Curtis Wackerle

Wilderness watersheds and wildfire risk. Murky legal territory around river access. Increasing immigration enforcement netting more people without criminal records. In this edition of The Roundup, we bring you a trio of in-depth features all unique in the topics they cover, but united in their fidelity to analyzing complex issues of deep cultural, economic and […]

Across the Roaring Fork Valley, change is testing the systems and values that define our communities. Recent reporting from Aspen Journalism featured in this edition of The Roundup touches on themes ranging from insurance-company-hired fire crews protecting homes in the face of wildfire to the loss of another high-level leader at the White River National […]

A canceled party didn’t stop local community from planting roots “Latino Conservation Week” saw families planting trees and rafting, though this year’s event was scaled back and did not include the White River National Forest’s official participation amid federal DEI rollbacks. In addition, safety concerns over increasing immigration enforcement led organizers to hold smaller gatherings […]

From drought, wildfires and forest management, to AI and healthcare, to traffic and school heating in Aspen, CO and the Roaring Fork Valley.

Aspen Journalism recognized with six awards in 2024 Better News Media Contest AJ claimed three first-place awards, including best news story and best public service project Dear friends of Aspen Journalism, Aspen Journalism received six awards in the Colorado Press Association’s 2024 Better News Media Contest. The awards, announced on Aug. 24 at the Local […]

The latest Aspen Journalism reporting: Roaring Fork Valley residents move closer to resident ownership on mobile home parks; West Slope negotiates to stop 'contentious' Front Range hearing over Shoshone deal

Here at Aspen Journalism, we’re having a great summer season, with a diverse array of in-depth and investigative news highlighting our region’s most significant issues — our water infrastructure and planning for a hotter, drier future; tenuous housing security facing many mobile home park residents; the impacts of Aspen’s massive Lift One corridor redevelopment coming […]

A letter from the Aspen Journalism editor detailing the origination of the 2025 Aspen billionaire story. How many billionaires own in Aspen?

Local journalist Kaya Williams had June 9 circled on her calendar, as the date that the pending sale of the 3,739-acre St Benedict’s Monastery property in Old Snowmass was scheduled to close. But as she reported this week in collaboration with Josie Taris of Aspen Daily News, the deal, which we first reported this spring, […]

How many billionaires are there with ties to Aspen and Pitkin County? It depends how you count, but it's safe to say there have never been more. Take a look at the 80 individuals, couples or co-owning siblings that both appear on the Forbes World's Billionaires list and are personally tied to an ownership interest in at least one Pitkin County property.

This week’s roundup of stories speaks to the power of collaboration. Every story is the result of award-winning journalists asking the tough questions, and following curiosity with tenacity to seek complex answers. Each story is shared in print and broadcast through public radio and on our website. What you’ll read and listen to this week […]

A letter from the editor of Aspen Journalism and roundup of original stories: Dealing with the world as it is in three different settings.

Happy off season and thanks for reading the Roundup — the best way to stay up to date on all of Aspen Journalism’s reporting. Below, you’ll find a rundown of our recent coverage on a wide array of topics of local interest, including changes to how we’ll be flying this summer, Pitkin County boosting a […]

Aspen Ski Patrol‘s historic battles The two-part series on the history of the Aspen ski patrol unionization movement — unfolding over decades before the formation in 1986 of the Aspen Professional Ski Patrol Association, which remains the local patrol’s collective bargaining unit — was a reminder that the Aspen of today was forged through contentious […]

Aspen Journalism was recognized with seven awards in the 2025 Top of the Rockies Excellence in Journalism competition organized by the Society of Professional Journalists Colorado Pro Chapter. Reporting from Heather Sackett, Laurine Lassalle and Paul Andersen added up to three first place, two second place and two third place awards. More than 80 news […]

Hello, and welcome back to The Roundup. In our last edition, we looked at local issues affected by federal decisions; in this edition, Aspen Journalism’s reporting looks at what has become “normal” and what is being done to improve the baseline. Stories have been flying off the Social Justice Desk as Eleanor Bennett and Kaya […]

Happy Tuesday and welcome back to the Roundup, sharing the latest original, in-depth reporting from the Roaring Fork Valley’s only nonprofit online investigative news outlet, with stories of impact stretching far beyond Aspen. Our journalists have been taking a hard look at drought, wildfire and infrastructure concerns that are coming to the fore as we […]

County seeks land swap to ease pressure at North Star put-in Pitkin County is moving forward with an official proposal for a land exchange that would see it acquire 23 acres of U.S. Forest Service land around Wildwood Lane including a busy river access point for floaters heading to the North Star Nature Preserve. The […]

This week in The Roundup, Heather Sackett and Eleanor Bennett help us understand emerging environmental and social factors shaping our community, while Laurine Lassalle continues to improve our new-this-winter Roaring Fork basin snowpack monitoring feature, which now includes an interactive map visualizing real-time readings from SNOTEL sites ringing the watershed. Read on below to get […]

In this first edition of The Roundup in 2025, we share 10 stories that have published by Aspen Journalism including a new four-part series by Paul Andersen about an effort to recenter the moral humanism of Albert Schweitzer as a pillar of the Roaring Fork Valley community.