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Hey, Utah, Americans love our public lands

By Aaron Weiss

If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over while hoping in vain for different results,…

Natural arch, the terminus of Grandstaff Canyon Trail, near Moab Utah, Dave Marston photo

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Time to get real about plastic recycling

By Karen Mockler

I’m a dedicated recycler. I fret when I see people throwing garbage in with soda cans and empty water bottles….

Plastic garbage in the Himalayas, Sylwia Bartyzel via Unsplash

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Los Angeles is a wake-up call for the West—especially Durango

By Dave Marston

After fierce winds whipped fire out of brush-covered hills on January 7, entire Los Angeles neighborhoods burned down. Within a…

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Savoring the darkness in Alaska

By Tim Lydon

In my part of Alaska, not far from Anchorage, winter solstice is always a dark day, but not because of…

Northern lights Alaska, Image Tim Lydon

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What westerners cared about in 2024

By Betsy Marston

Writers on the Range, an independent opinion service based in western Colorado, sent out close to 50 weekly opinion columns…

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Observations of a fire lookout

By Rick Freimuth

The writers Edward Abbey, Gary Snyder and Norman McLean all staffed high-elevation fire lookouts in the West—their experiences rich fuel for their work. But Jack Kerouac’s reaction makes…

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Old fire lookout towers find renewed purpose

By Zeke Lloyd

There’s a small wooden cabin at the top of Northwest Peak, a few miles from Montana’s borders with Idaho and…

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Imagine a river more fascinating than football

By Patricia J. Rettig

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

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Let’s scrap the stigma of mental illness

By Dave Marston

Even though one in five Americans is estimated to suffer from mental health illness, talk about mental health in the…

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Public land protectors are ready for a fight

By Jennifer Rokala

President Donald Trump’s first term was a disaster for America’s public lands. While the prospects for his second term are…

The Citadel, Bears Ears National Monument, Dave Marston photo

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Nature is becoming unreliable

By Pepper Trail

Twice a year, I hike a favorite trail in Oregon’s Cascade Range. I have done this for over 20 years,…

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The Trump triumph portends an economic fallout

By Dave Marston

As I watched Donald Trump arrive at an astounding victory election night, I was struck by his strong turnout in…

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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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