Review of “Backlands: A Novel of the American West” by Michael McGarrity.
New Mexico interregnum
Posted inDecember 8, 2014: The Great Salmon Compromise
Los Angelenos earn money off lawns, an ‘extreme walker’ and more
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
Posted inDecember 8, 2014: The Great Salmon Compromise
Industrial poisoning
Rebecca Clarren’s excellent report on the exposure of Oregonians to herbicides sprayed by timber companies brings to mind a similar struggle by the state’s citizens in the late 1970s (“Fallout,” HCN, 11/10/14). Back then, a small group of women from Alsea, Oregon, who had suffered miscarriages after exposure to herbicides sprayed by the U.S. Forest […]
Posted inDecember 8, 2014: The Great Salmon Compromise
Hurray for the level-headed
Regarding “Defuse the West” (HCN, 10/27/14), these conflicts are not restricted to the West. Most of these confrontations are initiated by redneck motorheads who apparently think they are living in 1880 and can do anything they please. These fools don’t seem to grasp the fact that ever-increasing use of our public lands demands that there […]
Posted inDecember 8, 2014: The Great Salmon Compromise
Have returning wolves really saved Yellowstone?
Researchers fear that some damage can’t be undone.
Posted inDecember 8, 2014: The Great Salmon Compromise
Finding an inner compass
Review of “Steal the North” by Brittain Bergstrom.
Posted inDecember 8, 2014: The Great Salmon Compromise
DDT still lives
“Fallout” was an extraordinary report on the perils of modern-day pesticide spraying in Gold Beach, Oregon. Apparently, the consequences of DDT spraying epitomized in Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring in 1962 have sunk deep into our memories and are now almost forgotten, once again allowing history to repeat itself. Unfortunately, most people, including senior editor Jonathan […]
Posted inDecember 8, 2014: The Great Salmon Compromise
Come to the HCN holiday open house!
Our annual open house is December 11th; cavers and consultants visit the office.
Posted inDecember 8, 2014: The Great Salmon Compromise
Bad forest policy
In a paranoid response to publicity over the recent dramatic increase in severity of wildland and interface fires, there’s a lot of forest thinning going on in a misguided attempt to reduce fire danger (“Lost in the Woods,” HCN, 9/1/14). In the 1970s, when we were thinning the Southwestern forests, I’d probably killed about a […]
Posted inDecember 8, 2014: The Great Salmon Compromise
Alaska’s energy labs
Hybrid technologies help distribute power in isolated communities.
Posted inDecember 8, 2014: The Great Salmon Compromise
A job well done
I met Barrett Funka many years ago on the trails in the Bob Marshall Wilderness (“Pack-Man,” HCN, 11/10/14). Nice to see he has “made it.” I say that tongue-in-cheek, because I know what he gets paid, and that the real reward is not in a bank account, but rather in the pride in a job […]
Posted inDecember 8, 2014: The Great Salmon Compromise
A grouse divided
Will new federal protections rescue the Gunnison sage grouse?
Posted inDecember 8, 2014: The Great Salmon Compromise
A fix for the desert tortoise
Prolific pets continue to threaten their wild cousins.
Posted inArticles
The most important wildlife management plans you’ve never heard of
Western states scramble to prepare Wildlife Action Plans, due in 2015.
Posted inArticles
Killing wolves to protect cattle may backfire
A new study raises questions about how to handle livestock conflicts.
Posted inArticles
Mining proposal threatens Arizona town’s water supply
Report outlines risks that mine will deplete aquifer and contaminate groundwater.
Posted inArticles
Cleaner air for the Cowboy State
Even remote spots like the Wind Rivers could benefit from the EPA’s proposed crack down on polluters.
Posted inArticles
The burden of being different
I’ve told this story before. This is the abbreviated version. I’d just moved to a rural mountain community high in California’s Sierra Nevada, a young father with two kids and long hair. It was 1970, the Viet Nam war raged on, and wearing long hair was often enough to provoke some people, who, on occasion, […]
Posted inArticles
Duwamish River to get $342 million more for cleanup
The EPA’s order aims to undo decades of industrial pollution to Seattle’s only river.
Posted inArticles
North Dakota, our official energy-sacrifice zone
It wasn’t unexpected that Big Oil would run rampant when it first started fracking the Bakken in western North Dakota in 2008. The region had been steadily losing population and suffering from a stagnant economy since the 1930s, so it was in no position to reject the high-paying jobs that accompanied the boom. North Dakota’s […]