Routt County ranchers brace for drought conditions after unprecedented winter

The West’s unprecedented winter could fuel a summer of disaster

In Park City, Utah, skiers could find patches of grass poking through the slopes for much of the winter — a striking sign of a season that never really arrived. Now, after one of the warmest winters on record, much of the West is entering spring with snowpack at historic lows and an early heat wave that pushed temperatures into triple digits. These woes could be straight out of a climate fiction novel. But the West’s no good, very bad winter was…

Routt County ranchers brace for drought conditions after unprecedented winter

A cloud of dust filled the air surrounding the tractor driven by Routt County rancher Jo Stanko as she harrowed a hay meadow on a 2,000-acre ranch west of Steamboat Springs that she operates with her husband, Jim. “It’s going to change everything for a whole bunch of people,” Jim Stanko said of the Yampa Valley’s unprecedented winter as he fueled his tractor before heading out to drag another nearby field Thursday afternoon. Jim Stanko said he c…