WYOMING When the city council of Cody, Wyo., met recently to update policies for the town’s recreation center, it did more than overhaul some rules for playing games. In response to a gun owner’s complaint, the council also voted unanimously to permit all firearms carried legally — whether concealed or carried openly on someone’s person, […]
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Posted inJanuary 24, 2011: Serendipity in the Desert
California’s Hupa tribe wars over fish
On a mid-October afternoon at the bottom of a sheer canyon on Northern California’s Trinity River, a Hupa Indian named Amos Pole babies a jet boat against the rushing current. For the Hupas, this craggy chasm is a sort of psychic power spot. Dense stands of fir crowd down to the edge of the river, […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 2011: Obama and the West
Nice work, but …
Matt Jenkins did a great job describing the intricacies of the California water wars in the Delta (HCN, 12/20/10). But a few corrections: Jenkins said that two-thirds of the water used in the state is drafted from the Delta. Actually, only about 12 percent of the water used in California is taken from the Delta. […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 2011: Obama and the West
The world according to Disney
In recent reporting about the 2010 census, the government and media deliberately deceived the public about the U.S. population explosion. Sadly, “California Dreamin’ ” studiously ignored the same population elephant in the room (HCN, 12/20/10). Growth in the U.S. is at its slowest in decades, the government asserted with a straight face. While the nation’s […]
Posted inJanuary 24, 2011: Serendipity in the Desert
Challenges pile up for avalanche mitigation on mountain highways
Backcountry skiers complicate slide control
Posted inJanuary 24, 2011: Serendipity in the Desert
Depth afield
Why is the Western image so appealing?
Posted inHeard Around the West
Llamas and coyotes and bears, oh my
THE WEST We’ve always relished the anecdote about the brand-new Wyoming congressman who made the mistake of bringing his border collie to Washington, D.C. Border collies originally hail from the English-Scottish borderlands, and they are super-smart and quintessentially alert: They live to round up animals, including ducks and people — virtually anything that moves if […]
Posted inJanuary 24, 2011: Serendipity in the Desert
Small poultry farmers grapple with lack of slaughterhouses
Producers in Oregon and beyond can’t find places to butcher chickens
Posted inJanuary 24, 2011: Serendipity in the Desert
Ronald Reagan: The accidental environmentalist
Expect to be hearing plenty about Ronald Reagan: The centennial of his birth is coming up soon. Our 40th president was born on Feb. 6, 1911, in Tampico, Ill. A commemorative postage stamp is in the works, along with traveling exhibits, academic symposiums and sculpture unveilings. Few Western environmentalists will be celebrating — but maybe […]
Posted inJanuary 24, 2011: Serendipity in the Desert
Decades of drilling
Western states’ energy extraction compared to others
Posted inJanuary 24, 2011: Serendipity in the Desert
The latest: Northern spotted owl
Update on HCN’s coverage of owl management in the Northwest
Posted inJanuary 24, 2011: Serendipity in the Desert
The latest: Wyoming Range
Update on HCN’s coverage of natural gas development
Posted inJanuary 24, 2011: Serendipity in the Desert
A dark moment, a glimmer of light
The connection might seem tenuous, but I think that the West’s most shocking recent event — the Jan. 8 bloodbath in Tucson, Ariz. — has a correlation with our Utah cover story. The “Tucson massacre,” as it’s being called — in which an apparently mentally ill young man shot Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 18 […]
Posted inJanuary 24, 2011: Serendipity in the Desert
Rethinking national parks and wilderness
Review of Uncertain Path: A Search for the Future of National Parks
Posted inJanuary 24, 2011: Serendipity in the Desert
Utah’s Sagebrush Rebellion capital mellows as animal-lovers and enviros move in
Kanab, UtahOn a crisp June morning in the heart of Sagebrush Rebel country, a steady stream of rental cars, minivans and SUVs flows north from Kanab on Highway 89, heading toward the serene, red-rock walls of Angel Canyon. As the highway curves, the landscape flickers through sun and shadows, the sandstone glowing like embers in […]
Posted inJanuary 24, 2011: Serendipity in the Desert
Monument, schmonument
It’s refreshing to see the Obama administration take some protective steps on the National Landscape Conservation System lands (HCN, 12/20/10). Unfortunately, telling an agency with a tradition of neglect and exploitation to focus on conservation may be optimistic, especially when federal lands will face hostility and budget cuts from conservatives in the new Congress. President […]
Posted inJanuary 24, 2011: Serendipity in the Desert
Time to face the music
With regard to the impossibly complex topic of water availability in the American West, and in California in particular, the only apparent “truth” is to acknowledge the obvious: that there is not enough, nor will there ever be enough water, to meet present and future demand in California (HCN, 12/20/10). That’s the hard part. The […]
Posted inJanuary 24, 2011: Serendipity in the Desert
Toxic soil, East to West
I read with interest Rebecca Clarren’s article about lead arsenate and other chemicals contaminating old orchard sites in the West (HCN, 12/6/10). Alas, as we Eastern morel foragers have discovered, one does not have to go West to encounter this problem. In a recent paper, Elinoar Shavit, a fellow member of the New York Mycological […]
Posted inJanuary 24, 2011: Serendipity in the Desert
Lessons from coyote country
After reading “Trickster moves to town,” I came to the conclusion that a lot of people who live in or near coyote country have little understanding of what it means to coexist with wild animals (HCN, 12/20/10). I lived in a subdivision southeast of Santa Fe, N.M., for more than 10 years and had numerous […]