Writers on the Range | The Herald Times

Guest Column: The problem that just won’t go away

When I read the Salt Lake Tribune editorial on July 2, my heart sank. A Utah man with severe mental illness had died in a poorly regulated care home, with a mere $8,000 fine levied against the managers. The editorial was fierce: “It doesn’t seem to matter how horrible the[Read More…]

August 2, 2023 by Special to the Herald Times Comments are Disabled

What to do when the water keeps dwindling?

It seemed inevitable that the dwindling Colorado River would be divvied up by the federal Bureau of Reclamation. On June 14, BuRec gave the seven states in the Colorado River compact just 60 days to find a way to cut their total water usage by up to 4 million acre-feet.[Read More…]

September 1, 2022 by Special to the Herald Times Comments are Disabled

Opinion

We need every tool to fight fires

We know now that the largest recorded fire in New Mexico history was started by an escaped “prescribed burn,” or rather by two. The Hermit’s Peak fire bolted away on April 6 when unexpectedly gusty winds blew sparks beyond control lines. Then the Calf Canyon fire raced off on April[Read More…]

June 23, 2022 by Sophia Goedert Comments are Disabled

Opinion

Writers on the Range:

This rancher has radical ideas about water RBC I If Jim Howell, a fourth-generation rancher in Western Colorado, has a guru, he’s Allan Savory, the champion of intensive cattle grazing even on semi-arid land. Howell, 52, says Savory’s methods, which require moving cattle quickly from pasture to pasture, enable him[Read More…]

November 1, 2021 by Special to the Herald Times Comments are Disabled

Opinion

Looking back to when water was plentiful

RBC | During his 50 years in rural western Colorado, Jamie Jacobson has seen a lot of flooding. While caretaking a farm in 1974, Jacobson watched three acres of its riverfront float away. More recently, it’s been drought, and then worse drought. Jacobson farms on Lamborn Mesa, perched above Paonia,[Read More…]

June 25, 2021 by Special to the Herald Times Comments are Disabled

Opinion

What do we owe wildland firefighters?

RBC | “It’s like having gasoline out there,” said Brian Steinhardt, forest fire zone manager for Prescott and Coconino national forests in Arizona, in a recent AP story about the increasingly fire-prone West. Now something else is happening — and at the worst possible time. Federal firefighters are leaving the[Read More…]

June 25, 2021 by Special to the Herald Times Comments are Disabled

Opinion

Writers on the Range: We can act now to fight wildfires

RBC | For the 2021 fire season, the writing is on the wall. The West, despite a few days of intense winter, is far drier than it was leading up to last year’s record-breaking fires. As a hotshot crewmember, the reality of what’s to come fills me with two distinct[Read More…]

March 31, 2021 by Special to the Herald Times Comments are Disabled

Opinion

Guest Column: Conservative Republican has a personal mission

MEEKER | I am a lifelong conservative Republican whose faith in the criminal justice system was shattered by my near-death experience with it. I came within nine days of being sent to the gas chamber for a crime I did not commit. You could say I’m living proof of why[Read More…]

January 28, 2021 by Special to the Herald Times Comments are Disabled

Opinion

Who calls the shots on the Colorado River?

RBC | If there’s a dominant force in the Colorado River Basin these days, it’s the Walton Family Foundation, flush with close to $5 billion to give away. Run by the heirs of Walmart founder Sam Walton, the foundation donates $25 million a year to nonprofits concerned about the Colorado[Read More…]

January 16, 2021 by Special to the Herald Times Comments are Disabled

Opinion

Writers on the Range: A clear warning about the Colorado River

RBC | For the West this summer, the news about water was grim. In some parts of California, it didn’t rain for over 100 days. In western Colorado, the ground was so dry that runoff at first evaporated into the air. And in New Mexico and Nevada, the rains never[Read More…]

September 29, 2020 by Special to the Herald Times Comments are Disabled

Writers on the Range— COVID-19 and recreation: too much poop, too many people

By Todd Wilkinson | Special to the Herald Times RBC | Mark DeOpsomer of Bozeman, Montana, is a backpacker with lots of miles on his soles. For almost four decades he’s gone to the remotest corners of the Northern Rockies. On a recent trek 24 miles into the Bob Marshall[Read More…]

September 11, 2020 by Special to the Herald Times Comments are Disabled

Opinion

OPINION: If you like birds and fish, hug a cow

RBC | You don’t hear this from former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt or the usual suspects whose goal is to end many water diversions from the Colorado River, but it’s true. Rural landscapes and wildlife need ranching and irrigated agriculture to survive. Without irrigation, think high desert. Without irrigation in[Read More…]

August 14, 2020 by Special to the Herald Times Comments are Disabled