The Grand Old Party will either find a new life – or court self-destruction – in the West today, where moderates and hard-liners are battling over conservation issues.
Passion, creativity, and science
I found Florence Williams’ story “On Cancer’s Trail” engaging and compelling, and a particularly good elucidation of the process of science with all its ups and downs, excitement and drudgery (HCN, 5/26/08). In addition, I was thrilled to see a young, female Native American scientist profiled prominently. I take issue with one point Williams makes,…
Denial and delusion
Your cover story featuring Jeffery Lockwood’s article, “Why the West needs Mythic Cowboys,” is an apropos commentary (HCN, 6/9/08). However, Mr. Lockwood is missing the point — namely, most of the fiction and movies on the subject are constructed to support the principle that “might makes right” and that conflicts are settled with rifles, pistols…
Playground Politics
After reading Matt Jenkins’ article, I looked back at HCN’s tag line: “For people who care about the West,” and wondered what this means in the context of the so-called “ceasefire” in the Klamath (HCN, 6/23/08). Turns out caring for the West and the invaluable ecosystems in the Klamath is tough, especially if your cares…
A fractured party
The Republican Party, struggling with infighting and lacking a coherent vision may find new life — or self-destruction — in the West’s green politics
A pitched battle on the Klamath
It’s refreshing to read an account of our situation on the Klamath that takes the time to tell a complicated but ultimately entertaining and gratifying story (HCN, 6/23/08). As an outreach director for a small nonprofit, my job involves informing the public about what’s happening on the Klamath and what they can do to help…
Concert-goers and bird-watchers
Ernie Nelson and Patti Armstrong dropped by in late June. The husband-and-wife team were on their way back to their home in Vail, Colo., after attending the Joe Cocker concert at the Delta County Fairgrounds in nearby Hotchkiss. Another Cocker fan, Mike Massa, owner of Accounting Specialists Inc. in Nederland, Colo., and his wife, Betsy,…
The debate that won’t happen
For a Westerner, this year’s presidential campaign has been both exciting and disappointing. There was excitement when Sen. Barack Obama and the entire Clinton family were stumping in Wyoming; who could ever have imagined that Democratic presidential candidates would be battling for convention delegates in a state that no Democrat has carried in 44 years?…
Power of the picture
International photographers hit the Wyoming Range to document the effects of energy development — and find that beauty and ugliness walk hand in hand
Navajo water rights: Truths and betrayals
Editor’s note: Our cover stories often elicit a lively response from readers, but Matt Jenkins’ story about Navajo water rights really got people riled up in both positive and negative ways. The strongest reaction — and certainly the longest — came from some of the main characters in the story, primarily Ron Milford, who was…
Home is where the guilt is
Sitting here in the stingy shade of a pinon pine, a few hundred feet from a two-lane road on the outskirts of Santa Fe, I can almost picture the house that will soon be built here — my house. It will be smallish but comfortable, faux adobe (a given in “the City Different”), with two…
Dreaming of a New Deal for nature
Sometimes it’s easier to understand why things are the way they are today by looking back to the past. That’s one common reason to study history; another is to see the possibilities in the past that are no longer present today. And then there are those moments when the past illuminates the present and suggests…
Manufactured homes for the birds
In California, frequent wildfires force conservationists to get creative
Watch the river flow
In Colorado, a national park wins a water claim
‘Si, se puede’
Activist continues to inspire after 50 years
Bears saved from the ‘burbs
Grizzly bears often wander through Montana’s Swan River Valley, as is shown in this satellite map tracking 10 grizzlies’ movements from 2000 to 2004. The bruins, increasingly threatened by development, are expected to benefit from “The Montana Legacy Project” — billed as the biggest private land-conservation deal ever put together. The Nature Conservancy and the…
Solar flip-flops and fish stories
Summer in the West’s deserts always feels a bit chaotic. This summer, it’s more than just the seasonal wildfires and strange cactus blooms — it’s also obvious in the federal government’s waffling on energy policy. Clean-energy advocates were stunned on May 29, when the Bureau of Land Management announced that it would not accept any…
Don’t fence Western Republicans in
Just over two years ago, in a political race that only folks in Colorado noticed, something remarkable happened. State Rep. Mark Larson, the Republican candidate to represent southwestern Colorado in the state Senate, abandoned the race. It wasn’t because he couldn’t win; he had at least a 50 percent chance, maybe more, of beating his…