In Jonathan Thompson’s recent column, he writes of grand new resorts that “depend entirely on the wealthy buying into them” (HCN, 8/18/08). Well, maybe not entirely. I was reminded of Leslie Marmon Silko’s highly praised 1991 novel Almanac of the Dead. One of the major plot lines is about an architect who feverishly envisions “Venice, […]
Departments
Posted inSeptember 9, 2008: Reclaiming the low country
Don’t eat the rich, tax them
Christopher Solomon’s article “An Unlikely Shangri-la” is a classic example of what HCN does that no one else seems to do: An otherwise obscure not-quite-news story that, when treated with careful and exhaustive reporting, provides insights of profound importance to the future of the West (HCN, 8/18/08). There are a number of significant inferences one […]
Posted inSeptember 9, 2008: Reclaiming the low country
Population conversation
Paul Larmer states that solutions to the West’s tough problems won’t be easy (HCN, 6/9/08). True, but we’d do well to focus on one problem whose solution would do so much to alleviate all the others: population growth, mentioned so often in passing, but concentrated on and acted on so rarely. We remain bemused and […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
Don’t mention it
Muhammad Ali Hasan, the Republican candidate for the State House in pricey Summit County, Colo., told the Vail Daily that, as part of his campaign, he’s taken a vow of celibacy until January. His Democrat opponent, incumbent Christine Scanlan, commented, “Oh, my goodness. That probably falls in the ‘too much information’ category. Yeek.”
Posted inAugust 25, 2008: Hot Wheels
Not even the privileged can deter a porcupine
When folks build homes (or mansions) next to wilderness, they are often shocked to learn that the wilderness is, in fact, wild. Critters they once thought of as cute and charming are suddenly villainous and voracious, devouring flower beds, tunneling under irrigation systems, even munching on pricey trees dropped into the landscape by crane. And […]
Posted inAugust 25, 2008: Hot Wheels
Two weeks in the West
Twenty years ago, wildfire blackened 1 million acres in and near Yellowstone National Park, caused more than $3 million in property damage, and killed two firefighters. Such humongous wildfires will become more and more common in Western states as the climate warms, according to dozens of researchers. The latest such report, from the National Wildlife […]
Posted inAugust 25, 2008: Hot Wheels
All along the watchtower
A weekend shift with Washington’s Fire Gatekeeper
Posted inAugust 25, 2008: Hot Wheels
Fifty summers and 360 degrees
One woman’s lifetime spotting fires
Posted inAugust 25, 2008: Hot Wheels
Fire, fire everywhere
Type “wildfire” into your Google news search box on any given summer day, and you’ll get more than 15,000 news stories to sift through. As I write this, on Aug. 19, a brush fire has just burned 250 acres in Southern California, buildings in Reno have been devoured by wildfire, and a huge fire in […]
Posted inAugust 25, 2008: Hot Wheels
The Mog Squad
The venerable — and very German — quest for the ultimate weapon against wildfire
Posted inAugust 25, 2008: Hot Wheels
The old man and the stream
With my students and another teacher, I climb up from the suspension bridge across the Black Canyon, along switchbacks that wind through phlox-matted slopes. Crisp arnica leaves curl in the roasting sun. Several times we teachers stop for breathers, while the students wait impatiently, scarcely showing any discomfort. The trail descends briefly into a ravine, […]
Posted inAugust 25, 2008: Hot Wheels
An unforgettable journey
So Brave, Young, and HandsomeLeif Enger285 pages, hardcover: $24.Atlantic Monthly Press, 2008. So Brave, Young, and Handsome, Leif Enger’s second novel, takes the reader on an action-packed journey across the West. In 1915, outlaw Glendon Hale, now a boat-builder who has been hiding out in a small Minnesota town for two decades, befriends Monte Becket, […]
Posted inAugust 25, 2008: Hot Wheels
Portrait of a threatened land
Travels in the Greater Yellowstone Jack Turner 288 pages, hardcover, $25.95. Thomas Dunne Books, 2008. Jack Turner’s Travels in the Greater Yellowstone chronicles both the subtle and radical changes that he’s seen in the place he’s called home for over three decades. Turner, author of several books on ecology and mountaineering, has watched this extraordinary […]
Posted inAugust 25, 2008: Hot Wheels
Dear friends
FROM FRANCE, NEW YORK AND CALIFORNIASummer visiting season is in full swing. Ned Ames and Jane Sokolow, both of New York City, stopped by after visiting some friends in Hotchkiss, just down the road. They were on their way back to New York from their Fort Union Ranch in Watrous, N.M., which has been in […]
Posted inAugust 25, 2008: Hot Wheels
Dust on the rocks
Last summer, Constance Silver spent a week examining the world-renowned rock art in Utah’s Nine Mile Canyon, a two-hour drive south of Salt Lake City. Tucked into the rugged Tavaputs Plateau, the place contains upwards of 10,000 images, painted and pecked onto sandstone walls. Many of them are visible from the curving, roughly graded road. […]
Posted inAugust 25, 2008: Hot Wheels
Riparian repair
How can we put the West’s broken rivers back together again?
Posted inAugust 25, 2008: Hot Wheels
Peace on the Gila, too?
“Peace on the Klamath.” Words like that, used on a recent cover, might compel one to believe that there are no insurmountable water problems (HCN, 6/23/08). And they give us hope for the Gila. The situation in the Gila Basin of New Mexico is a bit different from that in the Klamath. Rather than arguing […]
Posted inAugust 25, 2008: Hot Wheels
On a wing and a pledge
I very much appreciated Eric Wagner’s adept account of the Butterfly Big Year on which I am embarked (HCN, 8/04/08). There was, however, one vital omission, no doubt due to space. I would greatly appreciate your noting that the Big Year is being conducted as a Butterfly-a-thon to benefit the habitat conservation programs of the […]
Posted inAugust 25, 2008: Hot Wheels
A spotty future
Regarding your recent barred owl story, it’s hard not to shake my head (HCN, 8/4/08). I wonder how good we will ever be at playing God with the animal kingdom. We shoot ’em, then we bring them back, but only where we want them (buffalo). We trapped them for their fur and took them to […]
Posted inAugust 25, 2008: Hot Wheels
McCain: T.R. or W?
The GOP nominee often invokes Teddy Roosevelt, but his conservation record is closer to a more recent president’s