By Don Fitzpatrick On Dec. 1, a new Sno-Park opened on Highway 20 at the Silver Star Bridge. It will serve a multitude of users, including both motorized and non-motorized. Snowmobilers, backcountry skiers, cross country skiers, snowshoe hikers, mushers, fat-tire bikes and heli-skiers will all be beneficiaries of this project. But what is amazing is […]
My Turn
From Paris to Pateros, it’s climate solutions time
By KC Golden If you’ve been calling on Washington, D.C., to deliver climate solutions, you might feel like you’ve been waiting on hold listening to Muzak for 30 years. But the new administration has a mandate to answer the call. Biden and Harris campaigned on climate solutions as a top priority and a centerpiece of […]
Healthy forests combat megafires — and biochar could help
By Gina McCoy A recent issue of this newspaper contained a column describing the onset of an apocalyptic planetary fire age. Immediately next to it was a letter opposing the U.S. Forest Service’s actions to restore fire resilience to our forests. These competing viewpoints offer despair on one hand and denial on the other. The […]
Learning Pods: the power of community
By Hilary Kaltenbach It’s Wednesday morning. Buses line the front of Methow Valley Elementary School, opening their doors with the familiar rush of air that signals the start of a day. Students jump the last step, streaming into the fall air. They pick up breakfast and head in twos and threes to their grade-level groups. […]
Wildfires in the West: climate change, mismanagement, or both?
By Michael Liu As fires raged across the West last month, my wife asked me if the cause was climate change or mismanagement of forests and grasslands. She had been reading news headlines and I suppose she figured my opinions had some credibility since I am a retired District Ranger who worked 36 years for […]
Know your Methow Valley water rights
By Lorah Super, Mary McCrea and Peter Morgan As we write this article, we are enveloped in smoke produced by fires in our county, our state, and in Oregon and California. Climate change is no longer a prediction of things to come; it is a fact of life here and now. Not only does climate […]
A mask message from a neighbor
By Alexander Brzezny, MD Grant County Health Officer On May 23, Grant County received permission from the Washington State Department of Health (DOH) to move to Phase II of the governor’s “Safe Start Washington” plan. In my recommendation to the Grant County Board of Health to apply for that variance, I signaled my intent to […]
Small businesses have big role in valley economy
Emergency grants provide vital support By Julie Tate-Libby Running a small business in the Methow Valley is hard. I know this because over 20 years ago, my husband and I bought a tiny restaurant in downtown Winthrop and ran it for five years. At 22 years old, we were ill-prepared for the 18-hour workdays, demanding […]
Some tough conversations we all should be having
By Justin Porter The most important conversation we should be having in the face of the COVID 19 pandemic is one about our individual wishes if we become ill. From 17 years old to 97 years old, we need to be having this conversation with those around us and expressing our wishes. Make it clear […]
Students growing old too soon
Editor’s note: This essay was written in response to a call for submissions as part of Cheyenne Fonda’s senior project for Liberty Bell High School. Fonda asked Liberty Bell and Independent Learning Center students to share their thoughts about the Methow Valley on a variety of possible topics. By Cymone Van Marter I think that […]
