High Country News – Know the West

Reading for — and about — a rainy day

Best Essays NW gathers a collection of Oregon Quarterly essays, most of them written by unknown writers who look at the Northwest from a unique perspective

Rachel Jackson March 1, 2004 From the print edition

A water tale to set you on fire

Drury Gunn Carr's new documentary follows the Shoshone Tribe's legal battle to change Wyoming water law and win its water rights.

Rachel Jackson Dec. 3, 2001 From the print edition

Pollution pickle sours landowner

Cleaning up asbestos-laden soil around a warehouse owned by the Minot, N.D., Park District may cost the district a lot, with the previous owner long gone and the source of the asbestos, W.R. Grace, now bankrupt.

Rachel Jackson Nov. 19, 2001 From the print edition

Utah's flower child

Utah native Paul Ames gathers and sells native wildflower seeds to encourage people in arid places to garden with indigenous plants.

Rachel Jackson Nov. 5, 2001 From the print edition

State proposes mother-lode mine fee

New Mexico presents Phelps Dodge with a plan that could cost the company $759 billion to close out and clean up its Chino Mine near Silver City, the state's largest.

Rachel Jackson Sept. 24, 2001 From the print edition

The timber sale that won't die

The Eagle Creek timber sale in Mount Hood National Forest near Portland, Ore., is a mecca for protesters, but some say the sale is environmentally sound, and the protests are much ado about nothing.

Rachel Jackson Sept. 24, 2001 From the print edition

Texaco spill leaves residents fuming

Some citizens of Sunburst, Mont., feel that Texaco has not done enough to clean up an underground gasoline pool left from a toxic spill 46 years ago.

Rachel Jackson Sept. 10, 2001 From the print edition

Organics, timber cut healthy deal

The town of Williams, Ore., wants to buy a nearby forest owned by Boise Cascade to protect local organic farms from herbicide chemicals used in spraying.

Rachel Jackson Sept. 10, 2001 From the print edition

Disappearing cowboys get exposure

Photographer Adam Jahiel seeks to document the authentic cowboys of the Great Basin and their disappearing way of life.

Rachel Jackson Aug. 13, 2001 From the print edition

Logging cut short for salmon

The National Marine Fisheries Service must re-examine how logging affects endangered salmon before 24 federal timber sales can proceed in the Pacific Northwest.

Rachel Jackson July 30, 2001 From the print edition

Counties cross the yellow line

A judge rules that three Utah counties misused the 19th century statute RS 2477 when they illegally graded jeep tracks in BLM wilderness study areas and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

Rachel Jackson July 30, 2001 From the print edition

Tragedy re-ignites wildfire debate

After the Thirty Mile Fire in Washington's Methow Valley takes the lives of four firefighters, some say the fire should never have been fought.

Rachel Jackson July 30, 2001 From the print edition

Banging the drum for change

Janet Robideau of the Northern Cheyenne tribe founded the Indian People's Action to advocate for Montana's Indians on issues such as public education, law enforcement, affordable housing and health care.

Rachel Jackson June 18, 2001 From the print edition

Politics sink growth management

Colorado is no closer to managing its growth problems after a ballot initiative failed and a dozen legislative bills crashed into a partisan impasse.

Rachel Jackson June 18, 2001 From the print edition

University wolf study raises hackles

The Utah Farm Bureau Federation is angry at University of Utah professor Robert Schmidt, whose class recently studied the biological and economic effects of a hypothetical wolf population in the state.

Rachel Jackson June 18, 2001 From the print edition

Intrepid explorer with a cause

Soren Jesperson's five-month, 2,200-mile solo trek around the Four Corners area will raise money for the Center for Humanitarian Outreach and Cultural Exchange, a charity his father directs.

Rachel Jackson June 4, 2001 From the print edition

Will the Grand Staircase suffer shrinkage?

Rep. Jim Hansen, R-Utah, is eager to create a new national monument to protect dinosaur tracks near St. George, Utah, but to pay for it he wants to dissolve two-thirds of the existing Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

Rachel Jackson June 4, 2001 From the print edition

Jackson Hole takes aim at helicopter tours

The Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance is fighting the commercial helicopter tours over Teton County, Wyo., planned for this summer, but it faces an uphill battle.

Rachel Jackson June 4, 2001 From the print edition

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