The Temperature | Saving the Southwest, one cactus at a time
So far in 2025, there’s been a lot of good news for people who want to utilize or extract natural resources on public lands, and a lot of bad news for those only interested in protecting and preserving.
Let’s take a pause, then, to appreciate where a circa-2025 federal agency and defenders of wildlife seem to agree on an Endangered Species Act victory, and a cooperative delisting of a once-threatened life form.
All hail the humble Colorado hookless cactus, and the people who worked hard to survey every last one of the spiky succulents while also carving out safe spaces from the hiking boots, drilling rigs and cattle hooves that loomed as a warning.
Now if your goal is to find one on your own, you’ll have to head up to the high country above the Gunnison River and upper Colorado River basins. If that’s not on your calendar anytime soon, hike over to Denver Botanic Gardens, whose experts helped restore the hookless cactus and who have kept many similar cacti on display.
Refill your coffee mug, because we’ve got more on this, as well as other piping hot news …
CACTUS REVIVAL
From the Department of Who Knew: A completed comeback for a Colorado cactus
Increase in count of protected hookless cactus, after preservation and survey efforts
It took two years from proposal to acceptance. But apparently the Colorado hookless cactus is a hardy little bugger by nature, and so the delay in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service bureaucracy was not a prickly problem for the perennial plant.
After first being touted for removal from the endangered species list in 2023 because of a promising recovery, the little pink-blooming cactus is now officially “off.” The service said the upgrade “reflects ongoing conservation efforts,” and gave a shout out to partners like Denver Botanic Gardens in the process.
We know the beating heart of scientific inquiry that lurks in your souls, and we are here for it: Why “hookless”?
Well, that’s another “who knew.” Most cactus’ central prongs are bent into some kind of hooked shape — separate from the fact of how the spines go straight into my hand when I take a rest from hiking and reach behind me without looking. The Colorado hookless is just that, a cactus with very straight spines.
It also has blooms that plant experts declare to be enchanting, especially when encountered in the arid backcountry.
The Botanic Gardens had been warning for years that oil and gas development in the West in particular was threatening the rare cactus. More “who knew”: There are also flora poachers who scoop up the hookless cactus and sell them on the internet to unscrupulous fanciers.
Researchers are celebrating the official cactus delisting as a success story. “It feels good,” said Denver Botanic Gardens expert Michelle DePrenger-Levin, to know that “yes, this beautiful cactus will be here to stay.”
Hear more about how Denver’s spectacular showcase gardens contributed to the Western Slope preservation projects over time, and how you can find the species on your own hikes, when we publish more from our interviews at coloradosun.com next week.
SUSTAINABLE JAVA
They like their coffee burnt
Is there any more depressing scenario from modern office life than approaching the breakroom coffee pot and swirling the dregs in the glass carafe that has been burning leftover java on the hot plate for three hours? It’s the sickly sweet smell of generational ennui.
But for Maddie Cataldo and Maya Nefs, burnt coffee gives off the smell of success.
Cataldo and Nefs love their coffee so much they can’t bear to let any part of the coffee-making process go to waste. And they cherish environmental activism so much that they invented a product that reuses coffee’s biggest waste: The dry husks that flake off the intensely flavored beans during the drying and roasting process.
Their business, Blazin’ Joe, compresses tons of those husks, mixes in a flammable but environmentally sound soy-based wax, and churns out a coffee brick as a campfire log or firestarter kindling. Not only are the former business school mates repurposing waste products, the entrepreneurs argue, but they’re helping people avoid the petroleum-chemical smells and residues of traditional paper-based artificial logs.
“We want to make an environmentally friendly product, and also one that’s a lot better alternative for your health than what’s out there,” Cataldo said.
They still have side gigs, but the pair are working tirelessly, with some help from Cataldo’s entrepreneurial father, to build Blazin’ Joe into a full-time, thriving business. Nefs picks up loads of spent bean husks from a couple of local roasters, and they process and package the bricks in her garage.
And like all social media-savvy young businesses, they’ve now got some decent merch. They commissioned an art student friend to draw T-shirts with Day of the Dead-style skeletons enjoying their joe around, what else, a campfire.
One hundred percent cotton, sustainable water-based ink, mailed in recycled polymer bags. Their dedication to reuse and their high-energy, relatable approach are winning praise from circular economy advocates, who want to see more Colorado materials diverted from the waste stream and made into usable commodities.
Read more about how Nefs and Cataldo got started — after meeting while playing hockey at CU Boulder — and their relentless commitment to building an environmentally friendly business, in coming days at coloradosun.com.
MORE ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH NEWS
There is no cure yet for the clean energy hangover resulting from late-night budget partying in the U.S. House of Representatives. The House, barely, passed a budget that would repeal many of the subsidies, grants and tax credits for accelerating America’s transition away from fossil fuels. Some of those same “yes” votes are now crossing their fingers that Senate negotiators will restore some of the credits from the Inflation Reduction Act that speed up construction of solar farms, sales of electric vehicles, carbon storage experiments and dozens of other projects.
Nonprofit clean energy advocates are emphasizing the impact on the economy if the cuts are permanent. While House members say they want more jobs in oil drilling and coal digging, these advocates point to millions of jobs in renewable energy fields, from solar panel installers to EV mechanics. They surveyed hundreds of well-established clean energy businesses.
“If the policy is repealed, some executives surveyed said they would have to relocate their companies to another country,” the report said. “Others said they would go out of business entirely. Rural areas and small communities across America would be hurt the worst, since rural areas have seen the biggest uptick in clean energy projects, investments and jobs since the IRA.”
We’ll leave you today with a quick musing about focusing on the message rather than the messenger. I’ve been reading with my daughter a book about Malala, the courageous Pakistani education advocate and victim of Taliban retribution. The book includes a saying from the great Afghan poet Rumi, who encouraged people to “Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder.”
We like to write messages on our sidewalk in chalk, so I put Rumi’s words there, with proper attribution, but in my usual awful handwriting. A woman walking her dog this morning stopped, read, smiled and nodded, asked who wrote it, and then said, “Oh, Romans 1! How nice!”
Be a ladder!
— Michael & John
Corrections & Clarifications
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