Beware the Trojan Horse targeting public land

Sometimes when I drive past the little house my wife and I bought when we first married, 30 years ago,…
MoreWhat westerners cared about in 2024

Writers on the Range, an independent opinion service based in western Colorado, sent out close to 50 weekly opinion columns…
MoreObservations of a fire lookout

The writers Edward Abbey, Gary Snyder and Norman McLean all staffed high-elevation fire lookouts in the West—their experiences rich fuel for their work. But Jack Kerouac’s reaction makes…
MoreOld fire lookout towers find renewed purpose

There’s a small wooden cabin at the top of Northwest Peak, a few miles from Montana’s borders with Idaho and…
MorePublic land protectors are ready for a fight

President Donald Trump’s first term was a disaster for America’s public lands. While the prospects for his second term are…
The Citadel, Bears Ears National Monument, Dave Marston photo
MoreHow a controversial poison saved Utah Lake

Ninety-five-thousand-acre Utah Lake is a major water source for the Great Salt Lake. If it dries up or sickens, so…
MoreVolunteers power the Colorado Trail

The Colorado Trail, an iconic 567-mile high-elevation trail that crosses the Rockies, owes its existence largely to Gudy Gaskill, a…
Below The Three Apostles, Colorado Trail Jeff Miller and Dave Marston, Matt Smith Photo
MoreCoal continues its precipitous decline

The coal mining industry reacted with outrage when the Bureau of Land Management recently announced plans to stop issuing new…
MoreMountain bikers push to ride through wilderness

“Something will have gone out of us as a people if we ever let the remaining wilderness be destroyed…” —…
Denali Wilderness, Alaska, courtesy Wilderness Watch
MoreBuilding a huge park is anything but easy

Marc Katz is a retired entrepreneur who lives part-time in Durango, Colorado, a town of 19,000 people who all seem…
MoreCulture wars and an embattled Utah monument

Utah’s Bears Ears National Monument rarely leaves the news. The political tussle over this stunning expanse of red rock canyons…
Rainbow over Cheesebox Butte- Highway 95, photo by Stephen Trimble
MoreYou’re not the boss in wilderness

When my friends and I encountered the fresh grizzly bear scat, we were deep in Wyoming’s Teton Wilderness, 20 miles…
Buck Lake, Frank Church RIver of no Return Wilderness; Challis Idaho: courtesy USFS
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