Author: Rachel Gabel
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Candidate’s disturbing anti-animal agriculture history | Rachel Gabel
Rep. Manny Rutinel has busted out a cowboy hat for campaign photos and has thrown it into the ring to represent Colorado’s 8th Congressional District in D.C. He is endorsed by U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, a New Jersey democrat who serves on the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, where he works to “rein in the abuses of factory…
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CPW has a weighty decision to make on a recent wolf kill | Rachel Gabel
Gov. Jared Polis made three new appointments to the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission and reappointed both Richard Reading, at-large representative, and vice chair Gabriel Otero, sportspersons representative who resides west of the Continental Divide. Appointed as a production agriculture representative residing west of the Continental Divide, John LeCoq of Silverthorne, is, according to a release, a longtime landowner of 400 acres of grazed land that is…
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Colorado GOP has lost its sense of what’s best for the people | Rachel Gabel
The Republican Party I grew up knowing was the party of small business, big business, and job creation. It was the party that signed paychecks and built economies and legacies. In 1980, Ronald Reagan swept Colorado in nearly every county, including Denver and Boulder. By 1988, Michael Dukakis, a Democrat who lost to George H.W. Bush, won…
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Processing plants are an important piece of the ag puzzle | Rachel Gabel
Concrete barricades blocked the entrance to the Cargill beef plant in Ft. Morgan, Colo., on May 20. About 1,700 workers had been locked out by the company after months of contract negotiations ended with workers voting to reject the company’s last and best offer by a large margin. The workers who couldn’t report to work reported to…
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A win for keeping public lands in public hands
The Public Lands Rule has been rescinded. The rule, first proposed in 2023, would have complicated the balanced partnership between federal agencies and all multiple uses on those public lands. In 2024, the Bureau of Land Management made the rule worse by allowing conservation to rise above the level of all other multiple uses, essentially locking public lands from…
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Antitrust suit seeks better prices for farmers | Rachel Gabel
A stack of papers is keeping eastern Colorado and western Kansas farmers out of the lucrative west-coast market and bringing a group together to levy an antitrust suit against the railroads. Stefan Soloviev was an unlikely farmer with his full-sleeve tattoos, big-city upbringing, and a last name that looked very different from the primarily German surnames…
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Save ranching to save the lesser prairie chicken | Rachel Gabel
In southeastern Colorado, a slew of green energy projects are being planned – some in partnership with landowners and some despite landowners. At the same time, the lesser prairie chicken has been dominating many of my conversations as of late, due in part to the bird’s unique April dance marathon, which makes it more observable and visible than…
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Clean energy goals trump local community’s concerns | Rachel Gabel
A commission appointed by one man, the state’s governor, overruled the decision of a board of county commissioners elected by stakeholders across Elbert County. The Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC) overturned the county’s rejection of land use permits to Xcel (Public Service Company of Colorado) for a segment of a $1.7 billion 560-mile project to move power from Pueblo…
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Fire changes everything for rural communities | Rachel Gabel
The Nebraska Sandhills are made for cattle grazing, and that is, in large part, what keeps the area thriving and supports the small communities throughout western Nebraska. In Arthur County, most operations are cow/calf producers with a few operators who run yearlings on grass during the summer. On a good year, the grass is dense with nutrition…
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Petitions are no solution to land management problems | Rachel Gabel
With petitions being tossed around like glitter at prom, it’s time for reasonable voters to sharpen their pencils and speak up. The first, of course, is in response to the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission’s blatant disregard for their director, legal counsel, stakeholders, and staff and their direction to initiate rulemaking on a petition related to commercial fur sales.…