EDWARDS, Colo. – A luxury condominium complex is going up here – not an unusual phenomenon in one of the fastest-growing counties in the state of Colorado. But this development is affecting me. I hear voices as I drive by the construction site. Voices from this place’s past. They are not the voices of Ute […]
An American dream gets evicted
Posted inAugust 17, 1998: Living out the trailer dream
The trailer evolves
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. PRE-1910 Early car campers raise their tents off the ground with simple platforms on wheels, creating the first tent trailers. Since few cars top 15 mph, most people leave the tents standing as they pull their trailers home. 1913 A carriage company in Los […]
Posted inAugust 17, 1998: Living out the trailer dream
Living out the trailer dream
In the West, one in six people lives in a trailer
Posted inAugust 3, 1998: Tribes reclaim stolen lands
Blind Descent
I don’t even like it when the elevator door closes, but I like the feisty and fictional Anna Pigeon so much that I gritted my teeth and followed her down into Lechuguilla Cave. Nevada Barr’s newest mystery, Blind Descent, takes park ranger Anna Pigeon a thousand feet under southern New Mexico, into the deepest and, […]
Posted inAugust 3, 1998: Tribes reclaim stolen lands
Blasting through a cathedral
When Congress established Petroglyph National Monument in 1990, on the edge of Albuquerque, N.M., its rationale was straightforward: “to protect the cultural and natural resources of the area from urbanization and vandalism.” Just a few years later another threat to the monument emerged. To accommodate the desire of developers, the New Mexico delegation backed a […]
Posted inAugust 3, 1998: Tribes reclaim stolen lands
The Wilderness Act Handbook
Though wilderness and legislation may seem like apples and oranges, the Wilderness Society makes their relationship plain as day in its updated edition of The Wilderness Act Handbook. The report fully quotes original mandates, gives historical context and interprets wilderness legislation for the uninformed reader. For a $5 copy, contact the Wilderness Society, 900 17th […]
Posted inAugust 3, 1998: Tribes reclaim stolen lands
The Colorado River: How Secure Is Our Water?
The former top water warrior for the State of Colorado will talk to the Mesa County Water Association on the subject: “The Colorado River: How Secure Is Our Water?” Speaker Jim Lochhead was executive director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources until recently. His talk will be Tuesday, Aug. 18, 7 p.m. at 750 […]
Posted inAugust 3, 1998: Tribes reclaim stolen lands
Incentives for Conserving Open Lands in Greater Yellowstone
Incentives for Conserving Open Lands in Greater Yellowstone, a 51-page report by the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, the Environmental Defense Fund and the World Wildlife Fund, gives landowners ideas about protecting the natural value of their land. Incentives include tax benefits for conservation easements and subsidies for setting aside conservation reserves. For a $5 copy, contact […]
Posted inAugust 3, 1998: Tribes reclaim stolen lands
Restoration Days
-Mono Lake is rising, the Committee is 20 years old, and we’re celebrating,” says the Mono Lake Committee about the party they’re throwing for their 20th anniversary – Restoration Days. Join the Mono Lake Committee, supporters and friends over Labor Day weekend, Sept. 4-7, in activities ranging from bird watching, guided canoe trips, volcano exploring […]
Posted inAugust 3, 1998: Tribes reclaim stolen lands
Not boring, not befuddling
Somewhere there is a school that teaches those who work for government agencies and environmental groups to write press releases. The school’s core curriculum consists of courses in Boasting in Print and Bad Writing; it also offers seminars in Boring and Befuddling the Reader, Grazing the Truth, and Tunnel Vision. Even in peacetime, those who […]
Posted inAugust 3, 1998: Tribes reclaim stolen lands
We can take it
As the country struggled through the Great Depression, nearly 3 million young men came together in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) with the motto, “We can take it.” Between 1933 and 1942, the CCC built 125,000 miles of roads, strung 89,000 miles of telephone lines and revegetated almost a million acres of rangeland. This year, […]
Posted inAugust 3, 1998: Tribes reclaim stolen lands
Spills and secrets
Knowing what chemicals ride the rails is crucial in preparing for accidental spills, says a citizens’ coalition for environmental health in Alberton, a small northwestern Montana town. The group formed after a Montana Rail Link train derailed, exposing the town of Alberton to chlorine and leaving some residents with lingering health problems (HCN, 4/28/97). Long […]
Posted inAugust 3, 1998: Tribes reclaim stolen lands
Ghostly fish swim in Idaho
Once there were thousands of sockeye salmon leaving the Pacific Ocean to spawn in Idaho’s Redfish Lake. Only one sockeye salmon made it to the lake in 1994, 1995 and 1996; and not even one bright-red fish returned to spawn in 1997. The decline of these once abundant native fish is something we ought to […]
Posted inAugust 3, 1998: Tribes reclaim stolen lands
Bombers battled from the ground
When the U.S. Air Force told residents of northern New Mexico that it was considering their blue skies for a new bombing range for B-52s and B-1s, it galvanized local defenses. “In northern New Mexico, with our high level of poverty, the only assets are beauty and tranquility,” says Cliff Bain, who has organized a […]
Posted inAugust 3, 1998: Tribes reclaim stolen lands
You bashed Wyoming
Dear HCN, We are disgusted with your article, “Riding the Wyoming Brand” (HCN, 7/6/98). This is liberal Democratic Party propaganda designed to slam the good conservative values we have in Wyoming. I would have thought High Country News would never lower itself to this kind of slander, but I was wrong. Gov. Jim Geringer and […]
Posted inAugust 3, 1998: Tribes reclaim stolen lands
Keep Wyoming just the way it is
Dear HCN, After watching Elbert County, Colo., endure the nation’s second-fastest growth rate for the past few years, I envy “Wyoming’s unique mix of apathy and arrogance,” as described by Paul Krza (HCN, 7/6/98). The correspondent reveals a disregard for the native values of Wyoming citizens, assuming that they’re dull and backwards because they seek […]
Posted inAugust 3, 1998: Tribes reclaim stolen lands
Just a hatchet job
Dear HCN, Your article on federal judges and FREE puzzled me. It contained no fresh reporting, so I wonder why you bothered to run it. You could have referred your readers to the original hatchet job in the Washington Post. Or you could have taken a look at what actually goes on at these conferences. […]
Posted inAugust 3, 1998: Tribes reclaim stolen lands
Yes, there’s an alien invasion
Thank you for your recent coverage of the impacts and politics of invasive species (HCN, 6/22/98). The spread and establishment of exotics in the West is truly one of the least recognized natural-resource challenges of our time and one which promises to overwhelm the stability and health of our ecosystems if left unchecked. To help […]
Posted inAugust 3, 1998: Tribes reclaim stolen lands
Sorry, no alien invasion here
Dear HCN, I was surprised to see science fiction in High Country News (-It rhymes with scourge,” HCN, 6/22/98). First it was the Yellow Peril, then it was the Russians and Men from Mars, and now we have invasions by hordes of alien plants unwittingly let loose by gardeners. It’s true that Euphorbia myrsinites (donkeytail […]
Posted inAugust 3, 1998: Tribes reclaim stolen lands
Western Slope wins water wrestle
Water users on Colorado’s Western Slope are celebrating a court decision that keeps the “river” in the Gunnison River Basin. A district water-court judge ruled that there was not enough excess water in the Gunnison River watershed for the Union Park project, a proposal that would have diverted 60,000 acre-feet of water per year to […]