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A Colorado town waits for a water crisis

By Writers on the Range

Right now, Durango has 10 to 30 days of water stored in its Terminal Reservoir, which holds 267 acre-feet. That’s annual water consumption for about 600 households; Durango has over 9,000 households

Lake Nighthorse, near Durango, Colorado on May 26, 2023. Thanks to lighthawk.org for the aerial support. ©Mitch Tobin Usage rights are granted for editorial and nonprofit purposes only. No commercial or re-sale rights are granted without permission of the photographer. https://waterdesk.org/multimedia/license/

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Beer and clothing in second-place Aspen

By Angus M. Thuermer Jr.

In December, Teton County, Wyoming, residents learned they were the wealthiest people in the country, making an average of $471,751…

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Coal gets a boost as renewables are gutted

By Jonathan Thompson

A few years back, my friend Norm told me that when he was growing up in northern New Mexico in…

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Energy dominance harms our public lands

By Barbara Vasquez

I live in Jackson County, in northern Colorado, where hundreds of inactive and abandoned oil wells litter the landscape. Not…

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Solar panels have more than proven themselves

By Andrew Carpenter

I’d never heard of “net metering” until my electric bill hit $600 last February. Desperate for a way to reduce…

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Rural Colorado county gets ready for wildfire

By Dave Marston

When La Plata County in southwestern Colorado needed a director of emergency management in 2021, they found a winner in…

Shawna Legarza Kennebec Trail Race 2024

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When reality weighs you down

By Richard Knight

A lot of us feel hopeless today. There’s the return of energy dominance as a federal goal, which places oil,…

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Trump’s policies put us in economic danger

By Dave Marston

Donald Trump’s platform was clear when he was running for president. He promised to make bold improvements—quickly raising revenue by…

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Los Angeles is a wake-up call for the West—especially Durango

By Dave Marston

After fierce winds whipped fire out of brush-covered hills on January 7, entire Los Angeles neighborhoods burned down. Within a…

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What westerners cared about in 2024

By Betsy Marston

Writers on the Range, an independent opinion service based in western Colorado, sent out close to 50 weekly opinion columns…

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Observations of a fire lookout

By Rick Freimuth

The writers Edward Abbey, Gary Snyder and Norman McLean all staffed high-elevation fire lookouts in the West—their experiences rich fuel for their work. But Jack Kerouac’s reaction makes…

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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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