Paul Larmer

Ever since I was a child, growing up in the soul-crushing, metastasizing suburbs of America, I have had a deep connection to the shrinking natural world and an interest in exploring how humans can live more harmoniously within it. I earned a Master’s Degree in Natural Resource Policy from the University of Michigan and worked for several years as a media specialist with the Sierra Club before deciding I wanted to be a journalist. In the early 1990s, I became an editor/writer at High Country News, a non-profit journalism enterprise based in rural Colorado that covers the million-square-mile American West in all of its beautiful, ugly, contentious glory. From 2002-2021, I was the publisher and executive director, overseeing a staff of 28 that produced in-depth, contextual journalism for print and digital readers that promotes frank civic dialogue on the many environmental, cultural and political challenges facing our region. I was also busy helping raise two children. Since retiring in Paonia at the end of 2021, I have turned my creative energies toward writing and performing music, photography, hiking and rock collecting on the public lands, swimming and deepening friendships.