Young undocumented immigrants thrive in the U.S. — until they turn 18, and the law cracks down.
Sound science
In New Mexico, a natural gas boom pits industrial-grade noise against birds
Welcome back, otter
Kitchi, a male river otter, escaped from Colorado Springs’ Cheyenne Mountain Zoo this past May when he deftly pulled apart the mesh wire on his outdoor enclosure. Zookeepers pursued him through a culvert with a robotic camera, but failed to catch him. He is still on the loose, perhaps living in nearby Fountain Creek. Kitchi’s…
Young, All-American, Illegal
Undocumented kids thrive in the U.S. — until they turn 18 and the law cracks down.
A flood of visitors
Monsoon season struck Paonia with a vengeance in the muggy final days of July. Beyond window-rattling thunder and heart-stopping lightning, the storms have brought deluges of rain, sending irrigation ditches flooding over their banks and washing out roads and driveways. Our flood of summer visitors through HQ has continued unabated, as well. High Country News…
Caveman of Southeast Alaska
From deep beneath the Tongass, Steve Lewis calls for conservation
Recognizing unfairness
Young people dressed in graduation caps and gowns protest for immigration reform.
Tough justice, hard fate
Then Came the EveningBrian Hart272 pages, hardcover: $25.Bloomsbury USA, 2010. In Brian Hart’s debut novel, a Vietnam veteran, believing his wife died in the fire that destroyed their cabin, goes crazy with rage and remorse, and commits a crime that makes the reader gasp. Bandy, who’s also half-drunk at the time, ends up in jail,…
Truth, lies and poetry
War DancesSherman Alexie209 pages, hardcover, $23.Grove Press, 2009. In the title story of War Dances, a World War II veteran tries — and fails — to glorify the dying moments of a fellow soldier. “I was thinking about making up something as beautiful as I could,” he tells the dead soldier’s grandson. “But I couldn’t…
Ready … or not
Until that Monday, I’d never caused a death. Maybe I still haven’t, but I don’t know for sure, and the vision of it keeps rearing up in my mind. I was bathing tired feet in snowmelt waters after hours of walking in the wildflower havens of the Elk Mountains. The alpine meadows teemed with columbines…
Crude combat
Enviros seek leverage to curb Canadian tar sands development
These boots were made for walking…
I appreciate Cherie Newman’s review of Joe Hutto’s The Light in High Places in the July 19, 2010, edition. However, Newman missed the key point. She quotes Hutto writing that “it is not the greed of multinational corporations with their vicious bulldozers, chain saws, and oil rigs” consuming the earth’s resources and polluting our environment,…
The upside of apathy
I realize that probably over 90 percent of Americans have this affliction called nature illiteracy and I think that it is just because they do not “connect.” They are busy power walking, driving at top speed in their isolation chambers, or roaring along in the dust of an ATV or even sliding over the snow.…
The first vs. the most fascinating?
As one who is interested in the earliest humans in the Americas, I have long admired Bonnie Pitblado for her years of tireless archeological research in the Mountain West (HCN, 7/19/10). I was very pleased to read of the success of her artifacts roadshows in bringing to scientific scrutiny significant clues to early peoples of…
A vault, not a souvenir shop
In the July 19, 2010, issue, HCN included a sidebar article entitled “How to Return a Pot.” There is, however, no legal process for returning artifacts taken from public lands. We often receive calls from people who have artifacts and want to return them. We can give your readers several reasons not to ever place…
Monstertruck alley
Remember the last time a fleet of semis roared past you on the interstate? Now triple the size of the trucks and halve the size of the road, and you have a rough image of a plan to ship 207 loads of oversized mining equipment through Idaho and Montana to the Kearl Oil Sands in…