A version of this essay originally appeared on the science blog, the Last Word on Nothing. My rural western Colorado town of Paonia, population 1,500 on a good day, is in many ways a laboratory-scale model of the USA. We worship both community ties and unfettered independence from the federal government. We’re gossipy and private, inclusive […]
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Rural communities still have to fight off extremists
The fiery rhetoric that periodically consumes rural communities in the West is smoldering again. Some environmentalists berate those of us who try to collaborate to solve contentious public-lands issues; meanwhile, conspiracy theorists spread scary stories about the U.N. subverting our government through its “Agenda 21.” The discord has emerged in several communities dependant on natural […]
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High Noon for solar
You know what fries my bacon? In 2011, Germany installed more solar power in one year than Americans have in 50. If it were just the industrious Germans, I could probably handle it. But the laid-back, Fiat-driving Italians did the same thing. The Italians! The technology was invented at Bell Labs back in the 50s, […]
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A different voice on the phone
The television and photos he posts online show a wall of flames, smoke plumes billowing in the air like ominous storm clouds. It’s hot as hell outside, with record high heat, and the wind is blowing. And my young son is out there on a fire line somewhere, because much of the state of Colorado […]
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Why I never hike alone
The boulder was the tallest in a field of tabletop-size stones, seemingly undisturbed by the passage of centuries. It had the stature to have borne witness to a solstice ceremony at Stonehenge, a human sacrifice at Teotihuacan. I must have brushed it with my right elbow when I looked back to check on my friend, […]
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Notes from a wildfire refugee
The sheriff’s call came at 3:30 a.m.: Leave immediately. Luckily, my wife, SueEllen, and I were already up, grabbing passports, photos, dog food, wall hangings from Thailand and Zanzibar. A neighbor had called earlier, warning us that flames were coming fast out of the western foothills, driven by searing winds that transformed our backyard windmill […]
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Sometimes environmentalists miss the boat
If you’re concerned about global warming, you must wonder what some environmentalists were thinking in Colorado this year: Many opposed legislation that would have yielded a rapid reduction in emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Instead, they persuaded leaders in the Colorado Senate to sequester the bill until the waning days of the Legislature’s […]
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Bison deserve a home on the range
You sleeping relick of the pastif I but had my wayI’d cloth(e) your framewith meat and hidean(d) wake you up to day. – C.M. Russell, 1908 Montana cowboy artist and favorite son Charles M. Russell penned those wistful words underneath a sketch he made of a sun-bleached buffalo skull poking through prairie grass. But that was 104 years […]
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Safari Club and the NRA aim to gut wilderness
This April 17, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Sportsmen’s Heritage Act, which promised “to protect and enhance opportunities for recreational hunting, fishing, and shooting.” Actually, this bill takes an ax to the 1964 Wilderness Act. Over 30 House Democrats voted in favor of H.R. 4089 because they did not want to be seen as “anti-hunting.” Now, our U. S. […]
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Rancher says coal ash regulation is overdue
In Montana, clean water is the lifeblood of any successful ranch. I know this, because I am a fourth-generation rancher in southeastern Montana. My great-grandfather, a Scottish immigrant, settled along the banks of Rosebud Creek in the 1880s because of its abundance of clean water, both aboveground and below it. I’m sure he never dreamed that, 100 years later, pollution from […]
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Fire on the mountain
I have grown accustomed to stinging eyes, an itchy nose and a raw throat. Smoke is always heavy in the air, especially in the morning after cool nights have pushed it down to the deepest part of the Gila River Valley, where I live. Despite all this, I have to confess that I take some […]
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Remembering Ed Quillen, that prodigious writer of the West
Western writer, historian, thinker, polymath Ed Quillen, 61, died suddenly on Sunday, June 3. He had been a Denver Post columnist since the mid-1980s, a small-town journalist before that, and founded a regional magazine, Colorado Central, in the early 1990s. But that hardly begins to describe Quillen. When the news of his sudden passing began […]
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Life among the Bluffoons
It’s not a well-traveled road in southeastern Utah, not far from the Arizona line, so chances are you haven’t seen two new, brick and stone signs close to the quiet town of Bluff that proudly say: “Bluff, Utah, established 650 A. D.” And you assumed that the Mormons settled Utah! No, local history for this […]
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The Black Hills await justice
Every now and then a bombshell of a story comes along that screams for a reasonable amount of historical context. Why? Because it doesn’t make sense without it. But given a citizenry as poorly informed about its own history as ours is, our gross national product may best be measured in foolishness. For instance, the […]
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Talking vegetarianism to a hunter
In the end, all I could tell the guy was, “I agree with you. I just don’t eat animals.” During our flight from Portland to Denver, two major differences between us had come up: He was a hunter, and I was a vegetarian. I listened from the window seat, two days removed from a backpacking […]
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What should we do with our blink of time?
The long view of science turns out to be both reassuring and daunting. Life on Earth turns out to be remarkably resilient. Within the story of our 13.5-billion-year old universe, our own lives — so crucial to us and to our families and dear friends — look fleeting, gossamer. These paradoxes overwhelm me. For five years, […]
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Anglers can be advocates for endangered fish
The prism of clear river water can distort and magnify the size of a fish, an effect amplified by adrenaline and nostalgia. Still, I remember one fish big enough to shake my whole view of the world. I was of that tender age when one believes one’s father to be capable of anything — except […]
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Chosen by Wyoming
Good friends recently sold their home in Wyoming, packed up and moved to Florida. Even though they’d met in Wyoming and married in view of the Wind River Mountains, where they loved to hike and ski, and even though they often spoke of their affection for the West’s open spaces, within months they were gone. […]
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Ted Nugent doesn’t speak for me
I’m a hunter, and I know that hunters need a spokesperson. We need someone with a lifetime of experience who speaks with authority about preserving public lands and the wild animals living there that we love to hunt. We need someone whose personal magnetism generates interest simply by speaking on the subject of hunting. I […]
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If corporations are people, what are they really like?
ExxonMobil spits out a gob of chewing-tobacco juice and taps a baseball bat against the cleats of its shoes, knocking off the dirt clods. Then “Exx ‘Em” — as the fans like to call their slugger — steps into the batter’s box and slams the first pitch over the center-field wall of Dodger Stadium. Meanwhile, […]