News

2022 Spring Road Clean Up

    

     On April 30th the Snowmass Capitol Caucus annual road clean up happened thanks to 19 generous community members. With the good turnout and a blue bird day (cool and warming) made for a  perfect morning of picking up trash. We covered from near Lazy Glen to above the post office, RFTA park and ride, lower Snowmass Creek road and Capitol Creek road (and others did sections of upper Snowmass Creek and East Sopris Creek). The parking lots and road sides are much improved thanks to the volunteers!

     The river corridor had a lot less trash after three straight years of clean up. Along the side of 82 was a lot better especially over last year. There's a lot of automobile trash, household trash, construction trash (that blows out of trucks mostly), and a lot of fun, random unexpected trash! There's surprising few unpleasant items found. A good time was had by all and there was a good bit of visible & positive environmental impact made.

     The original road clean up day was snowed out on April 23. The cleanup coincides roughly every year with Earth Day. While this is a small effort it is a good start. Each of us can do more to keep our community and world a cleaner and better place.

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Caucus Board Bios

 

Chelsea Brundige

 

I have lived in Old Snowmass for 24 years. I served on the Board of the former Snowmass Capitol Creek Caucus (now Upper Snowmass Creek Caucus) for 14 years and the current Caucus for a couple more years. I am deeply involved in exploring voluntary stream management opportunities for Capitol and Snowmass Creeks and others in our watershed. I am interested in land use issues as they impact the conservation of connected habitat, river systems and quality of life in our beautiful valleys. I enjoy the neighbors that make community of Old Snowmass such a special place to live.

 

Areas of interest: Water, Biota, Land Use

 

Michael Kinsley

 

Michael is an artist/painter (KinsleyPaintings.com) who also provides mediation, facilitation, and strategic-planning services valley wide. He works with all kinds of organizations and individuals to resolve issues through collaboration and whole-system thinking. (KinsleyDiplomacy.com). Michael is a member of the county Open Space and Trails board and the CLEER board (Clean Energy Economy for the Region). He's lived on Snowmass Creek since '92 and served on the SnoCap Board on-and-off for about twenty years. From ’83 to ‘16, he worked for Rocky Mountain Institute on sustainable communities and campuses. He wrote two books: Accelerating Campus Climate Initiatives (‘09) and Economic Renewal Guide (‘97) and scores of related papers. He was a county commissioner from '75 to ’85, the early days of Pitkin County’s transition to progressive policies — especially growth control, affordable housing, open space, and transit.

 

Area of interest: Land Use

 

 

Jill Sabella

 

Jill has lived in the Capitol Creek Valley since 2000 and started coming to Aspen in 1963 from Minnesota to ski with her family. She attended college in Denver, frequenting Aspen as often as possible, where she had a number of jobs from waitressing to writing. She worked as a columnist for the Aspen Illustrated News in the late '60's and in the late 70's published a book of her photographs as staff photographer for the Aspen Music Festival. She worked for National Geographic Society as photographer and writer on various projects. While living in Seattle for 20 years, she worked as a photographer, doing fine art gallery work, commercial annual reports and advertising, and portraiture.

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Over her life she has come and gone from the Roaring Fork Valley and was always drawn back because of the great community of people and the beauty of the area. As an artist she has found much inspiration from the Capitol Creek Valley - especially the rural ranching character that still remains and of course the mountain landscapes. In the last several years she was on the Board and several committees of the Red Brick in Aspen. She has taught drawing and painting at the Art Base in Basalt, and has exhibited paintings and drawings in several venues in the valley.

 

Areas of interest: Land Use, Communication, Fun(d) Raising

 

 

Molly Child

 

I joined Steve and the Child family on Capitol Creek Ranch 46 years ago at beautiful land at the base of Haystack Mountain. Spent years raising kids, cows, and hay. I've worked coordinating environmental awareness and art activities for preschools in the Roaring Fork valley, co-directing a local kids summer camp on the ranch, teaching cross-country skiing at the Snowmass XC Center, running a small gardening business, playing in an old time string band for contra dances, and currently singing in a trio, Kindred Spirits, primarily for Seniors in the valley. I have served previously (and currently) on the Caucus Board.

 

 

Areas of Interest: Biota, Other

 

 

Chris Collins

 

Currently I am the vice president of the Caucus board. I have served on this board for the past 6 years. I find the land use and water issues to be the most concerning. We need to have clear rules for residential development and I want to see only projects that fit into our rural character of the valley. Water is what makes this valley so spectacular and we need to conserve and protect our water resources.

Chris came to Snowmass in 1980 and stayed for 5 years in Colorado. He attended Colorado State University and graduated with a BS in Agriculture Business and Farm and Ranch Management. Chris has run McCabe and several other ranches for the family for the past 30 years. He is a general contractor and real estate developer in California, having developed resort hotels, custom homes and now concentrating on senior housing.

 

 Areas of Interest: Water, Land Use

 

 

Victoria Treece

 

Victoria is a westerner, having grown up in Montana where she came to appreciate wide open, undeveloped spaces. She has lived in Old Snowmass nine years and feels blessed to overlook and engage in this beautiful, pristine valley she calls home. Her later career years were invested in real estate and commercial banking, both of which honed her skills in various areas. She is interested in giving back to this sublime wilderness we share together, protecting its gifts which will enhance all of our living experience.

 

Area of Interest: Water

 

 

Edmund "Ned" Andrews

 

My wife, Sharon and I have lived in the Little Elk Creek neighborhood for 8 years. My professional training was in hydrology and geology. This background and experience with water and land management (I grew up on an irrigated citrus orchard in Southern California) would be my primary contribution to the Capitol Creek Caucus. For most of my career, 31 years, I was a member of the U.S. Geological Survey, where I was Chief of the River Mechanics Project. The project focused on studies in water resources and river management issues in the western U.S., especially the Colorado River Basin. In addition, for a decade, I had overall responsibility for surface water, sedimentation, and geomorphology investigations nationwide within the USGS. Subsequently, I joined the Institute for Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado as a Research Professor. Beginning in 1988, I have served as an expert witness in court proceedings to protect streams and wetlands in Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah. This work has included Rocky Mountain and Zion National Parks, which were the first National Parks to be granted Federal Reserved Water Rights to protect recreational and aquatic resources. Currently, I am a scientific advisor to the State Prosecutor, Minas Gerais, Brazil concerning efforts to recover two long river reaches damaged by the release of 10’s of millions of tons of tailings from iron mining. All of us who enjoy the privilege of living in the Capitol Creek Valley appreciate the importance and benefits of our water and land. Increasingly, we sense and feel growing pressures and demands on these resources, both from within as well as from outside our valley. The coming years may well bring an acceleration of these trends. Protecting our land and water will be increasingly important, and I would be pleased to participate in this effort.

 

Areas of Interest: Water, Land Use

 

 

Sierra Flanigan

 

Hello friends! My name is Sierra Flanigan, and I am honored to be able to called Old Snowmass home. I was shaped by this land as a child and moved back to the valley last summer (with my sister) to expand my work and impact in the Roaring Fork Valley. I work in the sustainability field helping universities, businesses and executives to align operational and cultural practices with living systems principles. In addition to my work as a facilitator in the social impact world, I am an artist (www.sierraflanigan.com) and organizer (livinglab.earth) working creatively with communities around the globe to ensure a regenerative and kind economy. I look forward to contributing to the Caucus to steward the land and life (humans included) of this beautiful Capital Creek Valley.

 

Areas of Interest: Water, Biota, Land Use, Communication, Fun(d) Raising​​

 

 

 

John McBride Jr.

 

My Brother Pete and I thought it is about time we represent as my father is getting older and we both care deeply about the valley. I have lived on the family ranch full time since finishing College and do not plan on going anywhere else.

 

Areas of Interest: Water, Land Use

 

 

Pete McBride

 

Pete McBride is an Old Snowmass valley native who grew up on Lost Marbles Ranch, irrigating the hayfields and cutting hay in the summer and getting snowed in and missing the school bus quite often in the winter. He knows many of his neighbors both current and moved on and loves exploring the wonders of Old Snowmass. Professionally, he is an Award-winning photographer, filmmaker, writer, and public speaker who has spent two decades studying the world with a camera with a focus on freshwater and land conservation. Since graduating from Dartmouth college, McBride has traveled on assignment to over 75 countries for the National Geographic Society, Smithsonian, Google, The Nature Conservancy and spoken on stages for TEDx, The World Economic Forum, USAID, Nat Geo Live and more. His latest film Into the Canyon chronicles a 750-mile journey by foot through the entire length of the Grand Canyon. It was nominated for an Emmy in 2020 and his book Grand Canyon: Between River and Rim won a National Outdoor Book award in 2019. His latest book with Rizzoli titled "Seeing Silence" (inspired in part by the Monastery) looks at the value of natural sound and silence around the world for wildlife and human health. Locally, he has served as a Basalt Town Councilman, coach and board member for many valley non-profits.

 

Areas of Interest: Water, Biota, Land Use

 

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Jacqueline Russell

 

I have lived in the Capitol Creek Valley for only one year. Before that I lived in Boulder for seven years, and before that I studied and worked on the East Coast. I’ve been coming to Aspen since college to ski, and have many wonderful memories of those days. I went to Skidmore College in upstate New York, then Yale University for graduate school in environmental studies, then Boston University School of Law. I worked for the Department of Interior as a legislative specialist right out of grad school, then as a lobbyist for Defenders of Wildlife. After law school I was in private practice for a few years before I was hired to be an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Maryland, focusing on environmental issues. I served on the board of directors of the African Wildlife Foundation for 20 years, then the board of WildlifeDirect, based in Nairobi. In both positions, the emphasis was on community conservation, fighting poaching, and assisting communities surrounding the national parks. ​ Over my life I have often come to the Colorado mountains and the Roaring Fork Valley due to my love of nature, the specialness of the community, the kindness of the people. When my significant other died in 2013, I knew it was time to finally move to the mountains. We had a house in Boulder, so that is where I first landed. But when an opportunity came up to move to Snowmass, I jumped on it. Here, my love of nature has allowed me to become more involved in a number of state and conservation projects, while continuing to remain involved in African conservation. There is no better place to be a conservationist than the Roaring Fork Valley: it is inspiring, poetic, and a place of wonder. I hope to never lose that sense of submission to beauty.

 

Areas of Interest: Water, Biota, Land Use, Communication, Other

 

 

Judy Hill Lovins

 

Judy Hill Lovins came to Aspen in 1971. Soon after she opened a photographic fine art gallery (The Hill Gallery of Photography) that ran for over 30 years and won national and local awards. She served on several boards, including the Aspen Village Homeowners' Association, the Skico’s Environmental, and Aspen Hall of Fame. She has served on the Farm Collaborative Board (formerly Aspen Tree) for the past 10 years. Her oldest son, Miles, wife Nastassia and two grandchildren live in Boulder, and youngest son Nathan and wife live in Aspen Village. In 2007 she married Amory Lovins. They live in “the banana farm”, the former Rocky Mountain Institute Headquarters, which burns no fossil fuels and powers two electric cars.

 

Area of Interest: Other

 

Helene Slansky

 

A native of New York City, I moved to Aspen in 1971 and raised my two children here. Now two of my grandchildren have grown up here. What a special place!

I’ve been involved with many of our non-profits over nearly 50 years including Ballet West, Grassroots and the Aspen Theatre Institute. Currently I am on the Golf Advisory Board at the Aspen Golf Course, chair of the Basalt Regional Library Foundation and a member of the SnowCap Caucus Board. It is my honor to give back to our outstanding community.

 

Area of Interest: Water, Land Use