A reading list for understanding the region.
Recreation
Posted inNovember 14, 2016: The Long View
The deeper meaning of trails
Insightful new books in the well-worn genre of trail literature.
Posted inDecember 26, 2016: Obama and the West
Where will the West’s next national monument be?
Bears Ears isn’t the only local effort to get Obama to designate protections before he leaves office.
Posted inArticles
Biggest loser at Comb Ridge? The public.
A landmark within the proposed Bears Ears Monument was sold to private interests.
Posted inArticles
Which way? A new approach to navigating the Pacific Crest Trail
Thru-hikers can stay on the hugely popular trail with a cellphone app.
Posted inArticles
Trekking across Colorado’s fragmented wildernesses
Thru-hiking the Colorado Trail exposes a “wilderness” that is anything but.
Posted inOctober 3, 2016: Purple Rain
Remembering a ‘free man’ who died at the Grand Canyon
A transient outdoorsman, he only wanted to be in the mountains or down some canyon.
Posted inArticles
What every hiker should know (by now)
In the Grand Canyon, pack in some common sense.
Posted inAugust 22, 2016: 100
How the Park Service is planning for climate change
The agency is forging ahead despite meager help from Congress.
Posted inAugust 22, 2016: 100
The Park Service’s befuddled funding
The cash-strapped agency wrestles with corporate sponsorships and budget shortfalls.
Posted inAugust 22, 2016: 100
A visit to the Grand Canyon, without handrails
A wild river is “a necessity of the human spirit.”
Posted inArticles
How to share a dammed river
Boaters are joining wildlife advocates, farmers and power companies to parcel out each cubic foot of Western rivers.
Posted inArticles
Biking bill is a smokescreen for opening up wilderness
Are you ready for mechanized vehicles on every wilderness trail in the United States? That’s what you’ll get if a deceptive piece of federal legislation becomes law. Portrayed as a “modest” proposal for mountain bike access, the legislation is a Trojan horse that would throw open all designated wilderness areas to bikes and prevent federal […]
Posted inArticles
BLM partners with mountain bikers to combat illegal trails
The agency is increasingly looking to locals to help deal with high demand for recreation access.
Posted inArticles
Park Service ended a wolf study in Alaska, since so many have been killed
The state culled wolves that had been collared, and it’s no longer feasible to continue research.
Posted inArticles
Partisan politics are pulling my town apart
Can lessons from ecology offer a way to find common ground in our polarized nation?
Posted inArticles
Don’t let Bears Ears go the way of Moab
Industrial tourism has transformed the town. Bears Ears doesn’t have to suffer the same fate.
Posted inArticles
Podcast: The backcountry ski boom comes with more risk
Avalanche deaths as well as backcountry skiing are up from 20 years ago.
Posted inArticles
Why does the outdoor recreation community ignore horseback riders?
We love and make use of our public lands, but we get no respect.