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The Front Range’s air quality benefitted from an unusually wet and cool

  The Front Range’s air quality benefitted from an unusually wet and cool start to summer, said Scott Landes, air quality meteorologist for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. “Ozone really thrives in hot and dry conditions, which we really didn’t have in the first half of the summer,” Landes said. On top of the cooler start to summer, wildfires were kept to a minimum in the West, and weather patterns sent smoke from large wildfires in Canada toward the eastern United States, he said. “In some respects, we got lucky this year,” Landes said. “With climate change particularly, summers have been hotter and that’s going to lead to higher ozone. We have long-term drought across the western U.S., and that’s going to lead to more wildfires. That smoke could enhance ozone concentrations. So we have a lot of stuff that works against us.” Reducing the number of days when ground-level ozone blankets the Front Range with thick smog is critical because the region is in vio...
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Little is guaranteed in the life of a flower farmer. Heat and humidity can wilt the sturdiest of petals; the frolicking deer of fairy tales can consume a yard-full of product overnight.

Little is guaranteed in the life of a flower farmer. Heat and humidity can wilt the sturdiest of petals; the frolicking deer of fairy tales can consume a yard-full of product overnight. If the field is full, whether the flowers will sell becomes the primary concern. After harvesting, the shelf life of cut flowers varies depending on the variety and external conditions.   “The idea of being a flower farmer, or even just working with flowers, is very romanticized,” said Rutigliano, of Hometown Flower Collective. “There’s definitely a lot more people playing with it. Now, who can do it 100% really speaks to how much time and energy they can put into it.” The antidote to that inconsistency, for many, is the Community Supported Agriculture model, or CSA, by which customers pre-pay to receive regular allotments of a crop via subscription.  In the summer months, Kevin Perry and his partners at North Fork Flower Farm sell an estimated 60 CSA flower subscriptions or more. The Sout...
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