Ray Ring’s article “Is Obama’s goal of diversity trumping other goals?” suggests that the administration’s decision to hire minorities for key governmental positions compromises environmental goals in favor of ethnic diversity (HCN, 8/17/09). While there are undoubtedly some traditional “heavy hitter” white men who would merit these positions, merit in this context should be understood […]
Departments
Posted inOctober 12, 2009: Silenced Springs?
Welcome, new HCN employees
In August, Mike Maxwell became our new Web and IT manager. Mike maintains the HCN Web site, analyzes web traffic data, and advises the managers on online marketing strategy. Mike, who has a B.A. in political science from the University of Colorado at Denver, has been in Paonia for three years now with his partner, […]
Posted inOctober 12, 2009: Silenced Springs?
That shrinking feeling
As a mountaineering instructor for the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), I have spent a significant amount of time living and traveling on North Cascades glaciers over the past five years. I just returned from a 10-day mountaineering course on Mount Baker to see Ana Maria Spagna’s essay, “Living on Glacial Time,” and the article […]
Posted inOctober 12, 2009: Silenced Springs?
Crowded attic in New York too
If Andrew Sean Greer had ridden the Staten Island Ferry more often — or ever — he’d know that New York City’s sky can be as complex as any in the West (HCN, 9/14/09): limpid blue, thick with rainclouds, striped with vivid sunset cirrus … an approaching squall to starboard, shafts of sunlight jeweling the […]
Posted inOctober 12, 2009: Silenced Springs?
Empty nest
Making a case for the California condor’s return to the Northwest
Posted inOctober 12, 2009: Silenced Springs?
Biotech beet-down
Judge orders a new, hard look at Monsanto’s sugar beets
Posted inOctober 26, 2009: The newest Westerners
The good seats don’t come cheap
More proof that if you’ve got power, you probably have money that helped you get it. Sixteen Westerners are among the 50 richest Congressfolk, according to Roll Call’s annual ranking. The math, however, amounts to lowball estimates: On financial disclosure forms, lawmakers report in ranges ($1 million to $5 million, for example), so the totals […]
Posted inOctober 12, 2009: Silenced Springs?
Suck this, Vegas!
It’s time to change the way we think about water in the West
Posted inOctober 12, 2009: Silenced Springs?
Vegas forges ahead on pipeline plan
Great Basin pumping project is closer to reality
Posted inOctober 12, 2009: Silenced Springs?
Silenced Springs?
Great Basin waters face threats big and small.
Posted inSeptember 14, 2009: Home
When reverence isn’t enough
A visit with philosopher and writer Kathleen Dean Moore
Posted inSeptember 14, 2009: Home
Fall break
We publish 22 issues a year, and our next publishing break is in mid-September. Look for the next installment of HCN around Oct. 12. ROMPIN’ READER POTLUCK… in Paonia. We’re bringing back an old favorite: the High Country News community potluck at Paonia Town Park! This year, our fall board meeting takes place in HCN‘s […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
UnBEARable
An adventurous bear in Snowmass, Colo., didn’t need surgery, just a ladder. Apparently hoping to do some rad riding, he dropped into the town skate park’s bowl. Unable to skate vert, he was then busted down there, with no way out. One can imagine young onlookers confusing him with some shaggy old-school skater, before realizing […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
Serpentine Siamese Split
The cow that belonged to the aforementioned tongue didn’t fare very well except, perhaps, as carne asada. But a rather unusual pair of rattlesnakes is doing just fine after a 45-minute surgery at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum outside of Tucson. The two snakes were found as one – conjoined just below the head – […]
Posted inSeptember 14, 2009: Home
Bicycles, books and beer
How a man with no plan built a community around literature and social activism
Posted inHeard Around the West
Animal Farm Gone Crazy
At first glance, it seemed like just another mundane story about horse massacres and the role they will play in starting the next American Revolution. Then we dug deeper and learned the details about the ex-CIA agent and his hog-tied co-worker, not to mention the duck-killing dog. Ultimately, we confronted the dark truth of the […]
Posted inSeptember 14, 2009: Home
The sky is a crowded attic
An interview with novelist Andrew Sean Greer
Posted inSeptember 14, 2009: Home
Peril in the parks
Early August: A woman and her young son are stranded for five days in a remote corner of Death Valley National Park in 117 degree-average heat; the boy doesn’t survive. Late August: Two climbers fall in Grand Teton; one is airlifted from a ledge by helicopter. The National Park Service is involved in thousands of […]
Posted inSeptember 14, 2009: Home
Our best idea
Dayton Duncan was an impressionable 9-year-old when he made his first journey into the West’s national parks. He had the kind of life-changing experience that many people have enjoyed in the parks. Beginning Sept. 27, it will pay off in 12 hours of evocative public television, exploring how land conservation is often inspired by personal […]
Posted inSeptember 14, 2009: Home
Parks Climate Challenge: North Cascades 2009
High school students learn about climate change