When reality weighs you down
A lot of us feel hopeless today. There’s the return of energy dominance as a federal goal, which places oil,…
MoreIt’s still the West against itself
Nearly 80 years ago, Bernard DeVoto, the Utah-born writer and historian, wrote an essay titled “The West Against Itself” for…
MoreMontana’s politicians have lost their ties to land
Tim Sheehy, the Republican seeking to unseat Montana Democratic Senator Jon Tester, is a business executive born and raised out…
Montana, plains Lee Peters image, via Unsplash
MoreDitch “inefficiencies” give us wetlands
Imagine Westerners waking up one morning only to discover that many of their most cherished wetlands have dried up, gone….
Since 1917, five generations have lived along the Animas Consolidated Ditch outside of Durango, CO, Patty Zink pictured, courtesy Dave Marston
MoreWhat really affects hunting in the West
A disgruntled hunter wrote a Writers on the Range opinion recently about Westerners getting fed up with the many out-of-staters…
MoreGoats can be a forest’s best friend
Goats are particularly good at one thing: Eating. Unlike a horse or cow that leaves noxious weeds behind, goats eat…
Jonathan Bartley and Adrian Lacasse
MoreRestoring the land can feel a lot like fun
Driving back to Colorado State University with a van full of students after a day of working to heal some…
Autumn at a cattle ranch in Colorado near Ridgway – County Road 12, Craig Zerbe Photo
MoreThe West is an exploiter’s paradise
High on a mesa where everyone can see it, a trophy house is going up in the northern Colorado valley…
Outside Capitol Reef, photo courtesy of Michael Shoemaker
MoreHard choices for the Colorado River
The seven Colorado River states – Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming – face a daunting mid-August…
MorePlenty of food, but not for all farmworkers 
On a summer morning in southern Idaho, the day breaks early, before 6 a.m. The air is stale, never fully…
Farm workers harvesting yellow bell peppers near Gilroy, California.
MoreWant to farm? Get a cash register
In 1991, when Lee Bradley started farming near Paonia in the North Fork Valley of Colorado, he was hired to…
Image credit: P.j. Briscoe
MoreThis rancher has radical ideas about water
If Jim Howell, a fourth-generation rancher in Western Colorado, has a guru, he’s Allan Savory, the champion of intensive cattle…
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