When Wendell Berry, 92, died Aug. 31, the West lost a writer who focused on the importance of rural land. He studied under the writer Wallace Stegner at Stanford University and wrote nine novels about characters — some like himself — who farmed and cared about the land.

What also stood out about him was his public leadership — his readiness to march and commit civil disobedience, protesting against national, state and local government when he found their policies harmful and short-sighted. His targets included both a coal-fired and nuclear power plant, our war in Vietnam and the death penalty. He said he also opposed abortion.

A Christian, Berry was a critic of organized religion for what he saw as its abstract notion of compassion.

He believed in staying rooted, living a simple life. He wrote, for example, in longhand with a pencil. His wife, Tanya, then used a manual typewriter to edit and complete his writing.

Berry leaves a sizable body of essays and poems, and 16 poems feature a “mad farmer” who rails against agriculture dominated by corporations that push rampant consumerism.

“To be sane in a mad time is bad for the brain,” declares the mad farmer, stand-in for the author.

He also wrote a poem often quoted for its moving simplicity, “The Peace of Wild Things.” It was written in 1968 when the country was roiled by resistance to the Vietnam War; in particular, the draft.

“The Peace of Wild Things”

By Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Gary Nabhan, one of Berry’s admirers and a fellow writer, reacted quickly to Berry’s death. An ethnobotanist, Nabhan himself is a towering moral authority, speaking out from the Southwest against our government’s 30-foot-tall metal wall that blocks wildlife trying to migrate from both Mexico and the United States:

“Oh, we lost a saint today as Wendell Berry passed from standing on and standing up for this land to dwell within it. Since the first Earth Day in 1970, no single individual did more to broaden the environmental movement by including working landscapes than did Wendell,” Nabhan wrote.

“But for all his influence and contributions, it was simply his eloquence, humor and goodwill that won most of us over. My first year in college I carried a copy of his little set of poems, “Farming, a Handbook,” in my back pocket as if it was a complement to The Bible. “So here’s to the mad farmer who changed American letters, farming and earth care for the better!”

Another admirer and friend is Taylor Brorby, an assistant professor of English at Montana State University in Bozeman, who is also an author and environmentalist. Brorby said he had a complicated relationship with Berry.

“I don’t know what there is to say about a man who has so consistently frustrated me and who shaped my own thinking beginning 20 years ago, who’s taken me seriously, who has been my pen pal for a decade, and who has now died.

“The last time I saw Wendell, he took me out to the barn to call in the sheep. We stood, overlooking the Kentucky River, and he asked me, both of us staring ahead, if I ever had writer’s block. I was too young to know better and said no. He said for the first time in his life he had it, had been working on essays for years about a book others told him not to publish. And then he turned and asked me, ‘Are you happy?’

“I’ve been thinking about that question ever since. I miss him more than I can say.”

Betsy Marston is the editor of Writers on the Range, an independent nonprofit dedicated to spurring lively conversation about the West. She lives and writes in western Colorado. 

The post Writers on the Range: Wendell Berry, champion of rural life appeared first on Park Record.

This past year, Writers on the Range, an independent opinion service based in western Colorado, sent out 52 weekly opinion columns. They were provided free of charge to more than 200 subscribing editors of publications large and small, each of whom republished dozens of the columns.

Writers on the Range has a simple two-part mission. One of its aims is to engage Westerners in thinking and 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 that they’ll then want to keep their local journalism outlet alive and flourishing.

This year, the focus of writers ran the gamut from A to W. Abortion bans, wrote Idaho-based Crista Worthy, caused women’s health to suffer severely, while wolves, wrote Story Warren, were unfairly blamed for killing livestock in Colorado.

Several columns covered the depleted Colorado River, while longtime journalist Rocky Barker wrote that at last, four Klamath River dams would be demolished in the Northwest to help struggling salmon populations.

Greg McNamee made an excellent case for paying wildland firefighters what they deserved for their hazardous work, and Pepper Trail, the renowned Oregon biologist, wrote several opinions, including one about his own efforts to save wildlife from fatal encounters with vehicles.

No matter what Marjorie “Slim” Woodruff writes from her perch at the bottom of the Grand Canyon — insulting hikers for their lack of trail etiquette, mocking visitors for their Instagram obsessions — readers love how she slings her stings. Her pieces routinely run in 50 or more outlets.

From the Yellowstone area, Molly Absolon was also a popular writer, telling about backcountry heroes — mostly volunteers — who extricate hikers, climbers and drivers of snow machines from dangerous situations they’d gotten themselves into.

In Colorado, Erica Rosenberg detailed how federal land exchanges almost always serve the wealthy, and in Alaska, Tim Lydon wrote about his recreationally oriented town of Girdwood, so out of whack economically that teachers can’t find local housing.

Ernie Atencio celebrated the work of two Westerners who died recently: the New Mexico rancher Sid Goodloe, who transformed ranching by promoting short-duration, rotational grazing; and Dave Foreman, founder of EarthFirst! who worked to save old-growth forests, wilderness and migration corridors for big game.

The most-read award goes to Writers on the Range Publisher Dave Marston, whose piece about the looming energy gap appeared in 67 publications. It also prompted an invitation from Amory Lovins, the guru of energy efficiency, for Marston to visit his Rocky Mountain Institute and learn why his column was so wrong about small, modular nuclear power being an option.

Marston accepted that invitation, and this January his opinion will reveal whether he’s seen the light, so to speak.

Writers on the Range fields diverse reactions on its website, and some, to put it mildly, get personal. The column by Dana Johnson, “Mountains don’t need hardware,” enraged some technical climbers. The director of The Access Fund, which wants climbers to be able to put bolts into mountains in wilderness, vilified Marston, even accusing him of securing his position through “nepotism.”

Marston, who wrote eight opinions this year, didn’t bother to point out that not that many people choose to work for free, no matter what their last name.

There also emerged a healthy conversation about whether too many out-of-area hunters crowded public land. Andrew Carpenter’s opinion prompted rancher Lesli Allison to reply that 80 percent of scarce winter habitat for big game is provided by ranchers, and that cutting hunting tags for outsiders threatened the ability of ranchers to make a living.

Whatever retired land-use professor Rick Knight writes about — monster mansions polluting views or how much fun it can be to work like a dog restoring neglected land — readers love his message. They can tell he knows and cares about protecting the region’s open lands. But then, every opinion writer this year seemed to share his passion for the fascinating and often contentious West.

Finally, opinions can have impact if they’re sent out at the right time. “Outrage in Wyoming,” by Savannah Rose, urged the state not to auction off 640 acres within Grand Teton National Park. Her piece helped raise the number of angry objectors to 9,000, with 7,000 comments coming in the last week. The pressure worked: Wyoming officials postponed a decision on an auction until sometime in 2024.

Betsy Marston is the editor of Writers on the Range, an independent opinion service that seeks to spur lively conversation about the West. Want to comment, get on our newsletter list, or write a column? Go to writersontherange.org.

The post Writers on the Range: What Westerners cared about in 2023 appeared first on Park Record.

Hurray, you’ve moved to the rural West from a crowded subdivision or city where the traffic has become an out-of-patience game, and now you want to fit in.

You want to learn how irrigation ditches work, build a hen house, and grow fruit trees, wine grapes and a garden. You also want to take a hike at a moment’s notice, or at least look like you’re ready to do 10 miles.

How do newcomers manage this transition? Western writer Zane Grey never wrote a Code of the West, but it was clear from his novels that subtle rules operated in the 19th century. Key tenets were fair play, respect for the land and hospitality.

Today’s code, were one to be written, would include those values, but there are some modern quirks you might not anticipate.

First, if you meet an old-timer and they’re willing to talk about “the way it used to be” in your town, try to restrain the urge to chime in with stories of your own, as that will shut off the flow. Good stories take time.

As you settle in, agree to buy your youngsters 4-H market lambs for the county fair, but only if they know these animals have a definite destiny: Lambs the kids work hard to muscle up will be slaughtered and sold, and by fair time the lambs are sure to have pet names like Fuzzy or Mopsy. Parting will be painful; prepare for tears.

Weather can change minute by minute, and it’s no good complaining about it, as the old saw goes. But everyone is willing to talk about it. “Hot enough for you?” will do as a hello at the post office in the summer. You could also tell about a photo from Wyoming that shows a metal chain standing out horizontally, the caption reading: “Stiff wind yesterday.”

And even if it rains for more than a week, get ready to tell someone you meet on the sidewalk: “We need the moisture.”

Appreciate that neighbor in the West is a verb, and “out-neighboring” someone is a highly developed skill. It can be thoroughly enjoyable (though sometimes competitive) and always helpful, but you need to keep track of who’s on tap to neighbor next.

You may live in a rural area, but if your dog poops in someone’s front yard it helps to have a plastic bag handy to pick it up. On a hiking trail, you also need to bag up a dog’s leavings and carry it out with you, though sometimes kicking poop into deep grass works. That is not recommended, however.

See if you agree that there’s a pecking order of hunters, with bowhunters the elite as they’ve got to be extra stealthy and up close to kill their prey. They also get to look cool in their camo and face paint. However, they may reek from the skunk juice they slather on. Muzzleloaders also get respect as they’re shooting ancient guns for some reason.

Never ask a mushroom hunter where they found their boletes, chanterelles and puffballs. Mushroom patches are sacrosanct. If queried yourself, wave vaguely and maybe say, “Not too far from here.”

Anytime there’s a football or basketball game in your area, try to show up. Same goes for a county fair or rodeo, where you might see excellent bull riding along with a sport called mutton busting. That’s a tradition involving little kids who wear helmets while riding a sheep that shakes them off within a few seconds. Try not to audibly gasp. Most kids bounce.

Though no one likes inhaling smoke from wildfires, realize that the only way to prevent forest fires is to prevent forests. They’re built to burn. Get some advice about what “defensible space” means and protect your house.

If you’re hardcore and want to dunk in an irrigation ditch, do not swallow the water. And never let your dog join you if a culvert is nearby, which one usually is. Culverts and siphons are dangerous and can be lethal to both of you.

Finally, avoid talking politics with your neighbors as you could guess wrong in thinking they share your opinions. You might find out they have a whole host of peculiar ideas and predilections. Of course, they’ll think you’re odd, too.

Betsy Marston is the editor of Writers on the Range, writersontherange.org, an independent nonprofit dedicated to spurring lively conversation about the West. She lives in Paonia, Colorado.

The post Guest editorial: Tips for a new Westerner appeared first on Park Record.