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,…
MoreImagine a river more fascinating than football
Imagine a best-selling, 900-page novel using “a sad, bewildered nothing of a river” as its centerpiece, connecting the earth’s geologic…
South Platte at 52 bridge image by Laura Perry, courtesy USGS
MoreAcidic mine drainage haunts Western rivers
It was the summer of 2015 when the Animas River in southern Colorado turned such a garish orange-gold that it…
Reid Christopher in font of textile bags, mining ruins in background, Gladstone Treatment Plant, San Miguel County, CO. Dave Marston photojpg
MoreGlen Canyon Dam has created a world of mud
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
MoreA dogged reporter covers our roiling world
Usually seen with a camera slung around his neck, Allen Best edits a one-man online journalism shop he calls Big…
Allen Best at work
MoreBoondoggle on the Colorado River
You’d think the Earth shook recently when the three states of California, Arizona and Nevada announced they’d reached a deal…
Glen Canyon Dam, Courtesy Bureau of Reclamation
MoreRushing water closes a highway in Western Colorado
The small towns of Paonia and Hotchkiss in western Colorado are seeing fewer tourists this spring. Exceptionally high runoff blew…
Bear Creek digs a big ditch across Highway 133, Patti Kaech photo, May 15
MoreA Colorado reservoir gets ready for an epic snowmelt
Reservoir manager Ken Beck says wryly that he has lots of water coming his way, “and I need a hole…
Ken Beck at the Pine River Irrigation headquarters
MoreColorado is conflicted about cutting its water use
In Colorado, farmers must enroll in a four-state program by March 1, if they want to get paid for fallowing…
Tom Kay in front of his John Deere tractor, image: Dave Marston
MoreIt’s do or die for the Great Salt Lake
Last November, the Great Salt Lake, iconic landmark of the Great Basin Desert, fell to its lowest surface elevation ever…
Antelope Island Looking Over Great Salt Lake, photo courtesy of Michael Shoemaker
MoreAtmospheric rivers endanger the West
Moab, Utah, gets just eight inches of rain per year, yet rainwater flooded John Weisheit’s basement last summer. Extremes are…
Glen Canyon Dam under construction 1960-63, courtesy USBR
MoreWhat also counts is where the snow falls
This week Writers on the Range explores the possibility of dangerous flooding in the Colorado River Basin. But there’s something…
A girl and her dog sledding at Durango’s off-leash dog park Jan. 20, photo courtesy Dave Marston
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