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WE WILL GET THROUGH THIS

By Paul Krza

How strange that is – to fight an attacker with solitude.

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COVID-19 PANDEMIC ILLUSTRATES IDAHO’S SPLIT PERSONALITY

By Jerry Brady

On the one hand there’s the spirit of cooperation and belief that government can help, on the other there’s outright contempt for anything governmental.

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IT’S TIME FOR WYOMING TO FACE THE TRUTH

By Dustin Bleizeffer

What some in Wyoming might consider discrimination, others might cite fighting for their lives in the face of sea-level rise and deadly wildfires.

Photograph by AJ Nash

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A DEPRESSED TOWN FIGHTS BACK

By Dave Marston

This is a place that knows the pain of an industry cutting back.

Photograph by Jeffrey Beall, Flickr

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WHEN THE VIRUS HITS YOU, IT HITS HARD

By Dave Marston

Friday the virus had its way with me:

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WHAT THE CORONA VIRUS TEACHES US

By Jonathan Thompson

What I was witnessing was just one instance of an ad hoc, failed response to a crisis

This transmission electron microscope image shows SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, isolated from a patient in the U.S. Virus particles are shown emerging from the surface of cells cultured in the lab. The spikes on the outer edge of the virus particles give coronaviruses their name, crown-like.

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MAKE WAY FOR THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE

By 'Asta Bowen

Northern California has lost an estimated 90 percent of its kelp forests

Photograph by Paul Lamb

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THE DAM TRUTH ABOUT THE COLORADO RIVER

By Gary Wockner

Want to know the dam truth about the Colorado River?

Photograph by Paul Lamb

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What others are saying See More

Larmer was the first editor of Writers on the Range after it landed at HCN in 1998, he went on to become publisher/editor of High Country News (HCN) 2003-2020, and is currently senior development director HCN. Larmer is also on the advisory board of Writers on the Range.

Writers on the Range grew out of the West’s public lands, growth, and culture wars of the 1990s. At the time, environmentalists were at loggerheads with the timber, mining, oil and gas and ranching industries that had dominated and shaped land-use and rural communities for decades. 

Meanwhile, a flood of newcomers poured into the region’s urban areas and smaller towns, stressing their social and economic fabrics beyond recognition. How could the West sort through these contentious issues in a civil manner?

The answer was to give voice to a wide range of people from the region itself.  Writers with different backgrounds, espousing new ideas, were put front and center on the region’s opinion pages.

After a brief run as a think tank, Writers on the Range landed on the front porch of High Country News in 1997.  High Country News is the well-known, highly awarded publication that covers the west’s diverse natural and human communities.  It was a perfect match.

Soon dozens of news outlets subscribed.  Over the next 20 years, Writers on the Range published fresh columns from writers and thinkers across the ideological spectrum, provoking thought, generating debate, and defining the possibilities of a better west.

 It was truly a grassroots opinion service and, now as an independent non-profit organization, is still so today.

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