Hybrid technologies help distribute power in isolated communities.
Alaska’s energy labs
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.
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Mining proposal threatens Arizona town’s water supply
Report outlines risks that mine will deplete aquifer and contaminate groundwater.
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Cleaner air for the Cowboy State
Even remote spots like the Wind Rivers could benefit from the EPA’s proposed crack down on polluters.
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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.
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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 […]
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Little sympathy for the deerly departed
It’s 5:30, dusk scudding into darkness. A fawn stands on the centerline of Highway 20, gazing with vacant curiosity into my Pathfinder’s grille as the truck’s brake pads challenge the laws of physics having to do with objects at rest and in motion. A car is barreling down at us from the other direction. The […]
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The linchpin to a national supergrid
Clovis, New Mexico, may link three grids and become a renewable energy hub.
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Light rail exists in Denver, and comes to Phoenix
Nelson Harvey takes a ride on Denver’s light rail to see whether it’s changed his city for the better.
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Rants from the Hill: Desert Insomnia
Living the not-so-quiet life in the rural West.
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What 4-H teaches 7 million kids about food
A new book explores what the century-old organization looks like today.
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Nevada wilderness bill is wilderness in name only
The U.S. Senate is set to take up a deeply flawed Nevada wilderness bill in the November lame-duck session. If passed, it would set terrible precedents for all future wilderness bills. The bill, HR 5205, introduced by Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev., bundles together seven separate Nevada lands bills, and after being amended by the House […]
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Plans for the Village at Wolf Creek move forward
Controversial southern Colorado resort takes another step toward construction.
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Why are Hopi rangers impounding sheep at Black Mesa?
The latest in a fraught relationship between Navajo and Hopi in northern Arizona.