Christmas Trees Options in Fort Collins

If you are new to town or have been here for many years you may not be aware of all the different options for Christmas trees.  I have a background in Ecology and am concerned about my impact on the environment, so I have always felt a bit torn when facing the Christmas tree dilemma.  Nothing screams the holidays like a fresh cut Christmas tree, covered in lights and ornaments forming the centerpiece of your holiday season.  However, I always think about where that tree came from and feel those pangs of post holiday guilt when I drop it off at the Christmas tree "recycling center".  The good news is that there are some conscientious options right here in our own back yard. 

We have a great program here put on through the Canyon Lakes Ranger District of the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forest.  You can go cut your own Christmas tree up near Red Feather Lakes.  Now, I know your next thought....but Erik, you think it is great to go cut a tree down in the national forest.  Isn't all the logging and clear cutting a problem?  Not in this case.  This is a specially designated area that is an old clear cut that is in a rejuvenation phase.  The young trees are coming in very thickly and need to be thinned.  By properly choosing your tree, you are actually making a healthier forest by allowing room for the remaining trees to grow properly, stretch their limbs, so to speak. 

You can get all the details by HERE.  For $10, pack a picnic lunch and hot chocolate, and take your family and friends, dogs, cats, parakeets, up to the cutting area near Red Feather and choose your tree.  The dates are Dec. 3rd-11th.  You can buy permits there BUT ONLY ON THE WEEKENDS.  For a during the week cutting, pick up your permit from the Ranger Office in FC before you go.

This is a great program and lots of fun.  If you can't make it all the way to cut your own, then head out to the tree lot beside the Bellvue Bean.  They cut trees from the same area of the national forest and you can get some great hot drinks and food from The Bean while you are there. 

When choosing your tree always think about where that tree is from.  A fir shipped in from Washington or Oregon may be pretty, but think of the impact of shipping that tree across the country.  Choose a local tree and a local supplier when making your purchase. 

Also, a live tree that you can plant after the holidays is also a great option.  I am sure one of the local nurseries would be thrilled to help you out.

Here is to Happy Holidays!

Fort Collins Schools

We are really lucky here in Fort Collins to have great schools.  It is a testament to the Poudre School District that there are so many options.  The PSD School Choice programs allows families to select the school that best meets their child's educational needs.  For a serious overview go to THIS PAGE and click on the link to download the "Educational Choices" overview near the bottom of the page. 

School options in the area include Standards-Driven Curriculum Schools, Special Focus Schools (bilingual immersion, gifted and talented, and science, the arts, or technology focused), Core Knowledge Schools, International Baccalaureate Schools, Advanced Placement and Post-Secondary and Career Credit Options. 

I think one reason for the quality of our schools is the collective brainpower of the community.  Fort Collins as a city has a very high percentage of residents with post-secondary degrees.  Here are some stats from a survey of the most educated cities in the US.  Fort Collins is fifth on the list. 

Graduate and/or Professional Degree: 16.66%
Bachelor's Degree: 24.39%
Associate Degree or Some College: 31.81%
High School Diploma: 20.43%

 

All of this secondary education means that residents understand the value of education and support it both in the schools and at home.  These people volunteer in their child's schools and when the teacher wants to have a special section on Geology, they don't just show a video, they bring in little Susie's dad who happens to be a Geology Professor at CSU.  When they take the field trip to the Aquarium in Denver one of the chaperones is little Johnie's mom who is a Professor of Marine Biology.  

All of this and the best news is that these schools are all public!

Fort Collins in the 8 Healthiest Housing Markets in Builder Magazine

As those of us that live here know Fort Collins is a great place to live.  This is good news for the housing market as 2012 is shaping up to be a strong year.  Check out this summary of an article in Builder Magazine where Fort Collins makes #2 on the list

 Article Excerpt:  "Many of the housing markets projected to have the biggest gains into 2012 tend to be the home to major universities, strong private sector employment, or have nearby military bases, according to a list of the healthiest housing markets by Builder Magazine."

We have both a major university and a strong private sector here in Fort Collins and unemployment is on the decline with the Unemployment Rate at 6.0% for September 2011.  This is down from a high of 8.5% in January 2010.  A positive growth outlook and declining unemployment all point towards rising home prices in 2012.  Time to enjoy these historic low interest rates while you can.

Tree Damage Information

Hey Folks,

It has been too long since my last post but hopefully this information can help someone out.  The City of Fort Collins will be collecting storm damaged limbs for free.  See the link below for more information!


http://www.fcgov.com/news/index.php?id=4046

Happy Thursday!

Downtown Fort Collins - aka Old Town...pretty much, sort of..

If you are interested in getting a better vibe for Old Town, then you need to check out this site put together by predominantly Old Town businesses.   There are lots of events that happen in Old Town that are funded, promoted, supported in a number of different ways by the city and the Downtown Business Association. 

We have First Friday Art Walks, Great Plates, concerts galore, and more festivals than you can shake a stick at (sorry to my high school English teacher for ending a sentence with a preposition--she would not be happy).

I live and play in Old Town so I am slightly biased, but I think it is one of the coolest places to be with a very strong sense of community, the kind of place where you always see people you know, you feel comfortable, you feel at home.  Visit Old Town on a warm summers evening after a hard day of hiking, biking or paddling.  Grab a beer and sit on the patio of Coop's (Coopersmith's to the non-locals) and I bet you will want to stay.  I did.

Best Places to Live and What not...

I really enjoy living in Fort Collins and I know we get lots of national recognition for being a great place to live. I am starting to put together a list of all of these accolades and in using the almighty Google I found out that the City of Fort Collins has already done a pretty good job of keeping track of all the "official" rankings. There is no reason for me to re-invent the wheel here. Check out this link on to find all of The Rankings and Accolades for FC.

I will highlight some of the highlights I personally found interesting:

First, Fort Collins weather and topographic info:

• Fort Collins is nestled against the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and alongside the banks of the Cache La Poudre River.
• The city lies approximately 5,000 feet above sea level.
• Residents enjoy a moderate, four season climate with an average of 300 days of sunshine and 14.5 inches of precipitation a year. (*****I think this 300 days is low. I can count on two hands and a foot the number of days that are completed overcast from dawn to dusk******).
• July is the average warmest month (Avg. High 86°F - Avg. Low 57°F)
• January is the average coolest month (Avg. High 42°F - Avg. Low 14°F)

Bike Related Highlights: ***Remember this is only the City not the County Open Space or State Parks which we have a lot of here.

Gold level Bicycle Friendly Community: League of American Bicyclists - September 2008
***There are only 10 Gold Level in the nation****

The City maintains more than 600 acres of parks, 30,000 acres of natural areas, 20 miles of off-street hike/ bike trails and 200 miles of on-street and off-street trails for pedestrians and bicycles. As a side note, our Bike Path system is awesome with a paved trail running from Fort Collins to Laporte and Bellvue. This trail follows the Poudre River and is very scenic with an amazing bike bridge over the river near Laporte.

OTHER COOL STUFF:

• One the Top 25 Best Places to Retire: CNNMoney.com - September 2010
• One of the Top 10 Best College Towns: Small-Sized Cities Category, USA Today - September 2010
• One of the top six 'Smarter Cities' for Energy: Natural Resources Defense Council, (population 100,000-249,999) - August 2010

And I really like this one:

Named 5th Most Educated City in the country based on education levels of our adult population: Portfolio.com - December 2010. Here is the stat from the Census Bureau via the City website "Approximately 48.2% of the population has completed four or more years of college (2006 US Census)." I think we are probably above that 48.2% number by now.

There is lots more, so check out the city website I link to above or shoot me an email.

Off for a ride.....Be Well.

Snowshoeing in Red Feather Lakes

From L to R- Dr. B, Winston, Dr. H, and Dr. S.  in the parking lot on Deadman Rd.

We had a great day of snowshoeing that was quite a surprise.  We initially had plans to go to a new area west of Boulder that Christi and I had never visited, led by our fearless friend Dr. S.  When we picked up Dr. S and Dr. B at 8am, the snow was already flying in Fort Collins, so we thought the drive to Boulder might be dodgy.  Instead, we decided to live on the edge and head to the Red Feather Lakes area.

Red Feather Lakes is about 45 minutes northwest of Fort Collins.  If you have never been there, it is well worth a visit, or many visits.  It really is an impressive landscape, not only for the mountains that surround it but more for the smattering of large rock formations scattered throughout the many meadows and small lakes that dot the area.  These are all encapsulated in evergreen forests filled with ponderosa, spruce and clumps of aspen.  Incidentally, our snowshoe route took us through some stands of aspens with some of the largest aspen trees we have collectively ever seen. 

I initially describe this trip as dodgy because, except for the last mile or two of the drive, we thought we may not have enough snow for snowshoeing.  We thought we might enjoy a nice mixed conditions hike, but we indeed had plenty of snow.  In fact, it snowed the entire time we were hiking.  Our route was an out and back circuit on Deadman Road, a forbidding name, but quite a nice place.  We probably went a total of 6 miles and had great snowshoeing conditions.  Deadman Road is a Forest Service road that goes on for 20 or 30 miles and eventually connects with the Laramie River Road.  Although I have not traveled the route personally, I believe one would be able to eventually link to roads that would wind into Laramie, WY or to Cameron Pass.  I think we often fail to realize just how much public land there is in this corner of the world.  We are talking lots, tons, a truckload here.  Incidentally, I already have summer plans for a bike tour that will just do this, probably linking into Cameron Pass and heading back down the Poudre Canyon.

We all had a very nice snowshoe, caught a brief glimpse of a moose gliding through about 3 feet of snow like it was no problem at all, and topped off the trip with a couple of Girl Scouts on a Ski Lift (those were the names of the hot chocolate beverages imbued with some peppermint schnapps that we consumed at the Pot Belly Restaurant and Bar, another great place to visit).  However, I personally believe Winston had the best time of all as he ran six times the distance we covered and enjoyed a lot more smells and then got to sleep the whole way home.