It’s time to wake up and smell the salt water. According to a recent report from the United States Commission on Ocean Policy, America’s oceans are overfished, polluted and in desperate need of new management policies. After three years of study, the President Bush-appointed commission came up with more than 200 preliminary recommendations aimed at […]
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Posted inJuly 19, 2004: They're Here: Global Warming's Unlikely Harbingers
Mowing down pollution
The drone of lawn mowers is a classic sign of summer in the suburbs. But these gas guzzlers contribute heavily to another summer phenomenon: smog. The yearly pollution from one gas mower is equivalent to “43 new cars driving 12,000 miles each,” says Sam Atwood, a spokesman for the South Coast Air Quality Management District. […]
Posted inJuly 19, 2004: They're Here: Global Warming's Unlikely Harbingers
Fight on, HCN
Regarding the note in “Dear Friends” about readers troubled by HCN’s tough coverage of the Bush administration’s policies across the West: Let ’em be troubled and angry! These are troubling, angry times. The Bush administration is carrying out an array of highly controversial policies across the West. I speak as one who’s been reporting on […]
Posted inJuly 19, 2004: They're Here: Global Warming's Unlikely Harbingers
Timber company collides with gas drillers
Conservationists have struck a $4 million deal with a progressive Canadian timber company, Tembec Inc., to protect land just west of the Glacier National Park/Waterton Lakes National Park complex. The Nature Conservancy of Canada is buying 3,800 acres of Elk River riparian habitat outright; purchasing a conservation easement on another 7,400 acres; and obtaining a […]
Posted inJuly 19, 2004: They're Here: Global Warming's Unlikely Harbingers
HCN bears witness
I am a longtime subscriber to HCN. The willingness to address the political causes of land-management decisions in the coverage of HCN was striking, with the selection of a new executive director. But I believe that it is important. Politics is the modus operandi of the corporations and their political allies who recognize only the […]
Posted inJuly 19, 2004: They're Here: Global Warming's Unlikely Harbingers
Respect the people who care about the West
I love the subtitle of HCN, “The paper for people who care about the West.” I care about the West. I also care a great deal about the dialogue of people who care about the West. HCN is an important part of that dialogue, but I wish I could say I am comfortable with what […]
Posted inJuly 19, 2004: They're Here: Global Warming's Unlikely Harbingers
Of global warming and White House elephants
Any day now, if all goes according to plan, a bill that will actually do something about global warming will come up in the United States Senate. Come up, and go right down. Not even the bill’s sponsors, Republican John McCain of Arizona and Democrat Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, predict passage. Their goal is to […]
Posted inJuly 19, 2004: They're Here: Global Warming's Unlikely Harbingers
It’s over between us
I’m sorry to hear your board of directors gave you “a ringing endorsement” of your current editorial direction. It is for just that reason I’m letting my subscription lapse. I’ve been bothered by the increasingly strident and anti-Republican tone of your periodical as well as the sophomoric stereotyping of your articles. The confirmation you intend […]
Posted inJuly 19, 2004: They're Here: Global Warming's Unlikely Harbingers
Calendar
Learn about the State of the San Juans in Silverton, Colo., on Sept. 24-26. The conference, sponsored by the Mountains Studies Institute, will feature panels on local water issues, including the Animas River and the San Miguel Watershed, as well as on public-land partnerships and local restoration efforts. Colorado State Attorney General Ken Salazar is […]
Posted inJuly 19, 2004: They're Here: Global Warming's Unlikely Harbingers
We need more from HCN
Thank you for the invitation to “toss in my two cents.” I literally grew up with your newspaper in my home. My late father, Louis A. “Sam” Bibler, subscribed to HCN beginning in the 1970s, and was one of your most enthusiastic readers. I lament the changes in your paper since that time, and especially […]
Posted inJuly 19, 2004: They're Here: Global Warming's Unlikely Harbingers
Are you journalists or advocates?
No excuse that the “staff feels that the doings in D.C. are the most critical right now” to justify a lack of objectivity and balance. Maybe you and the staff need a refresher course in Journalism 101. Either you’re journalists or advocates, and should declare where you stand politically. Jim Nielson Cody, Wyoming This article […]
Posted inJuly 19, 2004: They're Here: Global Warming's Unlikely Harbingers
Keep shooting straight, HCN
Congratulations to you, the staff, and the HCN board for your in-depth reporting on environmental and natural resource issues in the West. Ideally, we would also prefer emphasis on collaborative efforts to manage land, water, and wildlife. Unfortunately, at the behest of its right-wing constituents, the Bush administration is dismembering environmental protection and cloaking these […]
Posted inJuly 19, 2004: They're Here: Global Warming's Unlikely Harbingers
Consensus nets results
As the president of the Rio Grande Water Conservation District, I have many responsibilities to attempt to prevent the types of water wars that ultimately tear communities apart. The fact is that in a small community like our San Luis Valley, nothing is possible if we are unable to present a united front in the […]
Posted inJuly 19, 2004: They're Here: Global Warming's Unlikely Harbingers
Bush doesn’t collaborate
HCN is on the right track. Collaboration works with people who understand the concept. The Bush administration does not collaborate, but stubbornly follows its own agenda to its sole benefit. The mainstream papers have fallen down on the job and don’t call Bush on it. Now is the time to expose the policies of the […]
Posted inJuly 19, 2004: They're Here: Global Warming's Unlikely Harbingers
Life cycle of a bark beetle
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Global Warming’s Unlikely Harbingers.” This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Life cycle of a bark beetle.
Posted inJuly 19, 2004: They're Here: Global Warming's Unlikely Harbingers
Scientific Principle: Klamath whistleblower throws in the towel
In 2002, federal biologist Mike Kelly “blew the whistle” on the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the agency responsible for protecting threatened and endangered salmon (HCN, 6/23/03: Sound science goes sour). As one of the scientists charged with ensuring that enough water was left in the Klamath River for rare coho salmon, Kelly discovered that […]
Posted inJuly 19, 2004: They're Here: Global Warming's Unlikely Harbingers
Supreme Court reins in citizens’ right to sue
Conservationists can’t interfere with the government’s ‘own ordering of priorities’
Posted inJuly 19, 2004: They're Here: Global Warming's Unlikely Harbingers
Roadkill is a right and a privilege, and don’t you forget it
Driving through northern Idaho this summer? Bring a fork. A judge in Bonners Ferry recently stood up for the right of people to eat the kind of roadkill that even other roadkill fanciers might find inedible. It sounds like one of those jokes bluegrass musicians tell: “How many banjo players does it take to eat […]
Posted inJuly 19, 2004: They're Here: Global Warming's Unlikely Harbingers
Heard around the West
ARIZONA Wearing brightly patterned robes and spectacular strands of African beads, Masai warriors livened up the town of Douglas in southern Arizona when they arrived to talk shop with local ranchers. Members of Arizona’s innovative Malpai Borderlands Group had visited the African herdsmen in 2002, and found they had lots in common. Both the Masai […]
Posted inJuly 19, 2004: They're Here: Global Warming's Unlikely Harbingers
The people who care about HCN
Two issues back, we invited readers to toss in their “two cents” about HCN’s coverage of the Bush administration’s environmental policies. We got about a million bucks in reply. Readers from all over the West wrote in to tell it like it is. One writer announced that he would not renew his subscription because of […]