David Marston

Paonia

David Marston - Publisher of WOTR. Opinion is our biz. We're climate change worriers, but we also cover public lands, water, wildlife, fire and social justice.

Articles

Energy dominance harms our public lands

1 week ago | writersontherange.org | David Marston

I live in Jackson County, in northern Colorado, where hundreds of inactive and abandoned oil wells litter the landscape. Not only are they an ugly sight, they are also just a few of the estimated 2.6 million unplugged wells across the country that leak methane, benzene and other toxic substances. The reality is that long after I’m gone, most or all of those wells will remain unplugged.
For waste and inneficiency you can't beat ethanol

2 weeks ago | writersontherange.org | David Marston

Corn ethanol, also known as grain alcohol, has been burned in gasoline engines and human stomachs since before Henry Ford was born. It’s hard on both, so until 35 years ago it never caught on much, at least not for engines. But in 1990, Congress amended the Clean Air Act, requiring gasoline to be spiked with an oxygen-containing compound to reduce carbon monoxide. With the help of corn-belt farmers and public officials, the oxygenate of choice became corn-based ethanol.
The threat of tariffs is already my problem

3 weeks ago | writersontherange.org | David Marston

Unless revoked or substantially reduced to what they are now, 30 percent for 90 days, President Trump’s tariffs will still wipe out the investments made in our small family business and kill our manufacturing plant, here in Boise. When I talk to my friends and neighbors about the continuing uncertainty, I hear similar expressions of frustration about the impact of tariffs on American businesses.
Public lands are a national treasure and must not be sold

1 month ago | writersontherange.org | David Marston

Public lands are one of our country’s great equalizers. It doesn’t matter how much money you have—a billionaire and a bus driver both get the same access to our parks, deserts, rivers and forests. Each one of us owns these lands together. They are literally America’s common ground. Like so many Americans, I’ve built a life around public lands—exploring them, defending them and working to ensure they remain open to all.
“De-extinction” is a fool’s errand

1 month ago | writersontherange.org | David Marston

To breathless media coverage, a company called Colossal Biosciences now claims to have produced three genetically engineered pups of the long-extinct dire wolf. Scientific criticism followed fast.
ICE is eroding the rule of law

1 month ago | writersontherange.org | David Marston

“I got lucky,” José told me. “Because they got the wrong person.” José, 28, who did not give his last name for fear of retribution from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE, said he was leaving his house in rural southwestern Colorado recently “when two federal SUVs pulled out, blocking my path in both directions.” Jose is not a criminal, though 10 years ago he crossed the border into the United States from Mexico without legal documentation.
Writers on the Range: Rural Colorado county gets ready for wildfire

2 months ago | fortmorgantimes.com | David Marston

When La Plata County in southwestern Colorado needed a director of emergency management in 2021, they found a winner in Shawna Legarza. An experienced firefighter, her career has spanned battling big fires on the ground to overseeing federal firefighting across several states. Now, she’s helping Durango, population 19,000, and others in the county to prepare for the inevitable approach of wildfire.
When reality weighs you down

2 months ago | writersontherange.org | Richard Knight |David Marston

A lot of us feel hopeless today. There’s the return of energy dominance as a federal goal, which places oil, gas and coal extraction above all other uses. There’s the extinction crisis affecting animals and plants that’s 1,000 to 10,000 times the regular rate of extinction. Then there’s the erosion of soil, as half of the planet’s topsoil has been lost in the past 150 years.
Wolves need federal protection to survive

2 months ago | writersontherange.org | Ted Williams |David Marston

On January 31,the 30th anniversary of wolves getting reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park, congressional representatives Lauren Boebert (R-CO) and Tom Tiffany (R-WI) and introduced their “Pet and Livestock Protection Act.” It would abolish Endangered Species Act protections for wolves in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Washington, Oregon, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Colorado and Michigan, among other states.
It's still the West against itself

2 months ago | writersontherange.org | Stephen Trimble |David Marston

Nearly 80 years ago, Bernard DeVoto, the Utah-born writer and historian, wrote an essay titled “The West Against Itself” for Harper’s Magazine.