Originally Posted by Lloyd3
craigd: I haven't ruled it out entirely, but as a product of the eastern deciduous forests myself (NW Pennsylvania) I do have an affinity for that type of biomass. I'm also haunted by the memory of how nice things still were out here even 10-years ago now(!). It's hard for me to go fish a stream (take the time, burn the gas) that once was beautiful and productive but now is crowded, trashed (not too-strong a word here), and essentially devoid of fish. I painfully understand why royalty in Europe (and/or the wealthy here) needed to make their best hunting and fishing spots private, because the hoi-polloi tend to destroy any such resource by abusive overuse. As a card-carrying member of said hoi-polloi, this bothers me to no-end, but...I have no other real solutions. Trout streams are a very delicate resource that doesn't much tolerate overuse and moreover... crowding is anathema to an old flyfisherman such as myself, as I fish to get away from it all (humanity, crowding, noise, etc.). As with most of the classic male pursuits (hunting, golf, gambling, drinking, etc.) fishing is an escape mechanism and there is no escaping from the crowds here in Colorado anymore. At least not on the Front Range. I also realize that this problem is endemic in the streams of the east and west coasts as well, thus my interests in "flyover country".

I'll attempt to size this up for both of us. "They paved over paradise and made it a parking lot"

Everything you've said is correct for what has happened to my beloved home state. You should see it from my perspective. I'm fourth generation here with roots dating back to at least 1880. In my lifetime I can remember when it was a big deal when the population hit one million & we thought it was getting crowded then. Now the population is over five million with most of this living on the front range from the springs to Ft. Collins with a major portion of this population hitting the super slab to the west slope outdoor playground every weekend, along with all of the tourists and the ultra-rich second homeowners with their McMansions ruining vistas & locking off access to vast tracks of land including public land & streams. The state has changed in so many ways that I don't even recognize the neighborhood I grew-up in or many of the places I frequented in the mountains with my outdoor pursuits. I'm a lifelong hunter, fisherman and have wrangled elk camp's and guided white water rafting all over the state in my younger days. Now, I have a sense of sorrow very time I go to the mountains and see what we've done to this magnificent place.

In short--I feel your pain--including what has happened to the state politically "I absolutely hate that aspect of all this" The bottom line is the pilgrimage of immigrants from other states as changed the landscape & politics here over the past three decades and there's no turning that clock back. I fully know the urge to move, but the question is "Where too"?

Here's a quote from a good friend who moved back to Kansas when he retired. " I came to Colorado in the sixties because of what it was---I'm now leaving because of what it's became" This pretty well sizes it up!