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Imagine a river more fascinating than football

By Patricia J. Rettig

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

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Nature is becoming unreliable

By Pepper Trail

Twice a year, I hike a favorite trail in Oregon’s Cascade Range. I have done this for over 20 years,…

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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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Ditch “inefficiencies” give us wetlands

By Richard Knight

Imagine Westerners waking up one morning only to discover that many of their most cherished wetlands have dried up, gone….

Since 1917, five generations have lived along the Animas Consolidated Ditch outside of Durango, CO, Patty Zink pictured, courtesy Dave Marston

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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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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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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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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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