Things

Like most places in the arid American West, Denver could not possibly sustain itself without water from irrigation systems. While easy to overlook, disputes over water rights began with the onset of irrigation and persist to the present day. Today, though most of Denver’s original canals have been...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a New Deal program aimed at reducing unemployment among young men by giving them steady work improving the nation’s landscape, public lands, and infrastructure. When it was implemented in 1933, the CCC was the largest-ever public works program. Today, the...

Rocky Mountain Elk ( Cervus canadensis nelsoni ) are large mammals in the deer family that live in Colorado’s forests. Revered as a symbol of the American West, they have played an important role in Colorado’s ecology and natural history. Each year, millions of people travel to Rocky Mountain...

The North American beaver ( Castor canadensis ) is native to Colorado, and its role as both an environmental engineer and a keystone species has profoundly impacted the state’s ecology and history. Although their populations today are low, beavers continue to shape Colorado’s environments. Ecology...

The Earth beneath the rugged mountains and serene plains of Colorado records an ancient saga. Broad tropical seas teemed with life, while reptiles roamed on shore. Continents converged and collided, building massive mountains, only to be torn apart by the movements of colossal tectonic plates...

The Denver Woman’s Press Club is an organization for women newspaper writers and authors founded in 1898. At the time of its founding, the club demonstrated the new social and political power of women through its involvement in a range of causes, including the women’s suffrage movement in the early...

In Colorado, water is a valuable and limited resource, and competition is only becoming more of a challenge. That’s why the Colorado Foundation for Water Education (CFWE), a non-advocacy nonprofit organization, works statewide to promote increased understanding of water resources so Coloradans can...

Sage grouse are a group of chicken-sized birds with a unique breeding behavior and dependence on sagebrush shrubs (genus Artemisia ) for food and shelter throughout their life cycle. In the last century, human population expansion throughout western North America has reduced the amount of sagebrush...

Culling is a wildlife management practice involving the lethal reduction of a species. It has historically been used as a means to control ungulate (hoofed animal) populations in Colorado and throughout the United States. As recently as 2009, it has been used in combination with other population...