The 2010 15th Annual Ouray Ice Festival is guaranteed to be a huge success. This year Timmy O’Neill will be the Master of Ceremonies for our Saturday night dinner and Guy Lacelle Superhero theme party.

Here’ s our great slideshow lineup

Thursday night – Caroline George and Andres Marin

Friday night - Majka Burhardt and Steve House

Saturday night – Timmy Oneill hosts our evening auctions, gives a short slideshow presentation and then DJ’s our late night Guy Lacelle SuperHero theme party. There will also be a special world premier screening of the film “THE NORTH FACE”

Sunday morning – Ines Papert will speak at the AAC women’s breakfast at the Beaumont Hotel.

Sunday night – Dave Nettle wraps things up with a great slideshow presentation.

This is going to be one Ice Fest you won’t want to miss.

OURAY COUNTY – Trout Unlimited has launched a collaborative effort with hunters, anglers and community leaders to gain permanent legislative protection of the hunting, fishing, historic resources, and motorized recreational resources in the Alpine Triangle – roughly defined as the Bureau of Land Management public land between Lake City Silverton and Ouray.

Trout Unlimited’s Sportsmen’s Conservation Project has identified this area as having a very high value in terms of fishing habitat, big game habitat and as an economic driver for the towns of Lake City, Silverton and Ouray, home to the Alpine Loop Backcountry Byway, one of the state’s most revered off-road resources, as well as the headwaters to three trout fisheries including the Animas River, the Uncompahgre River and the Lake Fork of the Gunnison River. Dozens of historic mining sites and ghost towns in this area, which draw annual visitors who tour the area by hiking and off road vehicles.

According to Ty Churchwell, a Trout Unlimited backcountry coordinator based in Durango, the goal of the campaign is to keep the area like it is now and to protect it, to which end the group is seeking federal National Conservation Area designation.

“If you take a snapshot of the Alpine Triangle today – the way it looks and the way it is used – we want to keep it that way,” Churchwell said in a telephone interview on Monday, adding that he wants collaboration with all users of this land to make sure all of its current uses are protected. “I am doing everything possible to reach out to the off-highway folks. I am trying to protect their use as well. The way that they use the Alpine Loop is very responsible and is a great example of where our public lands are used by ATVs and used responsibly.”

Churchwell also said he wants people to continue to visit the ghost towns, cabins and historic mining structures in the area. “When we protect these resources, we are also protecting the big game habitat and trout fisheries as well.” This campaign, he cautioned, strictly deals with public lands; there is no private land involvement, he emphasized.

Churchwell cited numerous threats to the area, including irresponsible development and new mining claims. “We are mindful that there are mining claims up there and people have the right to use them. We are supportive of that,” he said. “What we are trying to do is limit new mining claims.”

Churchwell said those who are collaborating in the campaign are also concerned about forestry issues in the area and are of the belief that mountains “really are best when they are covered with trees.

“Those trees provide the habitat up there and that’s why we go up there,” Churchwell said. “We are really interested in limiting forestry issues.”

Additional campaign goals include designating three wilderness study areas that encompass Handies Peak, Redcloud Peak and American Flats as official Wilderness designation. Combined, the new wilderness areas will total nearly 60,000 acres of land that has been managed by the BLM as de facto wilderness for decades.

“These three wilderness [study] areas have been managed that way since 1981 and if they are turned into wilderness, nothing changes,” he said. “What the legislation does is makes it permanent.”

Churchwell said he wants a collaborative process when it comes to federally protecting the Alpine Triangle, in large part, because will make available a number of legislative tools. By sitting down and personally engaging Hinsdale, San Juan and Ouray county representatives as well as residents and stakeholders, the right-fitting federal protection tool can be decided upon and achieved.

“I am pushing for a National Conservation Area, but the point I am trying to make here is that we are not dictating what happens up there,” Churchwell said. “We are just being the spearhead here and doing the ground work. What happens will ultimately be the wishes of the people. I want everybody to be at the table on this.”

Churchwell emphasized the effort is in its infancy and that it is not uncommon for protection work like this to take upwards of three to five years from beginning to end. He said the organization will be launching a website on the campaign soon and that anyone who would like more information about the campaign can call him 970/259-5116.

Trout Unlimited is a grassroots organization made up of hunters and anglers. It is the nation’s oldest river conservation organization. Its national membership is approximately 150,000.

Written by Gus Jarvis – Ouray County Watch

Comparable in difficulty to the Imogene Pass Run between Ouray and Telluride, the Ouray Trail Run circumnavigates the City of Ouray using the Silvershield, Ice Park and Portland trails. With the unsurpassed views of Ouray and the surrounding fall foliage, this year’s run will no doubt prove to be one of Colorado’s most beautiful fall events.

“The course is unbelievably beautiful,” race Director Erin Eddy said in an interview on Tuesday. “This has to be one of the most scenic runs in the state because of its timing. The course is just awesome and it is a great race.”

Participants are reminded that the course follows steep and rugged, single-track trails in the high altitude terrain, with a base elevation of 7,700 feet. The course gains over 3,600 vertical feet and includes many steep and loose sections. Another factor participants should keep in mind is the unpredictable fall weather of the San Juan Mountains, which can range from mild and sunny to cold and snowy in a matter of minutes. Ultimately, runners are responsible for their own safety and are expected to use good judgment with regards to their ability to complete the race.

The course will be marked with flagging, cones and signs, and a number of volunteer course marshals will be strategically located to keep runners headed in the right direction.

Eddy said that last year’s inaugural event raised approximately $2,000 for local outdoor education programs, including the San Juan Riding Program, the Ouray Cross County Team, and the Ridgway and Ouray schools’ outdoor education programs. He hopes to raise even more for those programs this year.

“This race is all about getting kids outdoors,” Eddy said.

The $50 race entry fee includes an official race T-shirt, aid-station refreshments, and a post-race barbecue. Prizes, custom made by Ouray glassblower Sam Rushing, will be awarded for overall male and female winners as well as male and female age group winners. Door prizes at the post-race awards ceremony will include Osprey packs, arm warmers, socks and shirts from Sugoi, a sport band for an iPod, and gaiters by JoeTrailMan. Race participants will automatically be entered to win prizes, but they must be present at the ceremony to win.

Race registration will occur on Friday at the Ouray Hot Springs Pool between 5 and 7 p.m., or on race day, between 8 and 9:30 a.m. The race starts and ends at the pool, and has a 10 a.m. start time.

Stick around town after the race for some much-deserved relaxation and revelry at the Ouray Oktoberfest and 45th Annual Jeep Raffle. Popular Bavarian band, The Austrian Connection, will perform, and there will be kids’ activities and costume contests with cash prizes. Traditional German food such as brats, potato cakes, apple sauce and German chocolate cake are on the menu, as well as Colorado Boy brews and wine. Call the Ouray Chamber for additional information at 800/228-1876.

The Ouray Trail Run is a 501(c)4 corporation and all race proceeds go directly to local outdoor youth recreational programs and local youth recreational clubs. For more information, go to www.ouraytrailrun.com.

STIMULUS GRANT – If Ouray County receives close to $16 million in grant money, County Road 1 (blue) could see paving, widening and drainage improvements.

OURAY – Commuters who travel between Montrose and Telluride could get a shortcut if Ouray County gets over $15 million in federal Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant funds to pave and improve County Road 1 between Colona and State Highway 62.

The Ouray Board of County Commissioners on Monday authorized the electronic submission for the TIGER grant application. As proposed in the application, the grant money would go toward highway paving, widening and drainage improvements to the roadway. This includes the removal of existing chip seal and the placement of five-feet thick asphalt. It also includes the improvement of a “poorly aligned” intersection at CR 24D and Highway 62. The total amount of funding requested for the project is $15,952,175, short of the $20 million minimum TIGER grant requirement. Because Ouray County considers itself an economically distressed rural area, they are requesting a waiver of the $20 million minimum, and they are requesting 100 percent funding through the grant program.

According to the application, the proposed project will enhance user mobility through the creation of a more convenient, shorter and safer option than U.S. Highway 550, which travels through downtown Ridgway. CR 1 would provide an alternate route between the east side Dallas Divide and Colona, bypassing Ridgway, which is two miles (or 13 percent) shorter than the current main thoroughfare.

Moreover, according to application, having a safe and alternate route for commuters is “essential to the region.” Grant funds would also promote economic development and create local contracting jobs, while opening the door to new residential development along the road corridor.

“Contractors, developers and interested homeowners will be able to work and reside in an area that has an improved surface, improved environmental component, improved maintenance and enhanced safety,” the BOCC-approved application states.

While the commissioners at Monday’s meeting showed excitement at the notion of Ouray County receiving close to $16 million in grant money, they also emphasized that the public will be given time to comment on the proposed project.

Commissioner Keith Meinert said, “I am sure there is a concern, and there will be even more concerns about this in the public, that it has gone as far as it has without a whole lot of public process, and that is because of the timing. Staff has had to jump through hoops to meet the deadline on grants. It is a tremendous opportunity for the county and we don’t want to miss it. We have said we will hold a public forum on this and I definitely want to commit to doing that. We are going to have a public process.”

Meinert continued by saying even if the county was “lucky enough” to be awarded the grant money, if it is subsequently determined the project is not warranted, “we can turn the grant back.

“We are not making a commitment today by applying for the grant,” he said.

Commissioner Heidi Albritton agreed. “We are just trying to get our foot in the door and we will have some open and candid conversations about this,” she said.

More information on the proposed project can be found at www.ouraycountyco.gov/CR1TIGER.html.

The Board of County Commis-sioners on Monday approved the final version of a Tiger Grant application, made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, following its review during a special meeting on Sept. 8. The grant application was due Sept. 15.
The proposed 15-mile project would upgrade County Roads 1 from Colona over Log Hill Mesa and CR24 and CR 24-D through the east end of Pleasant Valley. County commissioners conceded after last week’s review that the project could make the route a bypass of Ridgway by funneling traffic off Highways 550 and 62.
“This will be a more efficient bypass road,” said Commissioner Keith Meinert last week. But, Meinert noted, issues of speed limits, signage, weight limits and traffic enforcement need to be addressed. “I may lean toward favoring it when these questions are answered. People will need to know what the implications are.”
BOCC Chairman Heidi Albritton said last week that the BOCC will fully field public comment to see if county residents “have the political will” for the project, should funding be obtained.
On Monday, Albritton complimented county staff, in particular Administrator Connie Hunt, for putting the grant application together so quickly and so professionally. Albritton said she knows the project may stir controversy.
“But I feel as elected officials it’s important for us to examine all options that will help the community,” said Albritton.
Meinert echoed Albritton’s comments. “I want to assure the public that it can air any concerns,” said Meinert. “We will hold a public forum … if we get this grant. We are not making a commitment today.”
The grant application cites a potential benefit of creating a more convenient and shorter route (by nearly four miles) than the 19-plus miles on the Highway 550 and Highway 62 corridor through Ouray County.
Other benefits include improving safety for school buses and emergency response vehicles, winter travel and by reducing the number of vehicles that use Highway 62 through Ridgway for commuter or delivery travel between Montrose and Telluride; reducing dependence on oil and gas by providing an alternate route that is about 20% shorter; and enhancing air quality by reducing vehicle emissions and particulate matter from (gravel road) dust and the road-surface placement of sand during winter.
“It was a huge project pulling this together,” said Albritton. “It (the application packet) is really well thought out and pulls the picture together. We have a lot of good information to share at a public forum.”
A complete digital copy of the grant application is available at the Ouray County website: www.ouraycountyco.gov/

— By Patrick Davarn, news editor

| 218 views | 0 | 4 | | ‘Battle of the Titans’ in the Offing, With Boettcher, Parr and Crandall

OURAY – As if battling 17 miles of mountain-pass running isn’t burly enough, the Imogene Pass Run ups the ante by being held on a high-altitude mountain pass in September; when anything – from searing high altitude sun to an early fall snowstorm – could happen.

Race Director John Jett says he’s “cautiously optimistic” about the weather this year; as of Wednesday, weather outlets were calling for partly sunny conditions for this Saturday’s race, the 35th running of the infamous IPR.

Yet this year’s date is the latest in the month it can ever be held (the IPR is always held the first Saturday after Labor Day) and Jett admits that, historically speaking, the later in the month this annual high altitude-running challenge takes place, the iffier the weather conditions can be.

“Looking back through history,” Jett said, the weather conditions “haven’t always been great on September 12,” although he maintained that the weather “doesn’t look bad” for the coming race, which pits runner against nature in this 17-mile race over Imogene Pass from Ouray to Telluride.

The last few years’ IPRs have boasted spectacular weather, not just for completing the feat of racing up to over 13,000 feet – and back down again – but also for setting race records.

Six new records were set in 2008, including ever-contending Bernie Boettcher of Silt Colorado resetting his previous (2007) records for both the Master Men and Men 45-49 groups with his personal best IPR at 2:19:08 – only to be beat by mere minutes by IPR newbie Tim Parr from Gunnison. Jett says that will these two ultra runners gunning for a rematch in 2009, in addition to other men’s division contender Zach Crandall joining the fray, “these guys could drive each other to a winning time we haven’t seen.”

“We’ve got at least three really fierce competitors showing up, so that’s going to be exciting to watch,” Jett said this week.

Candidates for the local top finisher include Giorgio Compagnoni, who after finishing 23rd at this year’s Pikes Peak Marathon is “hungry for this one,” Jett thinks, but may get some stiff competition from big local runner Chris Howe. Ridgway’s Heath Hibbard, who demolished the Men 55-59 record last year, will be back this year, as will 72-year-old Ridgway record-setter Carl Schwenk. Perennial Telluride favorite Jim Looney will also be back on the trail, making a comeback after being sidelined by a serious hip injury last year.

Telluride’s contender Kari Distefano will be racing in the 50-55 age women’s division for the first time this year, and could be on track to knock down that age group’s class record, Jett says.

Other than the weather wild card and the as-of-now unknowable question of who will, ultimately, cross the finish line first, Jett says its pretty much business as usual for the 35th annual IPR.

“It’s still 13,114 feet to the top, it’s still 17 miles long – the mountain doesn’t really change,” he says. Registration for the event is again full, at 1,500 racers, with Jett expecting the usual 20 percent to not show up, making the number of total starters just over 1,200.

“It’s one of those big little runs; it’s big enough that we can take a lot of people, but still small enough to not feel crowded,” Jett said.

Check-in for participants will be held in Telluride on Friday from 12-2 p.m., then move to Ouray from 5-7 p.m. Buses for Ouray leave Telluride Saturday morning starting at 5:15 a.m., with the final bus pulling out from in front of the San Miguel County Courthouse at 5:30 a.m. The race begins at 7:30 a.m. in Ouray.

Imogene Pass and upper Oak Street in Telluride will be closed the day of the race, until 2 p.m.

The IPR supports local organizations including the Track Teams of Telluride, Ouray and Silverton, Ouray and Telluride Search and Rescue, Telluride Ski and Snowboard Team and the Montrose Amateur Radio Club.

www.ridgwayland.com
www.ourayland.com

With demographers forecasting 35 percent more people in Colorado by 2035 and climate scientists predicting 15 percent less water available in the Colorado River Basin by mid-century, something has to give.

More and more, public officials, business groups and environmental organizations have been talking about additional dams and reservoirs to augment those built in the mid-20th century.

“The water inheritance is running out,” said Josh Penry, the minority leader in the Colorado Senate, in a speech at the summer meeting of the Colorado Water Congress, a consortium of water providers. “Colorado needs to embark on a new round” of storage construction.

“We study too much. We analyze too much,” added Penry, who is from Grand Junction and a candidate for the Republican nomination for governor.

Representatives of environmental groups concede the need for additional storage but also call for restraint.

“There are projects that have significant adverse environmental impact that we could not support,” said Melinda Kassen, managing director of the Western Water Project for Trout Unlimited. “And there are projects that have substantially fewer environmental impacts that we can support,” she said, if mitigation measures are included.

Hovering over these conversations is the ghost of Wayne Aspinall. A onetime schoolteacher and lawyer from the fruit orchards of Palisade, Aspinall possessed neither good looks nor a good speaking voice. He did have a solid command of legislative techniques, however, and an ardent belief in the need to harness and regulate the rivers of the Rockies.

Serving in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1949 to 1973, Aspinall helped obtain authorization and federal funding for a series of major dams in the upper Colorado River Basin. Utah’s Lake Powell was the most massive, but a trio of reservoirs on the Gunnison River also resulted from his legislative perseverance. Today, they are collectively designed as the Aspinall Unit.

Growing populations

But if Westerners saw the yoking of rivers into submission as the major task of the mid-20th century, today a more nuanced challenge exists. The limits of abundance have become more apparent.

Most, if not all, of the best dam sites have been taken. Few reliable water supplies remain unclaimed, and those that are unclaimed, such as on the Yampa River of northwestern Colorado, are far from population centers.

Coloradans in the future, as is already the case, can be expected to congregate along the urbanized Front Range corridor. More than three-quarters of the state’s residents currently live in a narrow swath less than 200 miles long. The State Demography Office projects that the population, now at 5 million, by 2035 will nudge 7.8 million – an increase roughly the existing size of metropolitan Denver-Boulder.

Even more staggering population growth has been projected by 2035 for what is called the Colorado River system, an area that includes Denver, Salt Lake City and Los Angeles. The existing population of 24 to 30 million people will have grown by another 12 to 15 million. Imagine Las Vegas 11 times over.

In contrast to this uphill population climb, climate scientists see a downward slope for water. Temperature is the major driver.

Computerized simulations differ substantially as to whether precipitation will increase or decrease. Further, existing precipitation patterns could change, as increased planetary heat alters flow of the jet stream. In other words, changes in Vail and Telluride might not be uniform.

There’s more certainty about increased heat. Rising temperatures will produce shorter winters, more evaporation and transpiration, and a substantial reduction of total flows in the Colorado River. Scientists in the last two years have settled on a 15 percent reduction as a central figure.

“We are expecting a 39 percent increase in population and, if you want an average, a 15 percent reduction in supplies,” said Taylor Hawes, of The Nature Conservancy, describing the seven-state Colorado River Basin.

“By most standards, that’s a crisis.”

Managing uncertainty

Further confusing water planning is the prospect of drought. Colorado had several significant droughts in the 20th century, but all are overshadowed the mega-droughts of the distant past. Study of tree rings across the Southwest conducted by Connie Woodhouse of Arizona State University and other dendrochronologists shows clear evidence of extended drought periods, from roughly 1,000 years ago, that lasted up to three decades.

The parched summer of 2002, a time of roaring wildfires near Denver, Durango and Glenwood Springs, caught water managers by surprise. Levels in Lake Powell dropped precipitously in 2003, and by late 2004 had left bathtub rings two-thirds below the high-water mark. Many wondered if the reservoir might actually drop to a dead pool, unable to generate any electricity.

Along Colorado’s Front Range, the situation looked equally bleak. Had it not been for a miraculously wet and heavy snowstorm in March 2003, cities and farmers might have faced another withering summer, hot and dry.

Water managers broadly embrace the theory of human-caused global warming. Their meetings for the last several years have focused on the sharp warnings coming from climate scientists.

“The science is all basically painting in the same direction,” says Eric Kuhn, general manager of the Colorado River Water Conservation District.

But if the all signs point toward hotter and drier, great uncertainty remains. Faced with that uncertain hydrological future, Marc Waage, manager of water resources planning for Denver Water, says he has been “scratching my head for the last two years” about how to create a long-range water plan.

Before, water planning was a lot easier. There was always population growth, of course, but planners assumed a worst-case scenario that resembled a previous drought. Colorado’s documented worst drought came in the mid-1950s – about the time that Wayne Aspinall was proposing to dam the Gunnison, San Juan, and Green rivers.

Now, water planners realize much more serious droughts are possible and that even the average amounts of water will be less. Runoff will occur weeks and perhaps months earlier, leading to much longer, hotter and drier summers. Combined with population growth, all this suggests that the existing water infrastructure may be inadequate.

The elephant of Colorado

Colorado’s big question mark remains the urban Front Range corridor, especially Denver’s southern suburbs that overwhelmingly rely upon underground water that has become steadily more difficult to extract.

Prairie Waters Project, a major new diversion project to be completed in 2011, will draw water from the South Platte near Brighton several dozen miles south for use in Aurora, located on the eastern flanks of Denver. Short as the pipeline is, this project is expected to cost nearly $700 million.

Far more ambitious projects have been conceived. The most spectacular, proposed by former Montrose farmer Aaron Million, would draw water from the Green River near Rock Springs, Wyo., piping it along Interstate 80 and then down to the Front Range.

More recently, a rival plan employing the same idea has begun to emerge from a consortium of water providers in Denver’s southern suburbs.

Another so-called big straw would draw water from the Yampa River west of Craig. That idea comes from the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District, the agency responsible for the Colorado Big Thompson project. The project, which takes water from Grand Lake to Estes Park, was described by Telluride native and historian David Lavender as a “massive violation of geography.”

These big straws have mostly been painted as saviors of agriculture. The thinking is that without further Western Slope diversions, the cities will end up buying farms for water.

But does the water exist?

Whether Colorado actually has sufficient water under the treaty apportioning the Colorado River Compact is open for debate. Kuhn, for example, has long suggested that Colorado has no more than a few hundred-thousand acre-feet of unallocated water. A study to be completed later this year by the Colorado River Water Board will, it is hoped, answer with greater certainty just how close Colorado is to the last drop.

Another set of studies will attempt to push the science of climate change even more rigorously. Tapping the expertise of scientists assembled in the federal laboratories at Boulder, these studies, it is hoped, will provide a better idea of how much water may exist in a hotter and drier future.

The focus naturally is on the Western Slope, where three-quarters of Colorado’s water originates, mostly in the form of snow. The studies will also attempt to predict how much precipitation regimes will change between basins – the San Juan, for example, as distinct from the Eagle.

While this gets sorted out, parallel roundtable discussions have been occurring regarding the state’s major river basins. The intent of these roundtables is to reach some larger consensus about water allocations, perhaps similar to the compacts that govern the Colorado River now.

Friction

If the roundtables have improved dialogue, tempers have occasionally flared. Disagreement was evident in one exchange at last month’s meeting of the Colorado Water Congress. Pitkin County Commissioner Rachael Richards complained that Western Slope water had not been given its due in generating revenue in Colorado’s second largest economic, tourism and recreation.

She got pushback from Rodney Kuharich, director South Metro Water Supply Authority. Aspen, he observed, seemed to have done quite well despite the diversion of waters from the Roaring Fork River and its tributaries that began decades ago. Resorts on the Western Slope, he said, have benefited handsomely from customers drawn from along the Front Range.

As for additional storage, future reservoirs will likely be smaller but perhaps at higher-elevation locations, to minimize evaporation. But whereas the reservoirs of Aspinall’s day were all about commerce, today they will be judged against a greater matrix of considerations.

The Nature Conservancy’s Hawes said her group believes that decisions about storage should be guided by multiple uses, “so that the environmental is part of the planning and not an afterthought.”

OURAY, Colo. – Town officials in Ouray hope to secure a $20,000 grant that will allow them to generate electricity from the power of falling water.

Ouray has had a hydro plant since the 1880s, one of the four longest-continuously operating plants in the world. It generates 800 kilowatts, which used to be enough to supply much of the town’s electrical needs.

But Ouray has grown somewhat in recent years, and individual use has grown even more. To help reduce reliance upon outside – mostly coal-generated – electricity, the town has taken several measures. First it replaced incandescent lights with LEDs, which use far less electricity. The payback is expected to occur within just a few years, with great savings over the longer time span of the new light fixtures.

Now, the town hopes to harness the power of gravity through a small hydroelectric plant, called a microhydro unit. The proposed plant could generate 20 kilowatts of electricity. In comparison, 25 kilowatts are required to operate a motor used to pump water from the town’s geothermally heated hot springs through a water purifier.

Mayor Bob Risch, who ran for office on the platform of making the town “energy responsible,” says it costs $2,000 a month to operate the pump. The town, he said, hopes to save $20,000 annually through installation of the microhydro unit.

Next on the agenda, he says, is to explore potential for greater use of the heat underlying the town. In addition to the community hot springs, a number of hotels have their own hot springs.

In Aspen, work continues on a much bigger hydroelectric plant, one able to produce 5.5 million kilowatt hours annually. Aspen voters agreed to issue $5.5 million in bonds to pay for the facility on Castle Creek. The Aspen Times says that when the hydroelectric plant goes into production, probably in fall of 2010, it will reduce the community’s carbon footprint by 0.6 percent.

At a meeting of several mayors in the San Juan Mountains, including those from Ouray and Telluride, electrical providers noted that many ideas for electrical generation have been offered. However, even more important in the short term may be making more efficient use of existing electricity, whether produced by burning coal or by falling water.

“We have a responsibility to serve our members’ demands,” said Wes Perrin, a Telluride resident and president of the board of directors for San Miguel Power Authority. “But, if we can make members more aware of energy efficiency, we can lessen that demand.”