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It’s Time to Come to the Aid of Wildland Firefighters

By Harrison Raine

“..many of the men and women who fight those fires on our behalf are suffering from burnout”

Image of Harrison Raine setting a backfire to stop wildfire from spreading

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Now We Need to Rollback the Rollbacks

By Jonathan Thompson

“Yet Obama’s policies were equally friendly to energy development.”

Photograph by AJ Nash — @VernChronicles

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A Mixed-up-Family Becomes an American Family

By Rich Wandschneider

““How’s being black?” wrote a classmate in my grandson’s yearbook. “

Photograph by Omar Lopez, courtesy of Unsplash

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A Move Toward Water Speculation

By Dave Marston

“Just talking about demand management has already attracted deep-pocketed investors..”

Photo by RedCharlie, Courtesy of Unsplash

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Wyoming Needs to Bite the Bullet

By Nate Martin

“Sundance, Wyoming, is considering axing its entire police force because they can’t pay for it.”

Photograph by Aubrey Odom, courtesy of Unsplash

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Living with Evacuation, Smoke and Helicopters

By Laura Pritchett

“Wouldn’t it be a miracle if the whole damn world banded together and realized climate change was the number one priority?”

Photograph by Giorgio Trovato, courtesy of Unsplash

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The Complexity of Color in the Environmental Movement

By Ernie Atencio

 This summer was a time of reckoning about race in every sector of American life, and many of us are…

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The West’s Population Grows and Churns

By Jonathan Thompson

“Americans are still mobile and still moving West..”

Photograph by Brooke Cagle, courtesty of Unsplash

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Fanning the Flames of Hate in Oregon

By Pepper Trail

“The present we are now enduring is the climate-change future that we have been warned about for decades.”

Photograph by Alex Radelich, Courtesy of Unsplash

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Houses Must be Built to Withstand Wildfire

By Stephen Pyne Jack Cohen

That the scene has become familiar makes it no less wrenching:  A distraught couple searches through the ash, char, and…

U.S. Forest Service Photo 2007. Grass Valley Fire in Southern California’s San Bernadino Mountains

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A Clear Warning About the Colorado River

By Dave Marston

For the West this summer, the news about water was grim.  In some parts of California, it didn’t rain for…

Photograph by Ken Cheung, Courtesy of Unsplash

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These Fires will Happen Again and Again

By Char Miller

“This pattern of build-and-burn will continue..”

Photograph by Dawn Armfield, Courtesy of Unsplash

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What others are saying See More

The Daily Sentinel of Grand Junction, Colorado places a premium on content that examines management of public lands and natural resources. We’re big fans of Writers on the Range. The contributors come from all walks of life, but their column always hit home with our readers, for whom access to public lands is an important part of the lifestyle in western Colorado. Cutbacks to the newsroom have seriously hampered our coverage of the environment. Most often these stories are best told by people who have first-hand experience dealing with a particular challenges — from loving favorite trails to death to rebuilding coal communities or threats to the sagebrush sea. Writers on the Range consistently identifies problems and solutions in a thorough and engaging way. We need more of this kind of advocacy journalism on our opinion pages because it fosters understanding and dialogue about the unique living conditions in the American West.

Andy Smith, Opinion Page Editor
Grand Junction Sentinel, Grand Junction, CO

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