Senator Bennet talks snowpack with local stakeholders

“This year has been exceptional”

By Katherine Nettles

Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet visited Crested Butte last week to meet with Gunnison County leaders and representatives in a roundtable discussion of the Gunnison Basin’s historically low snowpack this year. The conversation focused on how the snowpack is affecting Gunnison County’s economy, fire risk and water supply, and Bennet spent an hour listening and asking questions of attendees about potential long-term solutions to the issues. He then headed on to a meet-and-greet in Gunnison, part of his statewide tour campaigning for governor of Colorado in the fall election. 

The roundtable meeting was held on Thursday, April 2 at the CB Center for the Arts. Attendees included county commissioner Jonathan Houck, Crested Butte mayor Ian Billick and representatives from the Upper Gunnison River Water Conservancy District (UGRWCD), Gunnison County Tourism and Prosperity Partnership (TAPP), Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL), Crested Butte Avalanche Center (CBAC), Western Colorado University (WCU) and Trout Unlimited. Bennet specifically asked what the next governor of Colorado could do to help the valley in a hotter, drier future.

To start off, there was a discussion of current conditions. “To put it in one word, this winter has been exceptional,” said Ian Breckheimer, a research scientist at RMBL. “Another word is historic. There are maybe two years (2012 and 1976) in the last half-century record that got us anywhere close to where we are this year.”

Breckheimer added that the rest of the West is facing similar conditions, based on warmer temperatures. “We’ve received roughly normal precipitation this snow year, but a very large proportion of that has come as rain and not snow.” He said that combined with the two-week “heat dome” in March created premature snowmelt and snowpack collapse.

UGRWCD representatives Sonja Chavez and Beverly Richards provided further data that as of March 31, 73% of the county was in drought ranging from extreme to exceptional, and that the upper basin snow water equivalent is 20% below average. Streamflow in the basin was reported as well above the historic average, indicating an early runoff about one full month ahead of normal. “We are concerned that peak streamflow has already occurred,” according to their report.

CBAC forecaster Zach Guy said that snowfall was well below average since the organization began recording in November 2025. He described that Gothic data collector billy barr reported 35 record-high temperatures this winter. “Each year we should see about four record highs and four record lows,” said Guy.

Jesse Kruthaupt, who works with ranchers and conservation projects around irrigation, water storage and streamflow maintenance, said, “This year, everyone’s got a ton of anxiety.” He said irrigators are turning their systems on now and meadows are turning green almost 45 days early, “because they know the water simply won’t be there late-season.” He suggested continuing to leverage waterway and wetlands restoration with state conservation work, including Colorado Water Conservation Board contributions and its State Water Plan.

Bennet acknowledged that funding from the Colorado Department of Agriculture and other state funding are concerns of his and he would advocate to keep such programs functioning.

Local rancher Sandy Guerrieri said ranchers are overwhelmed, and many plan to sell off some cattle knowing it will be a short hay season. She underscored the importance of access to federal lands for grazing and managing access with sage grouse habitat needs, of funding for conservation easements “which are also water easements” and Farm Bill funding. She said one good thing was that sage grouse numbers were up on her property this year because of the mild winter. “I think we’re going to see a population increase,” she said.

Chavez echoed the importance of technology to inform and support wetlands restoration, data gathering and recovery work.

“The stage is set for potentially having a big fire season,” said Jonathan Coop with WCU’s Center for Public Lands. “There’s a lot of uncertainty with the reorganization of some of these federal agencies, and how that’s going to play out with fire management,” he said. “Reasonable projections of the future suggest that we’ve only gotten about 20% of the way to where we’re going as far as warming. So, the big picture is we can expect years like this to be more frequent.”

Coop suggested that dedicated state workforce to manage more prescribed fires would make a difference. “No fire is not an option. It’s either fire at the place and time of our choosing,” he said, or an alternative that would not be optimal. “There’s still lots of need for more science and unfortunately, that’s also taking a big hit right now at the federal level.” He also suggested changes to state-backed insurance liability protection to better insure proactive burning. Bennet expressed interest in supporting more state workforce “to bring these resources together,” and in another idea to add more career pathways for seasonal workers with the state. Chavez suggested recreational taxes could help fund such positions.

Next, TAPP executive director Andrew Sandstrom reported on economics and tourism around the changing conditions. He said some safeguards are in long-term visitors, second homeowners and retirees. “They’re coming because they’re invested in this place. But we’re not seeing those people that are chasing the snow,” he said, with lodging reports in February down 15% and in March by about 20%. He said bars and restaurants did okay, as did flights, because those appeal to second homeowners and locals even in a low snow year. “There’s opportunity to build in resiliency there,” he said, and noted that there might be a shift in visitation from late summer to spring. “It’s all based on early numbers,” he cautioned.

He also suggested the state work to regain some collective marketing for skiing, since big ski companies don’t care if their passholders go to California or Colorado on the same Ikon or Epic Pass.

Billick also touched on resiliency, which he said would be based on both water supply redundancy (in case of a fire that shuts down water intake), and building social capital. “I think the capacity of communities to absorb shocks, and working together is really critical,” he said. If a fire were to break out or if there was intense smoke in the area deterring visitors, said Billick, “we can absorb that financially, but it’s our ability to work together, constructively, under periods of stress to solve those problems” that would make a difference.

Local business owner Arvin Ram said he’d like to see communication to visitors that helps normalize drought as well.

Than Acuff, executive director for CBAC, suggested stewardship across the state, raising awareness of water resource limitations and promoting that “Colorado still outpaces all other states in winter recreation revenue—by a lot.”

Bennet agreed. “We are never going to feel more bound together than we are at a moment when we are facing the water danger and fire danger that we are facing. Because literally no community in this state is immune to these challenges. That’s a reason for us to find a way to work together on this,” he concluded.