It all began with pizza
In the mid-1960s, my dad served on the school board in Cortez, in rural southern Colorado. He recalled that at…
Photograph by Helena Lopez, courtesy of Unsplash
MoreHousing prices in the West are over the moon.
“But now the Zoom Boom-fueled market fire is spreading beyond the “best places” into the once-affordable bastions of working class neighborhoods, the bedroom communities, rural ranchettes and even trailer parks.”
Photograph by Phil Hearing, courtesy of Unsplash
MoreWe blame the trees, but whose fault is it?
“But it’s questionable that any amount of “thinning” could protect Ashland from a wind-driven firestorm coming out of the watershed.”
Photograph by Romain Le Teuff, courtesy of Unsplash
MoreThe last thing we need is a gold mine
“For us, the Nimíipuu, the value of the land, fish, wildlife and other natural resources will always be worth more than gold.”
Photograph by Curioso Photography, courtesy of Unsplash
MorePumping up fear along the Colorado River
Some Colorado River tribulations today remind me of a folk story: A young man went to visit his fiancé and…
Photograph by JC Peacock, courtesy of Unsplash
MoreSome Western states join the rush to suppress voting
Colorado’s elections are a bipartisan success story, so when Major League baseball responded to Georgia’s new voting restrictions by moving the…
Image by Unseen Histories, courtesy of Unsplash
MoreWater can be wrung out too much
“But when Western cities grow, they look everywhere for more water, with little regard for the rivers they drain. “
Santa Fe River below Santa Fe Municipal Water Treatment Plant. Photograph courtesy of Allen Best.
MoreUrban-rural divide is alive and well
“The annual Western Stock Show puts cowboy hats in high-end restaurants and strip joints alike.”
Photograph by Allen Best, outside of Akron, CO
MoreAn isolated area gets the vaccine job done
“The two small counties, including the indigenous community of the Southern Ute Nation, were ready when 4,000 of those doses—10% of the state’s total—arrived.”
Photograph by Fadil Fauzi, courtesy of Unsplash
MoreDying for powder
“I don’t know anyone who’s stood at the top of a slope and thought, ‘Well, this could kill me, but it’s going to be epic powder skiing!’”
Photograph by Jan Kronies, courtesy of Unsplash
MoreWe can act now to fight wildfires
“In 2020, the highest we got to anywhere, was a D2 — Severe Drought. Now we are looking at D3 — D4 — Extreme and Exceptional Drought across much of the West and almost all of the Southwest.”
Cameron Peak Fire, Near Red Feather Lakes, Arapahoe and Roosevelt National Forest, Colorado – 2020 Image courtesy of Harrison Raine
MoreAn Idaho congressman aims to dump dams
Rep. Mike Simpson is a conservative Republican from Idaho whose concept of wildness in the 1990s was going into the…
Photograph courtesy of Rocky Barker
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