Did a bunch of dinosaurs really hang out together 190 million years ago, leaving their many footprints behind? When a University of Utah geologist announced that a “dinosaur dance floor” had been found within what’s known as the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument in northern Arizona, it made big news. But four Western scientists — including […]
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Posted inHeard Around the West
Leave those cactus alone
“Cactus cop” Jim McGinnis, an investigator for Arizona’s Department of Agriculture, is tired of thieves ripping saguaro cacti out of the desert. “Everybody wants a saguaro in their front yard,” he complains, and unfortunately, thieves around Tucson are happy to oblige by stealing some of the magnificent plants from public lands. The pilferers target the […]
Posted inDecember 8, 2008: Out in the cold
Methow Homecoming
Whenever I have few days to spare, I like to toss a sleeping bag and a fly rod and a few books into the back seat of my car and drive east, toward the mountains. It takes some time to shake free of the gravity of Seattle’s traffic, but once the strip malls start to […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
Don’t call it journalism
The Wyoming Tribune-Eagle in Cheyenne featured the headline “Which is scarier?” on its front page a few days before the presidential election, followed by a subhead that echoed some of the nastier campaign literature making the rounds of the region: It asked readers to choose between “a black president or a bleak economy.”
Posted inDecember 8, 2008: Out in the cold
Going underground
For the past few years, it looked like the West would see a resurgence in hardrock mining, thanks in large part to China’s booming economy. In late summer, copper prices were around $4 per pound; molybdenum hovered over $30 per pound. Towns like Leadville, Colo., which was devastated when the Climax molybdenum mine shut down […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
Drink for a good cause
As Capital Press put it: “Winemaker Budge Brown is on a mission — to find a cure for breast cancer — and he’s doing it one bottle at a time.” After his wife, Arlene, died of breast cancer three years ago, Brown, who grows grapes in California’s Pope Valley, decided to buy a wine label […]
Posted inDecember 8, 2008: Out in the cold
Nonprofitable times
Conservation groups hunker down for the economic crisis.
Posted inDecember 8, 2008: Out in the cold
For the birds
Name Scott RashidAge 45Day Job Chef at Eagle Rock High School in Estes Park, Colo. Time spent doing bird stuff “How many hours are in a week?” First date with his wife Going up to Rocky Mountain National Park’s tundra to look for ptarmigans.Other hobbies Aikido ESTES PARK, COLORADO Scott Rashid stands in front of […]
Posted inDecember 8, 2008: Out in the cold
Birds of a feather
Home Ocala, Fla. (Dave); Bozeman, Mont., and Patagonia, Ariz. (Tam)Subscribers since 2002 At a remote watering hole in northeastern Montana called Harry’s Nite Club, HCN readers Dave Schweppe and Tam Scott and HCN intern Andrea Appleton crossed paths one moonlit October evening. Andrea was on assignment, and Dave and Tam were on their annual visit […]
Posted inDecember 8, 2008: Out in the cold
Congratulations, Theo
HCN‘s most famous hometown scientist, Dr. Theo Colborn, just received a prestigious international prize, the 2008 Goteborg Award for Sustainable Development. Theo is the founder and president of the Endocrine Disruption Exchange, which studies how industrial toxins affect the health of humans and the environment (www.endocrinedisruption.com). The prize, awarded by the city of Goteborg, Sweden, […]
Posted inDecember 8, 2008: Out in the cold
Fruit of the land
Just a few weeks ago, I picked the last of the tomatoes — a handful of tiny, bright-red Sweet 100s and three big, meaty heirloom Cherokee Purples. The extended harvest was made possible by a makeshift greenhouse concocted from old windows, discarded lumber, plastic and duct tape, and warmed during the 20-degree nights with a […]
Posted inDecember 8, 2008: Out in the cold
Out in the cold
Selling the family farm severs connection with place and past
Posted inDecember 8, 2008: Out in the cold
The missing puzzle piece
Bringing native perspectives into archaeology for a more complete picture of the past
Posted inDecember 8, 2008: Out in the cold
Two men, two paths
The OtherDavid Guterson256 pages, hardcover: $24.95.Random House, 2008. David Guterson’s newest novel, The Other, tells of the lasting friendship between two men. One chooses a life in the woods, while the other finds joy within city limits. Guterson, best known as the author of Snow Falling on Cedars, writes of the delicate balance between the […]
Posted inDecember 8, 2008: Out in the cold
Night: not just for astronomers
Let There Be Night: Testimony on Behalf of the DarkEdited by Paul Bogard208 pages, softcover: $21.95.University of Nevada Press, 2008. Many of us in the rural West still get to enjoy dark skies and bright stars, but in urban areas around the world, night is not as black as it once was. Paul Bogard has […]
Posted inDecember 8, 2008: Out in the cold
Digging deep
Addicts get back to the land in northern New Mexico
Posted inHeard Around the West
Bicyclists get a bailout break.
Starting in January, you can get paid to ride your bicycle to work. It’s all thanks to the $700 billion bailout passed by Congress to goose our failing economy back to productivity. Workers who use their bikes as primary transportation to and from their jobs will be eligible for $20 a month from their employers. […]
Posted inNovember 21, 2008: Ultimate solution?
Real work
Depending on your perspective, my partner Laurie’s resume is either impressive or disturbing. In her 20s, she worked as a wilderness ranger, hiking miles with a too-heavy pack, digging drain dips and toilet holes. In her 30s, she worked on a trail crew, chopping roots, sawing logs, clearing brush. Nowadays she works in an historic […]
Posted inDecember 8, 2008: Out in the cold
Burn it, bit by bit
In recent years, we have watched the lodgepole pines of the Fraser Valley and many other parts of Colorado succumb to the pine beetle’s voracious appetite (HCN, 11/10/08). This has resulted in a tinderbox, just waiting for the right conditions to all go up in flames. I have no faith that timber companies would do […]
Posted inDecember 8, 2008: Out in the cold
The carbon-go-round
I have a hard time believing that industrial logging practices will combat global warming, as Tom Bonnicksen is so fond of advocating (HCN, 11/10/08). In order to seriously and honestly consider such a proposal, one needs to have a full and accurate accounting of the tremendous amount of carbon that is released by the entire […]