High Country News - Writers on the Range
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Is the outdoor industry really a green giant?
The green-leaning $600 billion outdoor industry aspires to be a major conservation player, but so far it's done more talk than walk.
by Paul Larmer, Jul 23, 2012 -
Floods, fire ... are locusts next?
First floods, then fire -- natural disasters pound a small Montana community.
by Wendy Beye, Jul 20, 2012 -
Black Sunday, 30 years later
The author attends a peculiar reunion, a meeting with the former Exxon executives who pulled the plug on oil shale three decades ago.
by Andrew Gulliford, Jul 18, 2012 -
The Forest Service faces a test in Arizona
Will Forest Service efforts under the 4FRI program to reduce fuels in Arizona pay off? This summer will tell.
by Charles Wilkinson, Jul 12, 2012 -
Watch out for those fake Canadians
Denny Rehberg's proposed law to protect the U.S-Canadian border would give border patrol agents ability to supersede environmental protection laws.
by Dave Stalling, Jul 11, 2012 -
"Tiananmen Sid" shakes up a small town
When Paonia hairdresser Sid Lewis protested billionaire Bill Koch's land swap deal in Paonia's July 4 parade; the resulting shakeup shone a light on small town and national tensions.
by Michelle Nijhuis, Jul 10, 2012 -
Rural communities still have to fight off extremists
Fiery rhetoric and polemic messages keep rural communities from working through their natural resource problems.
by Gina Knudson, Jul 06, 2012 -
High Noon for solar
Why does solar power development lag in the United States when it has taken off all over Europe?
by Randy Udall, Jul 04, 2012 -
A different voice on the phone
The author's weary 21-year-old son, who has always wanted to be a firefighter, shares his frustrations from the fire lines.
by Linda Ball, Jul 02, 2012 -
Why I never hike alone
After a fallen boulder pins her leg to the ground, a hiker learns the hard way how important it is to hike with friends, or at least to leave notes about where you are going.
by Jane Koerner, Jun 28, 2012 -
Notes from a wildfire refugee
When wildfire forces locals to flee their beloved Colorado homes, people begin to talk more openly than they used to about climate change.
by John Calderazzo, Jun 27, 2012 -
Sometimes environmentalists miss the boat
Colorado environmentalists goofed when they opposed a bill that would have harnessed the methane produced by coal mines as a form of renewable energy.
by Allen Best, Jun 27, 2012 -
Bison deserve a home on the range
What better place to let bison run free than Montana's Charles M. Russell Wildlife Refuge, especially since that animal so greatly inspired the artist?
by Tom France, Jun 21, 2012 -
Safari Club and the NRA aim to gut wilderness
The so-called "Sportsmen’s Heritage Act" is just another attempt to destroy the Wilderness Act and the land and wildlife it protects.
by Talasi Brooks and Kevin Proescholdt, Jun 20, 2012 -
Rancher says coal ash regulation is overdue
Coal ash pollutes groundwater but is already less regulated than coffee grounds, and yet some lawmakers want to destroy existing rules and prevent new ones.
by Clint McRae, Jun 18, 2012 -
Fire on the mountain
A New Mexican watches Whitewater-Baldy fire burn the Gila National Forest, and even as it changes a place she loves, her ecologist self cheers it on.
by Martha Schumann Cooper, Jun 14, 2012 -
Remembering Ed Quillen, that prodigious writer of the West
Quillen skewered conservatives and liberals alike, and his sharp observations were always relevant and on-target.
by George Sibley, Jun 13, 2012 -
Life among the Bluffoons
There may be only 200 people living in Bluff, Utah, today, but they cherish a history that goes back for centuries, along with the dramatic red-rock
by Andrew Gulliford, Jun 07, 2012 -
The Black Hills await justice
The U.N. Human Rights Council believes that South Dakota's Black Hills belong to their native Sioux inhabitants -- but do most Americans even understand the issue?
by Paul VanDevelder, Jun 07, 2012 -
Talking vegetarianism to a hunter
An airplane chat between a vegetarian and a hunter yields unexpected common ground, largely over a mutual love and respect for wildlife.
by Brendan Leonard, Jun 04, 2012
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