High Country News - Writers on the Range
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Home on the range
In one Montana family, it's a father-daughter Thanksgiving tradition to do things like build makeshift ramps to help trapped wild animals escape from stock tanks.
by Marian Lyman Kirst, Dec 05, 2011 -
The end is near -- the end of 2011
People should be less worried about the allegedly dire predictions of the Mayan Calendar, and concentrate on making the next year better, since we’re all on earth for a limited time anyway.
by Alan Kesselheim, Dec 01, 2011 -
A ski town contributes mightily to paleontology
The fossils found near Colorado's Snowmass Village have a lot to teach us: not just about mastodons and mammoths, but also about the climate and ecosystem that existed tens of thousands of years ago.
by Allen Best, Nov 30, 2011 -
A frantic lion meets the border wall
The U.S.-Mexico border wall does nothing to stop either drugs or illegal immigrants, but it sure can frustrate roaming wildlife, including mountain lions.
by Janay Brun, Nov 28, 2011 -
How Christo's opponents can change your mind
Amazing, isn't it, how really wacky arguments against a thing can turn you into an unwilling supporter of it – in this case, artist Christo’s project to drape Colorado's Arkansas River.
by Ed Quillen, Nov 24, 2011 -
Thanks to Obama, cattlemen lose out
Proposed rule changes that would have made it easier for small-scale ranchers to compete with giant meatpacking corporations just went down in flames.
by Stephanie Paige Ogburn, Nov 21, 2011 -
Breathing clean air comes in second in Congress
House bills to delay air pollution standards move on to the Senate.
by Nathan Rice, Nov 17, 2011 -
Of marigolds and a day with the dead
Violence, border patrol, and leaving flowers on the Mexican side of the border.
by Peg Bowden, Nov 16, 2011 -
Wolf on a picnic table
Is a more-or-less trained and captive wolf anything at all like a truly wild wolf?
by Charles Finn, Nov 10, 2011 -
When the bear comes too close to home
It's easy to love wild animals like bears until they actually start eating your chickens and coming a little too close to your family for comfort.
by Dev Carey, Nov 08, 2011 -
Pulling an Everett Ruess
When you're out of work and homeless, it's inspiring to remember young wanderers like Everett Ruess, even if he never returned from his mysterious sojourn in the canyon country of Utah.
by Jane Koerner, Nov 08, 2011 -
Military's fly-by-night scheme raises lots of questions
The Air Force wants to train pilots by letting them make very low-altitude flights at night in New Mexico and Colorado.
by Brooke Ann Zanetell, Nov 02, 2011 -
Living the news, publishing every week
Across the nation, small, understaffed newspapers like Washington's Methow Valley News work to bring local news to their rural readers.
by Don Nelson, Oct 27, 2011 -
At last, Yellowstone bison catch a break
Montana is finally working on ways to deal with stray Yellowstone bison without killing them outright or keeping them indefinitely quarantined for fear of brucellosis.
by Mike Leahy, Oct 26, 2011 -
Elouise Cobell, rest in peace
Elouise Cobell, who fought to bring justice to American Indians defrauded by the federal government, will be remembered as a great Blackfeet warrior.
by Paul VanDevelder, Oct 24, 2011 -
Times are tough all over
Where's the compassion for the poor bullied 1 percent of the world -- the rich people who just aren't as rich as they ought to be?
by Jaime O'Neill, Oct 20, 2011 -
The foul air outside my window
A small -- and impoverished -- tribe in Nevada suffers from the health impacts of a nearby pollution-spewing coal-fired power plant.
by William Anderson , Oct 19, 2011 -
How can "woofers" stay on the farm?
Young people are eager to serve as unpaid interns on organic farms, but translating their dreams into a real, self-supporting lifestyle is proving harder.
by Dev Carey, Oct 13, 2011 -
Not all government programs need cutting
The Conservation Reserve Program has encouraged millions of acres of idled farmland to be used as wildlife habitat, but now it may be plowed under by a budget-cutting Congress.
by Stephanie Paige Ogburn, Oct 12, 2011 -
For the love of garlic
When a hardcore garlic lover runs out of his favorite strain of hardneck garlic, he'll do anything to find some more.
by Ari LeVaux, Oct 10, 2011
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