Dear Editor:

Steve Child returned to Aspen in the early ’70s to manage a small ranch after finishing at Stanford University (biology, 1970) and having served in the Army as a conscientious objector.

At the time, he helped his father, Bob, as the latter was drawing together a coalition of ranchers, environmentalists, hunters and fishermen along with states’-rights activists who opposed the transfer of federal land adjoining the property of 19 owners to the development of the proposed Haystack Mountain ski area.

D.R.C. Brown had announced in a shareholder report that the Aspen Skiing Co. had acquired a 99-year lease on 300 acres of a neighboring ranch at the base for a huge new ski area that could be a major base for the proposed 1976 Olympics. Every local political activist should read “My Life as a Child” (2002), in which Steve’s father recounts how he united a valleywide civil society that the developer had hoped would stay divided to be conquered.

Steve was present at the creation of this coalition and has been active in it for 40 years. Collectively, the coalition represents every progressive constituency that tries to deal with the planners and political-level managers of the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service, several counties and many other public authorities.

His family is fabulously social and inclusive. His mother, Tee, gave annual picnics for Aspen Times employees for many years. When he was drafted, he did non-combat duty as a conscientious objector. As a small rancher, Steve has spent his life taking care of a biological ecosystem. He also knows the political ecosystem of land-use decisions better than anyone else. Vote for Steve.

David Bentley

Aspen