As fall began to settle into Missoula, Mont., and hunters got ready for deer season, a sudden, bizarre rash of deer deaths left carcasses decaying in the area. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks began receiving calls in mid-September reporting the deaths, and in less than two weeks, they confirmed more than 100 cases. All the evidence […]
Blogs
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Which Western politicians are to blame for the shutdown?
Hotels, raft guiding outfits and other tourism-dependent businesses in and around Western national parks have collectively lost millions of dollars each day that the government has been in partial shutdown. According to the Arizona Republic, the biggest hotel near Grand Canyon National Park had about half the occupancy it normally does this time of year, […]
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Montana’s largest utility diversifies its energy mix with hydropower
Montana’s largest utility company, NorthWestern Energy, is moving to diversify its energy mix – an increasing trend in the industry. Seeing the regulatory noose tightening on coal, and questioning the long-term promise of natural gas, the company recently announced plans to buy Montana’s 11 hydroelectric dams from their Pennsylvanian owners. By adding 630 megawatts of […]
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When a rare puma dies during a government shutdown, who do you call?
Dan Cooper didn’t know about the mountain lion until the local news media called on Monday afternoon to tell him. By that time, the animal had been dead for several hours; all anyone knew was that it had been struck by a car on the 101 freeway, which cuts through the Santa Monica Mountains on […]
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Rants from the Hill: Seashells on Desert Mountaintops
“Rants from the Hill” are Michael Branch’s monthly musings on life in the high country of western Nevada’s Great Basin Desert. Our daughter Caroline is six years old, a fact that is less important to her than the much more exciting fact that she is about to turn seven. The other day Caroline and I […]
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A family’s mission to document the most isolated spot in each state
Let there be no mistake: Rebecca and Ryan Means don’t hate roads. “We enjoy driving around on them,” Ryan says. “But what we’re saying is we have plenty. Maybe as a country we should think about not laying any more down.” Rebecca, 40, and Ryan, 41, are conservation biologists from Florida, and they’re on a […]
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New Mexico’s Valles Caldera Preserve will soon welcome hikers
In northern New Mexico’s Jemez Mountains, hikers are finally getting access to some stunning lands that have long been off limits – the 89,000 acres of the Valles Caldera Preserve. Starting Dec. 6, 2013, much of the preserve’s forests, meadows and streams will be opened* to unrestricted cross-country hiking for a $10 daily fee. “The […]
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Trickle-down effect of the federal shutdown
Tuesday morning at the High Country News office began with a flurry of Twitter messages from federal agencies as they entered a social media blackout. Until some undetermined future, it will be radio silence from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, EPA, NASA and the National Science Foundation. Websites will not be updated; apparently […]
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Government shutdown hits environmental enforcement
Question: How do the feds close a million square miles of public land in the event of a government shut down? Answer: They don’t. Not for lack of trying. Roads to popular areas like the Grand Canyon boat launch at Lee’s Ferry have been blocked, much to the chagrin of boaters, some of whom travel across […]
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The shutdown hits the West harder
Western states have a higher percentage of federal employees than the nation as a whole.
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Chronic wasting disease: forgotten, but not gone
As an environmental journalist, I know full well how difficult it can be to get people interested in a creeping problem. Climate change is a perfect example—its effects are hard to pin down and slow to develop. Wildfire, on the other hand, is dramatic, deadly and easily identifiable as a problem, especially if your house […]
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Why are the conclusions of the Yarnell Hill Fire investigation so timid?
Some brutal details have emerged about the Granite Mountain Hotshots’ last day of life. The 19 firefighters were just 600 yards from the safety of the ranch they were headed toward when they were forced to deploy their fire shelters and were quickly overtaken by flames and 2,000-plus-degree heat. Just 40 minutes or so before […]
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Proposed farm bill cuts food aid programs
If the House has its way with the nearly expired farm bill, $40 billion would be cut from the federal food stamps program over the next ten years. These cuts could mean that the 9 million Westerners who rely on the program will find it harder than ever to put meals on the table. Every […]
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Touring Hopi via a 10K running race at dawn
I run. And I weep. My tears may come from the fact that it’s 6 a.m., or perhaps from the burning in legs and lungs as I try to hold the pace of the leaders. But I’m pretty sure my sobs come from a deep joy inspired by the way the rising sun lights up […]
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Check those attics: An archivist’s plea for your old newspapers
Halloween night in the windy railroad town of Livingston, Mont.: a Burlington Northern train, consisting of just three locomotives, hisses from the yard and begins the long, slow climb toward Bozeman. Nobody is onboard but a hobo. The engines crest the pass, pick up speed on the downgrade, hit 80 mph and jump the tracks. […]
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Dispatch from a Colorado coal confab, where new emissions regs were top of mind
As U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Chief Gina McCarthy finishes a three-state tour to plug her new power plant emissions standards, coal industry representatives met in Delta County in western Colorado for an annual trade conference. Thursday morning started with the usual reports on which Komatsu haul trucks, draglines and Hitachi excavators are en vogue. An […]
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Stickers, salmon and stocks: Pebble Mine by the numbers
Spend even a short while in Alaska, and you’ll begin to see them. They adorn water bottles and truck caps, laptops and storefronts, boats and banjos. Eventually, you notice them cropping up outside the state too, and soon, even in the shimmering heat of the Utah desert, you can’t escape the white circular stickers slashed […]
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Green slime – coming soon to a lake near you?
The enemy is out there. It is green. It is slimy. Toxic algae outbreaks are a growing problem on our nation’s lakes, and maybe one you love. I’m lucky to live in a county with more than 150 lakes, including the biggest, cleanest freshwater lake in the western United States. Yet even here, we see […]
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Idaho Wild and Scenic Rivers and the Nez Perce Tribe trump tar sands megaloads—for now
It’s a tough time for megaloads in Idaho. A federal judge recently ruled that the Forest Service has the authority to stop the humungous hauls of Canadian tar sands-bound mining equipment from traveling through the Lochsa and Clearwater River corridor – and that they should use it. In response, the Forest Service just closed the […]
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Policy blueprint for a renewable energy future
This post was originally published on the Natural Resources Defense Council Staff Blog, Switchboard. There is a deep irony at work in the intersection of energy and the environment. The biggest threat to our planet is climate change, caused in large part by our profligate use of energy. And one of the biggest solutions is […]