Columns

What 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…

Live rough and know the real world

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

Pulling thistles, sowing hope

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

musk-thistle-bloom

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

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

The West has too many visiting hunters

Hunting may be losing popularity nationally, but in the West the number of hunters is climbing. According to the U.S….

Dan Vigueria, Paonia, Colorado, Grizzly Longbows LLC

Creative builders get rural housing done

Here’s a statistic to be unhappy about: Colorado and Utah host the fifth and sixth most expensive housing markets in…

Community Rebuilds houses in Moab UT, courtesy Emily Niehaus

When a skunk goes after your garden

Skunks love autumn as our backyard gardens fill up with ripe vegetables. But in my northern New Mexico corn patch,…

Bryan Padron via Unsplash

Are beavers always the answer? Not really

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

Goats 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

Let’s blow the whistle on public-land abusers

Dozens of TVs, refrigerators, stoves, washers, dryers and abandoned cars had either been gunshot, torched or both. This place of…

Erosion Gulch, image credit Rob Pudim

Richard Montrose Obituary

Richard “Dick” Montrose, 80, longtime real estate business owner of Western Colorado and avid outdoorsman died suddenly at his home…

Report from Burning Man 2023

After a quiet year of preparation and premature eulogies, Burning Man roared into the news this August. There were unplanned…

BM Build Day 3/credit Dennis Hinkamp