Old fire lookout towers find renewed purpose

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

Even though one in five Americans is estimated to suffer from mental health illness, talk about mental health in the…
MorePublic land protectors are ready for a fight

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
MoreNature is becoming unreliable

Twice a year, I hike a favorite trail in Oregon’s Cascade Range. I have done this for over 20 years,…
MoreThe Trump triumph portends an economic fallout

As I watched Donald Trump arrive at an astounding victory election night, I was struck by his strong turnout in…
MoreGrizzly 399 was a bear for the ages

She was 28 years old and dealt with aplomb the hordes of picture-taking tourists and repeated motherhood. When she was…
Bear 399 with cubs Thomas Mangelsen:Images of Nature Gallery
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
MoreHow to learn where we live

I was driving on Montana’s Highway 89 just as fall began showing up at one of my favorite spots for…
MoreWyoming shoots itself in the foot

This summer, the Biden administration offered Wyoming $35 million to help the state plug and clean up abandoned oil and…
MoreWe need mountain lions to do their job as predators

I am a former director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and have hunted practically as long as I…
MoreGlen Canyon Dam faces deadpool

In 1998, when I was in fourth grade, I joined a class field trip to Mesa Verde National Park in…
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