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Where have all the doctors gone?

By Katie Klingsporn

There’s never been enough doctors in rural Wyoming, where I live, but a shortage of obstetricians is now increasing the…

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Energy guru says energy gap can be bridged

By Dave Marston

The experts tell us an energy gap looms. Fossil fuels are phasing out, and solar and wind power can’t produce…

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A terrible dilemma faces the Great Basin

By Stephen Trimble

The long drive between Salt Lake City, Utah and Reno, Nevada on Interstate 80 feels endless, the landscape timeless. But…

Toquima Range from Monitor Valley, Nevada, Steve Trimble photo

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They struggle to come to America: One woman’s story

By Laura Pritchett

Exactly what causes people to leave their homeland and make a difficult trek of 3,000 miles? A young woman I’ll…

greg bulla–unsplash

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What did Westerners care about in 2023?

By Betsy Marston

This past year, Writers on the Range, an independent opinion service based in western Colorado, sent out 52 weekly opinion…

Arches National Park, image courtesy Writers on the Range

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Ski bum culture hits reality

By Heather Hansman

Nearly two decades ago, I moved to the mountains to be a ski bum, chasing snow. I was a stereotype—an…

Robson Hatsukami Morgan, via Unsplash

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a warning from the snowbirds

By Pepper Trail

No, this isn’t about those folks who spend their winters in Arizona or Florida. The snowbird behind this warning is…

Cristina Glebova; courtesy Unsplash

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Outrage in Wyoming erupts over public land auction

By Savannah Rose

There’s a 640-acre parcel of magnificent, state-owned public land in Wyoming that’s set for auction unless the state changes its…

Pronghorn migrate through the Kelly Parcel, Wyoming, Courtesy Savannah Rose

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What really affects hunting in the West

By Lesli Allison

A disgruntled hunter wrote a Writers on the Range opinion recently about Westerners getting fed up with the many out-of-staters…

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Live rough and know the real world

By Jacob Richards

Guides in the outdoor industry inevitably come up with collective nicknames for customers. On horseback they’re “dudes,” on the river…

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Pulling thistles, sowing hope

By Susan Marsh

For the past few years I’ve participated in “Thistle Thursdays,” targeting a popular trail near Jackson, Wyoming. The weekly weed…

musk-thistle-bloom

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Farewell to two radicals with a common goal – changing the West

By Ernie Atencio

The West lost two larger-than-life conservationists this year, and while I considered both friends, they couldn’t have been more different….

Sid Goodloe and wife Cheryl

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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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