A Love Note to the Gore Range Mountains

Mahting Putelis is an adventurer, entrepreneur, and photographer who seeks to elevate the conservation conversation. He co-founded Hunt To Eat, a lifestyle apparel brand, which seeks to build and educate a diverse community committed to conserving wild places and animals.

Dearest Gore Range Mountains,

It’s not you its me. And when I say me I really mean us.

We lovers of your trails have loved you fiercely.

I shot my first, second, third, fourth, fifth, well all my elk on your aspen covered shoulders.

I explored your creeks and crooks and fell deeply in love with you.

I took you for granted, thinking you could sustain me a lifetime.

I should have fought harder, volunteered my time to stand guard over your trails and meadows.

This season you shudder your doors to me. You hide the last bull. Deep in craggy depths of your wildest range.

The raven’s caw cries out and seeks the coyote’s yip, tricksters ravage the range.

This season I’ll watch from afar as you battle to restore your pride, your carrying capacity for our love.

…………………………………………………………………………………….

So many of our country’s parks and public lands written about in these love notes would not exist but for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). This important conservation program was permanently funded when Congress passed the Great American Outdoors Act earlier this summer. You can learn more about the Land and Water Conservation Fund here.

Would you like to write about public lands that you cherish? Please email Mary Jo Brooks at brooksm@nwf.org for guidelines.