The Roundup: Survival Through Story
It's wicked cold, wicked weird, and wicked legislative at the moment.
Howdy folks,
So many of you are so new here that this is likely your first TW Roundup. Hell yes.
On that note, let me — your literary barkeep — welcome you through the dark, dank, swingin’ doors. Picture me slinging your favorite drink 20 yards down the slick, shiny, well-worn lacquer like you’re a regular.
We’ve got Robert Earl Keen and Emmy Lou Harris strumming on the pallet-built stage, the ghost of Jim Harrison reading a book of poetry in the corner (don’t get too close, he hasn’t showered in a while), and Annie Proulx drinking straight whiskey in her corner seat. If you find that seat empty, don’t sit there. You’ll end up dueling with an 89-year-old Wyoming legend. You won’t win.
I wish I could stand across the bar from you, polishing glass, listening to your stories.
I tended bar for many years in real life, and hell — I might have to do it again soon. If there’s anything we at The Westrn have been missing, it’s that sense of regularity in place, of proximal know-you-so-well-I-shouldn’t-like-you-but-I-do-anyway kind of energy. Them’s the bricks that make a community: imperfect people trying their best to take life day by day.
I ran errands last week, and at three stores in a row, the cashiers told me they didn’t know how they were going to make it, financially or mentally. When I ask someone how they’re doing, I do it with gravitas. I really want to know. I receive stories in return.
People can say whatever they want about story being dead, about short social attention spans negating long-form writing, but I’ll tell you this. They’re either lying to us for their own capital gain, or they’ve forgotten that story is written so deeply into our bones that it’s the only reason we survive. Since the birth of language itself, stories have shown us the way to water, food, community, and other necessities. They still do. They will continue to do so, as long as language exists, because we are a storytelling species, and we’ll never shake that out of our living bones.
At the moment, the air feels mighty thick with chaos, uncertainty, doubt, and economic instability. But tension forms the nervous system of every good story. The cashiers’ stories stuck with me because they were real and my own nervous system latched onto their energy.
I stood with them. I listened. I told them about my struggles. I told them I’m rooting for them. The world loves an underdog. Is there a better thing to root for?
People tell us print is dead, a newspaper is a terrible idea, and that digital media has fragmented modern communities beyond repair. We disagree, and we are underdogging the hell out of this Westrn effort in a Hail Mary attempt to figure out what works.
As long as you’re willing to live in the tension with us, we want you here. I simply don’t buy the narrative that we have less in common rather than more. If you like public lands and waters, wildlife, type 3 fun, adventure, or just damn good stories, we absolutely have something in common. You’re in the right place.
My glass is raised. Welcome to a community that tells stories because this is how we survive.
Cheers to what’s coming —
Nicole Qualtieri, Editor-in-Chief
Trophies and Spikes: Legislatures Are in Session
It’s the season for writing your representatives, calling them to keep them on target, and reminding them that they represent the people, and the people are you.
Trophy: Wyoming avoided becoming New Mexico 2.0 by tabling a bill that would have enabled the resale of landowner elk, deer, pronghorn and wild turkey tags. Katie dove into this one for Field & Stream.
Trophy: There’s a Rally for Public Lands at the Montana State Capitol on Feb. 19 from 12-1 p.m. Nicole will be there, standing up on behalf of federal lands.
Spike: Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo jumped on the federal public land transfer train earlier this week, citing concerns about housing availability and economic opportunity in a letter to the Nevada Senate majority leader and the State Assembly speaker. KTNV Las Vegas was one of the first to the story.
Spike: How is President Trump’s federal hiring freeze affecting public lands, your friends who work in natural resources, your life? There’s a lot to follow here. Right now is prime hiring time for the thousands of seasonal workers staffing national parks, U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management trail and seasonal fire crews, and field research crews for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Wes Siler has reported on how the hiring freeze could upend national park staffing this summer. Others have reported that federal wildland firefighter hiring is indeed frozen for now. If you’re aware of wildfire patterns in recent years, and it’s hard not to be, you’ll know the implications are alarming.
Spike: The time to contact our legislators is NOW. It’s time for all of us to pay attention to who’s who in our state governments. Please take the time to support and vehemently influence your representatives’ decisions on important votes, regardless of party affiliation. They work on your behalf! Find your reps here.
Shoot Your Shot: Personal Ads Are FREE Until Sunday
Lest you get upset with us, that partner doesn’t have to be romantic. They can also be a hiking partner, a fellow whitewater rafter, a potential hunting mentor, or yes — a love match <3
Nicole here, and I will tell you that I’d rather gouge my own eyes out than ever go on Tinder again. So, we want to offer up an alternative for one-to-one meet-cutes that cross the relationship spectrum. We’re calling the section Shoot Your Shot.
New friends, adventure buddies, river permits that need filling, dream trips, dream partners — we’re bringing the antique personal ad back to print, but with a twist.
You don’t need to include a picture, but you do need to fill out the form. And if you do, we’ll throw in a newspaper for you, on the house. Because it’s hard to put yourself out there, and we get it. Happy Valentine’s Day, pals.
Field Notes: TL;DR? It’s Cold
Nicole’s water keeps trying to freeze, Kestrel is buying meat from fellow Substackers, and Katie is making venison stock. It’s winter, y’all.
Nicole decries an out-of-office life because it’s the coldest time of year in rural Montana, and she’s on perma-duty to keep pipes from freezing and horses from going hungry. Her outdoor activities currently consist of hauling water, bleeding hay, and taking her neglected cabin-feverish dogs on walks whenever temps reach the double digits. She should be back to cross-country skiing by this weekend, however.
Kestrel has been enjoying having snow to shovel during an appropriately cold New York winter and watching U.S. Coast Guard icebreakers smash open shipping lanes on the Hudson River. Their partner drove north this week to pick up 65 pounds of pork from a small farm, providing some fat to chew and a break from venison. While stacking it in the freezer they realized it came from fellow writer and Substacking homesteader, Jenna Woginrich at Cold Antler Farm!
Katie experimented (successfully) with making venison stock ice cubes and fielded over two dozen pitches for our spring newspaper issue. Today marks 100 days until she marries the love of her life at a wildlife refuge run by a conservation non-profit in southwestern Montana, since she’s incapable of a healthy work-life balance.
ICYMI: Our Latest
It’s hard to stay on top of emails, so we want to make sure you get what you signed up for.
The Incredible Edible Animal Hierarchy, in which Nicole goes HAM on mountain lion ham and wolf birria tacos. Or something like that.
Antelope in the Bathtub at the Sundowner Motel, in which Kestrel wrestles with relationships old and new in the perfect place to lose a truck key — pronghorn country.
The Westrn’s First Newspaper Ships on April 1, in which the crew geeks out on the paper currently in creation. We’ve hired a pile of contributors. It’s going to be good.
The Backcountry of Outdoor Media, in which Katie envisions a future for outdoor writers informed by the past.
Coming up: The crew trades guns, camo, and tags for skis, snowboards, and Indy passes. Katie digs into the resurgence of the anti-federal public land sentiment. Hint: there’s nothing new under the sun.
Why not put one more deal in the footnotes? Buy a copy of our inaugural paper for $10, get one free, using this link. The offer’s good until Sunday, Feb. 16.
Or you can save 20% on our annual subscription using this link, meaning you’ll get all four newspapers over the next 12 months, as well as all of our digital long-reads.
We love people who read things all the way through. xoxo