Westerners have begun looking at their homes differently these days. Are those trees too close? Should I move all that firewood stacked up next to the deck? Meanwhile, in California, some fire insurers have lost so much money they’ve pulled out of the state. Overall, fire insurance is becoming as[Read More…]
Tag: Writers on the Range
WRITERS ON THE RANGE: What Aspen can teach us
Back in the ‘90s, when writer Hunter S. Thompson held court at the Woody Creek Tavern just outside of Aspen, he’d often rail against the “greedheads.” I grew up in Aspen, and sometimes my dad took me there to look at all the dollar bills on the wall. He made[Read More…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
