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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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Every kind of Thanksgiving

By Pepper Trail

On a recent walk through the woods of southern Oregon, I found myself thinking about my feelings of gratitude as…

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The push is on to strip big trees from our national forests

By Mitch Friedman

It didn’t get much notice, but President Trump has turbocharged logging on public lands in ways that are likely to…

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The West is on fire as Washington fans the flames

By Tracy Stone-Manning

This summer, millions of Americans are hiking, camping, fishing and making lifelong memories in our national parks, forests and other…

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Protect the firefighters who protect our homes and forests

By Riva Duncan

You probably don’t see wildland firefighters on the job because they usually work in remote areas. But with wildfires moving…

Federal firefighters digging a fire line, photo courtesy National Interagency Fire Center

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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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We see the climate change in New Mexico

By Laura Paskus

Here in New Mexico, our growing season has lengthened since the 1970s, even as stream flows have decreased. Fire season…

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Beware the Trojan Horse targeting public land

By Ben Long

Sometimes when I drive past the little house my wife and I bought when we first married, 30 years ago,…

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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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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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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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