Posts tagged support
County to host meeting about ag. flood damage 10/31
Oct 30th
Flood recovery informational meeting for farmers, ranchers and land owners Oct. 31
Boulder County, Colo. – Colorado State University Extension is hosting an informational meeting for farmers, ranchers, and landowners affected by the flood. A wide variety of information regarding technical assistance available for recovery will be presented, as well as how to apply for financial assistance. The meeting will be useful for landowners and agricultural producers with flood related damage to infrastructure and businesses and with crop losses.
What: Northern Colorado Flood Recovery Assistance Meeting
When: Oct. 31, from 1 – 4:30 p.m.
Where: McKee building at The Ranch, (Crossroads & I-25) in Loveland
Details: The event is free and open to the public; no pre-registration is required
Boulder County experienced great impacts due to extensive flooding not just in the mountain areas, but certainly in plains as well. Farmers, ranchers and landowners have a long road ahead to recover from these environmental changes, and having the support and knowledge of experts will benefit the community as a whole.
This meeting will feature presentations from agencies and experts ready to help, including:
· USDA/Natural Resources Conservation Service
· USDA/Farm Service Agency
· Colorado State University Extension
· Colorado Farm Bureau
· Rocky Mountain Farmers Union
· Local Food Shift Group
· Living GREEN Foundation
· Colorado Department of Agriculture
· Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment
· Representatives from the offices of Colorado’s congressional delegation
For more information contact Adrian Card, CSU Extension of Boulder County, at 303-678-6383 or Adrian.Card@colostate.edu.
City to pitch in for local farmers and ranchers
Oct 26th
Restoring local agriculture on Open Space and Mountain Parks with volunteer projects
Restoring agriculture resources is critical for local family farmers and ranchers. The City of Boulder’s Open Space and Mountain Parks (OSMP) Department has been working with volunteers to get food production operations back to pre-flood conditions.
“Local agriculture has been hit hard throughout the area,” said Lauren Kolb, OSMP agriculture specialist. “While fences and ditches are not glamorous, they are critical to families in local food production.”
This Saturday, 70 volunteers will repair fencing east of Boulder. “Fences are needed to keep cattle off the roads and to avoid over grazing,” Kolb said.
This will be the OSMP’s fourth agriculture-related volunteer project since the September flood.
Flooding ruined about 3.2 million pounds of hay OSMP tenant farmers and ranchers use to feed their livestock and destroyed about 15 miles of fencing maintained by OSMP. The flooding also damaged many of OSMP’s water delivery systems – including ditches, headgates and ditches, which supply water to agricultural operations.
OSMP staff also partnered with Boulder County agricultural agencies – including Boulder County Parks and Open Space and Cooperative Extension – to help guide tenant ranchers and farmers, along with other area growers, to relief funding opportunities for losses incurred during the flood.
“Local agriculture is a high priority for the Boulder community and they’re willing to help our farmers restore operations,” said Kolb. “The sense of community and support around these volunteer projects is amazing and a huge help to local food producers.”
—CITY—
[includeme src=”http://c1n.tv/boulder/media/bouldersponsors.html” frameborder=”0″ width=”670″ height=”300″]
Role of natural gas in municipal power generation to be examined
Oct 10th
Boulder to convene community working group on the future role of natural gas in local energy supply
The City of Boulder announced today that it will create a community working group of industry specialists and local stakeholders to explore concerns and opportunities related to the use of natural gas to generate electricity for the City of Boulder, should it decide to form a local electric utility. Natural gas will likely play a significant role in Boulder’s energy portfolio, whether the community continues to be served by Xcel Energy or by a municipal utility. The focus of the group’s work will be to examine issues and concerns related to fracking and methane releases and to explore current and possible industry best practices.
On Nov. 5, Boulder voters will be asked to weigh in on a ballot measure that would institute a five-year moratorium on fracking in Boulder and on Boulder-owned open space property. However, given the tremendous growth in natural gas production in Colorado, the current and future use of natural gas as an energy source for Boulder customers has raised concerns over fracking — a process that uses a pressurized water mixture to release oil or natural gas from deep underground.
In addition to discussing concerns over fracking, the community group will also discuss the issue of methane leakage. While it is widely accepted that burning natural gas emits significantly less carbon dioxide than burning coal, recent studies have found that using natural gas may actually release more greenhouse gases over its lifecycle. That’s because quantities of raw methane, a major component of natural gas, can escape into the atmosphere during natural gas extraction, production and distribution.
“If Boulder chooses to municipalize, before we commit to a particular energy portfolio, we want to address concerns around the use of natural gas supplied from fracking and how we can minimize the negative impacts through best practices or other means,” said Heather Bailey, executive director of energy strategy and electric utility development. “Natural gas is likely to be a necessary transition energy source as Boulder makes what we hope will be a dramatic shift away from coal and other fossil fuels toward renewable sources. Recognizing this, we have been working on what we can do as a municipal utility to influence the development of responsibly sourced gas that limits or eliminates the harmful impacts of fracking and methane release.”
Executive Director Bailey also commented that the city has a “unique opportunity” to benefit from a discussion with local experts on the feasibility of a future municipal utility to push aggressively towards responsible development of natural gas. Expertise from the University of Colorado, federal labs, as well as the numerous local companies and entrepreneurs developing leading-edge energy technologies could help Boulder in its work to curb climate change and support a robust clean energy market.
The city’s Energy Future team anticipates holding the first meeting of the natural gas community working group shortly after the Nov. 5 election. Members of the community, stakeholders and industry personnel who are interested in participating are encouraged to contact Heather Bailey at 303-441-1923 or baileyh@bouldercolorado.gov.
More information about the Energy Future project and associated municipalization exploration study is available at www.BoulderEnergyFuture.com.
[includeme src=”http://c1n.tv/boulder/media/bouldersponsors.html” frameborder=”0″ width=”670″ height=”300″]