I lived in the city most of my life and like the rest of the city folks heard and believed most of the lies handed to us by the “enviroMENTALists” (HCN, 12/24/07). I now live among the ranchers of Catron County, N.M., and have horses. I moved here to enjoy this beautiful countryside while riding […]
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Posted inJanuary 21, 2008: An energy oasis in the political desert
Playing cowboy at the wolf’s expense
Let me see if I have this straight: In Catron County, N.M., a place notorious for its anti-federal government and anti-environmental stance, we’re shooting and trapping wolves that have been fraudulently set up to violate the “three strikes” rule by the lackey of a wealthy foreigner who ranches for pleasure and not need (HCN, 12/24/07). […]
Posted inJanuary 21, 2008: An energy oasis in the political desert
Treehuggers and treecutters unite
Small foresters in Washington get a break that might just keep them in business
Posted inJanuary 21, 2008: An energy oasis in the political desert
It’s back to the tofurkey
As a conservation biologist, I find the subject matter and tone of the marmot-cooking essay reprehensible and unethical (HCN, 12/24/07). HCN is a nonprofit media organization whose mission is to inform and inspire people to act on behalf of the West’s lands. One of the key themes underlying land-management issues in the West is our […]
Posted inJanuary 21, 2008: An energy oasis in the political desert
Where do you draw the line?
As a journalist, I’ve watched many forms of civil disobedience in the West. I’ve known EarthFirst! tree-spikers and interviewed armed, tax-evading Freemen. I’ve seen “green” grandmothers lie down before bulldozers to stop the blazing of new logging roads across public land, viewed the carcasses of dead grizzly bears and wolves shot down by opponents of […]
Posted inJanuary 21, 2008: An energy oasis in the political desert
The wrongs of property rights
Ray Ring’s examination of so-called “property rights” lawyers’ legacy missed two key points (HCN, 12/10/07). First, while Mr. Ring hinted at the edges, the article never directly confronted the fundamental contradictions in the “property rights” ideology. By opposing a rancher selling grazing permits to a conservation trust or a farmer selling land for ecosystem restoration, […]
Posted inJanuary 21, 2008: An energy oasis in the political desert
Heard Around the West
CALIFORNIA Snap your fans for the late Beverly Allen, a petite woman just over 5 feet tall who became a high-kicking, feather-bedecked showgirl at the age of 80 with the Fabulous Palm Springs Follies. This is a group you have to be at least 55 years old to join, and Allen, reports the Los Angeles […]
Posted inJanuary 21, 2008: An energy oasis in the political desert
Dear friends
WELCOME, LILY JEAN The latest addition to the HCN family, Lily Jean Massart Isaacson, arrived on Thursday, Dec. 20, to proud parents Denise (our office manager) and her husband, Bob. The 6-pound, 7-ounce girl is doing well; no word on how much sleep mom and dad are getting. GREG HANSCOM SPOTTED … IN MARYLAND? Former […]
Posted inJanuary 21, 2008: An energy oasis in the political desert
Misplaced Jurisdiction
Justice in Indian Country needs an overhaul
Posted inJanuary 21, 2008: An energy oasis in the political desert
My short tenure with a blind pigeon
There is a blind pigeon – a pigeon born without eyeballs – living in my house, and I’m not very happy about it. It’s my mother’s fault; she has a new habit of adopting these eyeless creatures, which are hatched in the barn rafters at my family’s ranch. When the mama bird is done feeding […]
Posted inJanuary 21, 2008: An energy oasis in the political desert
Tackling Utah’s trash
NAME Issa Hamud AGE 48 HOME LIFE Married, eight kids. DRIVES 2004 Ford F-150. HOBBY Four-wheeling with friends. NEXT PROJECT Hamud hopes to build an Environmental Education Center on the site of the current landfill once it closes. It will feature a glass wall exposing a cross section of the landfill to its 30-foot depths, […]
Posted inJanuary 21, 2008: An energy oasis in the political desert
A political speech the West needs to hear
“One of our most urgent projects is to develop a national energy policy. The United States is the only major industrial country without a comprehensive, long-range energy policy. Our program will emphasize conservation … solar energy and other renewable energy sources. … We must face the fact that the energy shortage is permanent. There is […]
Posted inDecember 24, 2007: Last chance for the Lobo
Tireless and tenacious storytelling
NAME: Lori Edmo-Suppah AGE: 48 HOME BASE: Shoshone-Bannock Tribes’ Fort Hall Reservation, Idaho DESCRIBING HERSELF IN A NEWS STORY: “She enjoys her job even though she gets grouchy at her computer when fonts don’t work or files get corrupt. Her camera was stolen at the Festival last year … However, she says life goes on and she’ll eventually […]
Posted inDecember 24, 2007: Last chance for the Lobo
Boodog roasting on an open fire
How to cook a marmot, Spokane’s tastiest resident.
Posted inDecember 24, 2007: Last chance for the Lobo
Where have all the (exotic) flowers gone?
I enjoyed the article “Beetle Warfare” ( HCN, 11/26/07). However, I disagree with Ruth Hufbauer of Colorado State University when she says, “So we have to hope that today, we have a pretty good understanding of what’s going on, and that we’re not making mistakes that 50 years from now, we’ll look back on and […]
Posted inDecember 24, 2007: Last chance for the Lobo
Two weeks in the West
When it comes time to court the ladies, male greater sage grouse puff up their chests, displaying bright yellow air sacs, and fan their tail feathers like a peacock. But former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior Julie MacDonald apparently had no taste for crazy mating rituals or, for that matter, wildlife in general. She did […]
Posted inDecember 24, 2007: Last chance for the Lobo
Personal freedom, personal responsibility
Our communities have successfully developed smart solutions to avoid foreseeable nightmares from sprawl, traffic and other infrastructure limitations (HCN, 11/26/07). Across the West, new affronts to a legacy of urban planning are now emerging in response to these successes. Arizona’s “wildcat” subdivisions are one remarkable example, and last year’s so-called “takings” initiatives another. Thanks in […]
Posted inDecember 24, 2007: Last chance for the Lobo
The cure is worse
While it is always compelling to hear individual anecdotes of the suffering caused by West Nile virus, the danger posed by this disease has been blown out of proportion in the United States (HCN, 11/12/07). In Colorado in 2006, for example, there were 724 suicides, 609 deaths due to influenza and pneumonia, 226 deaths from […]
Posted inDecember 24, 2007: Last chance for the Lobo
Not Rupert Murdoch, that’s for sure
Matt Jenkins’ update on L.A.’s Metropolitan Water District is a wonderful and necessary piece, taking up slack since the Chicago Tribune gutted the once-proud L.A. Times, which no longer appears capable (HCN, 11/12/07). It gives me little pleasure to note that where mainstream media regularly fails to look out for the public interest, your independent […]
Posted inDecember 24, 2007: Last chance for the Lobo
The Promised Land?
Churches use a federal law to trample local land-use rules