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Posted inJuly 25, 2011: The Global West
When the locals don’t want your coal, sell it overseas
The world’s largest surface coal mine complex is a landscape unto itself. Six 200-foot-high draglines tear open the earth and scoop the black coal into gigantic dump trucks that make school buses look like playthings. Two dozen loaded-down trains, each a mile long, slide out of the mine complex every day, headed for power plants […]
Posted inJuly 25, 2011: The Global West
The fight over a much-needed pesticide: methyl iodide
In May, on a farm outside of Sanger, Calif., a man in a white hazmat suit and a gas mask drove a hulking tractor over bare ground, injecting toxic gas 12 inches deep in the soil. Behind the machine, plastic tarps unrolled like Saran Wrap over the land to contain the chemical. In the next […]
Posted inJuly 25, 2011: The Global West
The Global West: how foreign investment fuels resource extraction in Western states
Douglas, Wyo., population 5,000 and home of the legendary jackalope, lies in an almost puritanical landscape — beautiful, yet shy about that beauty, concealing it modestly under a beige blanket of grass and shrubs. A collection of low-slung stone and brick buildings sits at the town’s center, with tree-shaded residential neighborhoods radiating out from it. […]
Posted inJuly 25, 2011: The Global West
The return of the Lords of Yesterday
A couple of decades ago, the West’s conservationists dreamed a lovely dream: The region’s traditional extractive industry base, which had taken such a huge environmental toll, would soon make way for a kinder, gentler economy based on protecting the land for recreation and tourism. And the dream seemed on the verge of coming true; during […]
Posted inJuly 25, 2011: The Global West
An L.A. story, in incidents and rhythms: A review of The Book of Want
The Book of Want: A NovelDaniel A. Olivas144 pages, softcover: $16.95.University of Arizona Press, 2011. “I want … I want everything. Everything that makes life beautiful.” So says Conchita, one of the many characters in Los Angeles writer Daniel Olivas’ The Book of Want. That Conchita is a voluptuous, amorous, unmarried 62-year-old with a penchant […]
Posted inJuly 25, 2011: The Global West
HCN enters the digital world
On a beautiful blue-skied June weekend, the High Country News Board of Directors gathered at our headquarters in Paonia, Colo., to discuss everything from how the editorial staff develops story ideas to the ongoing evolution of digital technology. A presentation by staff on plans to roll out HCN content for mobile phones, tablet computers and […]
Posted inJuly 25, 2011: The Global West
Building a bridge to love: A review of Randy Lopez Goes Home
Randy Lopez Goes Home: A NovelRudolfo Anaya168 pages, hardcover: $19.95.University of Oklahoma Press, 2011. No one in the village of Agua Bendita, N.M., remembers Randy Lopez when he returns — not even his own godparents. Did he stay away too long, seeking wisdom among the gringos? Has he lost his identity? Is Sofia, his true […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
The criminals who built the West
IDAHO Jeffrey John Shaw was not what you’d call a “natural” rancher when he moved to Marsing, Idaho, population 890, in the mid-1990s. He had a thick Boston accent, knew beans about cattle, and wore bib overalls and straw hats that were a little over-the-top country, says a neighbor. But he gained the trust of […]
Posted inJuly 25, 2011: The Global West
Where’s the science?
High Country News has a well-deserved reputation for reporting that explores the complexities and subtleties of environmental issues. “Wolf whiplash” was a jarring contrast that blamed repeated legal action by environmental groups for recent legislation that removed wolves in five states from the endangered species list (HCN, 5/30/11). As the story suggests, this legislation opens […]
Posted inJuly 25, 2011: The Global West
Fancy a drink?
Thank you for publishing Abrahm Lustgarten’s important article about Louis Meeks and his damaged water well (HCN, 6/27/11). Mr. Meeks is clearly a hero in the 21st century American West. EnCana Corporation once prided itself on utilizing “best practices” in the production of gas wells. So I was encouraged when EnCana spokesman Randy Teeuwen spoke […]
Posted inJuly 25, 2011: The Global West
Living in a world of hurt
I’ve been aware of fracking for many years (HCN, 6/27/11). But until the relatively recent controversy over its effect on well water in Pavillion, Wyo., I was less informed than I should have been. Development of any energy source has consequences. Rampant development of fossil fuels puts regulators way behind in preventing environmental catastrophes, and […]
Posted inJuly 25, 2011: The Global West
Prove it already
The EPA cannot prove communication between oil and gas wells and potable water sources (HCN, 6/27/11). I discussed your fracking story with a friend who is a petroleum chemical engineer, and he believes only one well in a thousand may have communication. He believes poor cement jobs on the casing are more the culprit than […]
Posted inJuly 25, 2011: The Global West
Speaking truth to the Forest Service
Thanks for reporting on Jim Smith, who courageously pursued and won his 2010 court case against the Coconino National Forest for “parking and hiking” without paying fees (HCN, 6/27/11). I respectfully disagree with labeling him a “fee-dodger,” though, as the online version of your story did. Jim is a fee truth-teller! The Federal Lands Recreation […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
Tourist trouble
THE WEST A tourist from North Carolina received a chastening lesson during a guided fishing trip on the Colorado River. Trenton Austin Ganey’s group had stopped at a beach below Glen Canyon dam, leaving Ganey, 29, free to hike up to a petroglyph known as the “Descending Sheep Panel.” Alone there, Ganey scratched “TRENT” in […]
Posted inJune 27, 2011: Hydrofracked?
For steelhead, dirty water might be better than clean
The West Fork Little Bear Creek in northern Idaho winds through sloping hills and Palouse Prairie farmland on its way to the Potlatch River. The cool, shaded stream seems like typical steelhead habitat. But just above a narrow basalt canyon sits a wastewater treatment plant, which handles 110,000 gallons of sewage and other municipal waste […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
For the love of a job
WYOMING At 23, Kathleen Vernon is definitely young for her job as Albany County coroner in southeastern Wyoming, but she seems born to do the work. Her mother was a homicide detective in California, her father was a special agent for the BLM, and “the walls of her childhood home were decorated with framed pictures […]
Posted inJune 27, 2011: Hydrofracked?
A fee-dodging retiree forces a national forest to rethink access charges
Soft-spoken, bespectacled Jim Smith makes an unlikely activist. The former Mobil Oil geophysicist retired to Sedona, Ariz., about 10 years ago, drawn by the spectacular red-rock scenery. In November 2009, Smith drove five miles of rough road to the Vultee Arch trailhead and backpacked in for a night. When he returned, he found the Forest […]