A three-day trip to measure Montana’s snowpack follows a century of tradition.
Essays
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Ranch Diaries: Traditional agriculture meets progressive ideals
Can producers come together to find common ground and work toward common goals?
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Are we smarter than the hummingbirds?
We produce abundance. Are we smart enough to share and sustain it?
Posted inMay 30, 2016: Trial by Fire
“A history of subversion”: An excerpt from Terry Tempest Williams’ latest book
“César E. Chávez National Monument” from The Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America’s National Parks.
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Ranch Diaries: The peculiar confines of cowboy culture
I see my 19-year-old self in our new intern, as she builds her skills and learns the ropes of ranch etiquette.
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The outdoors gender gap needs to be closed
Women’s tax dollars help fund public land – yet that public asset isn’t seen as safe for all people to enjoy.
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Ranch Diaries: Our first intern, branding cattle and renovating an old home
Triangle P cattle know the territory now, so our second summer shouldn’t be as demanding as the last.
Posted inMay 2, 2016: The Gold King Reckoning
The life of a fire lookout is one of the senses
A former lookout finds the woman who used to guard her tower.
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National Park Week fails to change the game
Last week’s celebration showed how close we are to natural beauty, yet so far from diversifying our national parks.
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Ranch Diaries: The risks of ranching on a wild landscape
How the threat of predators has fundamentally shaped my relationship with nature.
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No, national parks are not America’s ‘best idea’
There’s potential to alienate people who value ideas more pertinent to them than the parks.
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Who belongs in the natural world?
The lack of diversity in the outdoors often prompts people of color to ponder their sense of belonging in nature.
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Ranch Diaries: Sustainability doesn’t always mean regenerative
How I came to terms with my subsistence upbringing, and have started to rethink it.
Posted inApril 4, 2016: A Land Divided
Take a page from the mountain goats
A parent contemplates risk assessment with kids in the mountains.
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Rants from the Hill: After many years of essay writing, a wave goodbye
All good Rants must come to an end and this marks the final missive from the Ranting Hill.
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Ranch Diaries: I’m starting (another) new business. Will it work?
I’ll soon be delivering our grass-fed beef to the processor myself, and connecting directly with customers.
Posted inMarch 21, 2016: Making Sense of Malheur
Seeds in a sandstorm
A writer contemplates love and disaster in a city of transients.
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I inherited an oil field. Now what do I do with it?
A writer faces a moral dilemma: fight the bureaucracy to end oil extraction on family land or give in?
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Ranch Diaries: The era of the landless agrarian
I’m part of a generation of young farmers and ranchers who will struggle to ever own the land they work.