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 […]
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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
The Latest: Teton pronghorn migration helped by overpasses
BackstoryFor roughly 6,000 years, Wyoming pronghorn have migrated seasonally between the mountains of Grand Teton National Park and the warmer plains of the Upper Green River Basin. The roughly 100-mile journey is among the longest land migrations of North American mammals. But biologists worry that roadways and new energy and housing development threaten to fragment […]
Posted inNovember 11, 2013: Cosmic Prospecting
A group of paddlers works to make kayaking legal on Yellowstone’s rivers
Should all national park waters be opened to boaters?
Posted inSeptember 4, 1981: Super-trains breed super-terminals
The strategic minerals debate
Two writers debate whether the U.S. should become more self-sufficient in its extraction of minerals critical to industry. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/13.17/download-entire-issue
Posted inNovember 11, 2013: Cosmic Prospecting
Cosmic Prospecting in Lead, South Dakota
What happens when an old mining town recruits a physics lab and pursues Big Science?
Posted inNovember 11, 2013: Cosmic Prospecting
KDNK Radio speaks with Marshall Swearingen
On this episode of Sounds of the High Country, KDNK Radio’s collaboration with High Country News, KDNK’s Nelson Harvey talks to reporter Marshall Swearingen. Swearingen wrote the feature story, “Cosmic Prospecting: What happens when an old mining town recruits Big Science,” in a recent issue of High Country News. Past editions of Sounds of the […]
Posted inNovember 11, 2013: Cosmic Prospecting
Wilderness found in a BMW
I never feel more Western than when I slide through turns at High Plains Raceway.
Posted inNovember 11, 2013: Cosmic Prospecting
Can rocks and paintballs help humans and mountain goats coexist?
An alternative approach to wildlife management in the Olympic National Forest.
Posted inNovember 11, 2013: Cosmic Prospecting
A historic climb revisited
The Seventymile Kid: The Lost Legacy of Harry Karstens and the First Ascent of Mount McKinleyTom Walker304 pages, softcover: $19.95Mountaineers Books, 2013. Many readers know that, 100 years ago, the Hudson Stuck expedition successfully summited Mount McKinley, North America’s highest peak. But fewer are aware of the integral role played by the expedition’s most experienced […]
Posted inNovember 11, 2013: Cosmic Prospecting
A review of Our Beautiful, Fragile World: The Nature and Environmental Photographs of Peter Essick
Our Beautiful, Fragile World: The Nature and Environmental Photographs of Peter Essick Foreword by Jean-Michel Cousteau, 122 pages, $34.95. Rocky Nook, 2013. “I know that when people see and feel the beauty of the natural world, they understand in a profound way the need to take care of our water planet,” writes Jean-Michel Cousteau, son […]
Posted inNovember 11, 2013: Cosmic Prospecting
An unfair portrait of decline
I was shocked to see a photo of an old motel here in Deming that has been closed for quite some time in a recent issue. It gave the impression that we are approaching ghost town status. We are 17 miles west of Akela Flats, the proposed site of the Apache Homelands Casino, the subject […]
Posted inNovember 11, 2013: Cosmic Prospecting
A survivor, searching for soul
The Old Man’s Love StoryRudolfo Anaya176 pages, hardcover: $19.95.University of Oklahoma Press, 2013. “Letting go of one’s soul mate is not easy.” So writes award-winning author and retired University of New Mexico professor Rudolfo Anaya in his latest novel, The Old Man’s Love Story. Inspired by the death of his beloved wife, Patricia, in 2010, […]
Posted inNovember 11, 2013: Cosmic Prospecting
Political theater – with consequences
Suspending regulations? A review of irrational red tape? Boards of experts being replaced by political appointees (“A groundwater legacy on the rocks,” HCN, 10/14/13)? The Republican governor of Indiana used the exact same rhetoric as New Mexico’s governor, and called for the review of environmental regulations by folks with little expertise. These sorts of moves […]
Posted inNovember 11, 2013: Cosmic Prospecting
Regret and hope
Thanks very much for M. John Fayhee’s story, “Whose Apache Homelands?” (HCN, 10/14/13). What a sad history – doubly so because it’s forgotten and unknown by so many of us, just like nearly all Native American history in the United States. It’s good to know that there are possibilities for moving forward, that some still […]
Posted inNovember 11, 2013: Cosmic Prospecting
Failed secession movements litter the West
Will they ever succeed?
Posted inNovember 11, 2013: Cosmic Prospecting
The tyranny of technology
The following comment was posted in response to Katie Mast’s Oct. 28 blog, “New satellite technology to detect wildfires an acre in size,” covering advances in remote sensing that could help managers plan and execute firefighting efforts. This sounds great until you consider that advances in technology have helped create the huge wildfires we’re now […]
Posted inNovember 11, 2013: Cosmic Prospecting
A timeline of our fascination with outer space
The Southwest has long been a locus for space-related activities – and cosmic secrets. Its clear, dark skies are ideal for stargazing, while its isolated deserts are perfect for cutting-edge scientific research and for conspiracy and extraterrestrial enthusiasts. From meteorites colliding with Earth millennia ago to the dream of reaching space ourselves, we have an […]
Posted inNovember 11, 2013: Cosmic Prospecting
The Latest: California is first state to ban lead ammunition to protect condors
BackstoryCalifornia condors were nearly extinct by the 1980s. Thanks to habitat loss, wanton shooting, egg collecting, and the scavenger’s propensity for eating animal carcasses tainted by lead bullet fragments, fewer than 30 remained. After decades of captive breeding, about 200 condors now fly free in central California, Utah, Arizona and Mexico. But death by lead […]