In the article on the efforts of the Fort Sill Apache Tribe to build a casino in southwestern New Mexico, Jeff Haozous is quoted as saying that there were no remnant populations of Chiricahua or Warm Springs Apaches left in southwestern New Mexico after Geronimo’s surrender in 1886 (“Whose Apache Homelands?” HCN, 10/14/13). This statement […]
Departments
Posted inDecember 23, 2013: Beauty or Beast
A native butterfly finds merit in a nonnative tree
Every fall, starting around October, tens of thousands of monarch butterflies from across the West make their way to eucalyptus groves along the California coast. There, in a quasi-torpid state, they clump together in clusters, dangling from high branches like living chandeliers. Early in the new year, they once again take wing, sailing inland to […]
Posted inDecember 9, 2013: The Tree Coroners
In defense of bibliopedestrianism
A writer’s love of reading while walking in Nevada’s Great Basin desert.
Posted inDecember 9, 2013: The Tree Coroners
Inside the BLM’s abrupt decision not to ban shooting in an Arizona national monument
Why guns, politics and saguaros don’t mix.
Posted inDecember 9, 2013: The Tree Coroners
The Tree Coroners
To save the West’s forests, scientists must first learn how trees die.
Posted inJanuary 11, 1980: New kind of 'public interest' group pushes growth
Farmers to try do-it-yourself sediment clean-up
In Idaho, the Environmental Protection Agency is giving farmers a shot at regulating themselves and voluntarily applying techniques to manage soil erosion. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/12.1/download-entire-issue
Posted inApril 4, 1980: Debate roils over Utah's troubled waters
Fish hawks herald man’s fate
Good news about the osprey — which was almost wiped out as a species in some parts of the U.S. before the pesticide DDT was banned in 1972 — is good news about man and the environment. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/12.7/download-entire-issue
Posted inDecember 9, 2013: The Tree Coroners
Alaska’s unexpected catch in catch-share
Fishing reform drives inequality in coastal communities.
Posted inDecember 9, 2013: The Tree Coroners
Public land, locked up
In the Rocky Mountain West, more than 4 million acres of federal public land are rendered off-limits because there’s no way for the public to access them.
Posted inNovember 25, 2013: Ecosystems 101
KDNK Radio speaks with Allen Best
Last year, when Amendment 64 legalized recreational marijuana in Colorado, it also legalized hemp. And since then, for the first time in decades, farmers around the state are considering growing the industrial fiber. On this episode of Sounds of the High Country, KDNK Radio’s collaboration with High Country News, Eric Skalac talks to reporter Allen […]
Posted inDecember 9, 2013: The Tree Coroners
Exploring the intersection of animal and human
Survival SkillsJean Ryan197 pages, paperback: $15.95.Ashland Creek, 2013. Early in Jean Ryan’s debut collection of stories, a woman in a wetsuit strokes an octopus’ head while it caresses her face with the tip of one arm. The scene illustrates one of the author’s favorite themes: We’re at our best, we humans, when we allow ourselves […]
Posted inDecember 9, 2013: The Tree Coroners
Wild ideas, reconsidered
Wild Ones: A Sometimes Dismaying, Weirdly Reassuring Story About Looking at People Looking at Animals in AmericaJon Mooallem328 pages, hardcover; $27.95.Penguin Press, 2013. San Francisco-based author Jon Mooallem asks some hard questions in Wild Ones: A Sometimes Dismaying, Weirdly Reassuring Story About Looking at People Looking at Animals in America. Perhaps the hardest one, for […]
Posted inDecember 9, 2013: The Tree Coroners
The Latest: Interior approves a 990-mile-long transmission line
BackstoryThe proposed Gateway West transmission line through southern Wyoming and Idaho could deliver up to 3,000 megawatts of power, including wind. But such projects require complex permitting and lengthy review processes, even as upgrading the grid becomes increasingly urgent. In 2011, the Obama administration created a “rapid response team” to help expedite clean-energy infrastructure, including […]
Posted inDecember 9, 2013: The Tree Coroners
The Latest: Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site looks more distant than ever
BackstoryAfter decades of indecision about where to store nuclear waste, in 2002 President George W. Bush approved building a permanent repository at Nevada’s Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. In 2009, under political pressure, President Obama halted construction plans. Still, the U.S. Department of Energy continued collecting fees from nuclear power plants for […]
Posted inDecember 9, 2013: The Tree Coroners
For the love of trees
Last summer, after 15 years in western Colorado, my family moved back to the Pacific Northwest. The move was a shock in many ways, taking us from dry to wet, rural to town, red politics to blue. The topography here is different, the wildlife is different, and the trees are very, very different. But our […]
Posted inDecember 9, 2013: The Tree Coroners
A broader view on secession
As a Vermonter who lived out West for 10 years in my 20s, I have been a loyal High Country News subscriber since 1992, and was pleased to read Krista Langlois’ fine article about secession (“Breaking up is hard to do,” HCN, 11/11/13). I would like to offer a few additional observations. 1. Secession is […]
Posted inDecember 9, 2013: The Tree Coroners
A tiny town gets a new name and a coyote joins a 5K race
THE WESTAs writer Jeremy Engdahl-Johnson puts it, “There were lots of ways to lose money during the government shutdown that choked off Grand Canyon river trips for 11 days in early October.” There were also unusual trickle-down effects, so to speak. A Flagstaff-based company called River Cans Clean disposes of most of the human waste […]
Posted inDecember 9, 2013: The Tree Coroners
It’s time to get all the lead out
Kudos to the California Legislature for doing the obvious, and banning lead bullets for hunting (“The Latest: Lead bullets,” HCN, 11/11/13). Here’s hoping other states will soon follow suit, NRA paranoia notwithstanding. It’s worth noting that only one Republican legislator voted for the bill on either the Senate or Assembly floor. Shouldn’t environmental protection be […]
Posted inDecember 9, 2013: The Tree Coroners
Unmechanized wilderness
In his essay about racing his BMW on the track in eastern Colorado, Daniel Brigham reinforces the old myth that the wilderness is only for men, only for those with “a certain amount of grit,” and, worst, only for those with access to an expensive, powerful machine (“Mechanized wilderness,” HCN, 11/11/13). The sensations he describes […]