High Country News – Know the West

BLM's no-drilling decision in Colorado startles locals.

Jennie Lay July 26, 2010 From the print edition

An obscure cave near Steamboat Springs, Colo., contains rare hydrogen sulfide-consuming worms that might hold a key to extraterrestrial life forms.

Jennie Lay Feb. 24, 2010 From the print edition

Alexandra Fuller: A fine line between protest and profession

Author Alexandra Fuller talks about the impacts of oil drilling on her chosen home of Wyoming.

Jennie Lay Sept. 15, 2008 From the print edition

Death, and taxes

In Western communities with runaway land values, many ranching heirs have a hard time holding on to the family farm.

Jennie Lay Aug. 15, 2008 From the print edition

Conservation easement conundrums

New York transplant Erin Toll helps Colorado crack down on conservation easement abuses.

Jennie Lay March 31, 2008 From the print edition

Borders and saints

Latino writer Luis Alberto Urrea talks about the border and remembers the women in his family who inspired him.

Jennie Lay Oct. 29, 2007 From the print edition

Cowboy love, with a generous sprinkling of sugar

In Crybaby Ranch, novelist Tina Welling tells a romantic story with zest.

Jennie Lay Sept. 17, 2007 From the print edition

Powered by pond scum

Colorado inventor Jim Sears is among those researchers fascinated by the possibility that algae farms in the Southwest could provide a source of biodiesel.

Jennie Lay Feb. 19, 2007 From the print edition

In search of greener pastures

Laina Corazon Coit and her brother, Rick Chase, want to create Colorado’s first natural burial ground and wildlife refuge on the eastern prairie

Jennie Lay Oct. 30, 2006 From the print edition

Endangered Species 101 — in poetry

The Dire Elegies laments the plight of North America's endangered wildlife in poetic detail

Jennie Lay Sept. 4, 2006 From the print edition

Failing Bay-Delta may take a living fossil with it

Even as raising sturgeon for caviar takes off in the San Francisco Bay-Delta area, the region's wild sturgeon are in serious trouble, along with the rest of the Bay-Delta’s ecology

Jennie Lay July 24, 2006 From the print edition

Craig’s excellent adaptive adventures

Craig Kennedy, who hasn’t let a wheelchair keep him from skiing, doesn’t believe physical disabilities should keep anybody out of the backcountry

Jennie Lay May 29, 2006 From the print edition

Painting for progress

Artist Joan Hoffman pours her love of wilderness into her paintings, and uses her art as a way to fight for the environment

Jennie Lay March 20, 2006 From the print edition

Colorado River gets a recreation plan

The National Park Service’s new management plan for the Grand Canyon river corridor allows continued motorized access

Jennie Lay Jan. 23, 2006 From the print edition

Congress bets on oil shale

Northeastern Utah, southern Wyoming and western Colorado are humming with new talk of oil shale, but industry insiders say that the technology has years to go before oil shale development is financially and environmentally viable

Jennie Lay Dec. 12, 2005 From the print edition

A move to make land trusts more accountable

The Land Trust Alliance hopes its new accreditation program for land trusts will forestall the passage of federal legislation designed to end the abuse of conservation easements

Jennie Lay Oct. 31, 2005 From the print edition

State laws — and small staff — muzzle would-be watchdog

The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission has a complicated mission: It’s supposed to help the energy industry, while protecting the public from the industry’s impacts

Jennie Lay March 7, 2005 From the print edition

Drilling Could Wake a Sleeping Giant

In 1969, the Atomic Energy Commission exploded an underground nuclear bomb in western Colorado; today, the site of Project Rulison is attracting natural gas drillers

Jennie Lay March 7, 2005 From the print edition

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