Of bears and Bears Ears
A rundown of what Westerners cared about in 2024

Writers on the Range sent out close to 50 weekly opinion columns this year. They were provided free of charge to about 150 publications large and small.

Writers on the Range has a simple, two-part mission. One is to engage Westerners in talking about issues important to the region. The other is to entice readers to look forward to these fact-based opinions, with the hope they’ll keep local journalism alive and flourishing.

Our opinions this year covered a wide range: avalanche deaths that might have been prevented; a profile of Diane K. Boyd, whose career studying wolves in the wild covered four decades; and how dead pool is a strong possibility for Lake Powell. We’re happy to report that Megan Schrader of the Denver Post said the latter two were among the paper’s most-viewed columns.

But it was what happened to wildlife in the state of Wyoming, that garnered the most response from readers, who wrote letters of outrage or made our opinion go viral on social media. Wendy Keefover of the Humane Society of the USA was involved in both.

In her first column, in April, Keefover revealed that in Wyoming coyotes can be legally killed – though in this case, the animal run over by a snowmobiler was a wolf.

We know a wolf suffered this assault because the snowmobiler showed off the dazed and muzzled animal at a bar, where it was photographed splayed out on the floor. Many readers were appalled, especially as the penalty for what amounted to torture was a minor fine.

The second column by Keefover was written with Kristin Combs, of Wyoming Wildlife Advocates, and it covered the sudden death of grizzly bear 399, Wyoming’s most famous bruin. 

Starting in 2004, this prolific mother bear raised 18 cubs amidst the millions of visitors and residents of Jackson Hole and Grand Teton National Park. Her death, after colliding with a car, resulted in an outpouring of grief. The writers’ opinion, calling for greater protection for grizzlies, was shared on social media by more than 20,000 readers. 

We’re also pleased to report that a Writers on the Range column helped quash the state of Utah’s plan to allow a 460-foot telecommunications tower in the heart of Bears Ears National Monument. In his opinion, Mark Maryboy, former delegate to the Navajo Nation Council, blasted the proposed tower as “a spear in the heart of the monument.” The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance told us that Maryboy’s column was a “major component” in the tower’s defeat.

A more recent column, by Jennifer Rokala, head of the Center for Western Priorities, was shared by many. Rokala insisted that no matter what exploitation the Trump administration plans for public lands, conservationists will fight back. As a reader put it in a letter to the Aspen Daily News: “You’re providing factual and great journalism that inspires and gives hope.”

We were inspired by several columns about Westerners trying to change the world, including Katie Klingsporn’s profile of a Wyoming principal, Katie Law, who never gives up on students at Arapaho Charter High School. Law was rewarded by seeing 14 students graduate this year, the largest class in the school’s history. 

There were other columns about extraordinary people or the novel ways writers understand the West, including Dave Marston’s piece about Amory Lovins, who insists that the energy gap can be closed, and others by Rebecca Clarren, Shaun Ketchum Jr., Rick Knight, Jacob Richards and Laura Pritchett. Marston, the publisher of Writers on the Range, also revealed his struggle with bipolar mental illness. 

And we suggest never skipping a column by Grand Canyon educator Marjorie “Slim” Woodruff, who can’t help noting the many foibles of tourists. For example, whenever a hiker asks her on the trail: “Was the hike worth it?” Woodruff confesses she’d love to answer: “No, turn around now!”

Our writers – who are paid – are eager to start a conversation, because they care about the West and, in particular, the public land that makes this region unique.

Betsy Marston is the editor of Writers on the Range, writersontherange.org, the independent nonprofit opinion service that seeks to spur lively conversations about the West. She lives in Paonia.