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Catch up on your Land Desk reading

May 5

Clouds loom over Mesa Verde, Ute Mountain, and the White Mesa uranium mill. April 2021. Jonathan P. Thompson photo.

I know that it can be overwhelming to receive three, word- and info-packed newsletters every week—more if there’s some sort of breaking news—so I wanted to give y’all, and me, a little pause in which to catch up on things. Even the most devoted readers sometimes slide past a Land Desk dispatch, thinking they’re going to read it later, but then forget. To find the ones you’ve missed, just go to the archives and scroll on down the list (if you didn’t read my piece about an ill-fated backpacking trip, check it out).

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And then there are the free-riders (you know who you are), who only get the free dispatches, but remain woefully unaware of the premium content they’re missing. A few recent examples of what non-subscribers have missed:

And, coming up, for subscribers only:

Dust, snow, and diminishing albedo: An essay about spring dust storms and the way they are messing with ecosystems and water supplies—as well as the role humans have in exacerbating them.
Methane: A series of posts—scattered about temporally, so as not to overwhelm—delving deeply into the issue of the potent greenhouse gas; the oil and gas industry; abandoned wells; maps of methane pipeline leaks; the electrify-everything craze; lots of data; and even a crazy effort to capture stray methane and use it to mine cryptocurrency.
Dams, dams, and more dams… You may have thought the dam-building era had ended, but now, even as Glen Canyon and Hoover become obsolete, a flurry of new dam-building (on a much smaller scale) is on the drawing block for the West.
And the important news affecting the lands and communities of the Western U.S.—in context.
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So sign up now, support independent journalism, keep this venture going, and never miss out on another Land Desk dispatch. It’s only $6/month or $60/year (two free months!). Better yet, donate $100+ and become a Land Desk Founding Member, which will give you all of the benefits of a yearly subscription, plus you’ll receive a signed copy of Sagebrush Empire: How a Remote Utah County Became the Battlefront of American Public Lands, a Land Desk t-shirt or tote bag, and a groovy sticker (all of which will be shipped in August, when the book is released).

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Okay, it is a pause day, but we couldn’t let this one slide. Like most national media outlets, the New York Times ran a piece on the fatal bear attack near Durango, which, like most stories, was a rewrite of the Colorado Parks and Wildlife press releases. But unlike other stories, the Times’ description of where the attack happened was straight out of bizarro world:

Uhhh…. wait. First off, Trimble is not a town, it’s a vaguely defined place marked by a road (Trimble Lane) and a hot springs. Second, the attack took place about 38 miles south of Telluride. Third, and most important, the attack took place just a few miles outside of Durango, which is a much larger town than Telluride. Oy.