Writers on the Range, an independent opinion service based in western Colorado, sent out close to 50 weekly opinion columns this year. They were provided free of charge to about 150 subscribing publications large and small, each of which republished dozens of the columns.<\/p>\n
Writers on the Range has a simple two-part mission. One is to engage Westerners in talking to each other about issues important to the region. The other aim is to entice readers to look forward to these fact-based opinions, with the hope they\u2019ll then want to keep their local journalism outlet alive and flourishing.<\/p>\n
Our opinions this year covered a wide range: avalanche deaths<\/a> that might have been prevented, by Molly Absolon; Ben Long\u2019s profile of Diane K. Boyd, whose innovative career studying wolves<\/a> in the wild covered four decades; Zak Podmore\u2019s description of how dead pool is a strong possibility<\/a> for Lake Powell. We\u2019re happy to report that Megan Schrader of The Denver Post said that Long’s and Podmore\u2019s opinions were among the paper\u2019s most-viewed columns.<\/p>\n But it was what happened to wildlife in the state of Wyoming that garnered the most response from readers, who wrote letters of outrage or made our opinion go viral on social media. Wendy Keefover of the Humane Society of the USA was involved in both.<\/p>\n Her first opinion column, published in April, revealed that in Wyoming coyotes can be legally killed — though in this case the animal run over by a snowmobiler was a wolf<\/a>.<\/p>\n We know a wolf suffered this assault because the snowmobiler showed off the dazed and muzzled animal at a bar, where it was photographed splayed out on the floor. Many readers were appalled, especially as the penalty for what amounted to torture was a minor fine.<\/p>\n