Paonia, Colorado, home of High Country News, celebrated the Fourth of July in style. Floats, ponies and festively clad children were the highlights of our annual Cherry Days parade, and live music, great food and pit-spitting and wood-chopping contests rounded out the day.
Amid June’s heat wave, we welcomed many visitors, including readers Kru Fairey and Ty Stewart, a mother-and-son duo from Hattiesburg, Mississippi. This fall, Ty heads to the University of Missouri for a master’s degree in journalism. We like the sound of that!
Texas Tech professor Carol Flueckiger, in town for an artist residency, toured the office. Longtime reader Ron Sievers and his family drove their Airstream all the way from Long Beach, California, to say hello, and reader and Research Fund donor Mike Sennett of Bellingham, Washington, visited on a trip through Oregon, Utah and Colorado. On their way to Bears Ears National Monument, Ken and Donna Bonetti of Boulder, Colorado, renewed their subscription in person. Subscriber and supporter Jani Stonington came by from Louisville, Colorado, before heading for the hot springs in Ridgway and Ouray.
Longtime subscribers Gary and Molly Beverly from Prescott, Arizona, paused on their trek through the Colorado mountains, as did Jane and Dan Hall of Yreka, California, subscribers since 1986. Melissa Early from Salt Lake brought land conservation news, and local-food fans Heron Stombock and Mary Wright stopped by from Boulder. Doug and Jean Halford of Idaho Falls also braved the heat to visit. Leslie Madsen, here visiting her son, was happy to find a few of us around on July 3. Glynn and Helen Cress from Quemado, New Mexico, dropped by, as did Brad Frank of Hesperus, Colorado, who thanked us for “staying tough on the issues.” We’ll do our best to keep at it!
Writers, editors and board members gathered during our recent issue break to reflect on recent work and chart a course for the days ahead. We have a few staffing changes: Former interns Rebecca Worby and Emily Benson are staying on for another six months as editorial fellows. Anna V. Smith, who joined HCN in July 2016 as an intern and recently finished a fellowship, is now an assistant editor; she’ll be focusing on tribal affairs and helping us run the magazine’s digital side.
A few corrections: In “Trail Blazing” (6/26/17) we incorrectly noted the total mileage of trails nationwide; there are 236,000 miles of trail on state and federal land. We also misidentified the highest point on the National Trails System in “Thru and thru,” in the same issue. At 14,270 feet, it’s Grays Peak. We would also like to clarify how the system is managed: It’s overseen by a number of federal agencies, not solely the National Park Service. We regret the errors.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline A heat wave and staffing changes.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
