It's a DC thing

Hard to say, Wyoming is a strange place

This is actually an issue in startup culture. Weird segue, I know. There is a problem with growth when it outstrips the ability of the prevailing culture to integrate new people. I think that's what you're describing. Colorado is a small state, the population is only about 5 million or so. It's smaller, as a state, than some cities. It sounds like you're saying that for a long time, the small population of Colorado had a shared culture, including concepts like "leave no trace" in most of the backcountry. When people moved in too quickly, they outnumbered the locals and didn't have to integrate, so the environmental ethics have been lost. When I moved to Colorado, I feel like I was surrounded by a lot of people who grew up on the Front Range. They took me hiking, taught me to ski and shared their values. I feel like that's happening less now because there's too many people moving for them to get absorbed into a circle that is mostly people who have been in Colorado for years, if not their whole life.

Do something pointless. Grab a sketchpad and a pack of pencils and draw. You can also do free writing, just start writing. If you feel the need to do something, do something.

I got a book on active imagination by Jung years ago, and I think there is merit to creating things for the sake of creation. It can be a reflective practice to figure out what unvoiced things are rattling around in your head, and it can loosen up the mind by occupying the hands.