I am against hunting mountain lions in Colorado. Today, I join many wildlife professionals and hunters who support Colorado’s Proposition 127—Cats Aren’t Trophies, on the ballot this November.  I’ve never been much for so-called “trophy hunting,” especially when the animals are chased to exhaustion by commercial outfitters using dogs and GPS tracking. Once these lions are perched helplessly in a tree, they are shot by a so-called “hunter.” 

The past weeks have been a real hardship on Ol’ Dutch. What with the loss of Cooper the Yorkie, and then my father it's been hard. Neither was unexpected but somehow that does not make it any easier. 

In 1998, when I was in fourth grade, I joined a class field trip to Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado. But when we got to Cortez, the road was barricaded. Hours earlier, three men had stolen a water-tanker truck and killed a police officer before fleeing into the desert. 

Ol’ Dutch has spent a lot of time lately up in the forests in pursuit of the elusive elk. In doing so, I have been able to see a lot of animals in their everyday activities. I love watching them as they go about their daily lives not knowing that I am hiding a few feet away from them.

Because I spent a week in Kansas helping to take care of my Dad, I missed out on the first week of archery elk season. Before he passed away, one of the last things he said was, “Go home so you can hunt.” 

The Colorado Trail, an iconic 567-mile high-elevation trail that crosses the Rockies, owes its existence largely to Gudy Gaskill, a charismatic, six-foot-tall woman who could make tough things seem easy. 

It seems of late that I have not had the best of news to write what with losing my faithful companion Cooper The Dog.  And this week is no exception to that kind of news. With your permission, though, I will take this time to write something about my Dad who is soon going onto his heavenly reward.  

Biologist Diane K. Boyd has had a front-row seat to 40 years of wolf recovery in the West, but her new memoir reveals that entanglements with humans in Montana were often tougher than dealing with the four-legged predators. 

It’s been a wonderfully wet and green summer here in the San Luis Valley. I’m hearing regularly these days that, even in the north end of the valley, “it’s as green as I can …

Looking back over my lifetime, I can recall some first dates I’ve had, and I must admit that I really failed in selecting what to do. If you look online there are always suggestions of things to do on a first date and all of them seem to require a substantial outlay of cash.  As a reader of this column, you know that Ol’ Dutch has that old Scottish blood that makes us tighter than bark on a tree, and my first dates suffered because of it.  

More frequent wildfires in the West can turn hiking through beautiful, high-elevation country into a dangerous game for hikers. In July, seven friends from Idaho, Colorado, Washington and Montana took off for a week of backpacking in southwestern Montana. Everything went off without a hitch their first night. A rainstorm passed through but it wasn’t a big deal. 

It is with tremendous sadness that I must tell you that my dearest friend and companion, Mr. Cooper, has passed to the great beyond. He was my constant companion and a friend like no other, so my missing him is the greatest understatement of the century.

I suppose it’s the human thing on a hiking trail to acknowledge one another when passing. But on a well-used trail, the same comments come up time and time again.

This past weekend Ol’ Dutch got a coveted invitation for a bear hunting trip down into the storied State of New Mexico around Cimarron, which in name alone has always been connected to stories …

Tim Sheehy, the Republican seeking to unseat Montana Democratic Senator Jon Tester, is a business executive born and raised out of state. That same description applies to Troy Downing, a Republican running for one of Montana’s two Congressional seats. Same for Montana’s Republican Governor Greg Gianforte and his challenger, Democrat Ryan Busse­.

Readers will remember Colorado Division of Wildlife’s Tom Beck, our state bear biologist working at the time citizens voted to no longer send dog packs out to chase bears in spring, sparing cubs and Colorado from unfair, unethical practices.

You don’t have to have lived as long as Ol’ Dutch to have heard the phrase “Is your cup half empty or half full?” It’s a storied line used by psycho-babble people of …

The coal mining industry reacted with outrage when the Bureau of Land Management recently announced plans to stop issuing new coal leases on the eastern plains of Wyoming and Montana. From its headquarters in Washington, D.C., the National Mining Association predicted “a severe economic blow to mining states and communities,” while the industry’s political allies likened the move to declaring “war” on coal communities.

Voters in November will again be asked to become biologists and decide if all hunting of mountain lion, bobcat, and lynx should be forever prohibited.  If you want the pros at Colorado Parks and Wildlife, many of whom hold advanced degrees in wildlife biology, to manage these cat species, then you should vote no!

Just when we thought the threat of the latest variant of COVID-19 was not much of a threat, cases have been growing again across the San Luis Valley and nationally, particularly since early July, …