Has HCN stepped into the role of moderator of civil disobedience, declaring what qualifies and what does not? Despite the HCN spin, the Recapture Protest was exactly as it purported to be — a legal, peaceful protest against the collusion between the Bureau of Land Management and special interest groups (“The Sagebrush Sheriffs,” HCN, 2/2/16). […]
Gandhi, King and Phil Lyman
Posted inFebruary 22, 2016: Fractured
Fed workers are good neighbors
Some were hoping that the Malheur occupation would fizzle out on its own, but the continuing rhetoric from the criminals made it seem they did not intend to leave peacefully (“Inside the Sagebrush Insurgency,” HCN, 2/2/16). I know a little about national wildlife refuges. I worked for the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service for […]
Posted inFebruary 22, 2016: Fractured
Far from home, the West’s foreign sheepherders get a pay raise
Since the ’50s, Western states have brought in international workers but offer them few of the benefits given other workers.
Posted inFebruary 22, 2016: Fractured
A wolf in elk’s clothing?
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
Posted inFebruary 22, 2016: Fractured
A strong Western snowpack, sexual harassment in the Grand Canyon and leaky oil and gas production
HCN.org news in brief.
Posted inFebruary 22, 2016: Fractured
A dry future weighs heavy on California agriculture
Something’s got to give in Central Valley farming. The only question is what.
Posted inFebruary 22, 2016: Fractured
The time of painful impossibilities
A reading by U.S. poet laureate Juan Felipe Herrera.
Posted inArticles
As oil prices drop, equipment theft climbs
Some experts point to laid-off workers, who know how much the items are worth.
Posted inFebruary 22, 2016: Fractured
The ‘poisoned landscapes’ we leave behind
Q&A with photographer David T. Hanson about his new book, ‘Wilderness to Wasteland,’ which shows a dystopian side of progress.
Posted inArticles
Scalia was Supreme Court’s leader on limiting environmental rules
A conservative legal foundation fears its winning streak may be over.
Posted inArticles
In Wyoming, a road block for public access
A tangled web of lawsuits and land sales mean people trying to access a Lincoln County wilderness area could face trespass charges.
Posted inArticles
Nonviolent protest: A lesson for the occupiers at Malheur
On a cold Tuesday in January, when the Malheur occupation was in full swing, I marched alongside demonstrators in Portland to support the ousting of the Bundys and their armed militia. We were pretty much a hodgepodge group of birders, conservationists and nature-loving pacifists. There were no guns in sight; instead, demonstrators held signs high, […]
Posted inArticles
To save their homeland, 25 tribes unite in the Southwest
Native peoples in the Southwest take the long view. They have lived in the redrock canyons of the Colorado Plateau for 12,000 years and have shown astonishing resilience in the face of devastating change in the last 500 years. Now, they bring this ancestral perspective to the management of public lands in the canyons and […]
Posted inArticles
The science behind Yellowstone’s bison cull
Some wildlife biologists say the cull makes sense — but not because bison can spread brucellosis.
Posted inArticles
Invasive plants beat natives in climate adaptation race
In California, native and endemic plants are slower to shift their ranges in response to climate change, a study shows.
Posted inArticles
Will this desert community survive its water overdraft problem?
Borrego Springs, California, was founded on the promise of endless water. Now they must conserve — or else.
Posted inArticles
Dispatch from Nevada’s cowboy poets confab
An older generation of artists looks for a younger set to take over the tradition.
Posted inArticles
Western states react strongly to Supreme Court stay of Clean Power Plan
Some states stop all work on cutting greenhouse gases but others forge ahead.
Posted inArticles
California Coastal Commission fires its executive director
The decision exposes the quintessential coastline to damage, development and closures.
Posted inArticles
Can we make sense of the Malheur mess?
A writer finds camaraderie and despair inside the Oregon standoff.