Coyote Gulch

Monday, May 29, 2006

Backcountry Hunters and Anglers

New West: "Solitude. Tradition. Challenge. Freedom. Health. Family. Now there's a list, eh? And how do you come by those good things? By hunting and fishing in big, wild, open spaces, according to the vision of a new sort of environmental group. Or a new sort of hunting organization. Or a new kind of fishing advocacy club. Or whatever it is, for unlike any other kind of pro-wilderness coalition out there, Backcountry Hunters and Anglers is all those things."
"2008 pres"
8:55:08 AM

Memorial Day

Mt. Virtus: "Thank a veteran or active-duty serviceman for their great sacrifices as we remember those who 'gave the last full measure of devotion,' from Lexington & Concord to Baghdad and a thousand places in between."

Captain's Quarters: "Our national holiday of Memorial Day began as Decoration Day, proclaimed by General John Logan in 1868 to honor the dead of both sides of the Civil War. It later changed names, but the purpose of the day remains a recognition of the last full measure of devotion on the part of America's true heroes. Today, CQ thanks and honors all of those who have fallen in our country's service, and the families they left behind."

Andrew Sullivan: "My impression over two decades is that most Americans, unlike some of their leaders, are tolerant, open, warm people - to immigrants, to minorities, to each other. I focus a lot on this blog on what's still wrong in the world. It's good every now and again to acknowledge what's right. And to thank those servicemembers who secure our ability to live here, in freedom."

Bull Moose: "Americans have it easy. We take so much for granted. Our freedoms and prosperity are unmatched. And all we have is secure because brave men and women are willing to go into harms way to defend our way of life. Indeed, they also make incredible sacrifices for the hope that millions of people in foreign lands can also enjoy liberty"

Jesus' General: "I've been thinking about what I'd post for Memorial Day this year. I really liked last year's photo essay. It expresses many of my feelings about this war: the sadness, anger and frustration I feel as I see fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters sacrificed for little more than to fulfill a spoiled rich kid's oedipal-fueled desire to escape from beneath his father's shadow. But as much as I like the essay, it falls far short of adequately expressing the true horrors of this war. The young Americans who lost their limbs, their health, and their sanity are not represented. Neither are the carefree boys we grew to love as they camped out in our living room, vying for the attention of our daughters. Now, they're returning from war, souless, their psyches destroyed forever."

John McCain: "War is an awful business. The lives of the nation's finest patriots are sacrificed. Innocent people suffer. Commerce is disrupted, economies damaged. Strategic interests shielded by years of statecraft are endangered as the demands of war and diplomacy conflict. Whether the cause was necessary or not, whether it was just or not, we should all shed a tear for all that is lost when war claims its wages from us. However just or false the cause, however proud and noble the service, it is loss--the loss of friends, the loss of innocent life, the loss of innocence--that the veteran feels most keenly forever more. Only a fool or a fraud sentimentalizes war." Thanks to Don Surber for the link.

8:42:42 AM

Term limits for judges?
Ed Quillen weighs in on John Andrews' citizen initiative to term-limit state judges. From the opinion piece, "Among the many bad ideas we are likely to see on our November ballot is a proposal to put term limits on Colorado judges. It comes from John Andrews, former state senator and Republican candidate for governor in 1990. As it is, appellate judges are appointed by the governor. We vote on retention in the first general election after the appointment, and then every eight years for the Court of Appeals, and 10 years for the Supreme Court...

"Basically, Andrews argues that judges are 'legislating from the bench.' That is, they're making political instead of legal decisions. And how does he propose to cure that? Not just with a 12-year term limit, but also by having retention elections every four years - that is, making judges even more a part of the political process. Some cure."
"denver 2006"
8:32:41 AM

Flood history in Pueblo

Many of Coyote Gulch's readers are old enough to remember when it rained in Colorado. Here's a retrospective about Pueblo floods from the Pueblo Chieftain. From the article, "Pueblo's flood history is dominated by the year 1921, but rushing waters ravaged the area again 14 years later. Puebloans woke up on May 31, 1935, and learned just how deadly the previous day's flood on Fountain Creek had been. Three people were reported dead and seven were missing. Those totals would grow substantially during the next few days as rain-swollen rivers rushed across eastern Colorado into Kansas and Nebraska."
"colorado water"
8:13:11 AM

Using tree rings to study historical drought

Here's an article about the recent tree-ring study of drought in the Colorado River basin from the Arizona Daily Star. From the article, "A new UA study uses tree-ring data to reconstruct Colorado River flows over the past 500 years. The study could have a significant impact on water use in the West and further emphasizes the need for flexibility in managing the resources, according to scientists and policy experts who study the Colorado River basin. The study found several periods of more severe and longer-lasting drought than the region has experienced in the past century. The findings provide further indications that the data used for the 1922 Colorado River Compact overestimated the Colorado's average water flow, with water allocations to the seven Western states that share the river based on one of the wettest periods in the past 500 years...

"Updating the University of Arizona's groundbreaking 1976 study of tree rings in the Colorado basin, the new work reconstructed the river flows back four centuries before the gauge record and found eight periods of drought of equal or greater severity to the most recent drought, roughly from 1999 to 2004, said Dave Meko, one of the study's authors...

"The study, a collaboration between the University of Arizona's Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Colorado, is published in this month's issue of Water Resources Research. While the new reconstructions estimate the average water flow at 14.6 million acre-feet, compared to the 1976 study's estimate of 13.5 million acre-feet, the longer historical average remains below the 15.2 million acre-feet recorded by stream gauges from 1906 to 1995. The researchers compared tree-ring widths from 1906 to 1995 with the stream flows recorded by gauges along the river as a way to calibrate the tree rings, then applied the statistical comparison to the tree rings dating back to the late 1400s. The core samples used in the study were taken from about 1,200 trees in 60 areas throughout the Colorado River basin. The update of the 1976 study gives more precise results, filling in gaps to provide a more accurate picture overall of the Colorado region, Meko said. The new work had 40 more years of tree-ring data to build a more accurate statistical model from comparisons to the gauge records, plus expanded tree-ring site coverage of the basin for a more reliable sample. The study zeroed in on a drought period of about 20 years in the late 1500s, a much longer drought cycle than contained in the gauge records of last century...

"The researchers are trying to reconstruct the water flows even further back into the past by expanding the tree-ring data to include core samples from dead trees, preserved pieces of trunks and standing snags known as remnant wood, Meko said. The reconstruction has reached the limit of living trees, but using the evidence from remnant wood, researchers can see growth patterns about 200 years further into the past. The wood, however, is more difficult to find and will yield a spottier record."
"colorado water"
7:59:01 AM

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