Mining made the West, sparking the gold and silver rushes that populated the mountains and shaping the way water is shared, public lands are managed and mineral wealth flows into corporate coffers. It created boomtowns, coal towns and ghost towns. Mining has driven the economy and despoiled the environment ever since the earliest days of […]
On lodestones and millstones
Posted inJune 22, 2015: Dust to Dust
Oceanic photos and call to action
Review of ‘The Salish Sea: Jewel of the Pacific Northwest’
Posted inJune 22, 2015: Dust to Dust
Leaked natural gas, oil-price ripple effects and a live HCN forum on public lands management.
Hcn.org news in brief.
Posted inJune 22, 2015: Dust to Dust
Latest: Clean Water Act to protect more waterways
After years of confusion over which waters are protected by the EPA, Waters of the US rule is updated.
Posted inJune 22, 2015: Dust to Dust
Latest: A controversial ski resort proposal gets approval
A Colorado land swap with the Forest Service gives developers a green light.
Posted inJune 22, 2015: Dust to Dust
Durango bear attack, a driver swerves to avoid bees in Montana, Tucson wins worst streets award and more.
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
Posted inJune 22, 2015: Dust to Dust
A border crossing gone wrong
Review of ‘The Jaguar’s Children’ by John Vaillant.
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Grand Canyon floods are rebuilding sandbars
But there are limits to what can be done to tweak dam management to benefit ecosystems.
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How the West will feel groundwater shortages
New research shows stressed water supplies, as demand increases.
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Wrangell recovers from its timber hangover
Can a small Alaska town overcome the booms and busts of resource development?
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Soaking Wet in Colorado
Every day since early May, an incredibly cheerful robin has been singing from the top of a tree behind my house. Chee-oo-woot, chee-oo-woot, chee-oo-weet, chee-oo woot. He’s the Gene Kelly of birds. Because for six weeks straight it’s been snowing, hailing, spinning tornados, flooding, or pouring here in Denver. And this bird keeps singing in […]
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Lake Mead watch: six inches from the level that triggers cutbacks
If water curtailments go into effect, which states are most vulnerable, and why?
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A uranium mine is anything but a good neighbor
Driving the road between uranium mines on the Grand Canyon’s North Rim recently, I got a taste of what it’s like to live along a truck route for hauling uranium. Unfortunately, it’s a reality that may soon face anyone living between northern Arizona and southern Utah if a uranium mine reopens close to the South […]
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Hillary would charge new fees for fossil fuel extraction
Candidate for Democratic nomination tells Republican presidential hopefuls to heed scientists on global warming.
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Milltown renaissance: Who would have believed it?
Below Montana’s famous big sky, the environmental wounds of history fester. Along the banks of the Clark Fork River, for example, from Warm Springs to Milltown, Montana, one of the largest Superfund sites in the United States stretches across 120 miles of communities and streambeds. Large swaths of the Clark Fork River have slowly been […]
Posted inJune 22, 2015: Dust to Dust
Why rare-earth mining in the West is a bust
Forget the hype. In the global rush for energy-critical elements, our region can’t compete.
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Ranch Diaries: An East Coast visitor adds some perspective
Sometimes hosting an outsider is the perfect reboot.
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Canada can’t expand oil sands and also meet global climate goals
103 scientists call for a moratorium on new development.
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Go behind the scenes of wildlife science
Sneak preview of a new HCN video series that explores field research shaping the West today.
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Mapping 7 million gallons of crude oil spills
A thousand pipeline ruptures or spills reported nationwide in the past five years.