Columns

Building strong communities could be a team sport

I got to thinking about some of my small-town neighbors when I read that the Denver Broncos football team, which…

This Walmart replaced the shuttered Walmart in Talen, OR, where writer Matt Witt is from

Business as usual for the Colorado River

It seemed inevitable that the dwindling Colorado River would be divvied up by the federal Bureau of Reclamation. On June…

Winterhaven, CA, Imperial Dam, where 90% of the Colorado River is desilted and sent to numerous irrigation districts in CA and AZ. Courtesy of Bureau of Reclamation

Idaho is a difficult state

There’s something different about the state of Idaho that’s beyond the adjective “quirky.” My husband and I may have lived…

Photo credit: Idaho Potato Commission

Trailer park residents hope to buy the land beneath them

Just outside Durango, Colorado there’s a trailer park called Westside that I’ve been driving by all my life. Yet residents…

Two Western states act to control methane

Gated methane vent pad in Sunshine Roadless area above Paonia, CO. Methane originates in active Arch Resources coal mine. This collection of vents makes Arch the third biggest greenhouse gas polluter in Colorado.

Billionaire mine owner leaves a tiny town in the lurch

“..a visitor to the town notices abandoned cars parked willy-nilly and piles of junk that look as old as the town itself. “

Photograph Courtesy of Somerset Water District website

“Look at me” culture leaves too many marks

“The pioneers endured drought, famine, disease, and death in order to reach the West and scratch their names on the wall.”

Photograph by Lloyd Bunk, courtesy of Unsplash

Conservative Republican has a personal mission

“I’m living proof of why people should not trust their government with the death penalty”

Photograph by Damir Spanic, courtesy of Unsplash

All-electric is the way to go

“But perhaps the most challenging task of all is to decarbonize buildings.”

Photograph by Michael Wilson, courtesy of Unsplash

The wall with Mexico will come tumbling down

But one needs to read only a bit of world history to realize that walls can come down as a quickly as they were put up.

Photograph by Greg Bulla, Courtesy of Unsplash

MY HEROES HAVE ALWAYS BEEN RODEO CLOWNS

When all hell breaks loose and disorder rules, rodeo clowns stay self-possessed and focused.

Photograph by Ken Okum, courtesy of Unsplash

HERE’S HOW TO SAVE THE COLORADO RIVER

With this precedent, it’s time to create an Irrigation Reserve Program. To work, it must be voluntary, and farmers who participate must be adequately paid for the use of their irrigation rights.