The Roundup: Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
A very smoky archery season, our "Trophies & Spikes" of conservation news, a hunting poem from poet Sage Marshall, and much more!
Howdy folks.
As I drove down from the mountain several weeks ago, I lowered my truck windows anticipating the sharp edge of fall evening air. Instead, a warm blanket of wildfire smoke engulfed the cab. The feel and smell transported me to Labor Day weekends of past years. But this was early October.
Archery season isn’t supposed to be this way, I thought. Burning eyes and smoke too thick to glass through are a far cry from the elk bugles we expect to hear on crisp mornings. But even when the forecast seems a world away from the conditions we dream about all year, sublime moments still make it worth it.
Eating grouse with friends around the campfire, going unnoticed to a bull slipping through the forest, and the surprise of a bear growling in the woods as he catches a bird just steps away; even seasons where reality on the ground fails to align with expectations are full of gifts.
It seems fitting that here at The Westrn, our creative director, Gabby Zalumbide published a summer send-off that disabuses us of any romantic ideals we may have about cowgirling.
In “Day Rider Diaries,” Gabby takes us along for a season moving cattle around western Colorado’s mountains. We loved seeing her develop this piece’s strong inner voice and its creative and intimate diary format.
We hope you enjoy Gabby’s answer to the question of what she thinks about in the saddle all day as much as we did.
– Kestrel Keller, executive editor
Our Favorite Reads From ‘Round the Web
Consider these our “staff picks”
A Dinner Party at the End of the World
Our own Katie Hill’s debut essay for High Country News invites readers to pull up a chair at a wild game dinner party, on a 94-degree day in Lander, Wyoming, and open their minds about what constitutes a climate-savvy diet, or even environmentalism. As one reader noted online, this is a great example of everything hunting writing can be.
-Nicole
well, this is a fucking mom blog
Have you ever read an honest, vulnerable take on the emotionally complex transition from Career Woman to mother? I hadn't either. Isabel Cowles Murphy wrote deliciously on this subject in a recent Substack post.
-Gabby
In Appalachia, Hell Hath No Fury Like A Trans Goth With a Banjo
Here’s a story from G. Samantha Rosenthal that reveals the complexity and texture of rural culture. The way banjo player Clover-Lynn finds belonging in Virginia through old-time string music parallels the stories of those of us who have taken similar journeys through hunting. This is part of a series from Them called “You Can’t Stop the Queer South,” guest edited by adrianne marie brown. It’s a timely antidote to J.D. Vance’s return to public discourse and perspective on communities affected by Hurricane Helene, and it includes details on how to help grassroots organizations there.
-Kestrel
“I want you to know me only through my words. I’m trying to give it to you straight. I’m trying to do right by my fellow humans.” - Leah Sottile
If you follow journalism in the West, odds are you’ve run into Leah Sottile’s work over the airwaves (“Bundyville,” “Burn Wild,” “Two Minutes Past Nine,” and upcoming “Hush”) on bookshelves (“When the Moon Turns to Blood: Lori Vallow, Chad Daybell and a Story of Murder, Faith and End Times”) or pretty much wherever you read your news. The pithy title of her latest media industry gut-check says it all; if we don’t have the trust of our audiences, we have nothing. It’s a helpful reminder for anyone who fancies themselves a journalist, and a hand extended in fellowship for anyone who fancies themselves a well-informed citizen.
-Katie
Trophies and Spikes
Our brief take on recent policy and conservation highs and lows
Spike: Flippin’ Utah, Y’all.
The movement to transfer federal land to states rallied many of us to get involved in public land policy in the 2010s. That issue didn’t go away. It’s just rebranded and employs sneakier tactics.
Get caught up on the latest with this recent “Hunt Talk Radio” episode where Randy Newberg talks to David Willms of the National Wildlife Federation about Utah’s attempt to transfer 18 million acres of federal BLM land to the state.
Trophy: Pronghorn Populations in Yellowstone & The Budding North American Pronghorn Foundation
Conservationists have been concerned about declining pronghorn antelope populations for years. This trend is reversing in and around Yellowstone National Park, where the National Parks Conservation Association and private landowners have been removing fences to restore pronghorn migration routes. In 2009, there were only 190 speed goats remaining in the Yellowstone herd. This year, there are 481.
In related news, there’s still no organization dedicated solely to conserving pronghorn. A group of conservationists is trying to launch the North American Pronghorn Foundation. Check out their GoFundMe here.
Field Notes
Slices of out-of-office life from our editors
Katie recently spent a weekend at More Than Gatherers, a beginner hunter program for women in Lander, Wyoming where she got to straddle the line between student and mentor. She met some stellar humans who were kind enough to listen to her talk about her experience as a newbie in the hunting media and this cool new publication she’s working on. (It’s called The Westrn.) The participants — including some former vegetarians — all passed Wyoming hunter’s education at the end of the program.
In July’s Westrn Classifieds, Nicole put out a wanted ad for a single john mule. This fall, she came four hoof steps closer to her backcountry stockwoman dreams when she trekked down to Utah to pick up Mojo the mule. (That’s Sir Mojo Dojo Casa Mule, for you Barbie fans.)
Make that eight hoof steps closer, because Kestrel threw in for Mojo’s bestie, Rocco the BLM burro. Stay tuned for Mojo and Rocco’s buddy comedy, and our plans to join the Western Pack Burro Racing ASS-ociation, or maybe start our own in Butte?
Newly minted motherchukar Gabby went chukar hunting, found a really neat pronghorn deadhead, and now she wants to get a bird dog.
ICYMI: (Mostly) Everything Else We’ve Published So Far
It’s hard to stay on top of emails, so we want to make sure you get what you signed up for
Killing Animals Helped Me Make Peace with Death Nicole tackles the long-ago loss of her father by finding new meaning in the life-death continuum. Hunting helped write a new story.
The Extreme Sport of Wolverine Research Katie takes us into the high alpine where wolverines thrive. Turns out, you need to be an expert mountaineer to study these creatures.
Westrn Classifieds Because who needs Facebook Marketplace or Amazon Prime when you can shop for john mules, recurve bows, ski boots, and used books on the back of the funnies?
Untimely Book Reviews: Smelters, Screech Owls, and Sunrises in the Saddle Nicole follows Brad Tyer below the mining tailings in her hometown of Anaconda, Gabby fangirls Frances Hamerstrom, and Katie drinks the McMurtry Kool-Aid.
The Skeleton in the Gear Closet Katie reports out her curiosity about sustainability in the hunting apparel industry. She follows that thread right into the middle of where identity politics and environmentalism meet.
The Narrow Trail Between Predator and Prey Kestrel goes on a creepy elk hunt and decides that if they’re ever put in a room alone with a man and a bear, they’re going to kick both of their asses.
Coming Up: Nicole considers the edible animal hierarchy. Kestrel considers what hunters are good for anyway. Gabby considers those making decisions about her wildlife. Katie considers time travel.
Community Corner
We aren’t the only ones making cool stuff
We recently published a conversation Katie had with former Field & Stream editor, writer, and poet Sage Marshall about his new poetry anthology, “Echolocation.” Here’s a poem from the volume, with Sage’s permission.
Where Sky Meets Water
Mid-January and the marsh has lost its glimmer
the bulrush a bleak brown, dark, the color of earth
I find my spot and sit as stale birds flicker
among the others
and even when they approach
I cannot bring myself to raise my gun
Instead, I watch them fly
drake shoveler cupping, landing in the spread
bobbing between decoys before
going on
three wigeon flare white bellies land
just to the right
and the pintails streak above
untouched
I have fired before
and will again
but today
I stole nothing from the sky
-excerpted from “Echolocation” by Sage Marshall. (Buy it here.)
We’d love to bring some of this community’s creativity into this little newsletter. If you have:
a letter to the editor
a piece of published writing you love
a book that everyone should read
an important bit of news
a great photo or snapshot of artwork
a short story, a poem, or something else creative under 300 words
Send any of the above to editor@thewestrn.com and we’d love to share it in The Roundup. We are jonesing for some ol’ school lit mag or zine vibes around here!
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From now until November 15, current and new paid subscribers get a free gift subscription to share.
If you are a current paid subscriber, or become a new paid subscriber, email us at editor@thewestrn.com with the email address of your gift recipient. We’ll get them going with a nice welcome email.
Consider this our happy-hunting-season, pre-holiday way of saying thanks for supporting what we’re doing here.
There’s more motivation afoot and that’s social media censorship. Since Meta’s platforms seem to treat Substack as spam, and since we use words here that deal with very real things like firearms and life-and-death situations, we’re getting caught up in all kinds of filters. (One of our first posts details that experience.)
So, the best way to help readers find our work is the old-fashioned way: through email. HA. No really, we mean it. Right now, our best growth strategy is for our subscribing humans to just send our work straight to other non-subscribing humans. If our writing is making you think and feel, we want you to share it. And we hope a gift subscription will make that easier.
Currently, we’re not paying ourselves. All funds go back into things like branding, building the backbone of the business, research and development for stories, and educational materials that aid us in doing our best as writers and journalists. The more we raise, the more we can do, and we really, really want to do a lot more.
It’s a feel-good investment in an editorial team like no other in the outdoor industry.
