Two miles from Moab, Utah, a developer is forging ahead on building 580 varied, luxury houses and a business park. But there's problem: the 180-acre site is on a sandbar projecting into the Colorado River, and writer Mary Moran saw this floodplain completely flooded in 1984. In any case, she adds, Moab needs housing for working people, not high-end luxury homes.

Writer Katie Klingsporn has a warning to women in Wyoming: The doctor is out and you're on your own. Rural health care—never adequate—has deteriorated in Klingsporn's state: Three hospitals have closed birthing centers, forcing women to travel long distances for medical care. Wyoming isn't unique, she adds: Fewer than half of the rural hospitals in America even offer labor and delivery services.

An energy gap might appear imminent, but this week, publisher Dave Marston challenges that perspective in conversation with Amory Lovins, the 76-year-old co-founder of RMI. Renowned for his work on energy efficiency since the 1970s, Lovins emphasizes that improving efficiency can cut energy use by 50% to 80%. Changes in building structures, demand-response strategies, and more effective use of renewables, Lovins argues, could help close the gap.

Thirty-five years ago, Stephen Trimble wrote a book called The Sagebrush Ocean: A Natural History of the Great Basin. Today, he says, a book about the same place might be titled The Cheatgrass Ocean: An Unnatural History of the Great Basin, as the highly flammable weed expands across the deserts of Nevada and Utah. Add a second encroachment of piñon and juniper trees, and sagebrush is in danger of disappearing. The dilemma is how to hold onto and add to the sagebrush that's left.

This week, contributor Laura Pritchett writes about an educated Venezuelan woman who traveled through 10 countries before arriving at "a very large hole" in the wall between Mexico and the United States. Determined, lucky, helped by strangers during her trip, her journey had to be attempted, she told Pritchett, because in Venezuela, she and her family were starving.

This year's final column reprises a few of the 52 opinions we sent out in '23. Betsy Marston might also have mentioned, but didn't have space, others that resonated, such as Stephen Trimble's moving account of the death of his schizophrenic brother, or Joe Stone's piece on burning sequoia trees, entitled: When giants die, we need to listen.

This week, contributor Heather Hansman reflects on the changing landscape of ski bum culture in mountain towns. Hansman, a former ski bum, revisits these towns to find that the once romanticized lifestyle is now fraught with economic challenges, mental health issues, and racial disparities. If these ski towns are to survive, Hansman writes, they need to care for the workers on which they rely.

In wildfire-prone regions, goats have emerged as important fire-prevention allies, publisher Dave Marston writes. DuranGoats, a Colorado-based venture, deploys goats to clear dense vegetation and create defensible spaces. These hoofed firefighters, Marston writes, offer an eco-friendly, cost-effective solution that will reshape fire prevention.

President Biden's restoration of Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears national monuments marked a victory for public lands, but Jonathan Thomson reminds us that the battle for preservation is far from over. A BLM draft resource management plan for the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument proposes restrictions on grazing and vehicle use, but falls short of full conservation. The public's input is crucial to shape the future of these cherished landscapes, Thompson writes.

Burning Man was back in the news last month as fires, protests and rainstorms disrupted the decades-old counterculture event. Yet even as storms and mud overtook the Black Rock Desert, the community prevailed, forging connections amidst the muck, writes contributor Dennis Hinkamp.