.m., 11th St. Station, 1101 Main Ave.
Total Archery Challenge, 8 a.m.-5 p.m., Purgatory Resort
2nd annual Vintage Bike Swap and Show, 8 a.m.-12 noon, Rotary Park
Music in the Mountains free concert with Seraph Brass, 6:30 p.m., Buckley Park
Ray Wylie Hubbard plays, 8 p.m., Animas City Theatre, 128 E. College Dr.
The Sugar Thieves play, 8-10 p.m., The iNDIGO Room, 1315 N Main Ave., #207
DJ Swerv (Voski Little), 10 p.m., 11th St. Station, 1101 Main Ave.
AskRachel Faked out, droning on and sticks city
Interesting fact: I looked up what Cool Ranch flavoring is, and it is “a punch of zesty goodness” and “a burst of tanginess.” That settles that.
Dear Rachel, I was cooking a pot of jasmine rice, and when I served it, it smelled exactly (and I mean exactly) like Cool Ranch Doritos. I haven’t eaten those things since middle school. Were they really just jasmine rice pressed into triangles and sprinkled with carcinogenic colors? What even is cool ranch, anyway? And why did we all get suckered into eating flavors that don’t actually exist?
– Art E. Fishul
Dear Cool Rancher, I learned never to look at the labels from the foods I enjoyed as a kid. I’m almost certainly a higher percentage of fake flavoring than I am of microplastics. But! We need more cool foods in our convenience stores. They could
Sunday13
Total Archery Challenge, 8 a.m.-5 p.m., Purgatory Resort
Eli Cartwright plays, 10 a.m.-12 noon, Lola’s Place, 725 E. 2nd Ave.
Noonz plays, 10 a.m.-1 p.m., 11th St. Station, 1101 Main Ave.
71st annual Four Corners Gem and Mineral Show, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., La Plata County Fairgrounds & Event Center
Walk & Wonder, a walkers’ meetup, Sundays, 11 a.m.-12 noon thru Aug. 31, White Rabbit Books & Curiosities, 128 W. 14th St., Ste C-2
Open Folk Jam, 2:30-5 p.m., The Tangled Horn, 275 E. 8th Ave.
Weekly Peace Vigil & Rally for Gaza & Palestine, every Sunday, 4 p.m., Buckley Park
Blue Moon Ramblers play, 6-9 p.m., Diamond Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave.
Devin Scott plays, 6-9 p.m., Office Spiritorium, 699 Main Ave.
serve as an antidote to all the spicy hot foods running rampant. Imagine the Cool Chill Cheetos. Maybe even Cool Whip could get into the salsa game. As for fake flavors? You can have my blue raspberry when you pry it from my cool blue hands.
– Shelf stable, Rachel
Dear Rachel, Saw my first drone show on the 4th. Thought I’d hate it. Turned out I loved it. I’ve actually been watching drone shows on YouTube all weekend. I really see no downside. You can’t make fireworks into Chinese dragons. Drones don’t burn down forests. And the dogs and veterans don’t have to dread the traumatic flash bang. Let’s convert everything everywhere from fireworks to drones. What do you say?
- DR-1
Dear Dr. One, I gotta say, drone shows sure can
Monday14
Mahjong Mondays, 5-7:30 p.m., Lola’s Place, 725 E. 2nd Ave.
Happy Hour Yoga, 5:30 p.m., Ska Brewing, 225 Girard St.
Meditation and Dharma Talk, 5:30 p.m., in person at the Durango Dharma Center, 1800 E. 3rd Ave, Ste. 109 or online at durangodharmacenter.org
Terry Rickard plays, 6-9 p.m., Office Spiritorium, 699 Main Ave.
Darryl Kuntz plays, 6-9 p.m., Diamond Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave.
Chess Club, 6:30-9 p.m., Guild House Games, 835 Main Ave., Ste. 203-204
Comedy Open Mic, 8 p.m., Starlight Lounge, 937 Main Ave
Tuesday15
Locals at Leplatt’s Pond, 5-9 p.m. every Tuesday through July, LePlatt’s Pond, 311A CR 501, Bayfield
Rotary Club of Durango presents La
bring the Gandalf vibes. I’m still holding out for the fireworks mounted on drones, though. I want a drone-show dragon that breathes actual fire. But mostly, I am dreadfully awaiting the mid-drone-show advertisements, where the drones stop being a dragon to regroup and tell me to “Buy GE” or call 1800-IM-HURT. You know this is coming. – Buzzing low, Rachel
Dear Rachel, I have one friend who just moved here from the sticks. She refers to this place as “city life.” I have another friend who just moved here from Denver. She refers to this place as “the sticks.” I know perspective is everything, but which friend is more right? We agree to let you be the judge. So, pick one for Durango: the city, or the sticks?
– Worlds Collide Dear City Sticker, Maybe you just hit on what makes
Plata Family Center Coalition’s Mariel Balbuena, 6-7 p.m., Strater Hotel, 699 Main Ave.
Black Velvet plays, 6-8 p.m., Lola’s Place, 725 E. 2nd Ave.
Bridget Crocker “The River’s Daughter” author event, 6-8 p.m., The Rochester Hotel Garden, 726 E. 2nd Ave.
Sean O’Brien plays, 6-9 p.m., Office Spiritorium, 699 Main Ave.
Darryl Kuntz plays, 6-9 p.m., Diamond Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave.
Cook Book Club “Made in India,” by Meera Sodha, 6-7:30 p.m., Durango Public Library, 1900 E. 3rd Ave.
The Stillwater All Stars & GrooveCasters play, 6-8 p.m., Three Springs Plaza, 175 Mercado St.
Wednesday16
Bingo Night, 5-7 p.m., Animas River Lounge, DoubleTree Hotel, 501 Camino Del Rio
Afrobeatniks play Community Concert Series supporting San Juan Symphony, 5:30 p.m., The Powerhouse, 1333 Camino Del Rio
Email Rachel at telegraph@durango telegraph.com
Durango special for so many people. It’s got some of the big city charm with a lot less public urine. It’s also got all the benefits of roughin’ it, so long as paved roads and access to several grocery stores is “roughin’ it.” Why choose? Let’s embrace being parts of both and all of neither. How about” “Durango: Don’t Ask What We’re Made of, Just Enjoy It.” Maybe, we are the cool ranch of midsize mountain towns.
– Still crunchy, Rachel
Devin Scott Ukulele plays, 6-8 p.m., Grassburger , 726 1/2 Main Ave.
Darryl Kuntz plays, 6-9 p.m., The Diamond Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave.
Cat Mountain plays, 6-9 p.m., Union Social House, 3062 Main Ave.
Chuck Hank plays, 6-9 p.m., Office Spiritorium, 699 Main Ave.
True Western Rodeo Cowgirls Kickin Cancer All-Womens, 6:30 p.m., La Plata County Fairgrounds
Comedy + Karaoke, 7 p.m., Starlight Lounge, 937 Main Ave.
Music in the Mountains Chamber Candlelight Concert, 7 p.m., Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis
Ongoing
Dementia/Alzheimer’s Caregivers Support Group, 1st, 3rd & 5th Wed. of each month,10:30 a.m.-12 noon, La Plata Senior Center, 2424 Main Ave.
Comedy Improv Jams, second and fourth Tuesdays of the month through August, 6-8 p.m., Sunflower Theatre, 8 E. Main St., Cortez
July 10, 2025 n 13
FreeWillAstrology
by Rob Brezsny
ARIES (March 21-April 19): In the days before lighthouses, some coastal communities used “fire beacons” – elevated structures where open flames guided sailors. In the coming weeks, I invite you to be like the fire keeper and the flame. People will be drawn to your brightness, warmth and persistence as they navigate through their haze and fog. You may find your own way more clearly as you tend to others’ wayfinding. Don’t underestimate the value of your steady, luminous signal. For some travelers, your presence could be the difference between drifting and docking. So burn with purpose. Keep your gleam strong.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): The ancestors of my American friend lived in Ukraine, Indonesia, the Choctaw nation and the Great Lakes region. Her new husband is of Japanese, Italian and French descent. Their wedding was a celebration of multi-cultural influences. Guests delivered toasts in five languages. Their marriage vows borrowed texts from three religious traditions. The music included a gamelan ensemble, a band that played Ukrainian folk music, and a DJ spinning Choctaw and Navajo prayers set to Indian ragas. I bring this to your attention in the hope you will seek comparable cross-fertilization in the coming weeks. It’s an excellent time to weave richly diverse textures.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): I predict a future when women will hold half of the leadership roles, when their income and time devoted to childcare will match men’s, when women’s orgasms are as common as men’s, and when most guys know that misogyny is perilous to their health. Until the bloom of that wonderful era, I invite you to invoke your tender ingenuity as you strengthen female opportunities and power. Boost the feminine in every way you can.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): In Yoruba cosmology, ase is the sacred life force that animates the universe. It’s divine energy that can be harnessed by humans to make things happen, to speak and act with ardent intention so that words and deeds shape reality. I am pleased to report that you Cancerians are extra aligned with ase these days. Your words are not casual. Your actions are not minor. You have the power to speak what you mean so robustly that it has an enhanced possibility to come into being. What you command with love and clarity will carry enduring potency.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): In medieval bestiaries, unicorns were said to be fierce, wild creatures. They were very real but also hidden. Only people with pure hearts could see or commune with them. I suspect you now have the chance to glide into a potent “pure heart” phase. My fervent hope is that you will take this opportunity to cleanse yourself of irrelevancies and rededicate yourself to your deepest yearnings and most authentic self-expressions. If you do, you just may encounter the equivalent of a unicorn.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Buddhist monks create mandalas on floors from colored sand. They work meticulously for days to build intricate, symmetrical masterpieces. Once their work is done, however, the creators sweep it away. The sand may be disposed of, perhaps poured into a river or stream. What’s the purpose? Most importantly, it displays a reverence for the impermanence of all things – an appreciation for beauty but not an attachment to it. I recommend you consider taking a cue from sand mandalas in coming weeks. Is there anything you love that you should let go of? A creation you can transform into a new shape? An act of sacred relinquishing?
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Glassblowers shape molten sand with breath and fire, knowing the material can only be formed while it’s hot and glowing. If they wait too long, the stuff stiffens, turns brittle and resists change. But if they push too soon, it collapses into a misshapen blob. In this spirit, Libra, I urge you to recognize which parts of your life are now just the right temperature to be reshaped. Your timing must be impeccable. Where and when will you direct the flame of willpower? Don’t wait until the opportunity cools. Art and magic will happen with just the right amount of heat at just the right moment.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): “I have often been racked by obsessive urges that plague me until I act them out.” So says my Scorpio friend Fatima, a conceptual artist. “Fortunately,” she continues, “I have finally retrained myself to focus on creative obsessions that fuel my art rather than on anxious, trivial obsessions that disorder my life. I’d be an offensive maniac if I couldn’t use my work as an outlet for my vehement fantasy life.” I recommend Fatima’s strategy to Scorpios most of the time, but especially in coming days. Your imagination is even more cornucopian than usual. To harness its beautiful but unruly power, you must channel it into noble goals.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): The Igbo people of Nigeria have a term: ogwugwu na-adị n’ulo. It means “the medicine is in the house.” It’s the belief that healing doesn’t necessarily come from afar. It may already be here, hidden among the familiar, waiting to be discovered. Your natural instinct is to look outward and afar for answers and help. But in the coming weeks, you should look close to home. What unnoticed or underestimated thing might be a cure or inspiration you’ve been overlooking? How can you find new uses for what you already have?
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): I invite you to celebrate the holiday known as Be Your Own Best Helper. How should you observe this potentially pivotal transformation? Divest yourself of yearnings to have someone clean up after you and service your baseline necessities. Renounce any wishes for some special person to telepathically guess and attend to your every need. Vow that from now on, you will be an expert at taking excellent care of yourself. Do you dare to imagine what it might feel like to be your own best helper?
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): In the ancient practice of astronomy, stars were considered “incorruptible.” Unlike the planets, their movements were unchanging, their lights stationary, their destinies steady. We humans are the opposite of all those descriptors, of course. There’s no use in hoping otherwise, because constancy isn’t an option. The good news, Aquarius, is that you are now poised to thrive on these truths. The inevitability of change can and should be a treasured gift for you. You’re being offered chances to revise plans that do indeed need to be revised. You are being invited to let go of roles that don’t serve you. What initially feels like a loss or sacrifice may actually be permission. Evolution is a privilege!
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): The axolotl is an amphibian that never outgrows its larval form. Unlike most creatures, it retains its youthful traits into adulthood. Amazingly, it can regenerate its limbs, spinal cord and parts of its brain. Let’s make the axolotl your inspirational animal, Pisces. What part of your “youth” is worth keeping? Where are you being asked not to evolve past a stage, but to deepen within it? And what might be regenerated in you that seemed to have been lost? Your magic will come from being like an axolotl. Be strange, playful, ageless, original and irrepressible.
Deadline for Telegraph classified ads is Tuesday at noon
Ads are a bargain at 10 cents a character with a $5 minimum.
Even better, ads can now be placed online: durangotelegraph.com Prepayment is required via cash, credit card or check. (Sorry, no refunds or substitutions.)
Ads can be submitted via: n classifieds@durango telegraph.com
n 970-259-0133
Announcements
Vintage Bike Swap & Show
Saturday, Rotary Park, 8 – noon. Community Bike Parade, Friday, Rotary Park 6:00 start. Bike Art Show, Friday, Union Social House 7:00
HelpWanted
We’re hiring!
The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Durango is hiring for a part-time position, Spiritual Growth Ministry Facilitator. The Facilitator helps lead a ministry of spiritual learning and connection in our vibrant congregation. Approximate 26 hours per week with benefits, working in close collaboration with our dynamic Minister, Rev. Jamie Boyce. Position start: September 1, 2025. For more information, contact Search Team leader Bonnie Miller at yjmiller2@gmail.com
Classes/Workshops
West Coast Swing
Ready to dance? Join our 3-week West Coast Swing Basics series for beginners! It’s fun, social, and easy to learn—no partner or experience needed. A new series starts every few weeks, so join us for the next one! We also offer a weekly social dance – a fun drop-in option or included with your series registration! Sign up at: www.westslopewesties.com
Aikido Crash Course
Is Aikido sprint tai chi? Dancing for ninjas? You decide. Try the fast, fun $8 weekly crash course Mondays 5:30-615pm. Must register online: durangoaikido.com
Free
2 Free Roosters
5 months old, one handsome, one not so much. 970-769-1244
Wanted
Books Wanted at White Rabbit
Donate/Trade/Sell 970 259-2213
ForSale
2011 Volvo XC 70
168K miles, new brakes, fresh tune, great car, $8000 obo, (970) 764-5865
Vintage 1977 Airstream Land Yacht
$19.5k 970-759-0551
’96 Mazda P/U
Extended cab, 4.9 liter V-6 4x4 auto 200k miles. Good engine, bad trans. $750. 970-259-9709 (no texts)
Reruns Home Furnishings
Patio sets, bistros and yard art. Also looking to consign smaller furniture pieces. 572 E. 6th Ave. Open Mon.-Sat.
BodyWork
Massage by Meg Bush
LMT, 30, 60 & 90 min., 970-759-0199.
Services
Chapman Electric
Colorado licensed and insured. Residential and commercial. New, remodel and repair. Mike 970-403-6670
Boiler Service - Water Heater
Serving Durango over 30 years. Brad, 970-759-2869. Master Plbg Lic #179917
