Author - The Journal

Yellowstone's a place to be thankful for

By Don Oliver It's November, and it seems anyone writing a column does a "being thankful" column. Well, I'm no different. Last September, while standing in the middle ...

DATE: Nov 11, 2014 | CATEGORY: Writers on the Range

Want to fish? Head north along the Animas

The River of Lost Souls, also known as the Animas River, downstream from Durango has always been a fun and challenging fishery. From the 32nd Street bridge south to Bondad, the An...

DATE: Sep 9, 2014 | CATEGORY: Writers on the Range

Thank you, John McPhee

In the final part of John McPhee’s 1971 classic, Encounters with the Archdruid, David Brower and Floyd Dominy — both men I would have loved to meet — raft the Grand Canyon together. ...

DATE: Sep 9, 2013 | CATEGORY: Writers on the Range

A kinder, more huggable Smokey Bear

THE WEST Smokey Bear just got another makeover. Instead of sternly blaming us for not preventing wildfires, he’s become a huggy, supportive bear, reports The New York Times. Douse...

DATE: Aug 22, 2013 | CATEGORY: Heard Around the West

Stop trying to fry eggs on the sidewalk

THE WEST Sizzling, blistering, brutal: Whatever adjective you use to describe the West’s early-summer heat wave, it’s not strong enough. Normally cool places like Portland and Sea...

DATE: Aug 12, 2013 | CATEGORY: Heard Around the West

The Tupperware model of selling solar

ARIZONA AND THE NATION It is puzzling, perhaps, that solar power accounts for less than 1 percent of the electricity generated in the United States. The cost of solar panels conti...

DATE: Jul 18, 2013 | CATEGORY: Heard Around the West

Monuments ... blah. National parks ... ooh!

There’s been a lot of hoopla and public meetings here in Grand Junction, Colo., about turning the nearby Colorado National Monument into a national park. My opinion is simply: Why not? ...

DATE: Jul 11, 2013 | CATEGORY: Writers on the Range

Treasures don’t have to be parks

As a close neighbor and regular user of Colorado National Monument in western Colorado close to Grand Junction, I suffered a sharp attack of NIMBYism when I heard of a 2011 proposal to turn ...

DATE: Jul 11, 2013 | CATEGORY: Writers on the Range

Learning to live with wildfire

The enormous column of black smoke towered before me. As the Hammer Fire closed in on the backcountry workstation that I call home in the summer, fear spread from my hard hat to the soles of...

DATE: Jul 4, 2013 | CATEGORY: Writers on the Range

New laws in the name of freedom

COLORADO AND THE WEST The western Colorado town of Nucla only has about 730 residents, but its council is eager to tell them how to live — only in the name of freedom, of course, ...

DATE: Jun 27, 2013 | CATEGORY: Heard Around the West

Hard choices for an uncertain future

Stepping onto the stage of the Sheridan Opera House in Telluride, Colo., his biceps bulging after chopping vegetables six hours a day for 21 months while in prison, Tim DeChristopher got a s...

DATE: Jun 17, 2013 | CATEGORY: Writers on the Range

No thanks, Estonia

At any given moment, 20 million people are video chatting with friends and relatives in distant lands. Skype, the ingenious software that makes this possible, was developed in Estonia, a tin...

DATE: May 30, 2013 | CATEGORY: Writers on the Range