Local reporter Marty Durbin in western Colorado has seen the three town councils she regularly covers change drastically. They have morphed from the sleepy meetings they were decades ago to long sessions that wade into everything from getting grants for water projects costing millions of dollars to controversial planning attempts. "I’ve watched council members exercise self-control and perseverance even as comment periods grow heated,” she reports. So the least she can do, Durlin writes, “is cover it."

Betsy Marston looks back at what Writers on the Range writers cared about last year, and at first, they seemed gobsmacked at Elon Musk’s indiscriminate cost cutting. Wholesale firing ripped through public land agencies like the National Park Service and Forest Service, leaving them short-staffed and struggling. Other attacks on public land management followed, the worst being the effort to sell off vast areas of public land. It was, to put it mildly, a tumultuous year, though writers found plenty of other issues to expose.

An obituary of Colorado Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell, who died last weekend at age 92. Campbell was an advocate for Tribe rights and public land, first as a Democrat and then a Republican. The switch in parties in 1995 shocked his staff and surprised the public. Dave Marston describes Campbell as a supporter of unions, women’s rights, wilderness and national parks and monuments. He also loved to talk to people in small towns, and most of all, he was willing to work hard to get the bills he cared about passed. Some might find that he was the kind of elected representative we yearn for today.

Steve Pearce, President Donald Trump’s nominee to run the Bureau of Land Management, is a litmus test for Western senators who say they care about keeping public lands public, writes Aaron Weiss of the Center for Western Priorities.A former New Mexico congressman, Pearce spent 14 years undermining public lands, Weiss says, seeking to gut wildlife protections and sell off huge amounts of public land. Pearce has described public land as so vast that most of it "we do not even need.” Weiss warns that if confirmed, Pearce's role running the BLM would amount to liquidation.

Ecologist Pepper Trail takes a walk in the Oregon woods where he notices everything around him, from woodpeckers and hawks in the trees to decaying leaves and seeds scattered on the forest floor. He calls all of this "one oversimplified cycle of gift exchange. The world we inhabit is a web of reciprocity far beyond our ability to comprehend, much less control. To be alive at all seems a miracle.”He suggests, we imagine the world that we share with every living thing—and give thanks.

Kira Cordova was a student at Western Colorado University in Gunnison, Colorado, when her professor told the class that if they wanted to graduate and then work in the outdoors as a seasonal: “Get out of my classroom.” Seasonal work didn’t require a degree, he said, a degree is what you need after you’ve burned out in 5 to 7 years.Cordova took his advice, but burned out in only 3 years. She tells how she learned to adapt fast and flourish, but also offers advice on how to cope with everything from jobs falling through to finding yourself homeless between jobs: great advice from a seasonal pro.

Our national parks have been hit hard by federal cost cutters indiscriminately eliminating rangers, custodians, wildlife firefighters and other staff, and the government shutdown sent over 9,000 Park Service staff home without pay, with orders to leave the gates unlocked and most parks open.Alex Johnson, the new Southwest Regional Director at the National Parks Conservation Association, warns that by starving the Park Service of money for staff, maintenance, wildlife management and research, “the administration is setting up our national parks for failure.”

The busiest search and rescue team in Utah is based in Moab, a center in the Southwest for mountain biking, climbing sandstone towers, river running, cross-country skiing and even BASE jumping. The team, which handles an average of 130 calls per year, shares some stories about hairy rescues and offers sage advice for people who love exploring the outdoors: Before you leave, consider what could go very wrong.

In western Alaska, back-to-back fall storms have triggered a humanitarian disaster and the largest air evacuation in state history, writes Tim Lyndon. Across 50 communities, 2,000 mostly Alaska Native people lost their homes and boats, with at least one entire village torn apart. Unfortunately, says Lyndon, climate change is part of their story—one we in the Lower 48 states know little about.

Citing the late Jane Goodall’s deep reverence for quiet and wild places, Stephen Trimble dissects the growing threat to the stillness and solitude of protected landscapes under President Donald Trump's second administration. Under recent proposals and legislation backed by Utah politicians and the Trump administration, off-highway vehicle access would be dramatically expanded, and new coal leasing could bring industrial development to the borders of beloved national parks.Echoing Goodall’s call to "never give up," Trimble urges conservationists to speak out, stay hopeful, and continue defending the quiet beauty that defines the American West.