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Glen Canyon Dam has created a world of mud

By Dave Marston

When the San Juan River flows out of the San Juan Mountains in Southwestern Colorado, it contributes 15% of Lake…

Calving sediment below Clay Hills, UT San Juan River, courtesy Chad Niehaus

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A terrible dilemma faces the Great Basin

By Stephen Trimble

The long drive between Salt Lake City, Utah and Reno, Nevada on Interstate 80 feels endless, the landscape timeless. But…

Toquima Range from Monitor Valley, Nevada, Steve Trimble photo

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What did Westerners care about in 2023?

By Betsy Marston

This past year, Writers on the Range, an independent opinion service based in western Colorado, sent out 52 weekly opinion…

Arches National Park, image courtesy Writers on the Range

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What really affects hunting in the West

By Lesli Allison

A disgruntled hunter wrote a Writers on the Range opinion recently about Westerners getting fed up with the many out-of-staters…

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Live rough and know the real world

By Jacob Richards

Guides in the outdoor industry inevitably come up with collective nicknames for customers. On horseback they’re “dudes,” on the river…

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Pulling thistles, sowing hope

By Susan Marsh

For the past few years I’ve participated in “Thistle Thursdays,” targeting a popular trail near Jackson, Wyoming. The weekly weed…

musk-thistle-bloom

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Farewell to two radicals with a common goal – changing the West

By Ernie Atencio

The West lost two larger-than-life conservationists this year, and while I considered both friends, they couldn’t have been more different….

Sid Goodloe and wife Cheryl

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Are beavers always the answer? Not really

By Ted Williams

Beavers, through their assiduous dam building, can recharge groundwater and provide habitat for fish and wildlife. In the Pacific Northwest,…

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Requiem for the Joshua tree

By Pepper Trail

Disheveled, gangly, the Joshua tree is surely one of the West’s strangest — and most recognizable — plants.  Named by…

Conglomerate Mesa, Photo by Louis Medina, Friends of the Inyo

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John Fielder, the man who loved natural beauty

By Betsy Marston

If you’ve ever bought a calendar or coffee table book featuring the grandeur of Colorado’s 14’ers, the stunning color photographs…

John Fielder, credit Gary Wockner/Save the Colorado

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A dancing bird finally gets some protection

By John Horning

What I remember most about that dark early morning of crouching on the prairie is the rhythmic sound of pounding….

Lesser Prairie Chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) performing dancing or “drumming” on a lek (mating display), in northern Oklahoma, USA.

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When giants fall, we need to listen

By Joe Stone

“God has cared for these trees …but he cannot save them from fools.”— John Muir In just two years, wildfire…

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