High Country News - Writers on the Range
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What should we do with our blink of time?
Natural history teaches us how rapidly and irrevocably the world can change -- a fact we should bear in mind as we enter the new, human-dominated era some scientists call the Anthropocene.
by Stephen Trimble, May 31, 2012 -
Anglers can be advocates for endangered fish
An early encounter with the wily bull trout teaches an angler lifelong respect for this rare fish, and for the Endangered Species Act that helps keep it alive.
by Ben Long, May 30, 2012 -
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 23, 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 21, 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 17, 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 16, 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 10, 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 10, 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 09, 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 03, 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 01, 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 26, 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 24, 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 23, 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 17, 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 12, 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 12, 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 11, 2012
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