A good hard rain in the Pacific Northwest’s urban areas can be bad news for the environment. Storm water draining off rooftops and through gutters can carry pollutants, damaging streams and wildlife habitat. Now, a group of planners may have a solution. Called low-impact development (LID), it focuses on innovative ways to manage storm water […]
Book Reviews
Posted inJanuary 21, 2002: Finding the words
Artists paint a Pacific Northwest history
A book this smart makes you wonder why the undertaking hasn’t been done before: telling the story of a region through the paintings it has inspired. No matter, because Sasquatch Books has just released The Pacific Northwest Landscape: A Painted History, an excellently assembled book edited by Northwest Bookfest founder Kitty Harmon. It presents canvases […]
Posted inJanuary 21, 2002: Finding the words
Gaining ground for the buffalo
The prophecy of the return of the American buffalo to the Great Plains has lingered like a whisper among Plains tribes since the emergence of the Ghost Dance in 1880. In the past few years, the Great Plains Restoration Council, a group whose aim is to repair vast tracts of prairie ecosystems for free-ranging buffalo, […]
Posted inDecember 17, 2001: Bad moon rising
Tribe’s pines fetch clean air credits
Last spring, Montana’s Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes were happy to improve wildlife habitat and water quality on their Flathead Indian Reservation by replanting 250 acres of burned land with ponderosa pines. But for the London-based company that is funding the restoration, satisfaction comes from how much carbon dioxide the growing trees will suck out […]
Posted inDecember 17, 2001: Bad moon rising
National grasslands up for review
The grasslands of the Northern Plains – primarily under U.S. Forest Service jurisdiction – are home to abundant wildlife, from deer and elk to endangered swift foxes, mountain plovers and ferruginous hawks. But they are also the site of promising oil and gas deposits. With the release of the final environmental impact statement for the […]
Posted inDecember 17, 2001: Bad moon rising
Audible biodiversity
The first few tracks of The Diversity of Animal Sounds take me from the enthusiastic song of a male satin bowerbird in Australia to the deep-toned, primordial growls of the American alligator to the unabashed mating grunts of a jaguar. I am amused, and then deliciously frightened, and finally, slightly embarrassed – I keep the […]
Posted inDecember 17, 2001: Bad moon rising
The Buffalo War: a maelstrom of Western issues
If there were one emblem of Western history, it might be the American buffalo. In Matthew Testa’s new documentary, The Buffalo War, that emblem becomes the focal point for an impassioned controversy. “The buffalo provide a mirror,” says Testa. “They reflect how we see ourselves and our place in wilderness. And that reflection is incredibly […]
Posted inDecember 17, 2001: Bad moon rising
Economics with a heart, but no soul
In 1996, Thomas Michael Power wrote Lost Landscapes and Failed Economies, an economic study of the Interior West, in which everything that happened was for the good. If the West were not the best of all worlds, it was as good as life would get on the coasts. We had half the money, but twice […]
Posted inDecember 3, 2001: Closing the wounds
Critical mass
Radiation workers in Ottawa, Ill., “downwinders” in Utah, unsuspecting veterans of the Gulf War – these are among the populations profiled in Learning to Glow: A Nuclear Reader. In the words of editor John Bradley, the anthology offers a glimpse into stories that “have been largely ignored, dismissed or suppressed.” Certain sections will be familiar […]
Posted inDecember 3, 2001: Closing the wounds
A water tale to set you on fire
Documentary filmmaker Drury Gunn Carr doesn’t seem to mind a little violence. Past projects with fellow producer Doug Hawes-Davis record coyote extermination (HCN, 7/31/00: Killing Coyote), wild horse harassment (HCN, 8/13/01: On the trail of an “exotic” native) and prairie dog shooting (HCN, 1/18/99: Another dog done gone) with a grim, unflinching eye. Thankfully, Gunn […]
Posted inDecember 3, 2001: Closing the wounds
Friendship in the Sagebrush West
When I think “anthology,” I usually think boring compilation or shallow “Best of” CD. But this year, three Western women have pulled together an anthology of writing that reminds me more of my favorite mix tape. In Woven on the Wind, editors Gaydell Collier, Linda Hasselstrom and Nancy Curtis unleash an outpouring of new writing […]
Posted inDecember 3, 2001: Closing the wounds
Trash talk
It would be a blessing if it were possible to study garbage in the abstract, to study garbage without having to handle it physically. But that is not possible. Garbage is not mathematics. To understand garbage you have to touch it, to feel it , to sort it, to smell it. You have to pick […]
Posted inDecember 3, 2001: Closing the wounds
A refreshing view
If there’s anything everyone can agree on about grazing in the West, it’s that livestock’s influence on the land has been ubiquitous. Biologists Carl and Jane Bock have spent much of their lives studying the ecology of one of the few exceptions, an 8,000-acre short-grass prairie in southern Arizona. In their thoughtful new book, The […]
Posted inDecember 3, 2001: Closing the wounds
Powell’s enduring teachings
What remains so astonishing about John Wesley Powell is that someone whose policy recommendations were almost totally ignored while he was alive should continue to command the attention of so many Western observers and decision makers a century after his death. Powell’s career studying the West included expeditions into the Rocky Mountains and, most notably, […]
Posted inNovember 5, 2001: Wyoming's powder keg
Buying into salmon recovery
Shopping smart just became a way to help imperiled Northwest salmon. The new Chinook Book is the region’s first salmon-friendly resource and coupon guide to restaurants, recreation, food and household products. Created by the Celilo Group, a Portland, Ore.-based environmental consulting firm, the $18 book contains $5,000 worth of coupons for products like soaker hoses, […]
Posted inNovember 5, 2001: Wyoming's powder keg
Curriculum for a desert classroom
Nearly a decade ago, Christine Beekman of the National Park Service stepped outside of the visitor center classroom and into the desert of southeast Utah, leading a boisterous third-grade class into a maze of sandstone formations. She organized a game designed to teach the students about predator-prey relations in ecosystems, dividing the kids into groups […]
Posted inNovember 5, 2001: Wyoming's powder keg
Pedal where Lewis and Clark paddled
In 1976, a time when bikes were still mostly for kids and cross-country cycling was virtually unheard of, a few friends got together to map a bicycling route across the U.S. in celebration of the nation’s bicentennial. Twenty-five years and 25,000 miles of bike trails later, the group, the Adventure Cycling Association, is attempting to […]
Posted inNovember 5, 2001: Wyoming's powder keg
All’s fair in smog and waste?
Ever wonder if being a renter increases your risk of cancer from hazardous air pollutants? Or whether your income level correlates to how far you live from a Superfund site? Now, by entering your ZIP code into a new Web site, you can get answers to questions like these, based on data collected from your […]
Posted inNovember 5, 2001: Wyoming's powder keg
Utah’s flower child
Flower aficionado Paul Ames is no pansy: Gathering wildflower seeds under a Utah sun is hot, back-breaking work. Besides, he dislikes the pansy. It and all exotic flowers, he believes, are pampered intruders that drink too much water and don’t belong in a desert state. For the past three years, Ames has been a champion […]
Posted inOctober 22, 2001: Healing the Gila
Good Neighbor Handbook
Has your once-peaceful town been overrun by trophy homes, off-leash dogs and transplanted neighbors that just don’t seem to care? In eastern Washington, the Methow Conservancy is taking steps to prevent these sorts of unintended excesses. They’ve published the Good Neighbor Handbook: A Guide for Landowners in the Methow Valley. Authored by former HCN intern […]