It’s the ultimate Colorado dream: Pack up the house, rent it out and load up the RV for an extended road trip. Drive around in your self-contained world, stop when you want, listen to a river roll by while sipping your coffee. And go with the knowledge that you’re not stuck in any one place […]
Tracy Ross
Tracy Ross writes about the intersection of people and the natural world, industry, social justice and rural life from the perspective of someone who grew up in rural Idaho, lived in the Alaskan bush, reported in regions from Iran to Ecuador and as a parent of kids growing up during the age of accelerated climate change.
Before coming to The Colorado Sun, she was a correspondent for Outside Magazine, an editor at both Backpacker and Skiing magazines, and the author of the critically lauded memoir The Source of All Things, about overcoming child abuse through connection with and adventure in the outdoor world.
She is the co-producer of a movie — Hard Miles — based on her Bicycling Magazine story Street Kids, about boys from a school for adjudicated youth in Colorado who she rode to the Grand Canyon with in 2014.
She lives in Nederland with her husband, 12-year-old daughter, Hollis, and, occasionally, her two grown sons, Scout and Hatcher.
Topic expertise: I specialize in stories affecting rural communities, from energy development to recreation to affordable housing and hunting. I also write about the outdoor economy, sports and culture. And whenever possible I dip my toe in arts that intersect with rural communities and the outdoors. I have a strong interest in social justice.
Location: Nederland, former land of Frozen Dead Guy Days current Carousel of Happiness
Education: It took me 12 years and four colleges to graduate because I kept getting distracted by real world adventures. But schools: Cornish College of the Arts, St. John's College (Santa Fe), University of Alaska Fairbanks, CU Denver (graduated at 30 while pregnant with my first kid). Also: I attended Interlochen Arts Academy (boarding school) for part of my high school, which had perhaps more impact on my life and education than any higher education.
Honors & Awards: National Magazine Award in essay category 2009 (beating Harpers, The New Yorker, and Antioch Review). Lowell Thomas award for investigative journalism 2015. I consider getting a book deal in 2009 an award. Multiple inclusions or notable mentions in Best American Sports Writing, Best American Travel Writing and Best American Magazine Writing.
Contact:
X (Formerly Twitter): @writertracyross
Instagram: @heli_girl_1970
Facebook: Tracy Ross
Posted inEnvironment
Colorado researchers get $1 million to find ways to keep bats out of wind turbine blades
Bats will get help avoiding wind turbines thanks to a $1 million grant from the Department of Energy, which announced Thursday it’s giving the Golden-based National Renewable Energy Lab funding to study how light from the enormous structures impacts bats and research ways to keep the mammals from flying into them. It’s all part of […]
Posted inEquity
Avalanche education needs more women. Here’s how one industry leader in Colorado is recruiting them.
For three years, the American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education has been luring women into the field with mentored programs centered on diversity
Posted inBusiness
Pepper Pong — pickleball and pingpong’s baby — is a new game helping people get sober
Tom Filippini founded three Colorado companies before accepting that his out-of-control drinking was killing him. When he finally got sober, he created Pepper Pong.
Posted inEnvironment
A fight is brewing to build Colorado’s first geothermal plant as neighbors oppose development
A group of Chaffee County residents is battling a geothermal plant under consideration near their subdivision, saying it would be loud, unsafe and ruin their views of Mount Princeton
Posted inOutdoors
The Partners in the Outdoors conference ended in disaster last year. Now CPW must put the pieces back together.
The agency is calling on wildlife, recreation and conservation communities to rebuild its broken model
Posted inEnvironment
BLM shifts green on 2 million Western Slope acres, setting up Colorado clash of environment vs. oil
Far bigger chunks of pristine public lands would be walled off from extraction, as federal land managers are ordered to consider climate impacts of activities on land spanning Eagle, Mesa and Pitkin counties
Posted inArts
An arts oasis on Colorado’s high plains is reckoning with changing climates of all kinds
Maureen Hearty and Kirsten Stoltz’s big idea for Prairie Sea Projects is to get people thinking about the uncertain future of life in eastern Colorado by embracing the best parts of rural life
Posted inOutdoors
Water-related deaths are on the rise in Colorado. But this rescue on the Arkansas River had a happy ending.
Jeff Hammond spends day after day along the Arkansas River, in the cold and the heat and the wind, telling people to put on their life jackets, or making sure they have a permit to camp, or — sometimes — performing rescues like the one in which he pulled a mom, her daughter and their […]
Posted inClimate
Hail storms, slim margins and regulations leave Colorado farmers with an uphill battle
This year’s wheat harvest season has been particularly difficult. And many farmers are saying it’s hard to stay profitable.