IDAHO When the real estate market went bananas in the middle of the last decade, Teton County, Idaho, couldn’t approve new subdivisions fast enough. In fact, the Idaho valley, which is located just over the pass from pricey Jackson, Wyo., was named one of the fastest-growing counties in the United States. But when the housing […]
Departments
Posted inApril 18, 2011: Muddy Waters
Today’s garden plants can be tomorrow’s invasives
On a misty summer morning, ecologist Christy Brigham sinks down to the sand at Point Mugu State Park, part of the patchwork of federal, state and private lands in Los Angeles County’s Santa Monica Mountains. She watches a darkling beetle forage among rare dune plants — lacy, lavender sand verbenas and beach primroses, which resemble […]
Posted inMay 2, 2011: The Westerner in D.C
A textbook recovery
This letter is in response to an online-only piece from our community blog, the Range, entitled: Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf? You’d be hard-pressed to find a biologist who would characterize the Northern Rockies wolf population as anything other than recovered. This is a textbook case of how recovery is supposed to work. […]
Posted inMay 2, 2011: The Westerner in D.C
Gone wolf-crazy
This letter is in response to an online-only piece from our community blog, the Range, entitled: Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf? As an ecologist, it’s frustrating to see so many folks so wolf-crazy. Don’t get me wrong: I like wolves. I remember all the times I’ve seen wolves fondly. But, as Smith says, […]
Posted inMay 2, 2011: The Westerner in D.C
Quit yer whinin’
This letter is in response to an online-only piece from our community blog, the Range, entitled: Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf? In all the years that this hysteria against wolves has gone on and escalated, it’s impossible not to conclude that it comes from some really scary (and scared) pathology, an atavistic enmity […]
Posted inMay 2, 2011: The Westerner in D.C
The “ribbit” heard ’round the world
Your piece on the Pacific chorus frog was a nice tribute to this amphibian survivor and its champions (HCN, 3/21/2011). Mention of its “ribbits” — only males call — deserves amplification. In 1951, Stanford University professor George Myers published an article in which he noted how the movie industry had spread the call of this […]
Posted inMay 2, 2011: The Westerner in D.C
Profile: Bethany Cotton, Center for Biological Diversity
A crowd of several dozen lawyers met in a recent D.C. federal court hearing to consider the question: Should the government limit carbon emissions to slow climate change and save sea-ice habitat for polar bears? Some represented the Obama administration, while others were there on behalf of Alaska’s government, the oil industry or environmental groups. […]
Posted inApril 18, 2011: Muddy Waters
Rare-earth reality check
Not far from Devils Tower in the Black Hills of eastern Wyoming, work crews are preparing to drill dozens of new holes amid ponderosa pines and rolling meadows. But they’re not looking for gold. Instead, they hope to strike neodymium, europium and other exotic-sounding rare earth metals — a group of 15 elements, plus two […]
Posted inApril 18, 2011: Muddy Waters
The sign maker
When you arrive in town, anywhere in Stehekin, his signs are the first thing you see. On slabs of wood chainsaw-ripped and elegantly routed, in rustic block print or flowing cursive, Phil’s signs are never stenciled, never sloppy. They mark the post office, the school, the bakery. They mark trailheads and trail junctions. They are, […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
“Sign up now, get free gun.”
MONTANA What’s next — offering a free derringer with every mammogram or a free Uzi with the purchase of a La-Z-Boy? You just might see it happen, because guns sell. The managers of a Radio Shack in Hamilton, Mont., found that out after they placed a giant sign above their Super Store: “Protect yourself with […]
Posted inApril 18, 2011: Muddy Waters
Sedimentation is a building problem in the West’s reservoirs
Gary Esslinger, manager of Elephant Butte Irrigation District in southern New Mexico, spends as much time moving silt as he does water. Elephant Butte Reservoir, built in 1915, is fed by the naturally muddy Rio Grande, which drains 28,000 square miles of easily eroded desert in two states. Sediment has claimed 600,000 acre-feet of its […]
Posted inFebruary 1, 2010: 'The environment ... is where we live'
The SWOP letter
Signed by 100 people of color, charging racism in the environmental movement
Posted inApril 18, 2011: Muddy Waters
A deadly fastball in Denver: A review of The Ringer
The RingerJenny Shank 304 pages, hardcover: $28.The Permanent Press, 2011. The slaying of a Mexican-American immigrant triggers parallel experiences of personal anguish, family discord and cultural dissonance, seen alternately through the eyes of the dead man’s widow and the cop who shot him. “His thoughts were a confusing jumble of elation, dread, relief and fear,” […]
Posted inApril 18, 2011: Muddy Waters
Welcome, Todd; goodbye, Ellen
HCN welcomes Todd Chamberlin, our new outreach director. Todd will be helping us increase our subscriber and donor base by organizing special fund-raising and marketing campaigns. Todd brings with him a wealth of business and marketing experience; for seven years, he was the director of eCommerce and Internet Development at National Geographic, where he developed […]
Posted inApril 18, 2011: Muddy Waters
Siltation expert: We need more dams
George Annandale has worked all over the world, studying, constructing and retrofitting dams and reservoirs to manage the sediment they accumulate. A native South African, Annandale, 59, is a water resources program leader for Golder and Associates, an international engineering and consulting firm. High Country News Executive Director Paul Larmer caught up with him in […]
Posted inApril 18, 2011: Muddy Waters
Don’t plant a pest
Some of the worst invasive ornamental plants, where they’re found in California and their ecological damage rating Giant reed, ArundoFound in: Riparian areas; central west, great valley, northwest, Sierra Nevada, southwest, Sonoran and Mojave deserts.Ecological damage rating: High Fountain grassFound in: Coastal dunes and scrub, chaparral, grasslands; central west, great valley, southwest, Mojave and Sonoran […]
Posted inApril 18, 2011: Muddy Waters
As seas rise, cities retreat
Climate change is causing seas to rise — and threatening cities along the West Coast. At the current rate of greenhouse gas emission, scientists estimate that global temperatures will increase by an average of 8 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century, melting polar ice sheets and upping sea levels by a meter. According […]
Posted inApril 18, 2011: Muddy Waters
Explorer’s notebook: Craig Childs on the Lower San Juan
Craig Childs reads from his journal and narrates his paddle down the Lower San Juan River, with photos and video he took on the trip. Additional photography courtesy of andrew davidoff, Alaskan Dude, and kla4067. Licensed under Creative Commons. Canyon treefrog recording copyright Jeff Rice and the Western Soundscape Archive.