The West might still be the nation’s outdoor playground, but the Western companies that make outdoor recreation gear are finding greener pastures overseas.
Also in this issue: A landmark California water deal has Imperial Valley irrigators finally agreeing to sell Colorado River water to San Diego, without sacrificing the Salton Sea.
Gas drilling blamed for smog
Why would Oklahoma City, a town of 500,000 people, have higher levels of some smog-forming hydrocarbons than famously hazy metropolises like Houston, Chicago and New York? A group of atmospheric scientists from the University of California, Irvine collected hundreds of air samples across a 1,000-mile-wide area to find out. Their conclusions, released in the Oct.…
Follow-up
While the oil and gas industry is rubbing its hands in anticipation of a coalbed methane bonanza, Wall Street is counseling discretion (HCN, 5/26/03: A green light for gas drilling). On Oct. 2, a group of 13 “socially responsible” institutional investors — including the Calvert Group, U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray and Domini Social Investments —…
National monuments are here to stay
President Clinton’s national monuments have survived a legal assault by two conservative groups that sought to strip the areas of protection. On Oct. 6, the Supreme Court declined to hear arguments against six Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service-managed monuments created in 2000 and 2001. The monuments, including Grand Canyon-Parashant in Arizona and Giant…
A bright spot for illegal workers
About a half-million undocumented immigrant farmworkers may earn legal residency under a bill introduced in Congress in September. Unlike a host of similar efforts in the past, this bill appears likely to pass. “This is very historic,” says Will Hart, a spokesman for Idaho Sen. Larry Craig, R, who co-sponsored the Agricultural Jobs, Opportunity, Benefits…
West Coast states tackle global warming
While the Bush administration takes a light-handed approach to curbing global warming, West Coast governors are determined to give the cause some regulatory punch. In September, outgoing California Gov. Gray Davis, in collaboration with Gov. Gary Locke, D-Wash., and Gov. Ted Kulongoski, D-Ore., announced a new, region-wide approach to slowing greenhouse gas emissions. The governors…
Mining companies slapped with half the bill for Superfund mess
Environmentalists, Coeur d’Alene Tribe members and government attorneys are doing victory jigs over a federal court ruling regarding a north Idaho Superfund site. Even the mining companies seem fairly pleased with the outcome this time. The Coeur d’Alene Tribe and the federal government have wrangled in court with two mining companies for over a decade,…
New nukes aren’t necessarily evil
A friend brought us her copy of the Sept. 1, 2003, edition of High Country News, knowing that I would be interested in the article on Carlsbad’s bid for the new pit facility. Never have I seen a clearer illustration of the aphorism that where you stand depends upon where you sit. My viewpoint may be…
Carlsbad: A nuclear ghost town?
Is Carlsbad to become another Hanford, Wash., nuclear cleanup project (HCN, 9/1/03: Courting the bomb)? Hanford is now the largest U.S. government Superfund toxic site, requiring more engineers and technicians for cleanup than were ever used in its lifetime of producing plutonium. It took a large flow of water from the Columbia River to cool…
A modest proposal for nuclear waste
Being in the county adjacent to Nye County, Nev., where Yucca Mountain may actually store nuclear waste one day, I am not at all comfortable knowing a mere 15 miles separates the counties. Even Carlsbad, N.M., seems too close for producing plutonium triggers for new bombs (HCN, 9/1/03: Courting the bomb). I propose an idea:…
Bring on the anti-gravity backpacks
Gail Binkly’s memories of hiking in the “good old days” (for her, the 1980s) ring a lot of bells (HCN, 8/4/03: When did we become such gear-toting wimps?). But does she really prefer those heavy boots made of solid rock and worn jeans that stayed wet for three days after a downpour? How she got…
Snowmaking and drought: a bad combination
Researchers at the University of Colorado, Boulder say that extended drought, coupled with mining pollution, could make for rocky winters at Colorado ski resorts. A recently released study published in the American Geophysical Union’s EOS Journal examines the Snake River Watershed in Summit County, Colo., where hotter weather threatens snow conditions at popular ski resorts…
Calendar
The Water Education Foundation will present a one-day program, Climate Change and California Water Resources, in Sacramento, Calif., on Nov. 6. Scientists and government officials will discuss the regional effects of climate change in California and their implications for the state’s water supply. www.watereducation.org/briefings.asp. 916-444-6240 The organizers of Connecting Mountain Islands and Desert Seas have…
Right and wrong on public lands
With everything from invasive insects to energy developers threatening national forests, wildlife refuges and other public lands, it’s not hard to understand why conservationists are scowling a lot these days. But in From Conquest to Conservation, Michael Dombeck, Christopher Wood and Jack Williams argue that Americans, now more than ever, realize public lands are more…
California strikes a water truce
A landmark water deal could bring peace on the Colorado River — and money for the Salton Sea
In the Northwest, salmon go swoosh
“The mammalian (mind) spreads continent-wide beneath (the conscious mind), mute and muscular, attending its ancient agenda. And (it) makes us buy things.” —William Gibson, Pattern Recognition It was Saturday, and we had shopping to do. The errands had piled up for two weeks; the groceries, the eyeglasses, the yard tools, they all needed to be…
Bill would redraw the boundaries of national monument
But some Montana ranchers want to stay where they are
Heard Around The West
COLORADO The little racehorse that could — Seabiscuit — is adjusting to a life of luxury on a guest ranch in the mountains above Telluride, Colo. The 4-year-old horse who starred in the movie Seabiscuit “is really a sweetheart,” says Dave Farny, who runs Skyline Guest Ranch. “He’s got a good rein — he’ll spin,…
Gas industry gets cracking
There’s no mistaking the moment when the coal deposits crack. The earth shakes, windows rattle and cupboard doors swing open, says Carl Weston, a landowner who lives outside Durango, Colo. “A few years back, I started getting calls from people in the San Juan Basin, saying, ‘My house shook and my (well) water turned black,’”…
My Sensitive Man meets culture shock on the range
When the movie Open Range came to my western Colorado town, my sweetie and I made a beeline for the theater. We waited in line for popcorn with a good number of other folks: old-timers and Forest Service employees and their spouses. They apparently hadn’t had enough open range by the end of the long…
The Gear Biz
The West has become the nation’s playground, but is there a future here for the folks who make our outdoor toys?
Pieces of the economic puzzle
Whenever I feel the need for a strong dose of opinion, I drive up the street to Reedy’s Service Station. There, any time between 6:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m., I’ll find three generations of the Reedy family and their friends, drinking coffee and swapping stories. They’re always happy to tell you what they think about…
Dear Friends
CHARGE ON The High Country News board and staff couldn’t have wished for a better weekend — or a better location — for the fall ’03 board meeting. Fifteen board members, eight staffers, and HCN founder Tom Bell all gathered at the Murie Ranch, just inside Grand Teton National Park, near Moose, Wyo., to talk…