In northern New Mexico, the innovative Collaborative Forest Restoration Program is bringing Hispanic loggers and Anglo environmentalists together to work on creating healthy, sustainable forests and rural economies.
Also in this issue: Boosters of a Western primary hope it could give the Interior West a greater voice in the politics of Washington, D.C.
The other side of the story
Being a faithful subscriber to the High Country News, I read your Oct. 2 article about The Horse Fly. It contains many inaccuracies. For example, the article talks about Taos Pueblo’s proposed casino at the Kachina Lodge near downtown. It quotes Bill Whaley, proprietor of The Horse Fly, as saying: “The Taos News wouldn’t touch…
Labor of love
Imagine my surprise when I discovered the article “Our Green Mountain” by The Old Crock, Jaime O’Neill, in your Oct. 2 issue. The Green Mountain Gazette was a labor of love of many in an isolated mountain community dedicated to bringing a difference in the lives of its readers. We struggled to publish an alternative…
Hug a mountain biker
By any measure, the outdoor education and indoctrination of mountain bikers has been a story of unparalleled success. In less than 20 years, mountain-bike advocacy groups like the International Mountain Bicycling Association have accomplished what other traditional user groups have had centuries, if not millennia, to address. And as the article in your Sept. 18…
Idaho’s permissiveness leads to elk on the lam
Sometime in August, 100 or more domestic elk escaped from a game farm near Rexburg, Idaho, through a hole in the fence. The elk were bred for their huge antlers, and are known as “shooter bulls,” meaning they’re destined to be shot with bow and arrow or rifle, by clients engaged in an elaborate fantasy…
Just another giddyup
It’s a lot like any other rodeo, on an August weekend in a fairground arena as folks hide out from the monsoon rains. Friday-night cowboys with mustaches stroll past women wearing baggy-in-the-seat jeans and plaid flannel shirts. Tall men with big hats hug one another, catch up on circuit gossip, and check out newcomers. Pungent…
Heard around the West
UTAH AND IDAHO Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf? Forest Service employees from Utah, that’s who. Two staffers from the Rocky Mountain Research Station in Ogden were working in Idaho’s Sawtooth Wilderness Sept. 23, when they spotted wolves chasing a bull elk across a meadow. They weren’t frightened by the sight of the running…
Life in the transition zone
The last time I knocked on Luis Torres’ front door in San Pedro, N.M., he was inside on the phone, talking and joking in a rapid-fire combination of Spanish and English that made my head spin. On the other end of the phone was Alfonso Chacon, a forest contractor featured in this issue’s cover story.…
Two weeks in the West
“It won’t be serving the Wal-Mart and Kentucky Fried Chicken crowd.” — Jeania Joseph, town clerk for Big Water, Utah, referring to the $200 million Amangiri resort slated for construction near Lake Powell. It will boast $6 million villas, $1,200 a night rooms, and a 100,000-square-foot-spa. EPA boots soot, sort of. Fine particles of soot…
Can the West become the new South?
Western primary could give the Rockies a louder voice in Washington
Pueblo water battle nears its end
Aamodt case tries to untangle centuries of water use in northern New Mexico
In search of greener pastures
Name Laina Corazon Coit Age 55 Vocation Hemp ice cream maker Home Base Near Briggsdale, Colo. Noted for Working to create Colorado’s first green burial grounds, on the eastern prairie She says “I’m for earthworms. We intend to use every possible way to make sure the land remains sacred to the grave sites and the…
Chappaquiddick vs. Three Mile Island
After reading Jonathan Thompson’s article “Reborn” in the Sept. 4, 2006, issue, I wondered if anyone recalls the 1979-’80 statement: “More people died at Chappaquiddick than died at Three Mile Island.” C.C. Michel Odessa, Texas This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Chappaquiddick vs. Three Mile Island.
How vain, how self-absorbed
The cutesie photos of the “indie news” types and a self-absorbed article about self-absorbed people writing news make me realize that unless you have a certain “look” and immodest attitude about how “unique” you are, reading HCN really has no meaning (HCN, 10/2/06: From the ground up). Could you tell me if the staff members…
The de-conglomerating media
I was a bit disappointed with the Oct. 2 issue of HCN devoted to grassroots journalism in the West. For starters, it neglected to mention that some evidence suggests the long trend toward conglomerate takeover of local papers, a great rallying point for the alternative press, may be starting to reverse itself. It also omitted…
Peace Breaks Out In New Mexico’s Forests
Out of the angry thickets of the past, environmentalists and loggers cut a new path
Dear friends
HCN BOARD MEETING The fall meeting of the High Country News Board of Directors, held in Missoula, Mont., focused on the rapidly changing world of publishing, especially the growing prominence of the Internet as a news source. Web master Paolo Bacigalupi walked board members through our Web site, hcn.org, and explained our strategy for turning…
Biomass: What to do with all that wood
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Peace Breaks Out In New Mexico’s Forests.” SANTA FE, New Mexico — Driving through the thickly forested mountains around New Mexico’s state capital, Mark Sardella doesn’t daydream about his next camping trip. Instead, he thinks about the untapped heat locked up in all those…