“Ecological restoration” has a good ring to it. So good, in fact, that the two words are used by everyone from the environmentalists at The Nature Conservancy to the heads of America’s biggest corporations. While conservation groups look to restoration as a way to hasten the recovery of native ecosystems harmed by agriculture or industry, […]
Ali Macalady
Posted inDecember 8, 2003: Riding the middle path
American Speedster
With its distinctive markings, an American pronghorn on the prairie range is about as inconspicuous as pepper in salt. But then again, when you can sprint at 60 miles per hour and sustain speeds of around 45 mph for mile after mile, stealth and camouflage aren’t that important. In Built for Speed, John Byers — […]
Posted inNovember 10, 2003: San Diego's Habitat Triage
Agriculture’s wild side
It’s no coincidence that farming and ranching are at least partly responsible for a huge number of federal endangered species listings. When the goal of agriculture is to create monocultures of corn, soy, wheat, hogs or cattle, biodiversity loses. But that doesn’t mean modern agriculture has to be incompatible with healthy ecosystems. In his new […]
Posted inOctober 13, 2003: The Big Story Written Small
In the field with fire
Federal spending on fire suppression is wildly out of control, forests are increasingly unhealthy — and everyone seems to have an opinion about how to fix the problem. A Season of Fire, by Seattle-based journalist Douglas Gantenbein, is one of the latest titles about fire in the West, and refreshingly, he doesn’t glamorize firefighters or […]
Posted inJune 23, 2003: 'Sound science' goes sour
An inside look at the hardscrabble plains
An image comes to mind at the mention of the High Plains: an empty but picturesque farmhouse, roof sagging like the back of an old horse, porch falling off the foundation, and screen door swaying in the wind. There’s a wide, exposing sky, and an old windmill tilting toward the West. But what happens when […]
Posted inWotr
Environmentalists have one big blind spot
I hope no one yanks my green card for this admission, but I’m beginning to hate the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It’s not that I’m for drilling. There’s no reason to drill in a place set aside for wildlife when more efficient vehicles could eliminate demand for the oil. But as a Westerner newly relocated […]
Posted inMarch 31, 2003: Tinkering with Nature
Emmet Gowin: Changing the Earth
The word “beauty” does not normally come to mind at the mention of bomb testing, open-pit mining, chemical disposal, or the marks these activities have left on the Western landscape. But Changing the Earth, a book and traveling exhibit of Emmet Gowin’s aerial photographs, lends rich texture and a mysterious vitality to the Hanford Nuclear […]
Posted inApril 29, 2002: The Great Salt Lake Mystery
Fateful harvest a scary read
Sometimes recycling is more pernicious than we’ve all been taught to believe. In 1997, Patty Martin, mayor of the small town of Quincy, Wash., discovered that the local agricultural chemicals provider had been mixing leftover pesticides with other chemicals and passing the “recycled” mixture off to farmers as a beneficial soil additive. The crusading mayor […]
Posted inDecember 3, 2001: Closing the wounds
Friendship in the Sagebrush West
When I think “anthology,” I usually think boring compilation or shallow “Best of” CD. But this year, three Western women have pulled together an anthology of writing that reminds me more of my favorite mix tape. In Woven on the Wind, editors Gaydell Collier, Linda Hasselstrom and Nancy Curtis unleash an outpouring of new writing […]
Posted inDecember 3, 2001: Closing the wounds
A refreshing view
If there’s anything everyone can agree on about grazing in the West, it’s that livestock’s influence on the land has been ubiquitous. Biologists Carl and Jane Bock have spent much of their lives studying the ecology of one of the few exceptions, an 8,000-acre short-grass prairie in southern Arizona. In their thoughtful new book, The […]
Posted inJune 18, 2001: Transforming powers
Surprise! Boise votes for open space
Support for tax levy breaks an Idaho tradition
Posted inMay 7, 2001: Back into the woods
Kayakers seek water rights
COLORADO The city of Golden is known as the home of both the Colorado School of Mines and Coors beer. But that image is changing. The city’s kayak course on Clear Creek has put Golden on the map of recreational boaters from around the country. There’s one small problem with the course: Golden has no […]
Posted inApril 9, 2001: The water empress of Vegas
How Utah got that way
Geology is a hard thing to miss in southern Utah. Unless you travel through the state blindfolded, you have probably wondered about the evolution of the region’s dramatic cliffs, spires and canyons. Maybe that’s why there are so many guidebooks that aim to decipher the area’s layered landscape. Unlike most popular guidebooks, The Geology of […]
Posted inFebruary 12, 2001: Mr. Babbitt's wild ride
New mining regs slip into rulebooks
Revised BLM regulations punch a hole in the 1872 Mining Law
Posted inDecember 18, 2000: Still here: Can humans help other species defy extinction?
Park sues notorious developer
COLORADO The National Park Service says it won’t buckle under to Tom Chapman, the Colorado developer who has a history of marketing luxury homes on private inholdings within the state’s wilderness areas and forests (HCN, 7/5/99: Wilderness developer Tom Chapman is back). Officials at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park near Montrose, Colo., […]
Posted inDecember 4, 2000: Road Block
Fish fight fowl for water
CALIFORNIA Each fall, about 20 million migrating waterfowl rest and feed in the Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge, a remnant of once expansive wetlands and lakes in Northern California. This year, they almost got a rude shock: no water. In September, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation stopped delivery of Klamath River water to the refuge, […]
Posted inDecember 4, 2000: Road Block
Yosemite shuffles into a new era
Many of the 4 million visitors to Yosemite each year remember the national park for its towering granite cliffs, magnificent glacial valleys – and for its congestion. On Nov. 14, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt unveiled a new management plan that he says will reduce traffic and help restore the park’s natural habitat. Though park officials […]
Posted inNovember 6, 2000: 'Re-inhabitation' revisited
A hunter for gun control
In my family, we talk about hunting like it’s religion. My mom bemoans the fact that none of us have the kind of faith in God that “seems to hold other families together,” but at least, she sighs, there’s Hunting. Opening day’s the occasion we all come home for, more than Thanksgiving or Easter, more […]
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
Hunter orange is a long shot
IDAHO Five Idaho hunters died accidentally during last year’s hunting season, the highest number of fatalities for the sport since 1982, says a report from the Idaho Fish and Game Department. Since the fall accidents, a member of one victim’s hunting party has vowed to see Idaho implement a law that would require hunters to […]
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
A scarce bird tests the new rule
The Gunnison sage grouse thrives in open country