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My Page: Tonya Poole

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STATE OF THE ROCKIES

The panel discussions yesterday on conservation and biodiversity followed the thread of an important overriding message: the short term benefits of our lifestyles can, and in many ways will, lead to the long-term peril of our region. Faculty Director Walter Hecox, Program Coordinator Bryan Hurlbutt and Research Manager Caitlin O’Brady each took a turn providing an introduction to the materials and conference topics and later, expert and student panel members presented questions, findings and ideas on protecting our unique landscapes and habitats and addressing threatened, endangered and invasive species.

In both land conservation and issues impacting biodiversity, it was population growth that represented the largest threat to both, as growth in the Rockies continues to outpace the national average. Bryan Hurlbutt walked conference-goers through a variety of data illustrating the squeeze that growth puts on the land and resources throughout the Rockies but he and others were careful to note that despite the concern, there’s hope that a balance can be struck between profit and protection, and that together we can work to find a way to reap the benefits of growth while minimizing the damages. [more]

STATE OF THE ROCKIES

“It appears, increasingly, that nature bats last,” said State of the Rockies Faculty Project Director Walter Hecox last night at the unveiling of the project’s 2006 Report Card. Formatted by program coordinator Bryan Hurlbutt, the report calls out issues of population growth, habitat fragmentation and threats, ranching and conservation easements and, interestingly, our ability to nurture and educate our youth. As lead researcher Caitlin O’Brady reminds us, “they’ll carry us into our future.”

Read on for highlights from the Report Card. [more]

STATE OF THE ROCKIES

This year’s State of the Rockies project kicked off this afternoon at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, armed with an agenda packed with tough questions, new goals and a long, hard glimpse at the trajectory of our future as a region. Topics of the 2006 conference and report card include climate change, environmental justice, conservation easements, ranching, biodiversity and youth – as speakers and researchers take their turn at the podium discussing findings and forging paths for ever-better, broader solutions.

In 2005, the conference carried the torch of sentiment that the Rockies were a mistreateded inland empire of the U.S., receiving little attention from policy-makers. But a new year has birthed a new attitude, and a new approach, from the Rockies project: hope, action and regional responsibility. This year the project focuses on standing up and being heard, on fostering a common western voice that speaks to, and for, our area as a unified region with common issues to solve together. [more]

HOT DESTINATION EVENTS: APRIL

When it comes to national travel and lifestyle rankings, Albuquerque, New Mexico has spent the last decade hovering near the top of a whole lot of lists. Since 2001 alone the city was voted one of 25 “choice cities” across the nation for business by Outlook Magazine, one of the Top Five High Tech Corridors by Site Selection Magazine, one of the nation's Top 50 Tech Hubs by Business 2.0 Magazine, 5th Best Real Estate Market by Expansion Management Magazine, one of the Top Ten Art Destinations by American Style, the 4th Healthiest City in the nation by Natural Health Magazine, Most Creative Mid-Sized City by Richard Florida's “The Rise of the Creative Class”, Best City to Start a Business or Career by MSN, Super City of the Future by Expansion Management Magazine and the 10th Fittest City by Men's Health Magazine.

That's an impressive list, but the people who live and spend time here know that lists don't mean much for a community with a history as strong, palpable and vibrant as theirs has been since the city first planted its flag in the desert floor on April 23, 1706. [more]

Road Tools

The question is debatable: is being connected on the road more or less freeing than going without? The answer of course depends on who you are, why you travel and what you find yourself sacrificing by being away from the office. I'm partner-at-large in a small, two-person creative studio. Being self-employed with no support staff therefore means that any vacation we take is likely to be a working vacation, lest the studio wilt in our absence. So being connected on the road is critical if I want to wander away from the desk for more than a few days. And trust me: I want to.

Over the last couple of years we've taken mammoth trips that each kept us away for six weeks at a time. In the fall of 2004 it was a 14,000-mile road trip in an oval across North America and back in a conversion van with two kids and two big dogs. During the holidays last year it was a west coast family tour for Thanksgiving, and an east coast family tour for Christmas and New Years – though we learned a few lessons from the year before and let the dogs stay home, took the kids and opted for a borrowed Kia.

In both cases there was just no way around it: I had to work from the road, not only to help finance the trip with rising gas prices but to ensure neglected clients didn't defect in a long line behind me. So my laptop and all its heavy, unwieldy accoutrements tagged along on both trips. I might as well have just stayed home. [more]

COOL SUMMER GETAWAYS

If you're looking for Cartman and Kenny and Butters, try heading about 1,000 miles south and west. But if you're in search of righteous recreation, peaceful vistas and some good, cozy mountain relaxation – point your GPS to dead-center Colorado, to the state's now-infamous South Park in Park County. Home to Pike National Forest, the South Platte River and the hamlet mountain town (as opposed to “redneck mountain town”) of Fairplay, Park County sits about 90 miles southwest of Denver and doesn't seem to mind riding the coat tails of sitcom fame, but they want visitors to know: if your only experience with South Park is the television show, you're in for a surprise. [more]

ROAD TRIP ROUND UP

Thermometers are creeping up all over the Rockies, and with the rising mercury will soon come droves of road warriors crawling out of their garages – on bikes, in cars, SUVs, pickup trucks, station wagons and RVs. I don't know about you, but I'd rather have the road to myself. So we don't wait for summer around here: as soon the scarves are packed away for another year, we throw the backpacks in the truck and make tracks for the road. And rather than tour the old standbys (where there's often so many tourists that's all we often end up doing... standing by), we'll be heading off in search of out-of-the-way places this year. If you're so inclined, too, try these lesser-traveled jewels of the Rockies. [more]

Boxing up the West

I'm a big picture person. When I was a kid and accidentally stepped on an ant, I mourned a few seconds for the ant, but wondered what would happen to the colony. Did I just upset an entire micro-ecological economy of scale? Was his role so important to the colony's survival that, by not watching where I was going, I've inadvertently killed off an entire ant community? Clearly I thought too much as a kid. Unfortunately, not much has changed. [more]

New West Living

A very short ten years ago I couldn't imagine myself living in the desert – a mountain girl in the Pacific Northwest in need of white peaks, towering green trees, water and soft, needle-bedded trails under my feet. But a friend in northern Nevada tempted me into moving to the Reno/Tahoe area, where I spent the next six years falling in love with fire-red sunsets, orographic rainfall patterns, harsh temperature fluctuations, alkaline soils, gritty dust storms, the wide open, unprotected spaces and the itchy cactus underfoot. There's a strange breathing rhythm, an erratically beating heart to the desert. And it pulses and throbs away unnoticed under what non-desert-lovers see only as dead, dry land.

But I feel it. And I found my own heartbeat in the dust, and now I can't imagine living anywhere else. Even here in Colorado I've chosen the state's driest, highest desert near the New Mexico border – a region that sees only seven inches of rain a year (on a good year). We bought five acres of heaven here, as far as I'm concerned, but with one small price. [more]

The Animal Channel

On a long road trip at six or seven years old my mom turned around and covered my eyes so I wouldn't see the two puppies scrambling across the busy freeway, dodging cars. But it was too late, I'd already spotted them. For a long time I let myself believe they made it to the other side. In reality, I'm sure they didn't. But twenty-five years later and that image is still burned in my memory. Last year in Albuquerque after the finale of the International Balloon Fiesta in October, we rode up to the northeast heights to get some photos of a spectacular moon before riding the hour home to Santa Fe. Coming down Tramway, I grabbed Shane's arm and yelled "stop!" as a dog stepped out onto the road a few feet in front of us under the lamplight. [more]

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