Nearly 80 years ago, Bernard DeVoto, the Utah-born writer and historian, wrote an essay titled “The West Against Itself” for Harper’s Magazine. DeVoto summed up the platform …
Here in New Mexico, our growing season has lengthened since the 1970s, even as stream flows have decreased. Fire season starts earlier, lasts longer and, in some years, ignites the forests into …
Imagine a million-acre wilderness: Mountain peaks. Rushing rivers. Bears and wolves. Now imagine a city the size of, say, Chicago. In my corner of Montana every summer, those two things …
The stories are heartbreaking. U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service and other federal workers — some of them within weeks of ending probationary periods — fired. And not for cause; …
Donald Trump’s platform was clear when he was running for president. He promised to make bold improvements — quickly raising revenue by imposing tariffs on foreign goods, slashing prices …
Sometimes when I drive past the little house my wife and I bought when we first married, 30 years ago, it makes me sad. Not only because of nostalgia, but because of economics. We were young …
Fascinating and fetid, the Salton Sea in southern California lures me back, every year. Driving south from Utah, I take bits of historic Highway 66 and then skirt Joshua Tree National Park to …
If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over while hoping in vain for different results, then Utah’s leaders surely need to talk to a mental health professional. …
I’m a dedicated recycler. I fret when I see people throwing garbage in with soda cans and empty water bottles. I’ve even been known to rescue recyclables from the trash — at my …
After fierce winds whipped fire out of brush-covered hills on Jan. 7, entire Los Angeles neighborhoods burned down. Within a few days, more than 12,000 homes and businesses had been destroyed as …
In my part of Alaska, not far from Anchorage, winter solstice is always a dark day, but not because of the lack of light. Instead, I lament the impending loss of winter’s long nights, with all …
Writers on the Range, an independent opinion service based in western Colorado, sent out close to 50 weekly opinion columns this year. They were provided free of charge to about 150 subscribing …
Imagine a best-selling, 900-page novel using “a sad, bewildered nothing of a river” as its centerpiece, connecting the earth’s geologic origin and dinosaur age to 1970s rural …
The writers Edward Abbey, Gary Snyder and Norman McLean all staffed high-elevation fire lookouts in the West — their experiences rich fuel for …
Even though one in five Americans is estimated to suffer from mental health illness, talk about mental health in the rural West remains muted. I’d like to talk about it this …
President Donald Trump’s first term was a disaster for America’s public lands. While the prospects for his second term are even more bleak, Westerners across the political spectrum …
Twice a year, I hike a favorite trail in Oregon’s Cascade Range. I have done this for over 20 years, timing my hikes for early spring and fall. The first hike is for wildflowers; the second is …
She was 28 years old and dealt with aplomb the hordes of picture-taking tourists and repeated motherhood. When she was killed by a car a few weeks ago, the loss of Grizzly 399 left people all over …
It was the summer of 2015 when the Animas River in southern Colorado turned such a garish orange-gold that it made national news. The metallic color came from the Gold King Mine, near the town …
I was driving on Montana’s Highway 89 just as fall began showing up at one of my favorite spots for walking, a turn onto a two-lane country road. If you don’t know busy Highway 89, it …