How bad are these ungulates for the ecosystem?
Non-native goats in Utah’s La Sal Mountains
Posted inDecember 22, 2014: The Dust Detectives
Hunting for scorpions
Seeking one of Earth’s most ancient land invertebrates.
Posted inDecember 22, 2014: The Dust Detectives
Holiday publishing break
Welcome new employees, and farewell Martin Litton
Posted inDecember 22, 2014: The Dust Detectives
Grinchosaurus in Utah, an exchange of letters with Wendell Berry and more.
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
Posted inDecember 22, 2014: The Dust Detectives
Game of drones
Nevada looks to the boom in unmanned aerial vehicles for an economic boost.
Posted inDecember 22, 2014: The Dust Detectives
Fish out of (wild) water
I read with great interest this week’s feature about the Indian perspective on salmon restoration in the Columbia Basin, a subject I have studied for many years (“The Great Salmon Compromise,” HCN, 12/8/14). The author covered one aspect of a complex subject rather well, but he left out several pertinent facts. Hatchery-bred fish do not […]
Posted inDecember 22, 2014: The Dust Detectives
Dust to dust
That early spring afternoon looked like the opening shot for a bad doomsday flick. The sky west of Paonia, Colorado, brooded yellow at first, fading to sepia around its edges. Then, as the wind rose, it gusted to a hard orange-red. The mountain skyline to the southeast — just that morning, a white and blue […]
Posted inDecember 22, 2014: The Dust Detectives
Descent into an ice-age bonebed in Wyoming
The giant pit may hold clues about the demise of the West’s ancient megafauna.
Posted inDecember 22, 2014: The Dust Detectives
Aerial photos of drilling at Pawnee grassland
Oil and gas development has been ongoing for decades in northeastern Colorado.
Posted inDecember 22, 2014: The Dust Detectives
A question of fluency on the Navajo Nation
A cultural debate leaves the presidency in limbo.
Posted inArticles
The oil boom hasn’t busted, but it’s straining at the seams
Oil patch communities and states are starting to feel the impacts of sliding prices.
Posted inArticles
Remembering an environmental science pioneer
Theo Colborn uncovered effects of chemicals, like those used in fracking, on the human body.
Posted inArticles
When Christmas was all about hard times and a little frolicking
As near as I can tell from historical accounts, in order to celebrate a traditional Christmas in the West a couple of hundred years ago, you needed to get so riotous and tipsy that you could forget that you were starving. Rather than decorate any evergreen trees, you’d happily burn them as firewood. In 1800, […]
Posted inArticles
A progress report on the Colorado River pulse
Researchers are sifting through the impacts of last spring’s release.
Posted inArticles
How Native Americans have shaped the year’s biggest environmental debates
And how lawmakers can improve their record next year.
Posted inArticles
What I learned from 30 years with the Forest Service
After working for the Forest Service for 30 years, I finally had to write a book about it — especially about some of the painful lessons I learned. Here are just a few of them. It will come as no surprise that it wasn’t easy being a woman in what was, and remains, a man’s […]
Posted inArticles
Enough is enough at the Glen Canyon Recreation Area
Glen Canyon National Recreation Area is a mess. Amazingly, it’s not so much from the reservoir that drowned it 50 years ago; it’s because of what the park’s visitors are doing to it today. I say this because I’ve spent most of my career photographing wilderness areas in Grand Canyon, Vermilion Cliffs National Monument and […]
Posted inArticles
Killings by cops are much more common in Western states
Arrest-related death rates are highest in New Mexico, with Nevada and Oregon close behind.
Posted inArticles
Vigiling with Dad
He tells me to park close to the vigil site, but far enough down the block to allow for a view from the street. It is noon, a spectacular fall day. The sun is edging onto the bench where dad likes to sit. We unload signs – “War Is Not The Answer,” “An Eye for […]
Posted inArticles
For public lands, massive protections in defense bill
But not all conservation groups think the gains are worth the losses.