The only reason that cattle and sheep producers can really use to justify their position –– that the only good wolf is a dead one –– is that the wolf and other large predators endanger a traditional way of life in the West (HCN, 11/10/08). The actual contribution of the Rocky Mountain area to national […]
Departments
Posted inDecember 8, 2008: Out in the cold
Wolves, ranchers and public lands
The recovery of the gray wolf is clearly a political issue, not a biological issue. Given this fact, how can Daniel Glick write nearly 4,000 words on the relationship of Westerners with Canis lupus without mentioning the words “public lands” (HCN, 11/10/08)? The cattle ranchers, sheep ranchers and outfitters highlighted in this article all make […]
Posted inDecember 8, 2008: Out in the cold
Kitsching the West
Regarding the “Weekend Westerner” article, the hyper-romanticized version of the American West’s history by Germans is well known (HCN, 11/24/08). Being Arthur Kruse’s age, I well remember my older brother reading Karl May novels, and playing Indians-and-Cowboys in the mid-’40s. We grew up during the war near Darmstadt, Germany, a city 85 percent destroyed during […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
Outdoor slacking still takes work
Back-of-the-beyond recreation was recently celebrated by a magazine called InsideOutside in its 10-year anniversary issue. The southwestern Colorado publication featured dozens of grassroots writers who shared stories about how they worked as little as possible in order to ski, snowboard, hike, fish, hunt, bike, climb or otherwise hang out. But as Luke Auld-Thomas recalled, living […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
A new definition of pluck
A woman in Prescott, Ariz., deserves a prize for pluck: She ran a mile with a fox firmly fastened to her arm. The fox had run out and bitten the jogger in the foot, reports the Associated Press, and when the woman grabbed it by the neck, it squirmed and bit her arm. Wanting the […]
Posted inNovember 21, 2008: Ultimate solution?
Desperate measures
With water shortages a constant, Westerners are looking at wacky (and not so wacky) ways to squeeze more water out of the sky and land.
Posted inNovember 21, 2008: Ultimate solution?
Ultimate solution?
Desalination may finally be coming of age in a thirsty West. Take it with a grain of salt.
Posted inNovember 21, 2008: Ultimate solution?
On Obama’s coattails
Westerners inspired by Barack Obama have a right to feel giddy these days: The history-making wave that swept the Democrat into the presidency Nov. 4 had a lot of impact around the region. It lifted a surprising number of other Democrats into offices that had long been held by Republicans, many of whom were seen […]
Posted inNovember 21, 2008: Ultimate solution?
Weekend Westerner
Name Arthur KruseAge 69Hometown Munich, GermanyOccupation Consultant to the high-pressure compressor company where he was sales manager for 32 years.Still mourned “Flites Gentleman,” Kruse’s quarter horse, who had to be put down after a bad fall on ice just before Christmas Eve four years ago. Other club members About 50 men and 35 women — […]
Posted inNovember 21, 2008: Ultimate solution?
Bearing witness on the border
Exodus/ExodoCharles Bowden, Julian Cardona312 pages, 115 black-and-white photos, hardcover: $50.University of Texas Press, 2008. There are many ways to write about illegal immigration. One way is to shuffle through Immigration and Customs Enforcement reports, cherry-pick the latest data and file an article from a safe distance. Another way is to step into the fray, boots-on-the-ground, […]
Posted inNovember 21, 2008: Ultimate solution?
Welcome, new board members
HCN is happy to announce that Wayne Hare and Jane Ellen Stevens recently joined our board of directors. A long-ago transplant from the East, Wayne became a “native Westerner” while working as a ranger with the Bureau of Land Management in western Colorado, patrolling the Colorado River and McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area. Prior to […]
Posted inNovember 21, 2008: Ultimate solution?
Peak economy
Just a few months ago, you could walk into the local hangout in any little Western town and hear the hanger-outers talk dramatically about “peak oil,” that long-awaited moment when petroleum production would decline enough to throw the world into turmoil. Someone else might have brought up “peak water,” too, what with global warming and […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
Gun owners take revenge
MONTANA. Dan Cooper, the co-founder and president of Cooper Firearms of Montana, a small gun manufacturing company in Stevensville, was forced to resign recently after stirred-up gun advocates called him a traitor and threatened reprisals against his business. Cooper’s blunder? He told USA Today that he supported Barack Obama for president and had donated to […]
Posted inNovember 21, 2008: Ultimate solution?
“Homosexuals are not some cabal”
As a gay former Mormon who grew up in Idaho Falls, “Prophets and Politics” perfectly articulates why this issue is just as important outside of California (HCN, 10/27/08). It pains me to see my childhood friends who attend BYU-Idaho spending so much time and money on this issue with the endorsement of the LDS church. […]
Posted inNovember 21, 2008: Ultimate solution?
Can’t see the forest for the guns
I’m frankly flabbergasted that, in an era so defined by crises of the environment, energy, and economy, that folks are still voting on useless wedge issues like guns and abortion — and voting for folks that are hopelessly deficient on the first three but who pander on the last two (HCN, 10/27/08). These issues were […]
Posted inNovember 21, 2008: Ultimate solution?
Getting out the (gun) vote
As someone who is a “liberal Democrat” on most issues and an Abe Lincoln “conservative” on others, I believe it has been a profound mistake for the Democrats to throw away the gun owner’s vote as they have for years (HCN, 10/27/08). I grew up in Ohio plinking with my dad’s .22. I’m a gun […]
Posted inNovember 21, 2008: Ultimate solution?
No friends of the Indians
Regarding your story “Power to the First People,” in Montana in the 2006 election, it was the seven counties with reservations which assured Democrat Jon Tester his narrow victory over incumbent GOP Sen. Conrad Burns, a charlatan good ol’ boy tainted by his associations with lobbyist Jack Abramoff (HCN, 10/27/08). The Democrats should never forget […]
Posted inNovember 21, 2008: Ultimate solution?
Back to bison
The ranching and sport-hunting communities in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming exhibit none of the tolerance of the wolf, much less the knowledge, shown by Native Americans (HCN, 11/10/08). It is hate, sheer hate, that drives these communities’ actions and led to the deliberate extinction of wolves in the last century. If the state wolf “management” […]
Posted inNovember 21, 2008: Ultimate solution?
Big water
Regarding your story “Liquid Assets,” this summer at Mount Shasta I learned from locals that Shasta Dam releases, in August, were running at the equivalent of the spring flood stage. Why would we do that during a drought, in a period fraught with intense pressure to build more dams, canals and other forms of water […]