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Building a huge park is anything but easy

By Dave Marston

Marc Katz is a retired entrepreneur who lives part-time in Durango, Colorado, a town of 19,000 people who all seem…

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A candy bar fueled the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic

By Dave Marston

If you don’t know much about the Iron Horse bike race that begins in the town of Durango in southwestern…

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In Wyoming, tormenting a wolf is not a big deal

By Wendy Keefover

It’s legal in Wyoming to chase coyotes and run over them with snowmobiles, but recently, a man used his snowmobile…

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An invitation to play the climate-change game

By Pepper Trail

Let’s play a game, the climate-change game that every living thing on Earth has no choice but to play, starting…

Dead Horse State Park, Moab, Utah, Andres Haro, Unsplash

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Pepper Trail: There’s so much worth saving

By Jonathan Romeo

For a long time, climate change was largely perceived as a distant threat. But Oregon biologist Pepper Trail, 70, who…

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We need to know avalanches inside and out

By Molly Absolon

There’s a fine line between learning from the mistakes of others and shaming people for their ignorance. Twelve people have…

Image by Will Turner, via Unsplash

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Culture wars and an embattled Utah monument

By Stephen Trimble

Utah’s Bears Ears National Monument rarely leaves the news. The political tussle over this stunning expanse of red rock canyons…

Rainbow over Cheesebox Butte- Highway 95, photo by Stephen Trimble

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We know now that free land wasn’t free

By Rebecca Clarren

There’s a place in South Dakota, about 25 miles north of Wall Drug, that some locals still call “Jew Flats.”…

Badlands National Park, South Dakota, Joshua Hubbard via Unsplash

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Freed wolves move into their old niche

By Clint McKnight

What was it like for 10 captured Oregon wolves when Colorado Parks and Wildlife opened their crates on a December…

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Glen Canyon Dam has created a world of mud

By Dave Marston

When the San Juan River flows out of the San Juan Mountains in Southwestern Colorado, it contributes 15% of Lake…

Calving sediment below Clay Hills, UT San Juan River, courtesy Chad Niehaus

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War comes home to my small town

By Matt Witt

At the coffee shops in Talent, the little Oregon town where I live, the conversation is often about the high…

War is not the answer, Matt Witt photo

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Rosa Parks gives a talk in my small town

By Betsy Marston

It was 2 p.m. on a recent Sunday in the western Colorado town of Paonia, population 1,500, not an ideal…

Rosa Parks, Unseen Histories, 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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