Not long ago, a fat patch of private land lay isolated within the Jemez Mountains, surrounded mostly by Forest Service land. Though off-limits, many New Mexicans knew that this place, the Baca Ranch, supported an enormous elk herd and contained both geological and archaeological wonders. Today, that 89,000-acre private ranch is better known as a […]
Laura Paskus
Posted inNovember 27, 2006: The West: A New Center of Power
Destruction and discovery walk hand in hand
Energy boom fuels archaeology
Posted inWotr
A harvest cornucopia hangs on in New Mexico
I hate leaving this party. I go from person to person, a hug here, a kiss on the cheek there. I wave goodbye to Farmer Monte and thank him for all the harvests he has shared this year. October has always been my favorite time of year in New Mexico. Part of it is the […]
Posted inOctober 30, 2006: Peace Breaks Out In New Mexico's Forests
Just another giddyup
It’s a lot like any other rodeo, on an August weekend in a fairground arena as folks hide out from the monsoon rains. Friday-night cowboys with mustaches stroll past women wearing baggy-in-the-seat jeans and plaid flannel shirts. Tall men with big hats hug one another, catch up on circuit gossip, and check out newcomers. Pungent […]
Posted inOctober 16, 2006: A River Once More
Wastin’ away in New Mexico
European-based company breaks ground on uranium enrichment facility
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
What’s wrong with the EPA?
If you’re wondering why this nation’s environmental laws aren’t implemented coherently or consistently, grab David Schoenbrod’s latest, Saving Our Environment from Washington. From a Natural Resources Defense attorney turned Yale law professor, the book is part memoir, part manifesto. And considering the potentially boring topic, Schoenbrod does an excellent job of explaining how laws such […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
Online: Web watchdog
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, “Radio: Spice for the ears,” in a special issue about community media in the West. Four years ago, Dave Frazier spent a whole summer in court, suing Boise over the city council’s decision to build an $18 million police station without putting […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
Online: No more talking heads
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, “Radio: Spice for the ears,” in a special issue about community media in the West. Jennifer Napier-Pearce, who runs the Salt Lake City-based podcast Inside Utah, calls audio recordings “the theatre of the mind.” Combine that with the “magic of the Internet, […]
Posted inSeptember 18, 2006: Going Big
Duke City dustup
The nation is watching the race for New Mexico’s 1st Congressional District
Posted inSeptember 4, 2006: Blast from the Past
Navajos pay for industry’s mistakes
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, “Navajo Windfall.” Dr. Bruce Baird Struminger spends his workdays screening Navajo uranium workers who believe their jobs have made them sick. After four years, he can predict how most will react to getting a clean bill of health: “When we find out […]
Posted inSeptember 4, 2006: Blast from the Past
Navajo Windfall
Uranium companies anticipate tomorrow’s profits, while yesterday’s workers await compensation
Posted inAugust 7, 2006: Is It or Isn't It (Just Another Mouse)?
Hollywood heads east
Western states compete to get a piece of the action
Posted inJuly 24, 2006: Taking Liberties
The merry — and meditative — farmer
In Blithe Tomato, California farmer Mike Madison writes about whatever strikes his fancy: neighborhood dogs, old tractors, and what it’s like to tangle with the local gophers for control of his tulips and olive trees. (He admits to losing 25 percent of his net income to the pests.) Madison’s collection of short essays makes it […]
Posted inWotr
Debunking the myth of the sand-burrowing minnow
It’s a popular refrain here in central New Mexico come summer: The silvery minnow can hunker down, bury itself in a dry streambed and outlast drought. Whenever the river slows and its bed begins to dry, I’m inevitably informed that the Rio Grande has always dried, and the four-inch long minnow has always survived. This […]
Posted inJune 26, 2006: The Tamarisk Hunter
One war that’s worth the fight
In Walking It Off, Doug Peacock covers a lot of ground. Having survived the Vietnam War as a Green Beret medic, Peacock writes of himself at age 27: “Wounded but dedicated, I was a committed whacko, a fanatic willing to go the distance at the drop of the hat, a warrior who didn’t believe in […]
Posted inJune 26, 2006: The Tamarisk Hunter
Land deal, New Mexico style
Ancestral land turned corporation could be up for sale
Posted inMay 29, 2006: 'Clinging Hopelessly to the Past'
The Latest Bounce
The Navajo Nation has opened its doors to a new power plant — and waived its sovereign right to protect itself from future disputes over the project. In mid-May, the Navajo Tribal Council voted 66 to 7, granting a 50-year lease to Houston-based Sithe Global Power to build the Desert Rock coal-fired power plant near […]
Posted inMay 15, 2006: The Immigrant's Trail
It ain’t easy getting old
Cormac McCarthy discards his bitter nostalgia to tell a story set along the border in the 1980s.
Posted inMay 1, 2006: Magic Valley Uprising
Ode to a very hot spot
Despite its sensationalistic cover, John Soennichsen’s book, Live! From Death Valley, is a serious look at this unpredictable corner of California’s Mojave Desert. That’s not to say the author doesn’t have fun with his subject: He dives into the area’s bizarre geological history and its eccentric local characters, and tells plenty of self-deprecating stories about […]
Posted inApril 3, 2006: Land of Disenchantment
If you’ve got some nuke waste, you can WIPP it
Things could get a lot hotter at southeastern New Mexico’s nuclear waste storage facility if the state carries out plans to relax its rules. Opened in 1999, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) stores radioactive waste, such as contaminated equipment and soil, from as far away as the Idaho National Laboratory and Washington’s Hanford Nuclear […]