Aspen Journalism received two awards in the Colorado Press Association’s 2023 Better News Media Contest. The awards, announced Aug. 24 at the 146th annual CPA meeting in Northglenn, recognized the work of Aspen Journalism freelance journalist Sarah Tory and associate journalist Allen Best, editor of the energy and climate newsletter Big Pivots.
The first award for Best Editorial Collaboration went to Allen Best for a five-part series on water and urban landscapes, published in November and December 2023, that examines the shift in how water is used in urban landscapes. The series was the result of a months-long collaboration between Aspen Journalism and Colorado-based reporter Allen Best, who edits the energy and climate newsletter Big Pivots. The five resulting stories are perhaps the most in-depth look at water and urban lawns produced by a newsroom, and represent a significant achievement in reporting on a pattern shift affecting every community in the state. Following the series’ publication, Colorado lawmakers passed a law banning the planting of new ornamental lawns in many neighborhoods. Commenting on the series, judges said, “…this series on an important topic was great, with easy-to-read text and compelling images. Good work, and it should help people think about how they use a valuable natural resource.” This series was also awarded 2and Place for best extended reporting in the Society of Professional Journalists’ Top of the Rockies contest in May 2024.
Second place for best environmental story, “SkiCo-funded methane capture project no longer generates power,” went to freelance journalist Sarah Tory, who writes for the Connie Harvey Environment Desk. The story brought to light a significant piece of news: A project funded by our community’s most prominent company — the Aspen Skiing Co. — that captured methane leaking from a North Fork Valley coal mine and converted it into electricity was no longer generating power. The story she wrote, published in August 2023 after months of research, carefully explained the engineering and science behind the project and why it no longer works as it did when it started. She also explained the environmental and business strategy underlying the project and how the companies involved plan to move forward. SkiCo’s methane capture project has long been touted as a poster child for a company pushing real climate solutions, and AJ reported on it back in 2013. However, in the course of Tory’s work for AJ, which stretched back to 2021 and covered efforts to curb methane leaks from abandoned coal mines in the Coal Basin near Redstone, Tory learned that the Somerset project was no longer working as intended a decade after it was implemented. The story set the record straight, because even after the project stopped generating power in 2022, numerous media reports continued to refer to the project as if nothing had changed. Of the story, CPA judges wrote, “Well done! Great hook to draw in the average reader. Good explanation without overwhelming scientific detail. We hope there was a follow-up to this important story.” The work also won an award from the Society of Professional Journalists’ 2.and Place award for the best corporate reporting in May of this year.
Aspen Journalism is a vital source of in-depth, independent, investigative news – a watchdog for the environment, nature and community of the Roaring Fork Valley and beyond. We don’t sell access to our stories to readers or to other publications – anyone can read these stories for free. Help us keep it that way by donating to our nonprofit newsroom and keeping our award-winning journalists informed. As always, thank you for reading and supporting Aspen Journalism’s nonprofit news! Check out the award-winning stories and series below.
First place for best editorial collaboration
Colorado squeezes water out of urban landscapes
The pace of transition has accelerated, deepened and expanded
Like a man’s weekly haircut, a regularly mowed lawn of Kentucky bluegrass has long been a prerequisite for civic respectability in Colorado’s cities. But that expectation has gradually changed.
The Western Slope supplies 70% of the Colorado River’s water, so why do Aspen, Vail, Grand Junction and others want to replace the thirsty turf?
Some Colorado HOAs have already started making a difference, while state lawmakers are pushing others toward water-efficient landscaping. Plus, learn about the history of how we arrived at a certain idea of the perfect landscape.
More and more homeowners in Colorado want to destroy something: their lawn. “We live in a semi-arid environment,” says one, “and we shouldn’t just throw water on the ground.”
Do we really need thirsty non-native grasses on road medians? Colorado will consider restricting water use for imported turf species.
Second place for the best environmental story
SkiCo-funded methane extraction project no longer generates electricity
Falling emissions at the Elk Creek Mine shift the project’s focus to eliminating hazardous gases
Aspen Skiing Co. had made most of the capital investment for the system, which generated 3 megawatts of baseload power. But things didn’t go quite as Caskey and the rest of the project partners had hoped.
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