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Wildfires and wind currents: air quality in western Colorado

Imagine that you drive north from Montrose, Colorado to Grand Junction. Air quality starts out pretty good, gets worse. You take I-70 east to Glenwood Springs, then angle southeast, but higher, to Aspen.    It looks like the smoke and ash of regional fires flow up both Colorado and Roaring Fork rivers. Upvalley. I felt it in my lungs which is what got me interested. Here's the key to my slapped together chart.     0 to 50 = Good 51 to 100 = Moderate 101 to 150 = Unhealthy for sensitive groups 151 to 200 = Unhealthy 201 to 300 = Very unhealthy 301+ = Hazardous     I suspect this random bit of citizen science (data points from public resources) is no more than that. But wildfires move fast and fire isn't the only concern.
Recent posts

The Vanishing Reporter

For over 25 years I was a weekly newspaper columnist. That doesn’t make me a journalist. Writing personal essays isn’t the same thing as reporting on the news. But I hung around with a lot of real newspaper professionals. I grew to respect them. I also saw what’s happened everywhere. Newspaper editions got thinner, not only in number of pages, but in the width and height, too. Mainly that’s because the business model for newspapers used to be based on advertising. Now most of that has shifted to the internet. Subscriptions don’t replace the lost revenue. Smaller papers are cheaper. Even big papers with international reputations were struggling. The Washington Post was one of them. In their case salvation came in the surprising form of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. He bought the paper from the Graham family in 2013 for $250 million. At first, Bezos seemed content to mostly leave it alone. In 2017, the Washington Post adopted a new slogan: “democracy dies in darkness.” In February of this y...

Spotlight on Glenwood Springs Branch Library

One of the standard segments of our library board meetings is the Branch Manager Report. In July, our director of branches, Nancy Barnes, filled in for vacationing Abraham Korah. Their comments were so good I thought them worthy of wider dissemination. I have lightly edited them, adding my own intro and conclusions. Intro Our board meetings move around the district. The last board meeting at Glenwood happened in April of 2025. Concluding in May was the art show we held with the Glenwood Art Guild. We currently have some informative displays from the Glenwood Historic Preservation Society of notable buildings as well as information about how Glenwood residents can landmark their homes for preservation. We also have a “Join the Conversation” display and cards for community participation in conjunction with the One Small Step Storycorp grant that Adult Services Coordinator Trary LaMee secured earlier this year which aims to foster civil and civic community engagement. If you walk by the f...

Locals' Choice Award for Librarian

I forgot to record this when it happened. Back in April. the Post Independent posted their winners of the 2025 Locals' Choice Awards. Garfield County Public Library District won twice: I edged out New Castle Branch Manager Ana Gaytan for the #1 Librarian; she came in at #2. They even gave us a plaque, on display at our HQ. Thank you, Garfield County!

Building Community in New Castle and Parachute

Garfield County has some wonderful libraries, most of them built about a decade ago following a successful public vote on a bond issue. But 10 years is long enough to call for a second look and to freshen things up. Our first building refresh is the New Castle Branch. Branch manager Ana Gaytan cut the ribbon on May 28, 2025. Jenn Cook, former New Castle branch manager (now Technical Services Director for the district) held one end and I held the other. Just beyond was a couch, chairs and Spanish materials for all ages. I recommend a visit. The project, completed on time and on budget, reflects the changing use of the public library. We still check out a lot of books — over half a million a year. And just try to get through our displays without grabbing something. The book will endure. But these days just over 50% of our checkouts are virtual. That includes ebooks, audiobooks, and movies. It also includes electronic research tools: a vetted list of information sources for anyone from st...

The War on Information

This month I’d like to write about two related issues: government information and threats to children. First is the purging of data on federal websites. Beginning in January of 2025, according to NPR , “several webpages from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with references to LGBTQ+ health were no longer available. A page from the HHS Office for Civil Rights outlining the rights of LGBTQ+ people in health care settings was also gone … The website of the National Institutes of Health’s Office for Sexual & Gender Minority Research Office disappeared . (Most of these pages could still be viewed through the Internet Archive .)” So I went to the Health and Human Services website about vaccination. There was a link to a video about the pros and cons of vaccines. First the video went down. Then the link was gone. Today? Best check. This is disturbing for several reasons. Government performs many functions. Gathering ongoing reports about everything from census numbers t...

My superpower

I don’t mean to brag, but since about 5th grade, I have developed — dare I say? — a superpower. I can read and walk at the same time. I’m not just talking about audiobooks. I mean I can stroll along busy streets, through intersections, and around natural hazards, all while actively reading a book in my hands. I can follow the story. I have trained my peripheral brain to alert me to physical threats. Why did I need to develop this skill? To put it simply: some books I just can’t set down. It’s not a surprise that I can still follow the story while strolling. Sometimes I can’t get out. The first books to completely capture my attention were science fiction. I discovered Robert A. Heinlein somewhere around 5th grade. I got so into that story (Have Spacesuit, Will Travel) that I was glued to it from my first awakening to final, heavy-lidded blink. I learned that there are very few things you actually have to stop reading to do: showers and sleep, mainly. Walking to school and back was easy...