Compiled by Eric Lubbers, CTO & Newsletter Wrangler, @brofax

Good morning and happy Colorado Day, readers! Sure, it's been 142 years, but it seems like only yesterday that Ulysses S. Grant signed us into official statehood.  And because every celebration of history these days needs a hook, we celebrate with free stuff, the state's best foods and the only thing that's been around longer than the people: the natural landscape that makes us the envy of the other 49 states.

But our state is in the midst of a rapid change. I'm writing this newsletter from a coffee shop where I can see three construction cranes on a block that only has two buildings that existed in 2014. That’s just one reason I’ve been thinking about our past, where Colorado is right now and where it's headed (I'm sure you've got thoughts about this, too. My inbox is open for them).

One thing that will be necessary for the state's future, no matter where it ends up, is clear, fact-based discussion. Which brings me to today's reader question:

Who are the smartest people you know who are thinking about the future of Colorado?

I'm not talking just politicians (though I'm not not talking about politicians). Who are the community leaders, activists, business people, organizers, teachers or just plain good citizens that you see in your life that are working towards a better, more equitable Colorado? Who do you turn to and trust when you are curious about developments in our state? Who is your favorite socialist/libertarian/centrist who shares smart thoughts?

Send us an email with a name and why you seek them out.  Bonus points for thinkers from communities that don't typically get exposure in statewide media.

The Sun will be a place for fact-based opinion pieces and we want to make sure we are truly representing the breadth and depth of thought here in Colorado, instead of just the same handful of public intellectuals.

Now that we’re sufficiently thoughtful about our state, let’s get to the rest of this newsletter.

We’ve got an update on our wild-horse story, reporter Jesse Paul is doing quick analysis of Barack Obama’s Colorado endorsements over on Twitter (including who didn’t make the first cut), plus a dispatch from the recreation industry from the inimitable Jason Blevins (and a special bonus feature at the end), so giddyup!

Wild-horse update and why gelding isn’t a great option either

Here at The Sun, we hit a milestone earlier this week with the publication of our first story right here in this newsletter (here's the link in case you missed it).

The story, about how Colorado State University veterinarians plan to help the Bureau of Land Management sterilize wild mares by removing their ovaries, sparked some thoughtful discussion on Twitter, Facebook and Reddit. Among the questions readers asked: Why not geld (or castrate, for the non-country folk reading) stallions instead? Reporter Jen Brown has the answer:

Wild mares are fertile every three weeks during breeding season and will leave their band, or social group, in search of other stallions. Mares typically have a foal every year or every other year, so sterilizing one horse would prevent the birth of several foals. To reduce population rates, 80 percent or more of stallions would have to be sterilized, the BLM said. That would require rounding up herds about every three years and gelding all the male horses about to turn 4-years old, the age at which they start gathering a harem, the agency said.

STORY

Eight states — including Colorado — sign “Confluence Accords” pledging ethical recreation as a path to economic prosperity

Directors of eight state offices of outdoor recreation, left to right, Colorado's Luis Benitez, Montana's Rachel VandeVoort, North Carolina's David Knight, Oregon's Cailin O'Brien-Feeney, Utah's Tom Adams, Vermont's Michael Snyder, Washington's Jon Snyder and Wyoming's Domenic Bravo, show the freshly signed Confluence Accords atop the Le Meridien Hotel in Denver on July 25.   (Jason Blevins, The Colorado Sun)

By Jason Blevins, The Colorado Sun

The outdoor recreation industry celebrated its transition to adulthood last week as governor-selected chieftains from eight states signed a first-ever proclamation promising to follow a shared ethic championing outdoor recreation as a path to prosperity.

The Confluence Accords outlined a roadmap for the states to promote conservation and stewardship of lands, support environmental education and outdoor workforce development, foster a sustainable outdoor economy and deploy outdoor play as a way to improve public health. The agreement not only marked a first for an industry exploring newfound political and economic muscle, but also highlighted a rare moment of bipartisan agreement in an age of relentless red-versus-blue bickering.

The directors of outdoor recreation offices from Colorado, Montana, North Carolina, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, Washington and Wyoming have spent more than a year hammering out the accords with the hope of creating a national platform of states promoting outdoor recreation as the engine that can fuel economic vitality in rural America.

Outdoor recreation’s G8 — backed by Outdoor Industry Association reports showing the outdoor recreation economy driving $887 billion in consumer spending and supporting 7 million jobs  — hope to recruit even more states to the outdoors-are-the-answer mission.
 

“I never saw a good idea I didn’t want to steal.”

“I always say in public policy I never saw a good idea I didn’t want to steal. I hope other states look at all of us and say the same thing,” said Jon Snyder, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s first adviser on outdoor recreation and economic development. “There are lot of folks who want to turn every issue possible into something polarizing. What you see here, and what’s different now that you have eight states that are on every point of the political spectrum in this country coming together, is a fight to keep outdoor recreation bipartisan.”

Colorado was the second state — after Utah — to establish an outdoor recreation office. Luis Benitez heads that office. He was a driving force in forging the Confluence Accords. He corralled an array of state governors — both Republican and Democrat — to acknowledge the importance of outdoor recreation.

“I challenge you to name another industry in the United States that has bipartisan states who have put pen to paper and have agreed upon shared, best-practice principles for a guiding light forward for a multi-billion-dollar economy,” Benitez said after signing the accords from the rooftop of downtown hotel on July. 25.

Still, finding agreement required some compromise.

“But honestly it was really more about collaboration,” said Rachel VandeVoort, the inaugural director of the Montana Office of Outdoor Recreation. “I was surprised how easy it was for all of us to find these common goals. As much as we compromised on this or that, there was much more collaboration. This shows that the outdoor recreation industry and public lands actually can be this unifying force across any party boundaries.”
 

Today’s Thing

Editor's note: Every Sunriser will include one ... thing ... to cap off our time together. The Thing will be just about anything, like an ice cream flavor or a TV show or a book or a particularly cool dog toy.

Today's Colorado Day-themed Thing is something special. I was tooling around Wikipedia, as one does, and found what is always my favorite page on any subject: The "disambiguation" page, aka "all the other things that share a name with the more popular thing you were looking at."

On the disambiguation page for "Colorado", almost all the way at the bottom, I found a link titled "Colorado" (song), the Dutch entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1979 and I was intrigued.

A couple of things about this song:

• Yes, it's a Dutch song about our home state.
• Yes, it's performed in Dutch.
• Yes, it's terrible.

You can watch the original 1979 performance by Sandra Reemer (fronting the band XANDRA) here, but the real magic is in the lyrics. Sandra recorded an English language version with bland, pleasant lyrics, but the original Dutch lyrics are an absolute gift, including a dig at the then-weak American dollar and the following memorable stanzas:

"The rivers are full of fish / With a wild bear on the photo / Colorado, Colorado"

"Let's buy a second-hand horse / Together a whole day in the saddle / Think of the petrol you would save"

That’s it for today! Remember, if you’re a Kickstarter donor, make sure you’ve responded to our email survey, and if you missed it and would like to help out before we launch, we have a contributions page up that will let you buy a year’s membership or set up a monthly contribution to help sustain our journalism.

Oh, and don’t forget to tell your friends, family and neighbors to sign up for this newsletter at coloradosun.com for all the latest and greatest as we head toward our official launch.

Have a great day!