According to Ute elder Roland McCook, the Ute name for the Crystal River Valley was “Nuche-Mu-Gu-Avatum-Ada’he,” or “The People’s Place of the Heart.” The first white settlers who arrived in the Valley somewhat unimaginatively named the river “Rock Creek.” The contrast in cultural sensitivity was palpable. It was soon realized by early settlement boosters that […]
Dale Will
Posted inColumns
Critical thinking, Redwine Point and the evolution of knowledge
I am continually amazed how prescient are The Four Agreements posited by Don Miguel Ruiz. Do your best, be impeccable with your word, don’t make assumptions and don’t take things personally. What an extraordinary guide for keeping one’s mind engaged in a positive way, while admitting that our knowledge is limited and hopefully continually evolving. […]
Posted inColumns
Solstice thoughts on landscapes — environmental, psychological and political
Walt Whitman said that “all truths wait in all things.” I am often intrigued by patterns that reappear across a spectrum of physical and metaphysical experience. One Lakota proverb landed fairly close to Whitman: “The spiritual landscape is revealed in the physical landscape.” In my experience, the resonance between the physical and the metaphysical is […]
Posted inColumns
The Will to conserve
Next month there will be a celebration of land conservation. Conservation: the word comforts me; it has no negative charge. It is green, noncontroversial, popularly embraced and non-partisan. The Oxford dictionary defines conservation as “prevention of wasteful use of a resource.” Property owners may have the will to conserve but seek the means to conserve. […]
Posted inOpinion
Wildlife McCarthyism, impact credits and the humility necessary to share Earth’s beauty
Early in my career, I clerked at the Environmental Defense Fund trying to help negotiate changes in California’s massive irrigation system, trying to stave off the extinction of the Sacramento River winter run of Chinook salmon. The irrigation system, known as the Central Valley Project, irrigates a good share of the fruits and nuts produced […]
Posted inEnvironment
Crystal River augmentation study raises hopes and concerns
Just downstream of the confluence of Avalanche Creek and the Crystal River, a 50-acre floodplain has become a site of optimism — and controversy — among water users in the Crystal River Valley. Early this summer, the West Divide Water Conservancy District and the Colorado River Water Conservation District published a report on a joint […]
Posted inColumns, Opinion, Uncategorized
Land conservation as an act of philanthropy
On Dec. 20, 2022, Jeff and Janette Bier donated 8.5 acres adjacent to the Marble Wetlands to the Trust for Land Restoration (TLR). The 55-acre Marble Wetlands was donated to TLR a year earlier by an anonymous individual. These properties lie between lands already owned by the Division of Colorado Parks and Wildlife. (xanax online […]