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 […]
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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 […]
Posted inDecember 9, 2013: The Tree Coroners
Ed Quillen anthology available now
Last June, regular High Country News contributor, Denver Post columnist and dear friend Ed Quillen died suddenly. Now, his daughter, Abby Quillen, has compiled an eBook anthology, Dispatches from the High Country: Essays on the West from High Country News, available on Amazon Kindle and through Smashwords. She’s also gathered his best Denver Post columns […]
Posted inDecember 9, 2013: The Tree Coroners
Snapshots of a forest two years after a megafire
Southwestern forests have become burdened by wildfires that burn much hotter than those that preceded nearly a century of fire suppression. These so-called “high-severity” fires have been stoked not only by plentiful fuels, but by dried-out vegetation and hot, dry weather. The 2011 Las Conchas Fire, which burned through 156,000 acres in New Mexico’s Jemez […]
Posted inNovember 25, 2013: Ecosystems 101
On (not) being Jane Goodall
A writer wonders what it would be like to study the coati, a Southwestern cousin of the raccoon.
Posted inNovember 25, 2013: Ecosystems 101
A Colorado carpenter takes a chance on hemp
Can an agrarian insurrection revitalize this High Plains town?
Posted inNovember 25, 2013: Ecosystems 101
Hard lessons from the mighty salmon runs of Bristol Bay
The world’s longest ongoing salmon research reveals the astounding complexity of wild ecosystems.
Posted inNovember 25, 2013: Ecosystems 101
A demographer predicts big changes for the West’s housing landscape
Are we all headed to “megapolitan” areas like the Wasatch Front and Sun Corridor?
Posted inNovember 25, 2013: Ecosystems 101
The national park popularity contest
An Oklahoma senator’s financial fix for our national treasures.
Posted inNovember 25, 2013: Ecosystems 101
Redrock storyscapes
Escalante. Monticello. Manti-La Sal. Sheiks Flat. Kigalia. Tavaputs. Moroni Slopes. Spoken like mantras, these place names conjure the Utah canyon country’s bastard heritage – Spanish, Navajo, Ute, Anglo and Mormon. Today, they entice dreamers with their visionary topographies. But in earlier days it was the absence of names that drew people eager to fill in […]
Posted inNovember 25, 2013: Ecosystems 101
A redneck hippie in search of common ground
Being a self-proclaimed “redneck hippie” and/or “gun-toting liberal,” I really appreciated Brendan Buzzard’s essay (“The lines that bind us,” HCN, 10/14/13). As Buzzard argues, we do need to remember to be human first and treat each other with the respect that all humans deserve. The judgments that are made based on the vehicle a person […]
Posted inNovember 25, 2013: Ecosystems 101
Restoring the red pulse
I recently sat at a table at the Power House, the coolest brew and bike shop in Hailey, Idaho, talking with three ambitious conservationists. Over dark stouts and savory burgers and fries, Merrill Beyeler, who runs a family ranch in Leadore, Tom Page, who ranches with his brother in the Pahsimeroi Valley, and Mark Davidson […]
Posted inNovember 25, 2013: Ecosystems 101
Beyond the bright lights
It’s hard to believe but, somehow, whenever I read about Native Americans and casinos in High Country News, I always hear only about the statistics citing the amazing financial boon created by these tributes to modern-day Babylon (“Whose Apache Homelands?” HCN, 10/14/13). Never do I hear but a passing reference to the damage inflicted on individual […]
Posted inNovember 25, 2013: Ecosystems 101
The tyranny of standardized tests
My wife and I taught school on the Venetie Indian Reservation in Alaska for eight years (“Cutting Class,” HCN, 10/28/13). Arctic Village and Venetie are several hundred miles from the nearest road above the Arctic Circle. Our Athabaskan students were enthusiastic learners. The school provided a place to learn all the typical school subjects like […]
Posted inNovember 25, 2013: Ecosystems 101
“Bear with me,” he said, and meant it
THE NATIONWhat combines the scents of musky dirt, grain and old-fashioned hay barn in a way that appeals to the discerning cow as well as to your typical wannabe cowboy, who imagines himself “with the sun and dust clouds casting a warm light across his weathered skin?” The answer is Farmer’s Cologne, reports Modern Farmer […]
Posted inNovember 25, 2013: Ecosystems 101
Witness to the floods
As a working geologist, I am used to assessing the land, considering the flow of fluid and mass. However, it is one thing to see it after the fact in a rocky outcrop or rolling topography, and quite another to experience it firsthand (“The flood-prone Front Range,” HCN, 10/14/13). I was camping that fateful […]
Posted inNovember 25, 2013: Ecosystems 101
California Boomin’
Longtime contributor and former HCN editor Jon Christensen is shaking up the academic world with the latest edition of Boom: A Journal of California. A native Californian and adjunct professor at UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, Jon now edits the quarterly that, he says, “strives to bottle that lively mixture of what makes […]
Posted inNovember 25, 2013: Ecosystems 101
Montana tribes will be the first to own a hydroelectric dam
The three tribes of the Flathead Reservation may see significant economic and cultural benefits.