Writers on the Range

“The task is great. So is the need. And there is no time to lose,” said Exxon executives in their infamous “White Paper” of 1980. Those bombastic words came at the conclusion of Exxon’s plan to help solve the nation’s energy crisis of the 1970s. Long lines at the pump and oil embargoes had prompted […]

The Mancos Valley reverberates with the gush of its namesake river in an annual rite of spring runoff.  These waters are a perfect metaphor for starting a new life — allowing winter’s rigidity to melt and wash away. In this high mountain ranching valley of Colorado, the first water flows through irrigation spigots and onto […]

My first introduction to Colorado’s 14,421-foot Mount Massive was, quite literally, a pile of crap. Several piles, actually, just off the trailhead where I’d wandered to pee. Some were flagged with toilet paper; others disguised with a thin sprinkling of pine needles. I walked with care. It was a skill that I would have to […]

California condors are back

Wranglers, snap shirts, and cowboy hats — horse optional.

Trust us, the industry giants keep saying as they try to assure us they can mine the earth without harming it. Trust us, for we have the best technology now and have learned from our mistakes. Trust us, for we have every possible safeguard in place for every event that could go terribly wrong. Trust […]

A dozen miles from Lake Powell, up the Dirty Devil River, our canoes enter the old lake-bottom layer. Dirt banks rise above our heads, and the turbid river churns through an alley bounded by sand walls. Bend by tight bend we cut deeper into the canyon of fine sands. On top, a fringe of tamarisk […]

I’m 59 years old.  I’ve been a professional photographer for 40 years.  And now I’m done.  Not because I’m retired, but because I’ve outlived my profession. Technological change has met economic downturn in a perfect storm in which I am sinking.  The same seismic shifts have transformed music, journalism, design and publishing.  This revolution has […]

Twenty years ago, many car bumpers in Colorado sported a no-holds-barred sticker: “Dam the Denver Water Board.” It was easy enough to dislike the agency then. It was big — Colorado’s largest water utility and one of the largest in the West — and it reflexively used its political muscle and economic sway to realize […]

Having lived in Colorado for all of my 59 years, I’ve certainly suffered from immigration. It’s cost me a job or two because immigrants from the East Coast went to better schools and boasted more impressive résumés. I’ve had to compete against well-heeled California immigrants for housing. After these immigrants settle in, they assault our […]

Spring is the cruelest month in the mountain West. Yes, I know that spring technically occupies three months as one-quarter of the four annual seasons. But here in northeastern Utah, it really only lasts a month. And it doesn’t even last a distinct month; what I’m saying is that you get about 31 days of […]

We won. The tiny town of Conway, Wash., will not have a cell tower looming over its one street.  Thanks to hours of work and thousands of dollars, we won. But it shouldn’t have been that hard. The 150-foot tower was to have been located behind the post office, where it would have dwarfed even […]