
Items by Ray Ring

The Black Forest Fire highlights a political disconnect around the West

Western kids have fun -- and die -- motoring off-road, thanks to loose ATV regulations, a libertarian spirit and fun-loving parents.

In Wyoming's top resort town, the desire to protect the environment and the community's character kills big affordable housing projects.

An HCN editor reflects on the many changes around Coeur d'Alene.
And other oddities from Heard Around the West
And more oddities from Heard Around the West

Editor’s note for HCN’s second annual special issue on travel in the West describes some quirky personal trips.

Mining in British Columbia could have big impacts on parts of Canada -- and the U.S.

U.S. environmental groups like Rivers Without Borders, Conservation Northwest and Round River Conservation Studies work with First Nations in British Columbia to slow a mining rush.
A long overdue evaluation of the popular 1822 poem

Will the soul of wildlife biology survive in an era of remote monitoring technology?

The gadgets we attach to wild animals and fish include radio transmitters, microchips, acoustic tags, geolocators and accelerometers.

Environmentalists are trying to buy out oil and gas leases in national forests, including the Wyoming Range and Thompson Creek Divide, while the drillers often have their way in the desert and sagebrush.
You're welcome to add your observations

Races for seats on state commissions that oversee utilities are among the most important elections you’ve never heard of. They could decide the future of renewable energy in Montana and Arizona this year.

If Democrats succeed in an improbable coup -- winning a U.S. Senate seat in Arizona, and making the state competitive for Obama -- they’ll have Latino voters to thank.
Maybe or maybe not a trend, it's worth rooting for ...

Marshall Bloom, who heads up disease research at the Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, Mont., discusses his work on deadly viruses and his passion for conservation.

A list of some of Republican Rep. Denny Rehberg's major policy differences with incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Tester.

Republican Rep. Denny Rehberg has exploited his family's long Montana history to get where he is today, but his current campaign for Democrat Jon Tester's Senate seat is raising questions about his record and that history.

When wandering newcomers and deep-rooted old-timers collide in the West, it gets difficult, especially in a place as culturally complex as northern New Mexico.

Ambitious schemes to build railroads and ports to ship Powder River Basin coal abroad will bring pollution and traffic to communities along the transport path, who are rising up in protest.
A caveman CEO and a frothing Range magazine also get dinged

A lot of places call themselves "gateway cities," but Reno, Nev., is truly the gateway to a lot of strange and amazingly gorgeous places.

Crimes committed by a fundamentalist sect on the Utah-Arizona border needs to be seriously investigated by both the Mormon Church and those states.

The state of Montana is leading the way in the fight to destroy the bizarre
legal fiction that corporations are people.

Maps, photos and text describe some of the federal and private, nonprofit work in Northwest Mexico to preserve imperiled landscapes and a rich diversity of plants and animals.
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