Fat Marmot Week (August 24-30) honors the most overweight yellow-bellied marmot in the Gothic, CO area. 

But marmots of all kinds live all over the country, including here: Groundhogs (woodchucks) are also marmots (so are squirrels and prairie dogs) and they happily gnaw on wood in our region. 

While it is good fun to follow Fat Marmot Week, and the Marmot Project (hosted by the Rocky Mountains Biological Laboratory) absolutely deserves love and spare dollars, we can also honor our own marmots. Who have fewer criminal tendencies than the ones in, say, Mineral King Valley, CA.

Learn about Fat Marmot Week at www.sites.google.com/view/fatmarmotweek.

To broaden your knowledge base further, Google “marmot” and “Mineral King Valley.” Look for the car diapers too.

You’re welcome.

—Annemarie Schuetz