A firefighter contemplates the fire season.
Essays
Posted inArticles
In rural Colorado, can art provide an economic engine?
A small town invests in affordable housing for the creative sector.
Posted inNovember 13, 2017: Solace and Perspective
What are we fighting for?
Bell Prize winner: Through the trials of life, a young writer finds she’s fighting for our spirit.
Posted inNovember 13, 2017: Solace and Perspective
A man and his house of relics, in search of a self
What is the right way to treat artifacts that do not belong to you?
Posted inNovember 13, 2017: Solace and Perspective
‘Helpless and culpable’ while fishing the pink’s peak run
2017 Bell Prize runner-up: A writer reflects on salmon as symbol.
Posted inNovember 13, 2017: Solace and Perspective
A book in hand deepens the backcountry experience
What’s the meaning of lugging literature into the wild?
Posted inNovember 13, 2017: Solace and Perspective
What to do if you had just one day left to live
Two writers contemplate their last moments.
Posted inDecember 25, 2017: Bear Essentials
What could be lost in a push for mining in monuments
In Grand Staircase-Escalante, coal and fossils lie side by side.
Posted inOctober 30, 2017: The Changing Face of Woods Work
Pledge allegiance to the Earth, not a flag
Raise up the vulnerable voices of the elderly, impoverished and the wild earth, too.
Posted inOctober 30, 2017: The Changing Face of Woods Work
The changing politics of woods work
Cash-strapped agencies use private contractors to the detriment of local communities.
Posted inOctober 2, 2017: Following Ancient Footsteps
Public land is the essence of freedom
A hunter reflects on the gut-level connection she has to the public land she traverses.
Posted inArticles
Close encounters with a scary fire season
As wildfires have ripped through the West, take stock of what climate change has wrought.
Posted inSeptember 4, 2017: The Elwha, Unleashed
Awake at night and listening to coyotes
Man-made sounds elicit a wild ruckus in the Bitterroot Valley.
Posted inSeptember 4, 2017: The Elwha, Unleashed
A return to the Snake River
Taking a trip down the undammed section of Hells Canyon.
Posted inArticles
Lessons in the moon’s shadow
How the eclipse makes you understand space, and why we should pay attention to lesser wonders.
Posted inAugust 21, 2017: Rooftop Revolution
Hunting for feral figs
The gem-like fruit are best when found free in the urban wilds.
Posted inJuly 24, 2017: Down the Dark Mountain
So what if we’re doomed?
Climate chaos, mass extinction, the collapse of civilization: A guide to facing the ecocide.
Posted inArticles
Grand Staircase-Escalante was set up to fail
How budget cuts, a divided staff and state politics hamstrung Utah’s biggest monument.
Posted inJune 26, 2017: Personal Pilgrimage
The making of a motorhead
Ex-skiers, ex-climbers, ex-hikers take on long-distance travel with motorbikes.
Posted inJune 12, 2017: The Big Swing
Big Dan, a couple of beers and thousands of honeybees
A tale of removing a bee infestation.