As the West’s privately owned timberlands go up for sale, small towns like Glenwood, Wash., are working to buy local forests and manage them for the good of the community.
Also in this issue: The closing down of the Mohave Generating Station and the Black Mesa Mine are both a victory for environmentalists and Indian water activists, and an economic catastrophe for the Hopi and Navajo nations.
Wilderness with horses, not wheelchairs
I agree with Erik Schultz that life can change dramatically in the blink of an eye (HCN, 12/12/05: Wheelchairs and wilderness can coexist). I am sorry that Erik was injured and is now confined to a wheelchair. But wilderness is, by definition, primitive, not meant to be easily accessed, and is a place where we…
Seniors want more wilderness access
Regarding Erik Schultz’s column, “Wheelchairs and Wilderness Can Co-exist” (HCN, 12/12/05: Wheelchairs and wilderness can coexist): Erik and Congressman Simpson are to be congratulated for the progress they have made in opening a wilderness area to handicapped persons — be it ever so small. I look from another perspective — that of aging senior citizens.…
Seniors reject more wilderness access
Erik Schultz’s piece about his tragic fall, which left him a paraplegic and unable to savor the wilderness, makes a (HCN, 12/12/05: Wheelchairs and wilderness can coexist). Why? If it’s a choice between personal satisfaction and wilderness protection, we must choose wilderness. Bob Marshall, Ed Abbey, Aldo Leopold — all considered mechanization of wild nature…
Sociology is essential
I see there’s another letter condemning HCN’s “drift” into “sociology” eye. One of the biggest mistakes made by conservationists and environmentalists in the past 40 or 50 years was to drift away from sociology. Sociology has to do with the way we humans treat each other and that in turn has enormous implications for how…
The Ghosts of 1913
In response to Hal Rothman’s letter: “Solving the West’s Water Problems with Economic Progress” is a beguiling tune, if you’re attracted to that sort of music, but this is the one I hum: Economic growth IS the problem (HCN, 12/26/05: Letters). Consider this: John Muir, the great naturalist and writer, won many noble battles but…
The Latest Bounce
In late December, crews moved five boulders with numerous prehistoric petroglyphs out of the path of a controversial road being built on the edge of Albuquerque (HCN, 6/27/05: Suburbia blasts through a national monument). The road, which cuts through Petroglyph National Monument, was touted as a way to alleviate traffic congestion on the city’s fast-growing…
Wind energy not a panacea
The article “Forget Idealism” talks of the benefits of transitioning our energy supply from fossil fuels to renewable sources such as wind and solar (HCN, 12/12/05: Forget Idealism). As in many discussions previous to this one, the author fails to address the environmental impacts of wind-power fields. The photo associated with this article says it…
Bear killing increases but protection decreases
“We call these vandal killings,” says Chris Servheen, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grizzly bear recovery coordinator, “people who just kill things and let them lay.” He’s talking about the 11 grizzly bears that were killed illegally last year in northwestern Montana; one was poisoned and the rest were shot or otherwise killed. In 2004,…
Meth is bad news, period
I was disturbed by the letter writer who proposed legalizing methamphetamines for oil field workers or anyone else who feels meth “helps” them (HCN, 11/28/05: The bright side of meth). Here in Hawaii, meth is considered the greatest reason for crime (auto theft, house break-ins and robberies), violence and family abuse. Crystal meth, its popular…
Renewable law leaves the gate
When Colorado voters approved Amendment 37 in 2004, most had no idea how long it would take for the state’s renewable standards to go into effect. More than a year later, the state’s Public Utilities Commission finally released the rules implementing the law, which requires the state’s largest utilities to generate 10 percent of their…
Forest Service shuts down ‘three old geezers’
Eighty-year-old retiree Stewart Brandborg wouldn’t appear threatening to most people in his hometown, Hamilton. Brandborg’s father, Guy, ran the Bitterroot National Forest, headquartered in the town, from 1935 to 1955. Brandborg’s own career included stints with the Forest Service and national conservation groups. But when Brandborg tried to attend a forest press conference in Hamilton…
A eulogy for the West that was
Mourning the loss of a special place has become a common plaint in the West. Changes in paradise always evoke regret and loss, especially when they happen on your watch and seem irrevocable. Roger Brown, a 70-year-old filmmaker who lives near Gypsum, Colo., has written, photographed and self-published Requiem for the West, an impassioned lament…
Colorado River gets a recreation plan
The National Park Service’s new plan for the Grand Canyon river corridor may torpedo wilderness advocates, who are already swimming against a tide of motorboats and helicopters. Ten years ago, the Grand Canyon Management Plan required park managers to devise a new recreation strategy for the Colorado River that would address motorized usage, tourism’s impacts…
Planting seeds for preservation
In Cities in the Wilderness, former Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt asks: “Is it realistic to suggest expanding land protection programs in a season when the Bush administration and Congress are intent not upon expanding, but upon shrinking the reach of our environmental laws?” Babbitt’s answer is a resounding “Yes.” He continues, “History instructs…
A watery mystery in New Mexico
Even if you haven’t read a mystery novel since the Hardy Boys, give Rudolfo Anaya’s new book, Jemez Spring, a whirl. All in one day, Sonny Baca, an Albuquerque private investigator, works to solve the governor’s murder at the Jemez Springs Bath House and deactivate a nuclear bomb left in the Valles Caldera to blow…
Deciphering humanity’s hardware
History buffs can easily get an education alongside Western highways. Interpretive signs point out where Chief Joseph retreated, and where Lewis and Clark spent the winter. But what if you want to know what’s coming out of the smokestack in the distance? Or what gets made inside that gigantic steel structure you just passed? The…
Eight decades of magic and beauty at Ghost Ranch
New Mexico’s most famous resort, Ghost Ranch, has charmed many visitors. One overwhelmed admirer proclaimed that any description of the place amounted to “an advertisement for God and New Mexico.” Area historian Lesley Poling-Kempes tells the story of Ghost Ranch and its lovers in her absorbing new book, Ghost Ranch. Ghost Ranch covers 20,000 acres…
Goodbye, ranger; hello, cop
Jim Stiles’ article about the state park ranger who shot a tourist over a camping fee hit a nerve (HCN, 10/17/05: Blood spills over a $14 camping fee). You see, I’ve been reading and re-reading the new National Park Service’s management policies draft. In the past, as Stiles said, rangers used to range. To get…
No bipartisan support for Boulder-White Clouds Wilderness
Laura Paskus’ article on the Ojito Wilderness mentions the proposal for the Boulder-White Clouds in Idaho, an omnibus lands bill that includes some wilderness designation (HCN, 11/28/05: The little wilderness that could). Paskus states that this legislation has “bipartisan support,” when in fact its only sponsors are Mike Simpson of Idaho and Jim Saxton of…
Timberlands up for grabs
The West’s private forests are on the auction block, pitting forest communities against developers in a red-hot real estate market
For sale: The West
It’s a little disconcerting to look at the ads in the local newspaper these days. I’m bound to recognize the mug of someone I know who has just cast in his or her lot with Re/Max, Coldwell Banker or another of the multitude of agencies now playing the West’s biggest gambling game: Real Estate Roulette.…
Dear friends
Welcome, new interns! Sarah Gilman arrived in Paonia for a winter internship, still smiling after a summer of trail work on Colorado’s 14,421-foot Mount Massive. A native of Boulder, Colo., Sarah is no stranger to the Paonia area. She spent two summers working at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, just over the hill in Gothic,…
The end of an era on the Colorado Plateau
As the Mohave power plant closes its doors, two Arizona tribes wonder what’s next
What’s the NRA’s beef with roadless areas?
I am a hunter who cares deeply about our hunting heritage and our ability to pass it on. Like most hunters, I consider organizations that work on behalf of hunting my friends, and those that work against hunting my adversaries. So I don’t like it when the lines become blurred. And today the lines are…
An ecosystem wanting for wolves
Predators could bring Rocky Mountain National Park back into balance
Gray water, green living
NAME Brian Moore AGE 50 KNOWN FOR Conserving water by watering his garden with a homemade backyard shower and simple “gray water” plumbing. HE SAYS “We think of the countryside as (the place to live) off the grid, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be that way. I’d like to demonstrate that it is possible…
Quick Stats
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Timberlands up for grabs.” BUT WHO’S COUNTING… 2 Acres of timberland lost per minute. 1 million Acres of timberland lost per year. 23 million Acres of timberland projected to be lost by 2050. 340 Number of species threatend by timberland loss. 300 million Acres…
Heard around the West
OREGON Bobby Henderson may be 25 years old and in between jobs, but the Oregon State University physics graduate is the founder and prophet of a wildly popular new religion. Henderson has it on good authority that a “Flying Spaghetti Monster” created mankind, along with everything else from dinosaurs to wombats. Therefore, he says, his…
After dollars are spent, destruction remains
Regarding Paul Larmer’s editorial “Storing fat from the feeding frenzy” (HCN, 11/28/05: Storing fat from the feeding frenzy): Wyoming may be doing a better job of managing oil and gas revenues; however, that revenue hardly compensates for the destruction of frenzied and uncontrolled development. Qwest, EnCana and coalbed methane drillers have the Bureau of Logging…