But not all conservation groups think the gains are worth the losses.
For public lands, massive protections in defense bill
Posted inArticles
Drilling the Arctic comes with a 75 percent chance of a large oil spill
Key findings from a new environmental analysis.
Posted inArticles
Conflicting forecasts for natural gas
A new study suggests that estimates for U.S. supplies may be vastly overstated.
Posted inArticles
Cities look to farms for help in Colorado River drought
West’s biggest water agencies finalize a major agreement to boost Lake Mead levels.
Posted inArticles
Is Las Vegas betting the Colorado River will go dry?
Las Vegas is a city that plays the odds, and if you want to know which odds to play, you need to follow the smart money. Unfortunately, that money seems to be moving toward building yet more dams that will drain yet more water out of an already oversubscribed Colorado River. Unlike most cities in […]
Posted inDecember 8, 2014: The Great Salmon Compromise
When neighbors spray herbicides next to your organic crop
Living together with local resentments in Northern California.
Posted inDecember 8, 2014: The Great Salmon Compromise
Tribal revival
As a kid, I relished stories of America’s pre-settlement wildlife abundance: Vast clouds of passenger pigeons darkening the skies for days at a time, buffalo storming across the Great Plains like massive living tornadoes, and, of course, mighty runs of salmon, so densely packed that you could walk across the writhing, red creeks without soaking […]
Posted inDecember 8, 2014: The Great Salmon Compromise
The Latest: Illegal marijuana grows busted in Colorado
The Forest Service seized more than 100,000 plants on public lands.
Posted inDecember 8, 2014: The Great Salmon Compromise
The Latest: A new tactic to quell Owen’s Valley dust
Los Angeles tries to save water and mitigate effects of sucking the valley dry.
Posted inDecember 8, 2014: The Great Salmon Compromise
The great salmon compromise
The Columbia Basin Fish Accords have funded $1 billion worth of habitat restoration projects, but can they replace free-flowing rivers?
Posted inDecember 8, 2014: The Great Salmon Compromise
Contemporary photographs of 19th century art
Review of “Karl Bodmer’s America Revisited” by Robert Lindholm.
Posted inDecember 8, 2014: The Great Salmon Compromise
Range report
What the BLM can (and can’t) tell us about the state of rangeland health.
Posted inDecember 8, 2014: The Great Salmon Compromise
New Mexico interregnum
Review of “Backlands: A Novel of the American West” by Michael McGarrity.
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.