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Wyoming shoots itself in the foot

By Jonathan Thompson

This summer, the Biden administration offered Wyoming $35 million to help the state plug and clean up abandoned oil and…

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We need mountain lions to do their job as predators

By Dan Ashe

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

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Glen Canyon Dam faces deadpool

By Zak Podmore

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

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How a controversial poison saved Utah Lake

By Ted Williams

Ninety-five-thousand-acre Utah Lake is a major water source for the Great Salt Lake. If it dries up or sickens, so…

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Volunteers power the Colorado Trail

By Dave Marston

The Colorado Trail, an iconic 567-mile high-elevation trail that crosses the Rockies, owes its existence largely to Gudy Gaskill, a…

Below The Three Apostles, Colorado Trail Jeff Miller and Dave Marston, Matt Smith Photo

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40 years of living with wolves

By Ben Long

Biologist Diane K. Boyd has had a front-row seat to 40 years of wolf recovery in the West, but her…

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Hikers in a wilderness turn into firefighters

By Zeke Lloyd

More frequent wildfires in the West can turn hiking through beautiful, high-elevation country into a dangerous game for hikers. In…

Abandoned Ranch buildings above a meadow of Deer Creek south of Anacanda, Montana. Picture taken in late July.

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Go all-electric—and help change the world

By Auden Schendler

The company I work for recently built a new ticket office at the base of Buttermilk Mountain in Aspen, Colorado….

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Grumpy talk on the trail

By Marjorie “Slim” Woodruff

I suppose it’s the human thing on a hiking trail to acknowledge one another when passing. But on a well-used…

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Montana’s politicians have lost their ties to land

By John Clayton

Tim Sheehy, the Republican seeking to unseat Montana Democratic Senator Jon Tester, is a business executive born and raised out…

Montana, plains Lee Peters image, via Unsplash

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Coal continues its precipitous decline

By Peter Gartrell

The coal mining industry reacted with outrage when the Bureau of Land Management recently announced plans to stop issuing new…

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One person who cares can change a student’s life

By Katie Klingsporn

By the time she took the dais at the Arapaho Charter High School graduation this spring, Principal Katie Law was…

Katie Law hands out a diploma, Katie Klingsporn image

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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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