Eruption predicted for Yellowstone
YELLOWSTONE
NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. - Doomsdayers this year have made much of new hot springs, increased geyser
activity and a bulge in the ground at Yellowstone National Park. A volcano, they predict, will
soon erupt.
But scientists consulted by the Jackson Hole News & Guide say
this prediction is way overblown, so to speak. They admit that there is much that they don't know
about Yellowstone's subterranean, which in geologic times has erupted three times, as recently as
640,000 years ago - just a sneeze in geologic times. And should it erupt again now, it could
destroy huge portions of the United States.
But will it erupt soon? Not necessarily.
Apparently bolstering the case of the chicken-littles is a
documentary by the British Broadcasting Corporation. That program correctly noted interesting
evidence of change. For example, a survey on the bottom of Yellowstone Lake identified a bulge
that is about 2,000 feet long and 100 feet higher than the former lake bottom.
But the area of the volcanic caldera, an area of 3,000
square kilometers (1,158 square miles) has been swelling for a long time - a meter since 1923. New
hot springs have emerged before. And that bulge underneath the lake may have been around for
awhile but gone unnoticed, as measuring techniques have improved in recent years.
The BBC program, if well done, painted the worst-case
scenario and voided more conservative views, said one scientist, Bob Smith, of the Yellowstone
Volcano Observatory. The changes alone do not necessarily auger an imminent eruption, he and
others say. "Things that are normal to Yellowstone wouldn't be normal at other places," says
Smith. "That's why it's Yellowstone. It's a place of change."
Crested Butte
sale in the works
CRESTED
BUTTE, Colo. - In buying the Crested Butte ski area, a key consideration for Tim and Diane Mueller
is the potential to expand the ski area and sell real estate, like most of the other ski
areas.
The purchase by the Muellers, who own Vermont's Okemo ski
area and who at one time had a deal to buy Steamboat, is expected to be consummated by around
Christmas. In turn, they are expected to bring to the table the substantial money needed to more
fully develop the resort.
Crested Butte locals were famously opposed to ski area
expansion and real estate development, but after several years of hard-rock times, opposition has
softened. Some of the hard times were caused by drought, but Crested Butte's relative isolation -
itthree or four hours from Denver and other metropolitan areas - has made it vulnerable at a time
when all destination resorts are scraping. Even Aspen and Steamboat are close enough to Denver to
battle for day skiers.
Pat Crow, a longtime local, told The Denver Post that the depressed
economy "made us realize we have to diversify, and we have to help the ski area. It's not us
against them."
Vegan
telemarkers start eating pork
TELLURIDE,
Colo. - In a way, Telluride seems to be converging with the mainstream. Vegans, vegetarians who
shun even animal byproducts like milk and eggs, are becoming carnivores.
That's the report in The
Telluride Watch from a Mexican restaurant that,
after six years in the business, now offers pork. Not just any pork, however. The clincher was
finding a supplier of pork that is free of hormones and antibiotics.
"The town has changed," shrugs Lucas Price of La Cocina de
Luz. "People are eating more meat, less cheese and less carbohydrates.
Are more changes astir? Maybe. "The vegan telemarker of
six years ago today is eating meat and has his downhill skis on," says the restaurateur with a
laugh.
Vail Valley
pass prices stay the same
AVON, Colo. -
Prices for skiing by locals in the Vail Resorts kingdom is holding steady. A Merchant Pass, good
for the company's four resorts in Eagle and Summit counties, costs $720, and the Merchant Pass
good for only Eagle County - Vail and Beaver Creek ski areas - costs $649. That's about the same
as what it was 15 years ago.
To qualify for these passes, however, a business operator
must go through a class in customer services provided by the ski company. And from comments by
anonymous commentators in the Vail Daily , some locals think even minor price increases are a slap in the
face.
Crested Butte
tries to define Paradise
CRESTED
BUTTE, Colo. - Who qualifies as a local in Paradise? That was the rather blissful question facing
the Crested Butte Town Council recently.
Paradise, in this case, is a government-subsidized
affordable housing project, with the name borrowed from an above-treeline bowl in the Elk Range.
The town council has decided applicants to this project must prove they earn 80 percent of their
income in Gunnison County, work at least 1,400 hours a year locally and don't own any land with
residential housing on it in Gunnison County, reports the Crested
Butte News .
Meanwhile, in Jackson, the Town Council plans to make
employment the only criterion for eligibility for 18 new units of affordable housing. Eligibility
based on income, as opposed to employment, eliminates some people who can't afford free-market
housing from getting subsidized housing, reported Bob McLaurin, the town administrator. He said
he's not worried that "trust-funders" will buy up the valley's hard-won affordable housing.
"If you've got that much money, you'll buy something in
the free market," he said. He suggested a deed restriction limiting appreciation upon resale to 3
percent simple interest, compared to 3.5 percent compounded annually at other affordable houses
built in Jackson Hole. The local housing authority's executive director, Forrest Neuerburg, said
he supports the new restriction, which has been used widely in Colorado.
Electric
grizzly bear fence invented
JACKSON HOLE,
Wyo. - Backpackers in grizzly bear habitat should be able to sleep a little better if the U.S.
Forest Service succeeds in creating a lightweight electric fence.
Outfitters, who have horses to haul around the 12-volt car
batteries that provide the jolt that keeps the bruins at bay, already use such fences. Now, in a
project with the National Outdoor Leadership School, the Forest Service is hoping to create a
lightweight version of the same. The fence line would be of particular use in above-timberline
areas where there are no trees for stringing up lines from which to hang food, notes the
Jackson Hole News & Guide .
However, such fences should be a last resort and used only
when storing food above treeline. Jay Anderson, a spokesman for the Bridger-Teton National Forest,
said that the fence is not a replacement for keeping a clean camp or hanging food.
Councilor
harassed with latex penis
LEADVILLE,
Colo. - A latex penis thrown on his front porch caused city council candidate Steve Prestash to
file a report with police, saying it was part of harassment that had been going on for seven
years.
The cop taking the report assumed a facial expression that
Prestash didn't like, and he said so - it was not, he said, "funny." Then Prestash pulled the bars
from the frame of the police station's front window, according to police, who then arrested him.
He later told the Leadville Herald-Democrat that he had not knowingly done so, but that he had kind of blacked
out.
As for the latex penis, it was logged into the evidence
locker.
Whistler plagued by dual cataclysms
WHISTLER,
B.C. - Oh, they've seen fire and they've seen rain in British Columbia this year. In August,
wildfires threatened seemingly everywhere in the interior amid the worst drought in generations.
By October, it was torrential rains that meteorologists referred to as a 100-year storm.
And along the way there has been a near record snowfall
last Christmas, winds in February that trapped more than 1,000 people on chairlifts and in lodges,
and then record heat for October.
One scientist consulted by Whistler's Pique newsmagazine says all this fits
in with the pattern of global warming. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a
report in 2001 that predicted an increase in climate variability and in some extreme
events.
- compiled by
Allen Best
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