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Summit Daily letters: Trash problem piles up for short-term rentals in Blue River (column)

Trash problem piles up for short-term rentals

This is an open letter to the town of Blue River and the Summit County Planning Department. One aspect of short-term rentals that concerns me is the trash problem.

Two weeks ago a bear pulled the door off our neighbor’s shed in Blue River. Their short term tenants were told to leave their trash inside it, and the bear woke up hungry. The neighbors came up right away, fixed the shed, and took away the garbage, but that bear keeps coming around.



What should renters do with their trash? They can’t leave the trash cans outside to be picked up, they don’t want to take it with them or leave it inside the rental. It might work for the town of Blue River to have a bear proof dumpster at the Town Hall, perhaps tenants would take their trash there. I don’t know what the county could do.

I hope you will consider this problem as you talk about short term rentals.



Kristina Nethaway

Blue River

The hidden cruelty of dairy farms

As I look forward to Mother’s Day and its cherished bond between mother and child, my mind wanders to dairy cows, world-wide symbols of motherhood, who never get to see or nurture their own babies.

Newborn calves are torn from their mothers at birth and turned into veal cutlets, so we can drink the milk designed for them. The grief-stricken mothers bellow for days, hoping in vain for their return.

Most dairy cows spend their lives chained on a concrete floor, with no access to the outdoors. Each year, they are impregnated artificially, to maintain production, and milked by machines twice a day. When production drops, around four years of age, they are ground into hamburgers.

Dairy products are laden with cholesterol, saturated fats, hormones, pathogens, and antibiotics, leading to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. Most adults even lack the enzyme for digesting dairy products. Humans are the only creatures drinking milk of another species.

This Mother’s Day, let’s honor motherhood and our natural compassion for animals by rejecting dairy industry’s cruelty and disease. Let’s replace cow’s milk and its products with delicious, healthful, cruelty-free plant-based milk, cheese, and ice cream products offered by our supermarket.

Schuller Newcomb

Frisco

Sierra Club welcomes Jared Polis to Summit County

The Headwaters Group of the Sierra Club adds its voice to the Sierra Club’s endorsement of Jared Polis for Governor of Colorado.

Jared’s stance on environment and energy dovetail with the Headwater’s Group four focus areas: Wilderness, Wildlife, Water and Weeds.

Jared wants to make Colorado completely energy independent and 100% renewable by 2040. He is also committed to protecting Colorado’s majestic public lands. He has put together winning coalitions to preserve the lands that sustain our Colorado way of life and our economy.

Jared’s plans for “Keeping Colorado Wild” include creating conservation districts, ensuring that Colorado has a voice in federal decisions about its public lands, providing more resources for wildlife habitat restoration and conservation, and supporting the land and water conservation fund.

Putting bold ideas into action, Representative Jared Polis (D-CO-2) and U.S. Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO) introduced the Continental Divide Recreation, Wilderness, and Camp Hale Legacy Act in January 2018. The act expands protected public lands in Colorado by safeguarding over 90,000 acres for fishing, hiking, biking, and hunting. The act will boost Colorado’s recreation economy and preserve our environment for generations to come.

Jared’s bold ideas for environment and energy will help the Headwater’s Group achieve its goals:

1. Advocating for the Wilderness

2. Protecting the habitat for Colorado’s wildlife

3. Promoting water conservation and the preservation of agricultural and recreational uses of our rivers

4. Promoting 100% Renewable Energy for our counties

Members of the Headwaters Group will be joining Jared Polis in Eric’s Underground, 111 S Main St., Breckenridge to echo our endorsement of Jared Polis as our next Governor. Please join us on Friday, May 11 from 3 – 4 p.m. for this happy occasion.

Rose Pray

Sierra Club member

Dillon


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