Our latest interns, Kate Schimel and Kindra McQuillan, have arrived for six months of rigorous reporting, writing and perhaps even a bit of fun. And Sarah Tory, a stellar intern from last session, is now our editorial fellow for the next year. When Kindra McQuillan was a child, her outer world was often in flux […]
Welcome, new interns!
Posted inFebruary 16, 2015: Chainsaw Diplomacy
Wastewater pipelines often leak in North Dakota
Breaches in pipelines that carry water away from the oilfields can have devastating consequences.
Posted inFebruary 16, 2015: Chainsaw Diplomacy
The Latest: Update on the endangered Pallid Sturgeon
Scientists found that dams are indeed to blame for population declines.
Posted inFebruary 16, 2015: Chainsaw Diplomacy
The Latest: New Mexico fracking ban overturned
A win for industry in the nation’s first county to ban the practice.
Posted inFebruary 16, 2015: Chainsaw Diplomacy
Statistical realism
David Hughes crunches unpopular numbers for the shale oil boom.
Posted inFebruary 16, 2015: Chainsaw Diplomacy
Shooting life’s rapids
Review of ‘If Not For This’ by Pete Fromm.
Posted inFebruary 16, 2015: Chainsaw Diplomacy
Pale hope in a dreary place
Review of ‘Pale Harvest’ by Braden Hepner.
Posted inFebruary 16, 2015: Chainsaw Diplomacy
My kind of town: Livingston, Montana
An essay on returning home to the West, after years abroad.
Posted inFebruary 16, 2015: Chainsaw Diplomacy
Long lost GoPro resurfaces; owl attacks in Oregon
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
Posted inFebruary 16, 2015: Chainsaw Diplomacy
Kaput-alism
What are we thinking? I’m thinking that capitalism and Gaia have nothing in common. It was thought in the 19th century, when imperialism justified itself with various racist faux-Darwinian scientisms, that nature fit neatly with Adam Smith’s exaltation of the free market. But now we know better. Global capitalism is destroying the planet. What thinking […]
Posted inFebruary 16, 2015: Chainsaw Diplomacy
How deep is your love?
“I love the land, and it’s different from an environmentalist’s love. We have a deep, abiding love; they have a weekend love affair. Their love is intense and passionate, but it’s not an abiding love. That kind of love comes from making a living off the land.” When Garfield County, Utah, Commissioner Louise Liston said […]
Posted inFebruary 16, 2015: Chainsaw Diplomacy
Facebook Feedback
… on Sarah Gilman’s story, “Where can we say ‘Yes’ to oil and gas?” Wade Field Dixon: “Drill here and do it right.” Joanne Hudela: “Nowhere! It’s destroying everything! Make it illegal! Decriminalize industrial hemp and help heal this planet! Oil and gas is passe and ignorant!” Steve Barry: “I HEART DRILLING.” Susan Cromer: […]
Posted inFebruary 16, 2015: Chainsaw Diplomacy
Ethics to law
In HCN’s special issue on the future, the first two essays discuss Aldo Leopold’s land ethic and William O. Douglas’ dissent in Sierra Club vs. Morton. I’d like to connect these ideas using Leopold and Christopher Stone, whose law review article Douglas cited in his dissent. In his 1949 “Land Ethic,” Leopold challenges us to expand […]
Posted inFebruary 16, 2015: Chainsaw Diplomacy
Decent landowners
Michelle Nijhuis suggests that accelerating Aldo Leopold’s land ethic and “voluntary decency” can help us meet the challenges of the modern West (“Where’s Aldo?” HCN, 1/19/15). I would offer that the first step is to recognize and support implementation of this ethic where it already exists and to understand that doing the “right thing” for […]
Posted inFebruary 16, 2015: Chainsaw Diplomacy
A recent history of land management in the Escalante region
A monumental tug of war.
Posted inFebruary 16, 2015: Chainsaw Diplomacy
Chainsaw diplomacy
In southern Utah’s Escalante watershed, a river restoration group tries to cut through old cultural barriers.
Posted inArticles
After a string of accidents, refinery workers strike for safety
Federal and state investigations have found lax safety practices at oil refineries going back a decade.
Posted inArticles
Aldo Leopold explains it all
Should nature be protected for humans or from humans?
Posted inFebruary 16, 2015: Chainsaw Diplomacy
Beautiful yet harrowing photos of urban sprawl
Review of ‘Lake Las Vegas/Black Mountain’ by Michael Light.
Posted inArticles
An experiment in privatizing public land fails after 14 years
It is no secret that some state legislators in the West want to boot federal land management agencies from their states. They argue that agencies like the Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service cost too much and are too detached from local values, and that states could make money by running our vast open […]