The Roundup: Bloom Times
Get swept up in the green season, a flash sale, explore with WRFI, meet our Creative Director
Howdy folks,
Green up is finally starting in the sagebrush country of Montana. I sometimes catch meadowlarks singing through the thick wind that threatens to blow my little house away. My horses are shedding their winter coats, and we’re still vacillating between snow and rain.
Life is in transition.
It’s a welcome time, and yet it’s also an itchy time. I pulled the first fat tick from the nape of my dog’s neck. I clock the level of high country snow daily as high alpine trout rise in the back of my mind. Soon, I tell myself. Soon.
With that, The Westrn is also speeding up and moving ever faster towards our second issue of the print newspaper. It will ship internationally July 1st (!) and we continue to be floored by your response to the Spring Issue. We worked hard to make sure that this issue was as top quality as possible in a very short time.
As long-time professionals, with decades of combined experience in both new and traditional media, it’s been thrilling to see readers respond so enthusiastically to our shoestring print experiment.
On that note, I’d like to introduce you to The Westrn’s Creative Director L Nichols.
L is a twice-published author, prolific zine producer, and visual artist who lives and works in Poughkeepsie, New York. He earned a mechanical engineering degree followed by a masters in Media Arts & Sciences, both from MIT. After working as the editor-in-chief of MIT’s humor magazine, he continued studying print design at the School of Visual Arts and has continued exploring his love of print media ever since.
If that all sounds incongruously cosmopolitan for our publication, consider L a multidimensional product of rural culture — kind of like The Westrn. L grew up near the Texas border in rural Southwest Louisiana, barrel racing, and raising 4-H pigs. Long before taking up deer hunting, L’s wild protein of choice came from trapping the groundhogs menacing his garden.
We’re continually impressed by L’s talent for drumming up illustrations that perfectly capture a story’s feel in seemingly no time at all. And for laying out a print publication from scratch in what seemed like no time at all (‘You people really love words!’). You’ll find his illustrations throughout each paper, tucked into our feature photos here on Substack, and on the media and merch we’re building out.
Summer pitches are in, and we’re in planning mode! It’s been so exciting, but as hunters and outdoorspeople, we know that the best things happen once the seasonal rhythms take hold. We’ve crossed into year two of The Westrn, starting to get a sense of our own parallel seasonal rhythm. It’s fun. It’s difficult. And more than anything, it’s a gift to continue to see this community grow.
We’re also grateful to the Wild Rockies Field Institute for partnering with us again on this month’s Roundup. I strongly recommend their new Montana-based adult education programs as an ‘educational 7-day backcountry vacation’ for anyone who loves the great outdoors. Please check out the programs they’re offering, which include Fire Writing, River Ecology, and Women on the Water. I’d personally like to go to all three!
Check out the latest and greatest below, and know we’re always here to answer questions at editor@thewestrn.com.
Cheers to more ink and 45# newspaper —
Nicole Qualtieri, Editor-in-Chief
You Made Us a Top 50 Climate/Environment Substack!
Thanks to you, in just a year, we’ve risen to the top 50 Substacks covering the environment. There’s no Subtack category titled Outdoors, so this is jusssst about as close as we can get. We keep bugging Substack to add a new category, but we’re stoked with this development anyway.
Funny enough, our executive editor, Kestrel Keller, started out their career as a science journalist focusing on climate and water. We’ve been wondering if this is a hint that our audience would also be interested in shorter reported pieces and analysis directly focused on climate and conservation issues. Let us know what you think!
As a thank you for getting us into the Top 50, we’re doing 50% off annual subscriptions — just for the next 24 hours!
Purchase now and get your first year and four issues of the newspaper for just $25 for the year.
The Wild Rockies Field Institute Now Offering 2025 Adult Education Courses
WRFI brings over 30 years of experience to academic field courses for college students in the American West. Prior to 2025, WRFI focused on experiential learning for college students. Now, for the first time, the Institute is excited to announce the addition of week-long experiences for curious adult learners to deeply engage with landscapes.
2025 Courses:
Fire Writing: Disturbance & Renewal: August 17 - 23, 2025 — Backpack in the spectacular Bob Marshall Wilderness. In partnership with the amazing Freeflow Institute, students will explore the connections between fire ecology and the art of creative writing.
Women on the Water: September 7 - 13, 2025 — Float 61 miles on the incredible Missouri River Breaks while exploring how the feminine perspective can better shape conservation efforts.
River Ecology: Community & Conservation: September 21 - 27, 2025 — Explore community conservation efforts in and along the Clark Fork, Big Hole, Blackfoot Rivers through day trips, camping, and flexible educational opportunities.
Print Copies of Inaugural Issue Still Available; Summer Pre-Order is Open
We’ve updated our online store! You can now pre-order for Summer, Fall, and a special Holiday Gift Wrap Issue that will ship in early December. We’re also shipping out the Spring Issue on demand. A single copy is currently $15 including shipping, but we’re giving you 20% off.
If you’re interested in subscribing, know that annual subscribers of our Substack receive four issues of our quarterly outdoor newspaper in a 12-month period. And if you skimmed it before, you can get an annual sub for just $25 today!
As always, contact us if you haven’t received your print copy: editor@thewestrn.com
ICYMI: Our Latest & Greatest
It’s hard to stay on top of emails, so we want to make sure you get what you signed up for.
Shot in the Dark, contributor Matt Cunningham is helping manage deer at his local airport by hunting them out of season, in the name of public safety. But having permission to break hunting’s guidelines for fair chase becomes more complicated than he expected.
The Interview: Rue Mapp Wants to Connect, our first print-to-digital interview puts the spotlight on the Outdoor Afro’s fabulous and ever-inspiring founder, Rue Mapp. In the midst of the current chaos, Mapp’s countenance inspires calm, intentional connection. We’re into it.
Dead in the Water, contributor David N. McIlvaney is a fly-fishing writer who hasn’t been fly fishing in quite some time. Until a call from his friend Mike cuts through the despair, and puts him back in the current. If you’ve ever felt your feelings while poking a campfire, or needed that one buddy to drag you back outside and into yourself, this story is for you.
The Spring Calf, in which Nicole seeks childlike wonder in the return of spring as the world shifts from winter’s hibernation back to life.
Short(ish) conservation pieces would be great! I wouldn't emphasize climate over other issues though. Climate is one of many environmental and conservation issues, and perhaps the one issue individuals have the least control or influence over. The leading causes of immediate biodiversity declines are habitat loss and invasive species!