The mustard-colored water flowing down the Animas River in southwestern Colorado is a painful reminder of the lengthy gestation time of environmental disasters. The ugly surge was unleashed last week by an EPA contractor, which unwittingly breached a dike that allowed contaminated water from the Gold King Mine to flood into Cement Creek, a tributary […]
Lessons from the Animas River: dig first, clean up later
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Ranch Diaries: Selfie culture meets rustic ranch life
We miss a lot with a device in front of our eyes, a filter between us and the real world.
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When our river turned orange
Nine things you need to know about the Animas River mine waste spill.
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How the Point Reyes oyster battles challenged our idea of wilderness
Review of a new book, ‘Oyster War’ by Summer Brennan.
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Military and enviros align in Arizona’s public lands debate
Demand for housing, recreation and energy development means military bases could lose essential buffer land.
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How a long-sought Idaho wilderness bill defies the odds
The threat of a national monument gets Boulder-White Clouds the highest protection.
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Filling an empty nest with chickens
When my daughter was a high school senior, she asked if she could keep chickens in the backyard. My first thought was, “Great. Another thing to take care of.” But I have always been stingy about letting her keep animals, so I agreed. Besides, I figured we could use the eggs. My daughter built a […]
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California drought renews push for water storage projects
A long-standing proposal to enlarge Shasta Dam gets a boost from the Bureau of Reclamation.
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Wild Science: Is climate change helping the Uinta ground squirrel?
Go behind the scenes of capturing and tracking this prolific species.
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Congress should appoint delegates to represent tribal nations
Why indigenous voices are needed to make U.S. a better democracy.
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Powder River Basin coal is fast becoming a “stranded asset”
Nine years ago, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Company embarked on a campaign to improve its freight service in and out of the coal-rich Powder River Basin of Montana and Wyoming. Times were good, the coal industry was booming, and BNSF was getting political pressure to beef up its Powder River Basin infrastructure to help meet […]
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Sparks fly in Colorado over the EPA’s Clean Power Plan
State attorney general may challenge the emissions limit, though a top state environment official supports it.
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Obama slashes greenhouse gas emissions from power plants
The EPA’s historic Clean Power Plan makes a big push for renewables.
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The desert doesn’t need this “City”
When President Obama announced central Nevada’s new Basin and Range National Monument July 10, the White House described the area as “one the most undisturbed corners of the broader Great Basin region.” That’s ironic, given that the monument includes a parcel of private ranchland where, for more than four decades, a man named Michael Heizer has […]
Posted inAugust 3, 2015: Outflanked
Young men and fire
Review of “On the Burning Edge: A Fateful Fire and the Men Who Fought It” by Kyle Dickman.
Posted inAugust 3, 2015: Outflanked
Wilderness vs. mining, Roundup research and Western prisons
Hcn.org news in brief.
Posted inAugust 3, 2015: Outflanked
Tracing the Yampa River where it flows free
Review of “Colorado’s Yampa River” by John Fielder.
Posted inAugust 3, 2015: Outflanked
The Latest: Oregon governor passes ethics reforms
The new reforms bar governors’ partners from using their position for personal gain.
Posted inAugust 3, 2015: Outflanked
Surprise attack
In his letter “High-Flyin’ Hypocrisy,” (HCN, 6/8/15) Robert Michael accuses Kathleen Dean Moore of hypocrisy for considering mankind’s destruction of the world because her plane uses the very fuel being produced by the horrors she observes on the ground beneath her. He might have a point, except for the fact that she never separates herself […]
Posted inAugust 3, 2015: Outflanked
Arrival of the cost-benefit state
The Supreme Court wants the Environmental Protection Agency to weigh human health against costs to industry.