High Country News - Writers on the Range

Ted Nugent doesn’t speak for me

Hunters, gun owners and NRA members need an articulate spokesman, but a loudmouth like Ted Nugent is not the ideal candidate.

by Pat Wray, May 24, 2012
If corporations are people, what are they really like?

The state of Montana is leading the way in the fight to destroy the bizarre legal fiction that corporations are people.

by Ray Ring, May 22, 2012
Don’t bury her deep in the cold, cold ground

A writer’s mother -- like an increasing number of Westerners -- is pretty determined that when her time comes, she wants to go down in flames, via cremation.

by Marian Lyman Kirst, May 18, 2012
Rachel Carson's redwood dreams, and 50 years of "Silent Spring"

Scientist and writer Rachel Carson's intelligence, courage and love for life are remembered on the 50th anniversary of her groundbreaking book "Silent Spring."

by Carol Carson, May 17, 2012
The teenagers we're not helping

The West's gay teenagers are too often ignored -- abandoned by their families to live on the streets or in overcrowded homeless shelters.

by Tim Lydon, May 11, 2012
The Pawnee Buttes oversee a changing landscape

Eastern Colorado’s Pawnee Buttes have witnessed so many historical changes that they’re likely to survive the current energy-development boom.

by Allan Best, May 11, 2012
Selling what's priceless is the nuttiest idea of all

Some Western legislators want to sell off our public lands -- an idea that is not only impractical, but contrary to the desires of most Westerners.

by Jeff Welsch, May 10, 2012
Micah True, born to run

Remembering Micah True – known as “Caballo Blanco,” or the white horse – a gifted athlete who devoted his life to helping the Tarahumara, a remote tribe of long-distance runners in Mexico’s Copper Canyon.

by Hal Walter, May 04, 2012
The hoof stops here

A proposal to reopen slaughterhouses in the U.S. for old, unwanted, abandoned or wild horses is a cruel and foolish idea.

by Mae Lee Sun, May 02, 2012
A final hats off to rancher Doc Hatfield

With the help of his wife, Connie, and a bunch of determined fellow ranchers, the late Doc Hatfield helped change the face of public-lands ranching in the West.

by Ed Marston, Apr 27, 2012
The truth about wolves is hard to find

Some hunters claim wolves are killing too many deer and elk in northwestern Montana, but the facts indicate otherwise -- although those facts are easily lost in all the emotional rhetoric.

by Christina Nealson, Apr 26, 2012
Wolf management in Idaho is not ready for prime time

The controversy that flared when a trapper posted a photo of himself with a dying wolf proves that Idaho and other Western states are incapable of managing wolves without the help of the Endangered Species Act.

by Michael J. Robinson, Apr 25, 2012
When wolf-trapping goes viral

When a trapper posted photos of himself with a dying wolf on Facebook, the resulting angry, hate-filled uproar on the Internet accomplished nothing useful.

by Erin Zwiener, Apr 24, 2012
A good ranger stands up to bad bureaucrats

National Park Service ranger Robert Danno is still being punished by the agency he loves, despite being vindicated for his work as a whistleblower eight years ago.

by Andrea Lankford, Apr 20, 2012
A future of big fires and tiny bugs

A second-generation forest ranger considers how fire prevention and climate change are affecting the forests he once roamed with his father.

by Frank Carroll, Apr 18, 2012
Face it: All forests are "sluts"

If an allegedly untouched piece of woodland is "virgin forest," what does that make a forest that’s been logged or burnt or otherwise used by humans over the years?

by Sharon Friedman, Apr 13, 2012
Dead man working

When Robert Palmer began crusading for better medical care on the firelines in memory of his brother, he realized -- as many reformers do -- that one of the problems lies in the risk-accepting culture of firefighting and other outdoor occupations.

by Neil LaRubbio, Apr 13, 2012
Solar power works best when it stays small and local

Industrial-style, large-scale solar developments on Western public lands are simply not the right way to go.

by Janine Blaeloch, Apr 12, 2012
Conserving water makes more sense than moving it around

It makes both ecological and economic sense to try to use water more efficiently, rather than gamble on high-stakes, ill-advised, expensive water diversion schemes.

by Sharlene Leurig, Apr 03, 2012
How to heat-proof your garden

In a spring so hot and dry that it’s breaking records, backyard gardeners might considering using edible living mulch to protect the soil.

by Ari LeVaux, Mar 30, 2012