Here are a few of my favorite published articles.
High Country News
Tribes Reclaim Ancestral Grounds
Two Border Patrol agents race up on ATVs, rifles across their backs, and demand to know what Louie Guassac is doing, walking near the California-Mexico border. “We own this land,” replies Guassac, a sturdy Kumeyaay Indian with a long black braid. It’s something his tribe hasn’t been able to say about this patch of desert since around 1875, when its members were first forced off traditional lands… Read more.
Alaska Magazine
The Soul of a Wooden Boat
Captain Bill Bailey sets down his coffee cup and casually announces to the eight guests aboard Westward, his 1924 wooden boat, “I suppose I should go down into the basement now and contrive a series of semi-controlled explosions.” Guests smile and laugh, but make nothing of it. They’ve come to know the captain’s quick wit, even if it’s only the second day of their cruise through Southeast Alaska. Read more.
Left Hand Valley Courier
Owls need to find new nest
They were the unofficial, fuzzy, wide-eyed mascots of the fight to preserve the fields south of the Twin Lakes Open Space. But the hollow cottonwood that hosted great horned owls nearly every spring, collapsed, forcing the raptors to find a new place to raise their young. There couldn’t have been a more picture-perfect place for people to ooh and aah and get close-up images of owlets. Read more.
Left Hand Valley Courier
Local firefighters to Cameron Peak
His mom cries every time he heads toward the flames of a wildfire. “She acts like I’m going off to war,” said Mountain View Fire Protection District Lt. Chris Queen, who has been a firefighter for 34 years. He recently returned from the Cameron Peak Fire, northwest of Longmont. But his mom may soon be worried again. Queen thinks he’ll be back on that fire or another one until Colorado gets multiple snowstorms to help put an end to a devastating string of fires. Read more.
Left Hand Valley Courier
Families can finally visit in person
Shirley Olson walks out of the Hover Community Assisted Living Resident, a vision in blue. The 93-year-old is wearing a vest that matches the sky. Dark blue mountains and yellow stars decorate the bandana that covers her hair. A gray curl slips free. Her opulent blue eyes light up at the sight of her sons, John and Paul, sitting in opposite corners beneath a white canopy on the front lawn. Today they are free of the windows and walls that have separated them for most of the past four months… Read more.
Left Hand Valley Courier
‘Golf course for everyone’ closes
First Hole – A hawk whistles as it lands on the giant cottonwood just behind the first tee. It’s an appropriate send-off as I begin my final round at Haystack Mountain Golf Course. As always, there is something that takes my attention away from the little white ball when I’m here, whether it is the wildlife, peach and purple sunsets, stately trees or the tawny slopes of the odd bump on the horizon, Haystack Mountain itself. Read more.
Left Hand Valley Courier
Locals fight compost facility
Nancy Davis thought a conservation easement meant the land was protected from development. So when she and her husband bought their property on Lookout Road in 2015 they were confident that the conservation easement on the adjacent Rainbow Nursery tree farm would preserve its rural character, giving them confidence to move forward with their dream of a business doing horse boarding, training and growing hay. Read more.
Left Hand Valley Courier
87-year-old fair volunteer
About now, Clarence Kneebone would be setting up the last metal corral panels, straw bales and exhibit tables at the Boulder County Fairgrounds. For more than 25 years, he’s been the man behind the scenes, making sure the grounds are set up so the 4H kids, animals and fairgoers can have a great experience. But the 87-year-old volunteer got his work done a week early this year. There just wasn’t much to it with the fair curtailed by the pandemic. Read more.
Left Hand Valley Courier
Prairie dogs to Mars (April Fools)
Boulder County is looking to allocate money from the sustainability tax to fund a series of experiments that could lead to the first furry colonies in space. “If things go well, we could see prairie dogs relocated to another planet within a matter of years,” said Agricultural Specialist G.D. Riddance. “Since prairie dogs already live in colonies, they are the perfect species to colonize Mars.” Read more.
News Photographer Magazine
Corky Scholl Photographer of the Year
A sudden downpour hits the boat where Corky Scholl is shooting. He is under a tarp but it’s not enough to keep the camera dry. He grabs a beach towel to protect it. The rain comes in sideways on a cold wind. Corky looks over at the two-year-old girl he’s been shooting. She is shivering in her daddy’s arms. He takes the towel off the camera and gives it to the little girl. Corky is the 2004 Ernie Crisp Photographer of the Year. But if there were an award for Really Nice Person of the Year, he’d probably win that too. Read more.
News Photographer Magazine
KUSA Station of the Year
The walls of the photographer’s room at KUSA could be painted orange and you would never know it. Award plaques cover the walls from floor to ceiling. The photo staff will have to do some rearranging to clear space for its 10th Station of the Year honor for 2004. No other station has won it as often. KUSA’s Corky Scholl also won Photographer of the Year. He joined the staff just last year. Before he landed the job, he knew the station had a reputation for great photography but says, “It didn’t sink in until I walked into that room and saw all those plaques.” Read more.
Niwot Country Living Magazine
Changing Times at Niwot Feed
Tim Rollman remembers looking out the front window of Niwot Rental and Feed and seeing a cornfield. He was just eight years old and already helping out at the store owned by his parents, Steve and Kay. By ten, he was writing up invoices, driving U-Hauls and hay trucks. He didn’t yet know how much the town would change or how his responsibilities would grow. But here he is, 43, with a salt and pepper beard, starting to take over the iconic store on Second Avenue, having learned what makes it so special. Read more.