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Hello to a River
For those of us born of water, sky, forest and meadow, for whom nature and the natural experience is not only a desired condition, but a necessary one, good writing about this world fuels our souls. The best authors are well-known, Rachel Carson, Edward Abbey, Wallace Stegner, Aldo Leopold, Wendell Berry and, of course, Henry…
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Dispatch from Apacheria
It is July in Arizona, and the heat lies out there like some hulking great beast, a monster with an appetite that seems always unsated. It swallows all when it can, but we humans move behind glass, the bake held at bay in little containers of refrigeration. A plane, the rampway from the plane to…
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Gabe Vasquez, United States Congressperson and sportsperson extraordinaire, finds a lot to love in National Monument designation
As a long-time resident of Las Cruces, a former city councilman and current U.S. Congressperson for New Mexico’s 2nd District, Gabe Vasquez has seen nothing but good come out of the creation of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument. Vasquez, an avid hunter and angler who grew up in the tradition of hunting taught to…
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Trout Love Snow
The rest of us, not so much. Winter continues in the West, but that’s ok with us anglers. There’s a common schtick these days in the grocery store, the post office, the coffee shop. “Can you believe this winter? When is spring going to get here? Man, I’m over this.” It’s past mid-April now and…
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Dry spell in Congress
Congress is deadlocking on public land protection. We deserve better.
It’s time for Washington to act on public lands protections You grow up in the West and you quickly learn to never whine about rain, even if it comes while the hay is down. That’s because drought is a constant and water is capricious. “Can you remember the last time it rained?” is a far…
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From the magazine: Finding Trueblood
In 1918, Cecil, barely 5 years old, went to his parents in their Idaho home and said he didn’t like his name and that he wanted to be called Ted like his Teddy Bear. So started the iconic name of one of the most legendary outdoor writers this country has known. Ted Trueblood. There is…
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The river that was
On the Snake River, what was lost and what could still be.
Dean Ferguson and his father Dwight have an annual tradition. They drive to Colton, Wash., a tiny farm town perched on a bench above the Snake River in extreme eastern Washington. They place flowers on the graves of ancestors, then drive another few miles to an overlook across a lake. Here 80-year-old Dwight tells his…
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