We just swore in a new president, and already there’s speculation about who might run in 2012 — including a Westerner, Dirk Kempthorne of Idaho. Kempthorne was George W. Bush’s last Secretary of the Interior, replacing Gale Norton of Colorado in 2006. He had a long political resume — mayor of Boise, U.S. Senator, and […]
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California salmon slip under the wire
Updated January 27th “State and federal funding is available”– now that’s a phrase we haven’t heard much lately in California. The bond freeze has crippled programs across the state, and anyone who relies on government grants–from social services to conservation groups — is feeling the pain. But the Chinook salmon and steelhead population of Battle Creek, […]
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Carbon storage gets a tryout
Interesting story in the Tri-City Herald today about a test of underground storage of carbon dioxide in Washington state. (The article doesn’t say so, but this is the first North American test of CO2 storage in basalt.) Researchers are now drilling toward a rock layer about 3/4 mile below the surface, and, if the state […]
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“Bacterial Economics”
If you’re a skier, you’ve probably schussed on snow made with bacteria. Ski resorts use Pseudomonas syringae as an ice nucleator, which means water freezes around the bacteria quickly to form snowflakes. But don’t worry – the bacteria used are dead and harmless. Now, researchers are finding that P. syringae in its live form could […]
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BLM’s Utah plans on shaky legal ground
It’s amazing how quickly things can change. In the last week, we’ve watched Barack Obama take his (slightly bungled) presidential oath of office and George W. Bush helicopter back to Crawford, Tex. In the last month, we High Country News-ers were busy reporting on all the speedy and sweeping changes that Bush made on his […]
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A midnight lease on the mesa
High Country News has reported on the Bush administration’s “midnight deregulations,” the host of hurried laws issued in the waning days of the administration, which – whether aimed at fisheries, air pollution, or oil shale – generally promise to benefit big business while undercutting environmental protections. But now that Obama’s in the oval office, some […]
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59,000 trees can’t be wrong
Westerners can see that there’s trouble in the woods — these days, it seems like there’s a beetle-killed lodgepole stand around every corner — but here’s some especially sobering evidence of forest die-offs, just published in the journal Science. A long-term study of almost 59,000 trees in plots throughout the region shows that tree deaths […]
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Gearing up for another energy rush?
On Jan. 16, outgoing Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne authorized the Bureau of Land Management to create renewable energy offices in Wyoming, Arizona, California and Nevada. The offices are meant to speed permitting for wind, solar, biomass and geothermal projects, as well as transmission lines. The feds are acting on a 2005 directive to develop 10,000 […]
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The Obama administration and the Klamath River basin
In his inaugural address to the nation Barak Obama said: “We will restore science to its rightful place.” This is a reference to pledges made during the campaign which were directed primarily toward the environmental community. Environmentalists have been outraged by Bush Administration interference in endangered species, clean air and clean water decisions. These Bush […]
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Sitting on a whole new species
In early August, retired English professor Al Schneider was in the foothills of Lone Mesa State Park, surveying rare native plants in the inhospitable Mancos shale barrens for the Colorado Natural Heritage Program. He was on his belly photographing the recently discovered species Physaria Pulvinata when he realized he was crushing another lovely plant. The flower was “delicate, […]
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Budget crisis stalls conservation
If you squinted hard at the brief and fuzzy “State of the State” address California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger delivered Thursday morning you might have detected a glimmer of good news for environmentalists: A controversial water conveyance project the governor has been pushing for – a canal that would suck water from the Sacramento River to […]
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Waking up to coal’s other mess
Raymond “Squeak” Hunt is not one to be ignored. He’s not afraid to speak his mind (even if it means building a giant billboard to do so). More often than not, he’s holding a large, sharp knife (he butchers sheep for a living). And he’s prone to spouting aphorisms which, though they don’t always make […]
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Western legislators stake out nuclear positions
President-elect Barack Obama says he favors nuclear energy, and yesterday his Energy secretary nominee Steven Chu said he intends to fast-track the construction of new domestic nuclear plants. At the same time, Obama is against the proposed high-level nuclear storage facility at Nevada’s Yucca Mountain. With just days remaining before Obama takes office, Western politicians […]
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A pack of problems for wolves
This past year, the West’s wolves have had an even rougher time of it than usual. In the Northern Rockies, they’ve been bounced on and off the endangered species list, and in Yellowstone, more than usual have died. In the Southwest, it’s back to the drawing board after reintroduction plans failed miserably. After the Fish […]
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Renewable energy v. renewable energy
Setbacks are an ongoing theme for NGOs and renewable energy companies that are promoting the use of sustainable resources. Now wind farms are hearing about another setback – a physical one, that is, and for justifiable reasons. The funny thing is, they’re hearing it from other renewable energy advocates. The Santa Fe New Mexican reports […]
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Unnatural selection indeed
Twenty years ago, I remember my grandpa complaining that the white-tail bucks he shot each fall were smaller than the monster deer he’d taken as a young man. The trophy heads in the basement of his South Dakota farmhouse all looked about the same to me, and I chalked up his grousing to nostalgia and […]
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Shell game
Shell Oil has filed a claim on about an eighth of the spring flow in Colorado’s Yampa River. The company hopes to divert the water to an as-yet-nonexistent reservoir near the town of Maybell in the northwest corner of the state. From the 45,000-acre foot lake, the water would flow to oil shale operations and be […]
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Understanding agriculture…and farmers too!
If you know farmers, you know that most of them can be relied upon to provide gloomy reports looking backward and gloomier forecasts going forward. If most of the farmers I know have a good year, they will not talk about it but instead will tell you about all the bad things that are about […]
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Water activists want paradigm shift from Obama
Over 100 U.S. water activists put their heads together in Fall 2008 and published a hefty, ambitious report called “A Blueprint for Clean Water.” The Waterkeeper Alliance report is directed at the incoming Obama administration, and proposes a whopping 58 reforms ranging from desalination to global warming. Curling up with a cup of coffee and […]
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The Big Melt continues
We know coal and other dirty fuels help heat up the planet, but it looks like they’re also messing with Western water supplies. Scientists at the DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (press release here) have found that when soot from power plants and diesel engines settles on mountain snow, the darker snow absorbs more heat […]