On March 31, in Glen Oak, California, Bradon Schwarz, HCN’s charitable gifts advisor, married the love of his life, Andrew Barmann.
Bradon popped the question late last summer near his family home on Grand Mesa, not far from HCN’s headquarters in western Colorado. It didn’t take them long to tie the knot, and we can’t say we’re really surprised by the pace: Andrew was a competitive collegiate swimmer at UC Santa Barbara and has coached swim teams since then. Bradon and Andrew (now Barmann-Schwarz Inc.) live in Bakersfield with their two huskies, Mowgley and Manning.
And just over a week later, HCN’s science and climate editor, Emily Benson, and her partner, Erika Rader, welcomed a beautiful baby boy into the world. Emily wrote to us a few days later to say that everyone was doing great, and that the little guy was “already exploring the outdoors and clearly a connoisseur of only the finest reading material.” (She shared photos of him curled up on a blanket amid the flowers and next to a copy of High Country News.) The couple live in Moscow, Idaho, where Erika is a professor of earth sciences at the University of Idaho.
Contributing editors Jane Hu and Michelle Nijhuis are filling in while Emily is out enjoying this little bundle of wonderfulness.
Happy trails, Marla
Marla Painter is stepping away after nearly a decade on HCN’s board of directors. Marla has been a mentor and friend to both board and staff throughout times of profound change at HCN. She’s been a sage advisor on our expanding fundraising efforts, and her experience leading nonprofit organizations has given her life lessons and a perspective that have been particularly helpful to this executive director.
Marla spent more than 20 years at the Foresta Institute for Ocean and Mountain Studies, then worked throughout the Intermountain West as a community organizer with Citizen Alert, Western Solidarity and the Rural Alliance for Military Accountability. She and her husband, Mark Rudd, now live in Albuquerque, where Marla has been focused on environmental justice issues, most recently fighting for clean air in the South Valley, whose residents have been subject to disproportionate impacts from industrial pollution.
We’ll miss Marla’s wise words, her willingness to broach tough subjects, and her knack for cutting directly to the heart of whatever is under discussion.
Thanks for writing
Thanks to everyone who has written in response to my questions last month: What does HCN mean to you, and how does it fit into your overall news diet? Our readers get their news from a wide range of sources, from the LA Times and The New York Times to The Economist and even news outlets from Switzerland. (They’ve got high country there, too, we hear!) By and large, people say they come to HCN for news about land, water and wildlife. “The biology of elk migration — bring it on,” wrote Moab, Utah, subscriber Katie Stevens.
Several writers mentioned that we needn’t bother with urban stories, even Western ones — not because they don’t care about cities, but because they get their urban news elsewhere. And many expressed appreciation for our reporting on Indigenous people and the connections HCN makes between people and place.
We’re especially grateful to readers like Eric Burr, of Mazama, Washington, who says he was introduced to HCN by a naturalist in North Cascades National Park in the 1980s. Eric does his best to pass the favor along, he said: “My used hard copies of HCN get put outside our local general store.”
What do you find most valuable about High Country News? And what would you like to see us write about? We always appreciate your thoughts and musings; they help us serve you better. Send us an email at dearfriends@hcn.org or drop a letter in the mail to High Country News, P.O. Box 1090, Paonia, Colorado 81428.
Greg Hanscom is the publisher and executive director for High Country News. Email him at greg.hanscom@hcn.org or submit a letter to the editor. See our letters to the editor policy.
This article appeared in the June 2024 print edition of the magazine with the headline “Welcome to the family!”
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