Money Money Money letter to the editor

There are first world problems and then there are Aspen problems... we fall into a category unto ourselves. 

 In response to Mick's editorial: Why spread the blame so thin? The wealth divide is not new to Aspen it is as old as the town itself. 

The American dream is money. 

How much money do we need?

 Would more money for everyone cure this? Is it time for a billionaire's tax on the second, third, fourteenth home? Our $140,000,000 City budget for 7000 residents has not stitched up the wealth wound. If anything the spiderweb of budgetary choices at City Council meetings has grown more tendrils while staunchly guarding the prime directive of bureaucratic self preservation. It's a donkey carrot always out of reach. With all our wealth, all our leverage, all our good intentions, all our privilege, many still feel cheated. When the weight gets too much, when the alcohol or the cocaine won't scratch the itch of have and have not, when the mountain is not enough ... many make an irreversible choice. Suicides are far too frequent in "paradise".

 I'm often asked by visitors what has changed since I moved here in 1968. 

 "Vanity". 

 People used to come here so they would not be seen. You could sit at the Jerome bar and be sitting next to a rancher sitting next to a movie star, next to a cabinet minister, next to a taxi driver, next to a Nobel prize winner, next to a busboy. Nobody asked for autographs in the check out line at Tom's Market. Now people come here to be seen. They brag about who they saw coming out the doors of the Nell or who was sprayed with Veuve at Cloud 9. 

 We have become the fishbowl. 

 How much money does the fishbowl need? I could list the differences between 1968 and 2022 from the size of City Government to the size of that Cabin in the Woods, to the gobsmacking Gorsuch Doronin deal but "more" sums it up. It is human nature to always want "more". I think the only thing which hasn't increased in that time is the hourly wage (*arguably an unintended consequence of APCHA combined with Reagonomics in the candy cane spiral of "Social Good" waltzing with the event horizon of "Greed is Good"- but I digress). 

 More is never enough. 

 We have gerrymandered answers through the ages... and so far "I want I want I want" is still the mantra of our species. It is both our greatness and our curse. Arguably Social Justice and Corporate Greed spring from that same "I want more"well. Evolution has rewarded "I want more". Is there an answer to subdue the "I/We want more" drum beat? Spirituality? Altruism? (personal favorite) Stoicism? I don't know; but maybe it's time for us all to start the hard work of "enough is enough" 

After all, there are plenty of places on the planet where people would kill to have Aspen's problems.

The Great Biochar Gas Line experiment.

In 2019 the local Natural Gas Company approached me with the news they would be placing a new pipeline through my property. They were putting in a 6" line to replace the current 4" line. They expected the job to last the summer and tear up a swath about 20' wide right through the center of the meadow. Now my meadow doesn't look like much since I have no water rights and no irrigation but it's enough for the cattle in the Spring to do some fire mitigation.

Around the House and... in the Meadow

That green patch in between the sagebrush and the red barn is exactly where the gasline goes through. Not only would the pipeline nix grazing for that year but possibly several years after if the grass did not grow back after being pounded by heavy equipment for a summer.

Would it come back from this in the promised "two years?" Without irrigation? Hmmmmmmmmmmmm.......

So we made a deal- pay a bit more and use some of my land for a staging area and I'll use the cash to buy biochar compost. That way we could compare- same soil, same weather, same disturbance, but with two different rehab methods. The Gas Company would use their standard spray at the end of the job and I would put down their seed mix in biochar compost on the staging area.

The Gas Company reclamation:

Harrow the ground

October 25 2019 spray green hay and seed (no idea if the green additive was fertilizer or preservative)

By November 4 the "green" had faded

November 6 the Staging Area is bare - no harrowing here

Biochar compost on the Staging Area

Load it into the spreader with the forklift (borrowed from nextdoor and with a great deal of help from Octavio and Scott) and add the same seed mix into the spreader...

Spread it on the Staging Area

Even it out a bit...

Get some old moldy hay and spread that on top... (old and moldy so the elk don't think it's a Thanksgiving treat)

The winter of 2019-20 was one of the driest I've seen since 1996 and the summer was even drier. There wasn't a whiffle of moisture all June and then came the Grizzly Creek fire to put a cherry ontop of COVID. The conditions were "challenging" March 24, 2020 and our "moisture" for the Spring.

April 10, 2020 Pipeline: NO Biochar

April 11, 2020 Staging Area : Biochar

After a dusting of Snow on April 17... April 28, 2020 Pipeline NO Biochar

April 28, 2020 Staging Area: Biochar

May 30, 2020 Pipeline: NO Biochar

May 30, 2020 Pipeline closeup NO Biochar

May 30, 2020 Staging Area: Biochar

May 30, 2020 Staging Area closeup: Biochar

September 30. 2020 Pipeline NO Biochar

September 30, 2020 Staging Area: Biochar

April 12, 2021 Pipeline NO Biochar (even the skunk cabbage looks wilted)

April 12, 2021 Staging Area: Biochar

Two years gone. I complained- the Gas Company came back in 2021 with a water truck and spread more seed. The 2021-2022 winter was better than the previous winter. June 25, 2022 Pipeline NO Biochar

June 25, 2022 Staging Area: Biochar

Conclusion to date - 2020 was a major drought year and 2021 was better but still drought. This year 2022 seems about on track with 2021. The Biochar made a major difference in 2019-2020 and allowed grass to come back first before skunkweed and sagebrush. The pipeline reclamation may catch up if it keeps raining but it took 2 seedings and 3 waterings and there will be less grass and more sage than before even if there isn't bare ground. Bare ground in a drought goes hard as brick and doesn't let the water back in to feed the soil. The Biochar held what little water we had and gave it to the grass. Yes, one application of Biochar costs about 2X what the standard reclamation does- but if you have to come back an reapply the numbers even out and if what you get back is less suitable for grazing... well that's not optimal either. The cows haven't come back yet.