Good morning, Stoke Crew. Hope everyone had a fun weekend. I spent mine riding the Whole Enchilada with friends out in Moab! Looks like we've got some snow in the forecast, so I know some of you are gonna sneak in some high alpine touring. Maybe finally get that powder you've been waiting for all winter! Anyway, we've got a lot to cover today, Hope you enjoy :)
In today's report
- 🏔️ Colorado opens a new $100K outdoor equity grant round
- 🚲 Breckenridge expands trail access for adaptive riders
- 🥇 Asa Vermette wins his first elite World Cup at 19
- 🏛️ Protecting public lands
- 💰 REI cuts its 2025 loss by two thirds
- 💧 Flaming Gorge drains to keep Lake Powell alive
Local Stokelight
🌲 3 Colorado wins for outdoor access!
🏔️ Colorado Parks and Wildlife has opened a new round of Outdoor Equity Grant funding, with up to $100,000 per project to support outdoor education and access for underserved Colorado kids and families. Applications run April 30 through June 2, with awards announced in November.
- Eligible recipients include nonprofits, schools, school districts, federally recognized tribes, local governments, and certain for-profits. The Outdoor Equity Grant Board hosts a virtual Q&A on May 8 at 10 a.m. for applicants.
- The program has now invested $10.5 million across 165 grants, reaching about 80,000 Coloradans in 56 counties.
Why It Matters: The outdoor industry talks about access constantly, but most of the money still flows to people who already have gear, transportation, and a parent who took them camping. A state-funded grant program with $10.5 million on the board, aimed specifically at the kids and families left out of that picture, is one of the few real attempts to change who gets to use Colorado's outdoors.
🚲 Breckenridge is expanding trail access for adaptive riders, advancing a long-overdue rewrite of its 2011 mobility-device policy. Adaptive bikes built for riders with disabilities would be automatically allowed on qualifying natural-surface trails, while Class 1 and 2 e-bikes used by riders with mobility issues would require a quick registration. All devices must be no wider than 36 inches, under 750 watts, and capped at 20 mph assist.
Why It Matters: This solves a real access problem without quietly cracking the door for every e-bike on every trail. A clean default "yes" for adaptive equipment beats forcing disabled riders to beg for an accommodation every season, and it's a smart template for the rest of Colorado's mountain towns.
⛷️ Arapahoe Basin extended its 2026 season through Sunday, May 10, after 14 inches last week and another 8 to 12 inches forecast at the Continental Divide. The mountain is closed Monday through Thursday and reopens Friday through Sunday with Black Mountain Express and Lenawee Express, $39 lift tickets, and 2026/27 Ikon and A-Basin passes valid.
Environment
💦 A bill, and a river running short
🏛️ Colorado Senator Michael Bennet introduced the Public Lands Integrity Act on April 30, a bill that would make it much harder to sell off federal public lands through the budget reconciliation process. The legislation would amend the Byrd Rule, designating any reconciliation provision that sells, transfers, or disposes of federal land as "extraneous" and triggering a 60-vote threshold instead of a simple majority.
- The bill is a direct response to Utah Senator Mike Lee's 2025 push to sell 3 million acres of public land across 11 Western states inside a reconciliation bill. That effort failed, but it could only do so because of public backlash, not procedural protection. Bennet's law would close that loophole.
Why It Matters: Public lands are not a niche issue in the West. They are the economy. Hunters, anglers, hikers, skiers, mountain bikers, and the businesses that serve them all rely on the same map. A bill that says public land sales can't be smuggled into a spending package is one of the rare actually-bipartisan moves the outdoor coalition can rally around! The bill has not passed yet but I will keep you all in the loop on what happens next...
💧 The Bureau of Reclamation has ordered emergency releases from Flaming Gorge Reservoir (The Flaming Gorge Reservoir is a 91-mile-long lake extending from northeastern Utah into southwestern Wyoming) to keep Lake Powell from dropping below safe operating levels at Glen Canyon Dam. Without intervention, models showed the reservoir falling below the 3,490-foot minimum power pool by August 2026, the point at which the dam can no longer generate hydropower or reliably deliver water downstream.
- Reclamation has authorized releases of up to 1 million acre-feet from Flaming Gorge over the next year, roughly double the 550,000 acre-feet emergency release in 2022. About a third of the reservoir's storage will be drained; water levels are projected to drop about 12 feet by September, with capacity falling from 83% to roughly 59%. Three of five Wyoming boat ramps are expected to be unusable.
- The forecast keeps deteriorating. Lake Powell's water-year inflow is projected at 2.78 million acre-feet, just 29% of historical average. In the first two weeks of April, forecasts for Powell fell another 500,000 acre-feet. Veteran water researcher Eric Kuhn says the 1-million-acre-foot release "is a target, and they're going to have to revise it. I could easily see that 1 million becomes 1.5 million acre-feet by March of 2027."
Why It Matters: Emergency action this big stops a collapse but it doesn't fix anything in the long term. The basin is using next year's reserves to survive this year, and there's no backstop if next winter is also dry...
Biking
🚲 Colorado local wins elite race!
🥇 Asa Vermette (from Durango!) won his first elite Downhill World Cup race at the season opener at MONA YongPyong, South Korea, the first World Cup ever held in Asia. The 19-year-old American rode a controlled 2:43.301 to win by 1.568 seconds over Loïc Bruni, with Amaury Pierron taking third despite crashing mid-run.
- Vermette built his win on consistency: only two fastest section time (sections 2 and 4), but inside the top three across most of the track. His winning run was 1.266 seconds off the hypothetical perfect lap, a tight gap on a brand-new, dusty, technical course that punished mistakes.
- Pierron looked like he was about to win it. He had a 1.5-second lead on Vermette before a small lay-down crash in section four, then somehow remounted (still clipped in on his right side, still holding the grips) and rode to a podium 2.063 seconds back.
- The women's race went to Valentina Höll by 0.573 seconds (0.29%) over Gloria Scarsi. Junior Aletha Ostgaard posted the fastest women's time of the day, beating Höll's elite winning time by 0.841 seconds. Reigning men's overall champion Jackson Goldstone crashed and finished 26th.
Why It Matters: Vermette has been talked about as the next big U.S. downhiller for years (Red Bull Hardline winner, Junior World Champion). Winning his first elite race, on a dusty unknown track, against a stacked field, is the moment that bet pays off. We'll see how the rest of the season shapes up, but we love seeing Colorado locals crushing it!
Business
🌲 Industry updates
🏛️ Colorado lost more federal public lands workers than any other state in 2025, shedding 1,753 positions across agencies including the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. That's a 26% cut to the state's public lands workforce, in a year heading into the worst snowpack in half a century and a heightened wildfire risk on Colorado's 24 million federal acres.
- The losses are part of the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency cuts, which eliminated roughly 6,000 public lands jobs across 10 federal agencies in six Western states, against nearly 300,000 federal jobs cut overall. About 60 of the lost Forest Service jobs came from the 2.3-million-acre White River National Forest, the busiest forest in the country (8 million annual visitors, $1.6 billion in economic impact).
- More than a third of Colorado's losses were newly hired or probationary employees on the frontlines: visitor services, field operations, emergency operations. Another third came from reassigning Interior Department staff out of regional offices and into Washington, D.C.
- The Forest Service is now restructuring further, moving its national headquarters from D.C. to Salt Lake City and closing all 10 regional offices, including Region 2 in Lakewood, where the Federal Center hosts more than 6,000 workers across 28 federal agencies. Research centers are being consolidated into a single operation in Fort Collins.
Why It Matters: The White River National Forest alone moves $1.6 billion through Colorado's high country every year. The math on these cuts isn't mathing. Fewer rangers, fewer field crews, fewer scientists... means more closures, more deferred maintenance, and a slower response when things go wrong on the most-visited forest in the country.
📉 REI Co-op narrowed its 2025 net loss to $54.3 million, down from $156.4 million in 2024 and $311.1 million in 2023, while sales held essentially flat at $3.54 billion. The co-op delivered two profitable quarters to close the year, the first signs that CEO Mary Beth Laughton's plan is starting to bite.
- Gross profit jumped 7% to $1.52 billion on tighter inventory management and more full-price selling. The co-op also pushed $203 million back to members through Member Rewards (up from $189 million) and lifted employee incentives and profit sharing 44% to $121.9 million.
- Membership grew by 1 million to over 26 million. REI opened six stores in 2025 (four new locations including Durango, plus two relocations), but is closing its Paramus, NJ store in Q1 2026 and its Boston and SoHo Manhattan flagships in late 2026.
- The cost discipline isn't just inventory. In March, internal plans surfaced to reduce pay rates for new hires, slow vacation accrual, switch from guaranteed retirement contributions to a more traditional company match, and align sick days with state-by-state legal minimums. Laughton has told staff REI is "still spending more than we bring in."
Why It Matters: The co-op model is supposed to be REI's edge: members own it, profits flow back, and the brand stands for something. Cutting losses by two thirds in a year is real progress, but it's coming partly out of employee benefits which is not the right approach.
What else is going on
- Colorado faces significantly increased wildfire risk with 95% of state in drought through June-July, already dropping 200,000 gallons retardant as fires started early.
- Lakpa Dende Sherpa, 52-year-old mountain guide with 30 expeditions, died walking to Everest Base Camp marking 2026 season's first fatality on the mountain.
- Yosemite Valley parking filled by 10:59 a.m. Saturday in first major test without reservation system, with Highway 41 entrance seeing 90-minute delays.
📚 Trailhead Trivia
How do butterflies taste their food?
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See you soon,
Tyler
Creator — THE STOKE REPORT
