*According to a very unscientific and impromptu office poll
“Giving locals something to do on Thursdays since 2002”
Increasingly, regular folks are priced out of refuges by uber rich by Serena Seyman / PeaceVoice
Video looks at where we’ve been & where we’re headed after Gold King by Missy Votel
Another shot
CPW announces lethal removal of more wolves after cattle incidents by Sam Brasch / Colorado Public Radio
Life lessons
Remembering the quiet, steady force of teacher Tara Haller by Abby Scott
CAST: Kirbie Bennett, Sam Brasch, Abby Scott, Jesse Anderson, Lainie Maxson, Rob Brezsny & Clint Reid
The other white beet So, apparently what we thought were turnips on last week’s cover were an elusive form of white beets, according to Jack, the resident veggie expert at DNF. This just goes to show that a) anytime we try to guess a type of flora on the cover, we will be wrong; and b) we did just fall off the turnip truck.
On the cover
The upside to smoky skies: fiery sunsets./Photo by Missy Votel
ADDRESS: P.O. Box 332 Durango, CO 81302
: 970-259-0133
E-MAIL: telegraph@durangotelegraph.com
Ear to the ground:
“I was making $6.50 an hour but drinking $12.50 an hour.”
– Former ski bum discussing the economic disadvantages of said lifestyle
Beth is back
There’s a new familiar face at the Durango Arts Center. This week, the local nonprofit arts organization announced it has hired longtime resident and Jill-of-all-trades Bath Lamberson Warren to take the helm.
Lamberson Warren will serve as DAC interim executive director through Feb. 1, 2026. She joined the DAC in June in a fundraising capacity.
“The board is excited to welcome Beth as an experienced leader to guide this important transition,”
DAC Board President Jeff Graves stated. “She has shown strong alignment with our mission to continue developing the DAC into a regional cultural hub.”
A resident of La Plata County for 43 years, Lamberson Warren previously led KSUT Public Radio and the Adaptive Sports Association. “The DAC has been close to my heart since the days when Barbara Conrad and I had offices next door to each other on the second floor of the Main Mall,” she shared. “My children and I have performed in theater productions, I’ve produced live music concerts, and the DAC has always been a part of my neighborhood.”
(She also quipped she was excited to be able to see the 2026 Follies, although we’re sure that’s not why she took the job.)
Lamberson Warren holds a master’s degree in political science with a focus on nonprofit management from the University of Colorado Denver. She is a two-time recipient of the El Pomar Award for Excellence and a seasoned grant writer, fundraiser and community engagement professional.
Jason Lythgoe, who has served as executive director for the past 18 months, will transition back to working with the youth theater program and overseeing daily theater operations.
The Durango Telegraph publishes every Thursday, come hell, high water, tacky singletrack or mon-
ster powder days. We are wholly independently owned and operated by the Durango Telegraph
There will be a reception for Lamberson Warren at the DAC from 5-7 p.m. this Fri., Aug. 1 in the Barbara Conrad Gallery. The DAC is planning community input gatherings later this fall.
And speaking of fall, the DAC will host its 31st annual Durango Autumn Arts Festival on Sept. 20-21. For more on that or the DAC’s host of ongoing classes, exhibits and performances, go to: www.durangoarts.org.
Lamberson Warren
LaVidaLocal opinion
What
keeps your heart going
Dear reader, what are you doing to keep your heart strong? Because I’m still figuring out what it means to be morbidly alive with chronic apocalypse fatigue. It’s constantly disorienting surviving under capitalism Monday through Friday, paycheck to paycheck, while white nationalist fascism is in full swing and climate disasters rupture the world. It feels like I’m making a sandwich in the kitchen of a burning house. And every day, I’m figuring out which parts of the house to avoid, and finding momentary peace in areas yet to be destroyed.
So while we are together in this house on fire, let’s step away from the smoke. Let’s find space that’s quiet and clear. I want to share a few transcendent things that keep my heart beating.
Since 2008, I’ve been a fan of Laura Stevenson’s music. She takes that singer-songwriter style and douses it with punk and grungy '90s alt-rock, creating a sound that’s like Dolly Parton-meets-Archers of Loaf-meets-Neutral Milk Hotel. In her earnest, poetic songwriting, she explores the clumsy ups and downs of romance, along with heavier topics such as depression and grief. But the other important thing to know about Stevenson is that the music and lyrical subject matter are elevated by her diamond voice, which soars and shines. My feet never touch the ground when she is singing.
How I'll get to the car.”
Throughout the album, I imagine the narrator in each song standing in front of a door where love is on the other side. The push and pull of fear and desire compel one hand to reach cautiously for the doorknob, and it takes all the strength in the world to open the door. “And I'll push it ’til it runs me through/ I will sing it 'til my lips are blue/ ‘I want to’/ ‘I want to,’” croons Stevenson on the closing track, “#1 (2).”
This year, Stevenson released her seventh studio album, “Late Great.” At this point, it’s impossible for Stevenson to release a bad album. There are only varying levels of greatness in her catalog. “Late Great” is no exception. On the album’s somber tracks, you can hear Townes Van Zandt in the minor chords. On the full-band tracks, the luscious compositions build up into something grandly bittersweet, like they were arranged by Roy Orbison. In fact, the doomed romanticism of Orbison’s songwriting is in Stevenson’s musical DNA.
Lyrically, “Late Great” is her most devastating record, as many of the songs deal with divorce and heartbreak. “Your I.D. and mine/ As they're set side by side/ On the desk of the notary/ A click of a pen and the stroke of a hand/ And there's no longer you and me,” sings Stevenson on the track, “Middle Love.” With exasperated disbelief, Stevenson sings in the chorus: “And I can't fathom/
Thumbin’It
The strong showing by Durango-bornand-raised cyclists Sepp Kuss and Quinn Simmons in this year’s Tour de France. Way to do the hometown proud!
After several nail-biting hours of tsunami warnings and watches, residents of and bordering the Pacific Ocean dodged the bullet, with only high surf and minor flooding reported in Hawaii and California after an 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck off Russia’s eastern coast Wednesday
“Four Corners Voices,” an anthology of poetry and prose by local writers, won the 2025 Colorado Book Award for Best Anthology. Now get out there and get yourself a copy.
Perhaps it’s counterintuitive to listen to sad, heartwrenching music in the summer. But the world insists on shattering my heart, so I take shelter in the blues. With that said, there’s one more beautiful thing I must share with you before everything burns down.
I keep thinking about what it means to sustain an open heart in a heartless world. I’m thinking about the ongoing genocide and forced starvation of Palestinians in Gaza. While holding all of this, I am constantly returning to June Jordan’s poems of love and rage, especially “Intifada Incantation: Poem #8 for b.b.L.” The opening lines read: “I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED/ GENOCIDE TO STOP,” and the whole poem repeats these declarations, acting as a spell rebuking genocide and to summon liberation.
Elsewhere in the poem, other incantations read: “I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED/ NOBODY THIRST AND NOBODY/ NOBODY COLD.” I recite these demands as Palestinians die from Israel’s forced starvation. I recite these with the desire to break the spell of occupation. I’m trying to maintain my soul and humanity in a hell-soaked world, so I read love poems as spells against genocide. And that’s what I admire about Jordan’s work. She understood that love is political. Her poems announce to the world, “Yes, my heart’s broken, but I love you fiercely, and I will not let our enemies erase us.”
Dear reader, hold onto what keeps your heart strong. Hope is not something I think about lately, but when I share a song or poem, it’s my admission that tomorrow is still worth living for. If I stop to tell you about a novel that felt like seeing a sunrise for the first time and how it gave me the will to keep living, it’s my admission that beautiful things are still worth fighting for. If this country is an empire on fire, then the people and places I love are reminders that we can build something better out of the ashes.
– Kirbie
Bennett
SignoftheDownfall:
Gulp. So, the reason Deion Sanders was mysteriously missing from CU spring camp was because he was battling an aggressive form of bladder cancer. You got this, Coach Prime.
The EPA is trying to roll back the 2009 "Endangerment Finding,” which established that climate-warming greenhouse gases pose a health to public health. Apparently, climate denial ain’t just a river in Egypt.
According to the Washington Post, a former chief of staff for Lauren Kooky Boebert claiming to be acting on behalf of the White House has contacted several Republican county clerks in Colorado asking if the government or a third party could inspect their election equipment. Here we go again.
A Freudian Nip MAGA member Ryan Walters is the Oklahoma superintendent of public education, and he’s made a name for himself by mandating bibles in every classroom. He’s also banned books that he deems pornographic, such as “The Kite Runner.” However, while Walters was speaking during a board of education session last Thursday, other board members noticed vintage 60s porn playing on a TV behind Walters in his office, because he forgot to turn it off before the meeting started. A spokesperson for Walters has since called the incident a “junk tabloid lie” perpetrated by “wokelahomans,” but nobody is buying it. The state is now launching a “porn probe” into the incident, but it probably won’t help, because Walters is obviously the type who enjoys a good old-fashioned probing.
PeaceVoice
Priced out of paradise
When ordinary people get shut out of extraordinary places
by Sarena Neyman
For decades, I’ve returned to Truro, Mass., drawn by some of the most breathtaking vistas on Cape Cod. I never tire of biking through the dunes, hiking the sandy bluffs of the National Seashore or watching the sun rise over the tidal flats.
But today, the beaches I once shared with families like mine are being quietly reclaimed by the ultrawealthy.
This spring, we stayed at Zinnia Cottage, one of the iconic Days Cottages along Route 6A. These 22 identical flower-named cabins sit right on the bay, so close to the water it feels like the ocean might come in your window. They’ve stood here for more than 90 years. I stayed in one 30 years ago with my kids, when even as a single mother I could afford to rent one for a week. These tiny 448-square-foot houses have since been sold as condos – fetching as much as $655,000. In the offseason, we were still able to rent one for $225 per night. Besides a spruced-up kitchen, not much had changed inside.
What was different was the old Days’ Market across the street. Gone was the shelving crammed with rows of games, swim floats, fishing supplies and staples like Campbell’s soup and Ronzoni spaghetti. In its place, a sleek specialty store with an artful grey color scheme and offerings like Mediterranean baked crackers, creamed artichoke spread and gourmet pasta. No prices on anything.
Down the road, the takeover by the affluent is even starker. Near Coast Guard Beach, a few grandfathered houses still perch atop 125-foot dunes, with sweeping views of the Atlantic. I once stayed in one called Spion Kop, a ramshackle cottage next to Highland Light, Cape Cod’s oldest and tallest lighthouse. Built in 1897 as tourist lodging by the grandson of the first lighthouse keeper, I rented it from his elderly grandson.
When he died in 2017, a retired bus line executive from New Jersey bought it. Locals tried unsuccessfully to stop the demolition. A former renter’s letter to the Truro Zoning Board captured the heartbreak: “I speak for the hundreds, if not thousands, of people who have stayed there through the years when I say it was NEVER about the accommodations. It was always about the land itself …The sea as your living room. The roar of the ocean, a constant 24/7 in your ears – so much so that even when you go back home, it is still in your ears.”
Previously affordable vacation spots, such as the Days Cottages on Cape Cod, above, are being bought up by the ultra wealthy, closing the doors on the general public from enjoying some of the country’s msot iconic and beloved landscapes./Courtesy photo.
The new owner built a tasteful replica, but it was no longer accessible to the many families who had basked in its magic over the past 120 years.
Next door, the Hi-Land View Cottages met a similar fate. For 65 years, six small cottages offered an affordable slice of paradise. But in 2021, an anonymous trust bought the land for $5 million and demolished five of the buildings, keeping one as a pool house. In their place sits a 5,100-square-foot spaceship of a house. Rumor has it J. Lo and Ben Affleck were the buyers. Last I heard, it now sits empty.
The 2011 Truro survey documents a steady decline in the town’s small summer cottages, once a mainstay of affordable tourist lodging. But it’s not just the Cape; it’s everywhere. In the 1950s, even new immigrants like my parents could rent a summer cottage at one of the many bungalow colonies across the Catskills. Rosmarin Cottages – where this Bronx-bred 7-year-old declared herself a “country girl”– is one of the few remaining. In their place are often cavernous single-family homes. Meanwhile, public lands, the last remaining refuge for many, are also under threat. The recent budget cuts will slash at least 30% from the National Park Service, leaving campsites closed, trails unmaintained and public access increasingly out of reach.
These shifts are all a direct result of a 40-year transfer of wealth from the 90% to the 1%, which has produced the largest wealth gap in a century and decimated the middle class.
But the transfer of wealth isn’t just happening in bank accounts. It’s in the quiet disappearance of ordinary people from the landscapes that once restored them. For generations, families could count on a patch of sand, a path through the woods, a porch facing a lake – places to escape the grind and feel human again. Now, those places are being reclaimed by the ultra-affluent, and a quiet but brutal message is spreading: if you can’t afford to relax, you haven’t earned it. If you can’t pay for beauty, you don’t deserve it. The ability to rest and renew is becoming the exclusive domain of those who are served – not those who serve. When teachers, nurses and factory workers are shut out by the wealthy, we lose a shared dignity, a shared claim to joy. That may not make the front page. But it marks a quiet unraveling. Because a society that denies beauty to the many and reserves it for the few has lost part of its soul.
Sarena Neyman, syndicated by PeaceVoice, is a writer living in western Massachusetts. Her essays have appeared in Huffington Post, Business Insider, Common Dreams, Cabin Life and the Christian Science Monitor ■
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Supportive yoga for recovery, sober curiosity and addictive tendencies
There is no going back to the 1960s, when everyone, no matter the color of their skin, young or old, bent over to harvest crops, and there was no shame in taking on physically demanding jobs.
For centuries, Mexicans have gone out into the fields to harvest, cleaned up after dairy cows, prepped food in restaurants, cleaned toilets/more in hotels or homes, and worked at construction sites in hotter-than-Hell conditions.
Trump’s Assistant Chief of Staff Steven Miller stopped POTUS from having a heartfelt moment recently when a dairy owner lost his workers in an ICE raid and publicly stated that Mexicans work hard and show up, unlike other workers he hires. Don’t expect the federal prison population to take over jobs mentioned, as there are laws in place to prevent that from happening. Robots would trip and break apart in a field of produce, and prototypes prove that to be true.
Let’s face it, the continued deportations of hard-working Mexicans will hit our country with fields of dried up fruit/vegetables, more expensive hotel
rooms/menus, and the list goes on. Oh, don’t forget tariffs, soon to be implemented, which will be just another huge expense to all hard-working classes. The very rich can handle this; most of us will suffer.
–
Sally Florence, Durango
Our legal ‘drug cartel’
Just before President Trump pushed her out at the behest of his corporate donors, former Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Lina Khan released a damning report about the most rapacious and anti-competitive actors in the healthcare system: pharmacy benefit managers.
These middlemen in the drug supply chain don’t discover new medicines. They don’t manufacture them. They don’t even physically dispense most prescriptions. Yet they rake in tens of billions of dollars each year by driving up costs for everyone else – especially patients battling cancer, HIV, heart disease and autoimmune conditions.
In their report, FTC investigators doc-
umented how the PBM industry – which is dominated by just three firms, CVS Caremark, Express Scripts and Op-
tumRx, which collectively oversee roughly 80% of all prescriptions dispensed nationwide – imposed eye-pop-
ping markups on generic drugs used to treat deadly diseases. The PBMs’ affiliated pharmacies charged hundreds – even thousands – percent more than they paid to acquire drugs like the cancer treatment Gleevec and multiple sclerosis medication Ampyra.
This isn’t just a case of corporate greed. It’s the result of a rigged market.
In theory, pharmacy benefit managers could play a valuable role by negotiating with drug manufacturers for lower prices. Instead, PBMs have made the supply chain so convoluted that almost nobody on the outside – whether the patient, pharmacist, doctor or even employer sponsoring the health plan – can easily tell how much a drug will cost after discounts, rebates, various fees and clawbacks are applied.
Congressional investigations have revealed numerous instances in which PBMs steered patients toward more expensive drugs, which come with bigger discounts and rebates for the PBM “even when there are lower-cost and equally safe and effective competing options” available.
PBMs almost never disclose the total discounts they negotiate. So patients’ cost-sharing obligations are calculated based on a drug’s unnegotiated, inflated “list price,” rather than its true discounted price. As a result, patients spend billions more out-of-pocket than they otherwise would if the discounts were publicized.
These inflated costs are a key reason why 21% of American adults have skipped filling a prescription in the past year due to affordability, while 12% have skipped doses or cut pills in half.
The FTC also found clear patterns of self-dealing, where PBMs steered the most profitable prescriptions
to their own affiliated pharmacies while boxing out independent, community pharmacies. Thousands of independent pharmacies have closed in recent years, leaving entire counties without a single brick-and-mortar store where patients can fill a prescription.
Finally, PBMs use their consolidated power to keep drugs off health plan formularies unless manufacturers pay exorbitant fees.
Congress has previously considered two bipartisan bills that would rein in PBMs’ worst abuses. And just last month, FTC chair Andrew Ferguson reignited a lawsuit that accuses PBMs of anticompetitive behavior.
Taking on PBMs won’t just lower drug costs. We must be willing to fight the entrenched interests hurting our families and finances and put patients ahead of profiteers.
– Howard Dean, former chair of the Democratic National Committee and former governor of Vermont. This piece originally ran in Salon
Drivers need to slow down, too
I’ve lived in Los Angeles and some other major U.S. cities. I’ve driven in them, walked in them and occasionally biked in them as well. Maybe it’s unique, but I learned that the speed limit was a law, and you should go as close to it as possible.
Here, it seems like people don’t give a damn that they live in a small mountain town and have bought the lie they need an SUV to get around year-round.
The Durango speed limit was decided in the 1980s to be 25 miles per hour everywhere except Main Avenue above 12th Street (I think). That means 35 is
speeding, 55 is speeding and 75 is speeding on 32nd Street. So slow down, stop completely when pedestrians are in crosswalks, and if some older guy is crossing 32nd and you’re driving a big, ugly, white SUV-type thing, stop completely even if you’re going 55 in 25.
See, that’s how community works. Just slow the hell down.
And to Durango Police, it’s not glamorous but you chose this silly town, so enforce that law.
– Christa Turnell, Durango
Tribe will cover KSUT shortfall
Over the years, I’ve opened my checkbook to support KSUT in Ignacio. Closed the checkbook as more and more progressive programming from East Coast sources dominated the programming mix. The Tribe’s investment portfolio can cover any federal funding shortfall.
– Dennis Pierce, Durango
We’ll print damned near anything
The Telegraph welcomes healthy civil discourse in 750 words or less. Writers must include their (real) name and city/town/state of residence. Personal attacks, hate speech or any other kind of b.s. deemed libelous are not welcome. Please email your profundities to: telegraph@durango telegraph.com
10 years after Gold King
Last in ‘Acid Mine’ series takes look at where we’ve been, where we’re going
by Missy Votel
Like many longtime area residents, Tom Schillaci remembers exactly where he was when the Gold King Mine spill happened Aug. 5, 2015. The environmental videographer was midshift at his job at Handlebars saloon in Silverton.
“I couldn’t just bail out of work, we were busy, so I caught the aftermath, so to speak,” he said.
And that aftermath, for those who may need a refresher, was a torrent of 3 million gallons of acid orange mine drainage rushing into the Animas River. The Tang orange plume of water soon surged its way downstream – and onto screens and front pages around the world – leaving devastated communities, farmers and businesses in its acidic wake.
For Schillaci, who had spent the last year filming his documentary series “Acid Mine Nation” – about Silverton grappling with a potential Superfund designation to clean up the toxic legacy of its mining past – it flipped the script. With the spill, a Superfund declaration was now all but imminent.
“It was going to be a little story about whether or not Silverton and San Juan County went to Superfund intervention. And then something big happened, it turned my story upside down,” said Schillaci. “A year later, they got a Superfund designation, but not the way the community wanted it to happen.”
It is that last sticking point that is the premise for the seventh (and purportedly final) video in Schillaci’s series, “Acid Mine Nation: If My Mining Company Did That.” The 65-minute documentary, which was completed in April and first screened in Silverton in June, will be shown at 6 p.m., Tues., Aug. 5, at the Powerhouse in Durango.
“I think Episode 7 is the best video of all. It wraps it all up: how we got there, how I would do it and how the EPA is not doing it. It tells a stronger story,” Schillaci said Tuesday from his home in Massachusetts, where he moved in 2020.
In case you can’t tell by his statement, Episode 7 takes a critical look at the EPA’s response to the spill and the follow-up with the Bonita Peak Mining District Superfund declaration. It raises myriad
questions surrounding the federal government’s response, notifications and promised financial compensation to those whose businesses and livelihoods were damaged by the spill, which was accidentally triggered by an EPA team.
It also takes a withering glance at the EPA’s current efforts to treat mine runoff from the Superfund site, questioning why two of the four biggest pollution sources in the area – the Red/Bonita and American Tunnel – are allowed to drain directly into Cement Creek, a tributary of the Animas. In addition, the film takes issue with the lack of baseline water quality data to chart the effort’s progress.
“There might be reasons, but I don’t
agree with the reasons,” said Schillaci of the EPA’s perceived short falls.
Wins and losses
A native of Upstate New York, Schillaci took a circuitous route to his interest in the toxic mining legacy of the San Juan Mountains. After attending college out east, he moved to Beaver Creek to be a ski bum in the 1990s. That eventually led him to Denver a few years later.
While in Denver, he read an article in 2001 about FLC geosciences professor Robert Blair, who was starting the Mountain Studies Institute, a nonprofit research and education center in Silverton. He reached out to Blair, offering his services for photography and videography, and Blair, in turn, encouraged
Schillaci to attend Telluride’s Mountainfilm Festival. He did – taking in a film about the now-disbanded Animas River Stakeholders Group.
Headed up by well-known Silverton residents and water luminaries Bill Simon and Peter Butler, the group formed in 1994 to address water quality issues in the Animas River drainage above Silverton. For years, the watershed had been devoid of fish, unable to support life due to its heavy metal load. However, by 2001, in part thanks to the group’s efforts as well as a now-decommissioned water treatment plant once owned by Sunnyside Gold Corp., fish returned to the formerly dead Cement Creek.
“The early 2000s was the best we’d
The Animas River through Durango flows a sickly shade of orange on Aug. 6, 2015, a day after the Gold Kind Mine spill unleashed 3 million gallons of acidic mine drainage./ Photo courtesy Jonathan Thompson
seen for water quality,” said Schillaci. “I got inspired.”
That inspiration led Schillaci to the West Slope, where he shot his first environmental video in Silverton in 2001. Alas, the early 2000s was the high point for water quality on Cement Creek and the Animas above town. For various complex reasons (for a detailed description, see “Acid Mine” Episode 1), the water treatment plant ceased operation soon after, and levels of toxic metals, including zinc – deadly to fish in high amounts – again rose to pre-2000 levels.
“All the gains were lost,” said Schillaci.
After that first video, Schillaci spent the next several years jumping around the West Slope of the Rockies, living as far south as Bloomfield, N.M., and as far north as Grand Junction. He spent eight or nine years in Durango before moving to Telluride. However, a job opportunity in New York called him back to the East Coast for a few years.
“I went to New York to chase the money, but the lesson I learned is, don’t chase the money,” he said.
Frustrations and solutions
In 2014, he moved back to Silverton, where he lived for 3½ years. It was during this time that the idea of Superfund status was heating up in Silverton. At the time, the Red/Bonita and Mogul mines north of town were gushing 250-300 gallons and 165 gallons a minute, respectively, of toxic runoff into Cement Creek. And that’s when the idea for the “Acid Mine Nation” series was born.
Schillaci made several episodes before health issues in 2020 forced him back to sea level on the East Coast, where he finished Episode 6. Despite no longer living in the area, Schillaci, whose close mentor Simon passed away early this year, felt obligated to follow it up with one last salvo.
“I thought Episode 6 was the last one, but sh*t kept happening,” he said. “They’ve spent $140 million on the Superfund, but there’s been no appreciable improvement in the water quality below Silverton. That’s what frustrates me and other people; that’s what kept me going.”
In fact, the process was so frustrating that Butler, a member of the Citizens Superfund Working Group – who had some of the most institutional knowledge of the drainage and surrounding topography – resigned from his advisory board post in late 2023.
It is this “consternation,” as Schillaci puts it, that led to the Episode 7 title. However, it is meant not just to lob complaints at the EPA but to offer solutions. Those include treating the runoff from not just the Gold King Mine but the American Tunnel and Red/Bonita. For starters, those two drain onto Bureau of Land Management land, meaning the EPA would need to work out some sort of agreement with its fellow federal agency. He said he realizes the resulting load of sludge load – left when the tainted water evaporates – may be too much for the existing tailings pond to handle. But with the planned conversion of Pond #4 at the Mayflower Mill site, there should be more space for sludge disposal soon.
As for the other big polluter in the district, the Mogul Mine, it presents more of a challenge because of its distance from the Gold King water treatment plant. But Schillaci said “in-situ” treatment of the water with acid-neutralizing microbes is an idea worth exploring.
Schillaci recently discussed his ideas during a presentation at a mining conference in Leadville, which was attended by the project manager for the Bonita Peak Superfund Site, Christina Progess.
“She said, ‘Maybe there are some things we can improve on.’ That, to me, was the best outcome I could have ever hoped for – the EPA project seeing they might be able to improve on some of the processes,” he said. “They should be treating more water. I hope that’s their goal.”
Schillaci at the confluence of the Animas River, left, and Cement Creek during a typical spring runoff. Typically, Cement Creek, which drains the Bonita Peak mining area, is some shade of brownish-orange due to mine waste./ Courtesy photo
And last but not least, Schillaci would like to see the federal government make good on its long-overdue promise to reimburse economic losses as a result of the spill. In September 2024, Colorado Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper introduced SB 568, “The Gold King Mine Spill Compensation Act,” which would pay losses to those impacted directly. However, the legislation has yet to go anywhere.
Of course, just as the acid mine problem around Silverton was decades in the making, so, too will be the solutions, Schillaci conceded.
“These (Superfund efforts) are 20-year things, we’re just 10 years in,” Schillaci said.
Which leads to the question: will there be an Episode 8?
“There’s a potential for an addendum if the bill to pay claims moves through,” said Schillaci, now 61. “But I think I’m done ripping on the EPA.”
In the meantime, he invites people to come to the Powerhouse next Tuesday – especially those newer to the area who may be unfamiliar with the event.
“For people who came to Durango after, they might not know anything about the Gold King Mine spill,” he said.
And, for those who were here to witness the disaster flowing down their beloved waterway, what better venue to share those forever-etched memories?
“The Powerhouse is right on the river, so I want to do a cocktail hour outside, and people can tell their stories of ‘Where did you see the orange river?’ Because the orange river went right through there,” he said. ■
JusttheFacts
Sen. Michael Bennett, D-Colo., will hold a roundtable discussion marking the 10th anniversary of the Gold King Mine spill at 12:15 p.m. Tues., Aug. 5, at Silverton Town Hall, 1360 Greene St. Community members are invited to comment on how clean-up is going and areas where Congress can provide more support.
More info. on Bennett’s “Gold King Mine Compensation Act” (SB 568) can be found at: tinyurl.com/2yj4pujk
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Durango’s easiest pickup since 2002
RegionalNews
Copper Creek conundrum
State plans to kill additional wolf due to continued cattle deaths
by Sam Brasch / Colorado Public Radio
Colorado Parks and Wildlife is working to kill at least one additional wolf from the Copper Creek Pack living in Pitkin County.
The decision comes after wildlife officials determined wolves killed a calf near Aspen earlier in July.
In a written statement, Luke Perkins, CPW spokesperson, said investigators found a “preponderance of evidence” suggesting wolves injured the animal before it succumbed to its wounds. A wildlife damage specialist confirmed the death as a wolf kill on July 18.
“Staff have been in the area since Sunday, July 20, attempting to locate the wolves,” Perkins said. “The terrain is challenging at best, and staff have not been able to get close to the wolves after multiple attempts. Staff will continue to monitor locations and attempt to intervene if possible.”
Perkins did not respond to follow-up questions seeking to clarify if CPW is working to remove one wolf or multiple wolves.
CPW has struggled to manage the Copper Creek Pack since it relocated the family group last winter. Since it was released, the wildlife agency has reported seven wolf attacks in Pitkin County and eight confirmed kills.
State officials killed a young male pack member May 29, marking the first time the agency has lethally removed a wolf since it began reintroducing the predators. While CPW was hopeful the removal would steer the pack away from livestock, incidents have continued to plague ranchers living near the pack’s den site outside Snowmass.
The plan to remove another wolf marks the latest chapter in the saga of the infamous family group. The Copper Creek Pack was established by two wolves CPW captured in Oregon and released in late 2023. Gov. Jared Polis celebrated the pack’s first litter of pups the following spring as a milestone in the state’s controversial votermandated wolf reintroduction effort.
The pack, however, soon started feeding on livestock near its den site in Grand County. CPW responded by capturing the animals, and the breeding male died shortly after. A federal investigation later found the predator died due to a gunshot
A collared wolf in Colorado’s reintroduction effort. Last August, the Copper Creek Pack, the state’s first reproducing pack – which had been causing trouble in Grand County – was captured by CPW. The alpha male died soon after from a gun shot wound. The rest of the pack was released in January in Pitkin County, where, unfortunately, they continue to prey on cattle./ Photo courtesy CPW
wound in its back leg. Wildlife officials held the remainder of the pack in captivity until January 2025, when it re-released them into Pitkin County. At the time, the CPW also reintroduced another batch of 15 wolves in Pitkin and Eagle counties captured in British Columbia.
By moving the Copper Creek Pack, CPW broke from its own recommendation against relocating wolves with a habit of preying on livestock. The state’s wolf management plan warns the practice risks “translocating the problem along with the wolves.”
Before capturing the wolves, CPW Director Jeff Davis said the decision was an answer to "unique" circumstances facing the state’s nascent wolf restoration effort. At the time, the family group represented the only example of reintroduced wolves successfully breeding and helping the state reach its goal of a self-sustaining population. Davis recently told lawmakers the decision to relocate the animals was his alone.
Tom Harrington, the manager of the Crystal River Ranch near Aspen and former president of the Colorado Cat-
tlemen’s Association, said livestock groups applied for a permit to lethally remove Copper Creek Pack members. CPW denied the request since state wildlife officials were already working to kill some of the predators, Harrington said.
While he’s glad CPW is removing some of the wolves, he’s not confident it will redirect the pack to prey on wildlife like deer and elk.
“The pack has proven it will choose to prey on livestock in multiple locations,” Harrington said. “Until the entire pack is relocated to a sanctuary or lethally removed, depredations won’t end.”
Rob Edward, a wildlife advocate and director of the Rocky Mountain Wolf Project, said it’s unclear if the latest attack on livestock meets the thresholds CPW established to decide whether to kill wolves, but said the agency has been careful to follow those rules in the past.
“We don’t want to see any more wolves lost if we can avoid it. But it’s also within the agency's responsibility to determine whether that’s the next best step,” Edward said.
For more from Colorado Public Radio, go to .www.cpr.org. ■
EndoftheLine
Remembering Ms. Haller
Beloved DHS teacher changed lives, one calculus problem at a time
by Abby Scott
Tara Haller, or, as I knew her, "Ms. Haller," passed away earlier this month. The Durango Herald published a thoughtful obituary, and I’m grateful to those who knew Ms. Haller the best for sharing her life story with such care. I simply wanted to offer another tribute — from the perspective of one of the many students who was fortunate enough to learn from her.
I met Ms. Haller when I joined her Calculus AB class during my junior year of high school. On the first day of Calculus AB, she taught us about limits, then assigned the most homework I had ever received. I walked out of her class with my head spinning, wondering if I was in over my head. That night I pulled out my calculus homework with trepidation and found myself confused on the first problem. In a moment of youthful insecurity, I began to think that perhaps this was proof I just was not that smart.
However, I remembered that Ms. Haller had sent us a website link—the Homework Website—where she worked through that night’s assigned problems. Before I could fall too deeply into despair, I opened the website. Methodically organized by date and subject, it showed all the homework problems Ms. Haller had assigned and how she had worked through each one. With the help of the Homework Website, I was able to slowly work my way through all my calculus homework. The next day in class, I found I could follow the lesson.
Looking back—now as someone who has worked as an educator —I’m struck by how much time and energy must have gone into creating and maintaining the Homework Website. Ms. Haller updated it daily for all her classes, often solving problems in multiple ways to offer students different paths to understanding. The site was a perfect reflection of her teaching philosophy: challenge students with high expectations and rigorous work, but always pair that with the support students needed to succeed—whether through the Homework Website, her lunch office hours or her quiet, steady emotional encouragement.
And succeed we did. While the average AP scores at Durango High School typically was a 2 or 3, Ms. Haller’s students consistently earned 4s and 5s. This success undoubtedly came from her thoughtful organization and unwavering belief that students could rise
to the challenge of A.P. tests.
Ms. Haller's faith in her students extended far beyond her calculus classes—she saw promise in every student at Durango High School. One of the many ways she put this belief into action was launching the school's first AP Computer Science program in 2016, and adding a second, more advanced Computer Science class the following year. Though she wasn't particularly familiar with coding when she started, she recognized the changing tech landscape and was determined to prepare Durango High School students for it.
While continuing to teach a full class load of calculus classes, she learned computer science curricula and attended the Colorado Legacy Schools Program to ensure her new classes welcomed students from all backgrounds. As she put it: "It is important that all students
Still ill lots of summummer r left!
Shorts, tanks, sandals and swimsuits for the water and trails from brands like Chacos, Patagonia and Kühl
are invited into a community of learners and feel like they belong."
That belief in belonging wasn't just something she said—it was something she lived. And it shaped not only her classroom, but also the people she taught. I know I am one of many students still carrying her lessons—lessons that reached far beyond math and computer science—into how I engage with the world.
Ms. Haller’s influence shows up in both the small and big moments of my life. I think of Ms. Haller when I log into my bank account, remembering her practical lesson about password security in AP Computer Science. I think of her when I show up for my community, just as she showed up for her students' games and performances. In my current teaching role, I think of her when I meet high school students who, like I once did, don't believe they are smart. Most of all I think of her when I look people in the eye and truly listen—something she did with every student who walked into her classroom.
So, Ms. Haller, I hate to disturb you—for I'm sure a new batch of students needing math and computer science help have already found you in whatever world comes after this life—but I wanted to say thank you. Thank you for letting me study in your classroom at lunch, for helping me believe I was smart and capable, and for seeing potential in every one of your students.
A celebration of the life of Tara Haller will be held Sat., Sept. 6, from 4-7 p.m. at the Chris Park Group Site near Haviland Lake. The celebration includes remembrances (4-5 p.m.), a shared meal with provided barbecue and vegetarian options (5-6 p.m.), and a group campfire with music and memories (6-7 p.m.) Please bring a side dish or dessert to share, beverages of your choice, and musical instruments if possible. Camping is available for overnight stays – arrive before 3 p.m. to set up campsites or RVs. Carpooling is encouraged.
Donations in memory of Tara may be made to the Durango Education Foundation (9rfoundation@gmail .com) to support a scholarship established in her name for a student pursuing studies in mathematics or computer science.
Abby Scott was born and raised in Durango, graduating from Durango High School in 2018 and from Williams College in 2025. She currently works as the Development Coordinator for a higher education NGO based in Kenya and plans to split her time this year between Chepkanga, Kenya and remote work in Durango. Her favorite part of her posi-
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: 7/31, 6-9pm, Christy Harrington 8/1, 7-10pm, Helter Smelter • 8/2, 6-9pm, Sife FX 8/3, 10am-1 pm, Spark Madden
Tara Haller, an unwavering supporter of her students and all things DHS, passed away last week from a rare and aggressive form of cancer./ Courtesy photo
Stuff to Do
Thursday31
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
“Share Your Garden” surplus garden produce distribution, 4:30-6 p.m., Animas Valley Grange, 7271 CR 203
Ska-B-Q with music by Jim Sobo, 5 p.m., Ska Brewing, 225 Girard St.
Durango Green Drinks, 5-7 p.m., 11th St. Station, 1101 Main Ave.
Concert Hall at the Park with After Midnight, 5:30-7:30 p.m., Buckley Park
Weekly Dart Tournament, 5:30 p.m., Union Social House, 3062 Main Ave.
Jeff Solon Jazz, 6-8 p.m., Lola’s Place, 725 E. 2nd.
Name That Tune Trivia Bingo, 6-8 p.m., Barons Creek Vineyards, 901 Main Ave.
Christy Harrington plays, 6-9 p.m., 11th St. Station, 1101 Main Ave.
Adam Swanson plays, 6-9 p.m., Diamond Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave.
Rob Webster 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
“Village Weirdo,” standup comedy with Andy Mathews, 7 p.m., Durango Arts Center, 802 E. 2nd Ave.
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.
Friday01
Carve Wars, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Purgatory Resort
San Juan Nature Walks, 10 a.m.-12 noon, Andrews Lake upper parking area
Durango First Friday Art Crawl, 4-7 p.m., various locations, downtown Durango
An Evening of Art, Compassion and Connection with artists Carolyn & Andy Arnold, 4-8 p.m., Dancing Spirit Center for the Arts, 465 Goddard Ave., Ignacio
“Seeing with Beginner’s Mind,” a Zen-inspired
photo walk, 5-7 p.m., Sun Sapphires, 640 Main Ave.
Bill Grimes “Light Industrial,” opening reception, Fri., Aug. 1, 5-8 p.m., Studio & Recess Gallery, 1027 Main Ave.
First Friday Artist Social, 5:30 p.m., The ArtRoom Collective, Smiley Building, 1309 E. 3rd Ave.
La Marcha de la Puebla, national rally to support immigrants, 5:30 p.m., Buckley Park
Tom Ward’s Downfall plays, 6-8 p.m., Durango Winery, 900 Main Ave.
“Art in the Box” with artist Heather Delaney, 6-8 p.m., The Light Box at Stillwater Music, 1316 Main Ave., Ste. C
Kirk James plays, 6-9 p.m., Union Social House, 3062 Main Ave.
Dustin Burley plays, 6-9 p.m., Office Spiritorium, 699 Main Ave.
Adam Swanson plays, 6-9 p.m., Diamond Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave.
Friday Nights at Fox Fire with Jeff Solon, 6-9 p.m., Fox Fire Farms Winery, 5513 CR 321, Ignacio
Brahms and Friends, Music in the Mountains Chamber Orchestra concert, 7 p.m., Community Concert Hall, FLC
“Bumps in the Night,” presented by Durango Youth Theatre, 7 p.m., Durango Art Center, 802 E. 2nd.
Open Mic Comedy, 7-9 p.m., EsoTerra, 558 Main.
Helter Smelter plays, 7-10 p.m., 11th St. Station, 1101 Main Ave.
Outdoor Movie Night: “The Wizard of Oz,” 7:309:30 p.m., Sunnyside Library, 75 CR 218
Saturday02
Durango Farmers Market, 8 a.m.-12 noon, Saturdays thru Oct., TBK Parking Lot, 259 W. 9th St.
Lost Goat Market Days, 10 a.m.-3 p.m., Lost Goat Tavern, 39848 HWY 160, Gem Village
Ross Douglas plays, 12 noon-2 p.m., Lola’s Place, 725 E. 2nd Ave.
DJ Spark Madden plays, 10 a.m.-1 p.m., 11th St. Station, 1101 Main Ave.
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
“Bumps in the Night,” presented by Durango Youth Theatre, 2 p.m., Durango Art Center, 802 E. 2nd.
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
“Grand Finale Tchaikovsky Spectaculaire!” Music in the Mountains orchestra concert, 5 p.m., Community Concert Hall, FLC
Blue Moon Ramblers play, 6-9 p.m., Diamond Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave.
AskRachel
Red flags, tipping point and lots o’ fun
Interesting fact: At least one selfproclaimed etiquette guru recommends tipping $1 for most kiosk/service counter transactions. It’s practically like not tipping at all, only you get to feel better about yourself.
Dear Rachel,
One of my two best friends has a new boyfriend who is her best yet. Attentive, compassionate, sweet. But he is definitely jealous of her friendships with men. I think this is a big red flag. Our other best friend thinks it’s kind of romantic (because it shows he cares). In fairness, this guy has not acted on his jealousy, but he makes it clear in what he says. Is this an automatic warning sign? Or can it actually be a good thing?
– Up the Flagpole Dear Flapping in the Breeze, Emotions are not, themselves, bad or good. This bro is allowed to feel jealous. But my dear, “making it clear in what he
Ben Gibson plays, 6-9 p.m., Office Spiritorium, 699 Main Ave.
Monday04
Movie Monday: “The Minecraft Movie,” 2-4 p.m., Fort Lewis Mesa Library, 11274 HWY 140, Hesperus
Happy Hour Yoga, 5:30 p.m., Ska Brewing, 225 Girard St.
Adam Swanson plays, 5:30-10 p.m., Diamond Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave.
Terry Rickard plays, 6-9 p.m., Office Spiritorium, 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.
Tuesday05
Stories in the Park, 10-11 a.m., Santa Rita Park Picnic Shelter
Business Brainstorm meetup, 12 noon-1 p.m., FLC Center for Innovation, 835 Main Ave., Ste. 225
says” is a form of acting on his jealousy. This does not sound like healthy communication. It sounds like dude gets moody and can’t express it constructively. As a new boyfriend, he is on his best behavior. This IS his best behavior. I’m not saying you should wave the red flags, but you should definitely have them unfurled and ready to roll.
– Get set, Rachel
Dear Rachel,
I’m a generous tipper, but I found my line: airport kiosks. You do not need to ask me for an extra 25% on top of my already pricegouged $32 turkey sandwich. I’m not opposed to workers getting paid, but the companies need to do it. They already have us captive, hungry and stressed. Pay your people. Don’t ask me to do it. Do you agree? Will run-amok tipping ever be reeled back?
– Tipped Over
“National Night Out,” public safety block party, 5-7:30 p.m., Buckley Park
Locals at Leplatt’s Pond, music, food trucks, fishing and family fun, 5-9 p.m. every Tuesday through July, LePlatt’s Pond, 311A CR 501, Bayfield
Book Club: “Why Fish Don’t Exist,” by Lulu Miller, 6-7:30 p.m., Durango Public Library, 1900 E. 3rd Ave.
Concerts in the Plaza with High Altitude, 6-8 p.m., Three Springs Plaza, 175 Mercado St.
Open Mic, 7 p.m., Starlight Lounge, 937 Main Ave.
Man 2 Man Prostate Cancer
Dear Tipper Gore, I’ve developed a rule of tipping: don’t tip until you’ve received what you paid for. This isn’t to be a dick. It’s actually to keep me from feeling guilty about selecting “No tip” on the screen when 25% and 28% are right there shaming me. This is also the only reason remaining for me to carry cash. I just know my barista appreciates my pocket-sweaty bills as a show of appreciation,
– Just the tip, Rachel
Dear Rachel,
What about people who park right on the line in their parking space. Yes, they are technically in their space. But this makes it challenging for people in the next space. It was OK when spaces used to be wide, but now everything is tighter to fit in more customers. Are they jerks just asking for a door dent? Or are they within their rights (and their space)?
– Riding the Line
Support Group of Durango, 7-8 p.m., via Zoom, prostategroupdro@gmail.com
Wednesday06
La Plata County Fair, 8 a.m.-8 p.m., La Plata County Fairgrounds
Weekly Bird Walks, 8-9:30 a.m., Durango Public Library Botanical Gardens, 1900 E. 3rd Ave.
Adam Swanson plays, 6-9 p.m., The Diamond Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave.
Chuck Hank plays, 6-9 p.m., Office Spiritorium, 699 Main Ave.
Live Jazz, 6:30-8:30 p.m., 636 Main.
True Western Open Rodeo, 5 p.m., La Plata County Fairgrounds
Email Rachel at telegraph@durango telegraph.com
Dear In Bounds,
Letter of the law: they’re fine. Spirit of the thing: they really ought to correct their parking. But what if they’re squeezed over because the jerk next to THEM was riding the line? What if this rippled down an entire parking lot? You can’t know who the jerk-of-origin was. But it was probably some dude jealous that his new girlfriend has guy friends, because clearly he has some issues with clear boundaries.
– Backing in, Rachel
Open Mic, 7 p.m., EsoTerra, 558 Main.
Comedy + Karaoke, 7 p.m., Starlight Lounge, 937 Main Ave.
Ongoing
Comedy Improv Jams, second and fourth Tuesdays of the month through August, 6-8 p.m., Sunflower Theatre, 8 E. Main St., Cortez
“Balance,” exhibit by the Studio ART Quilt Associates, thru August, Durango Art Center, 802 E. 2nd Ave.
Bill Grimes “Light Industrial” art installation, thru August, Studio & Recess Gallery, 1027 Main Ave.
Upcoming
Spanish Conversation Hour, Thurs., Aug. 7, 5:30-6:30 p.m., Durango Public Library, 1900 E. 3rd Ave.
Bayfield Block Party featuring Yes, No, Maybe and Shiny Things, Thurs., Aug. 7, 5:30-8:30 p.m., Mill Street, Bayfield
Kirk James plays, Fri., Aug. 8, 5 p.m., Cliffside Bar & Grille, 314 Tamarron Dr. July 31, 2025 n 13
FreeWillAstrology
by Rob Brezsny
ARIES (March 21-April 19): For many bamboo species, nothing visible happens for years after the seeds are sowed. Beneath the surface, though, the plants are developing an extensive underground root system. This is referred to as the “sleep” or “creep” phase. Once the preparatory work is finished, the aboveground growth explodes, adding as much as 3 feet of stalk per day. I sense you have been following a similar pattern. Soon you will launch a phase of vigorous evolution and expansion. It might feel unsettling at first, but I predict you will come to adore it.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): You are very close to uncovering interesting information about yourself – some new, some forgotten. But you will have to be brave and strategic to actually find it. If you manage to pull off this demanding-but-not-impossible trick, a series of breakthroughs may stream your way. Like what? Here are the possibilities. 1. A distorted self-image will fade. 2. An adversary’s hex will dissolve. 3. An inhibition will subside, freeing you to unite with a fun asset. 4. You will knock down a barrier that has been so insidious you didn’t know how strong it was.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): In medieval music, “organum” refers to passages that feature two voices. One is sung in long, sustained notes, and the other performs intricate, faster-moving melodic lines. This is an apt metaphor for the roles I invite you to take on in coming weeks: both the drone and the melody. One way to do it is to hold steady in one realm as you improvise in another. Another is to offer your allies doses of stability and inspiration. Welcome the duality! You are capable of deep-rooted rhythm and visionary risk; fortifying truth and playful fun.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): Ernest Hemingway had a reputation for bravado, but he was adept at wielding the protective, self-nourishing skills your sign is renowned for. He was sensitive about his works-inprogress, refusing to discuss unfinished stories. He understood that raw creative energy needed to be sheltered until it could stand on its own. “The first draft of anything is shit,” he said, but he also knew that defending the right to write that mediocre first draft was essential. Hemingway’s ability to channel his emotional vulnerability into moving prose came from establishing firm boundaries around his generative process. I recommend you do all that in coming weeks.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): In ancient China and ancient Greece, the lion was not the king of beasts, but the guardian of gates. The threshold keeper. The one who asked, “Are you ready?” Now is a good time to bring this aspect of Leonine symbolism to your attention. You may soon feel a surge of leadership radiance but not necessarily the stage-commanding kind. It will be more like priest and priestess energy. People and situations in your orbit are on the verge of transformation, and you can be a midwife – not by fixing or moralizing, but by witnessing. I invite you to hold space. Ask potent questions. Be the steady presence ready to serve as a catalyst.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): The lovefakers and promise-breakers and delusionmakers are no fun, but I think you will ultimately be grateful they helped you clarify your goals. The reverse healers and ideastealers and greedy feelers are perilous to your peace of mind, but eventually they will motivate you to create more rigorous protections for your heart, health and stability. It’s one of those odd times when people with less than pure intentions and high integrity can be valuable teachers.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is built into a Norwegian mountain near the Arctic. It’s humanity’s backup garden. It stores over a million seed varieties from all over the world, serving as a safeguard for biodiversity. I invite you to imagine yourself as a seed vault. What valuable capacities are you saving up for the future? Are there treasures you contain that will ensure your long-term stability and security? Which of your potentials needs to get extra nurturing? Bonus: Now is a good time to consider whether you should activate any of these promises.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): There’s a myth in Gnostic traditions that Sophia, the Goddess of Divine Wisdom, split herself apart and dispersed into the material world. She became embedded in every stone, plant and drop of blood. And she’s still here, murmuring truth. In Sophia’s spirit, here is your message: Wisdom isn’t elsewhere. It’s embedded in your body, your grief, the wood grain of your table and the ache behind your eyes. More than ever, you have a mandate to celebrate this. Refrain from thinking that spirituality is about transcendence and ascendance. Instead, greet the sacred in the dust and mud. Listen for Sophia in the ordinary.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): When I do tours to promote the books I write, the range of encounters can be wide. On one trip, more than 300 people came to see me at a bookstore in New York City. They listened raptly, posed interesting questions and bought 71 books. In Atlanta three days later, I was greeted by nine semi-interested people at a small store in a strip mall. They purchased three books. But I gave equal amounts of energy at both gigs. The crowd in Atlanta got my best, as did the audience in New York. I invite you to regard me as a role model. Proceed as if every experience deserves your brightest offerings. Express yourself with panache no matter the surroundings.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): In ancient Egyptian cosmology, ka is the vital essence and the double of a person that lives on after death. But it also walks beside you while you live. It drinks, eats and dreams. It is both you and more than you. In coming days, I invite you to tune in to your ka and any other spiritual presences that serve and nourish you. Be alert for visitations from past selves, forgotten longings and future visions that feel eerily familiar.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): “Dear Rob Brezsny: I wonder what you are like in person. Sometimes I get a Gen X vibe, like you wear vintage T-shirts from obscure bands, are skeptical but not cynical, and remember life before the internet but are tech savvy. Other times, you seem like a weird time-traveler visiting us from 2088. It’s confusing! Are you trying to be a mystery? – Aquarian Explorer.” Dear Aquarian: I’m glad I’m a riddle to you. As long as I avoid being enmeshed in people’s expectations and projections, I maintain my freedom to be my authentic self, even as I continually reinvent my authentic self. By the way, I recommend you adopt my attitude in coming weeks.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): In Norse mythology, the god Odin plucked out one of his eyes and hung himself upside down from the World Tree for nine days. Why would he do such a thing? The ancient stories tell us this act of self-sacrifice earned him the right to learn the secret of the runes, which held the key to magic, fate and wisdom. You don’t need to make a sacrifice anywhere near that dramatic. But I do suspect you are primed for a comparable process. What discomfort are you willing to endure for the sake of revelation? What illusions must you give up to see more clearly? I dare you to engage in an inner realignment that brings metamorphosis but not martyrdom.
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
ForSale
Vintage 1977 Airstream Land Yacht
$19.5k 970-759-0551
’96 Mazda Pick-Up
4.0 liter V-6 4x4 auto 200k miles. Good engine, bad trans. $500. 970-2599709 (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.
Wanted
Roommate/s
32-year-old male looking to share an apartment in Durango with a roommate or roommates who are not serious partiers. If interested please contact me at (801) 710-5014
Books Wanted at White Rabbit Donate/Trade/Sell 970 259-2213
Lost/Found
Cid Come Home
Last seen in Durango, July 21, 2024, by
St. Columba Church. He is chipped, missing left canine tooth, white, big black spots, green eyes. Reward. 970-403-6192.
Services
Boiler Service - Water Heater
Serving Durango over 30 years. Brad, 970-759-2869. Master Plbg Lic #179917
Chapman Electric Colorado Licensed master electrician. New, remodel, residential and commercial. Prompt professional service. Mike 970-403-6670.
Do have fruit trees? Want to help eliminate food waste, reduce human-bear conflict,and directly address food security? Check out the Good Food Collective website: we host a platform that specializes in matchmaking fruit trees with volunteer harvesters. Need to borrow some gear? The Durango Tool Library has harvest kits available! Reach out to outr each@goodfoodcollective.org to learn how to join in the fun & thank you for listing your trees!
Dog Fosters Needed Parker’s Animas Rescue needs foster
families to provide temporary homes for rescued dogs: parkersanimal rescue.com.
Community Compassion Outreach
at 21738 HWY 160 W is open Tues., Wed. and Fri. 9 a.m.- 4 p.m. for case management, client services, snacks, drinks, meals and support for those with substance-use disorders and co-occurring mental health issues. Saturdays Coffee & Conversations, 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Thursdays Harm Reduction, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
Engaging Volunteer Opportunity Alternative Horizons needs volunteers to staff our hotline. Training provided. For info., visit alternativehorizons.org
‘Happy Gilmore 2’ Have your bingo card ready for the cameos cuz not much else here
The Maker Lab in Bodo Park Collaborative workspace, tools, learning and equipment featuring metal and woodworking, laser cutting, 3D printing, electronics and sewing. Classes for all levels. www.themakerlab.org.
