HCN Holiday Open House

If you’re in the Paonia area on Wednesday, Dec. 6, please join us for our holiday open house. From 5 to 7:30 p.m., you can meet HCN staff and other readers and enjoy refreshments. Our office is located at 119 Grand Ave.

ANOTHER HCN WIN

HCN Contributing Editor Michelle Nijhuis has garnered another award for her "Hot Times" series on climate change in the West, this time from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Michelle won the association’s prestigious Science Journalism Award, "the pinnacle of achievement for professional journalists in the science writing field," in the Small Newspapers category (under 100,000 circulation). Peter Spotts of the Christian Science Monitor, a judge, described her stories as "a nice blend of current research and historical context."

Congratulations, Michelle — and thanks to the Engel Fund of the San Diego Foundation and to our Research Fund donors, who supported her work.

The "Hot Times" series also recently received first runner-up in the National Academies’ Communication Awards, the Newspaper/ Magazine/Internet category (first place went to The New Yorker’s Elizabeth Kolbert for her global climate change series).

To order the "Hot Times" booklet, call us at 1-800-905-1155.

VISITORS

On their way from Prescott, Ariz., to raft in Moab, Utah, Jeff Osborn and John Pearson came by. They hoped to dodge the rainstorms that were pounding southern Utah in early October; another reader, Dennis Sovick, found himself camping in the deluge. Sovick, a Fort Collins, Colo.-based solar homebuilder, slogged into the office to say hello. He was pleased to report that one of his first projects, built near Paonia back in 1974, was still going strong.

BILL BURNHAM PASSES

We recently ran a cover story, "Bred for Success," about the Peregrine Fund, a nonprofit conservation organization that works to recover birds of prey. Bill Burnham, the president emeritus of the Fund, died on Oct. 16 at the age of 59. Burnham joined the organization in 1974. A decade later, he led the development of the Peregrine Fund’s World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise, Idaho, which breeds falcons and condors for release into the wild. He was president of the Fund from 1986 until May 2006, when he was named president emeritus. An active conservationist, Burnham also served on many boards and councils throughout his career, including the National Public Lands Advisory Council and the North American Raptor Breeders’ Association.

SHE’S BAAACK …

HCN News Editor Jodi Peterson was out on medical leave for most of September and October. She had an unusual malady — "spontaneous intracranial hypotension," severe headaches caused by a loss of cerebrospinal fluid from a rupture in the membrane covering the brain and spinal cord. Treatment requires bed rest, which is not nearly as much fun as one might think. She thanks the HCN family for their good wishes and support.