From a singlewide trailer perched atop a mesa south of Moab, Utah, KZMU community radio began broadcasting in 1992. It took nine years for the station to build a modest studio next door, but the station kept growing, and in 2008, KZMU erected a solar array to power its electrical needs. Now 23 years old, […]
Without national support, rural radio stations face an uncertain future
Posted inArticles
Animas River spill: only the latest in 150 years of pollution
Mapping the other threats to the Animas and San Juan Rivers.
Posted inArticles
Wild Science: Migratory birds on the Great Salt Lake
Scientists explore how phalaropes respond to less water and increased salinity.
Posted inAugust 17, 2015: Little Big Bird
Tombstone’s true grit
Review of ‘Epitaph: A Novel of the O.K. Corral’ by Mary Doria Russell.
Posted inAugust 17, 2015: Little Big Bird
The Silicon Valley of marijuana
Local officials want Pueblo County, Colorado, to be the best place to grow, but not everyone’s high on the idea.
Posted inAugust 17, 2015: Little Big Bird
The man behind the monumental aqueduct
Review of ‘Water to the Angels’ by Les Standiford.
Posted inAugust 17, 2015: Little Big Bird
The Latest: San Carlos Apache lobbies to protect lands threatened by copper mining
Resolution Copper company engineered a land swap with the feds, but locals oppose it.
Posted inAugust 17, 2015: Little Big Bird
The Latest: Boulder-White Clouds in Idaho becomes wilderness
Congress gives the highest protection to the area — to avoid an even-larger national monument.
Posted inAugust 17, 2015: Little Big Bird
The hammer that never fell
Twenty years ago, I got into an argument with a wildlife biologist over the Endangered Species Act. Environmentalists, he said, were abusing the law in their quest to create an ecologically pristine West devoid of loggers, ranchers and other salt-of-the-earth Westerners. By relentlessly pushing the federal government to protect ever more species and habitat, and […]
Posted inAugust 17, 2015: Little Big Bird
How Utah benefits from the national parks it neglects
Sometimes you get your heart’s desire, and it’s too much. On May 23, the Utah Highway Patrol had to close the entrance to Arches National Park after traffic got backed up for five miles on the highway into nearby Moab. Southwest of Arches, Zion National Park and its gateway town of Springdale also suffer from […]
Posted inAugust 17, 2015: Little Big Bird
Sea lions feast on Columbia salmon
Fishermen, tribes and environmentalists flummoxed as predator numbers swell below Bonneville Dam.
Posted inAugust 17, 2015: Little Big Bird
Photographs of the sagebrush sea
Review of ‘Sage Spirit: The American West at a Crossroads’ by Dave Showalter.
Posted inAugust 17, 2015: Little Big Bird
Dreaming where I walk
An Indian writer becomes an American citizen — and finds herself.
Posted inAugust 17, 2015: Little Big Bird
Climate showdown, increase in driving, where the wildfires are this season, and more.
Hcn.org news in brief.
Posted inAugust 17, 2015: Little Big Bird
Tracking grazing’s impacts on bugs
A Montana biologist studies how livestock influence a favorite sage grouse food source.
Posted inAugust 17, 2015: Little Big Bird
Timeline of the sage grouse saga
One step forward, two steps back, starting from 1995.
Posted inAugust 17, 2015: Little Big Bird
The Endangered Species Act’s biggest experiment
Will an unprecedented collaborative effort and lots of tax dollars be enough to finally save sage grouse?
Posted inAugust 17, 2015: Little Big Bird
Beekeepers vs. invasive species rules on federal lands
Should apiarists be allowed to place hives of non-native honeybees on public lands?
Posted inAugust 17, 2015: Little Big Bird
Accolades and visitors
Reporter Doug Fox wins a big award for his HCN story, ‘Dust Detectives.’
Posted inAugust 17, 2015: Little Big Bird
A biker starts a fire and tourists still underestimate bison.
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.