Normally, I find your articles balanced and productive, often with suggestions for solutions and remedies. This one was simply a Border Patrol-bashing article (“Border Out of Control,” HCN, 6/9/14). The problems for the desert, its environment and the wildlife certainly were well documented, which is a good thing. But Ray Ring offers absolutely no solutions […]
No solutions in border story
Posted inSeptember 1, 2014: Lost in the Woods
A fine idea
Your wilderness issue (HCN, 7/21/14) was waiting for me on the day I returned from my own five-day reverie in Oregon’s Three Sisters Wilderness. I went on this trip to contemplate life and salute all who had a hand in creating the Wilderness Act 50 years ago. First, Christopher Ketcham’s article, “The Death of Backpacking,” gave me […]
Posted inSeptember 1, 2014: Lost in the Woods
Species shortsightedness
Sarah Jane Keller’s speculation on what the Endangered Species Act could do for animals facing climate pressure reveals a maddeningly narrow scope of political will among lawmakers and judges (“A new climate for wolverine protection,” HCN, 8/4/14). If science can give us projections of future threats to species — and it can — why wouldn’t […]
Posted inSeptember 1, 2014: Lost in the Woods
Safe crossing
Thank you for such thought-provoking articles, especially “Roads Scholar” (HCN, 8/4/14). I traveled from Ronan, Montana, to Missoula, Montana, every day to work and soon realized how valuable those animal-safety crossings would be. Then I got to see them being built. The amount and types of road kill were very dramatically reduced, thus saving lives […]
Posted inSeptember 1, 2014: Lost in the Woods
Beautifying degradation
The stunningly beautiful photographs on HCN’s Aug. 4 cover and illustrating “Idaho’s Sewer System” effectively neutralize the incisive messages in Richard Manning’s well-researched article. I bet any Idaho Big Ag exec would be proud to display any one of these on a corporate waiting room wall. After all, do not these crystalline-sharp, color-saturated views convey the […]
Posted inArticles
At ease by a creek in the wilderness
I am on my way to Kootenai Creek, a neighbor and laughing friend who spends all day, all year, all everything, tumbling down the western side of the Bitterroot Mountains in southwestern Montana. This is the edge of the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, over a million acres of forest that stretches between Montana and Idaho. Kootenai Creek […]
Posted inArticles
Celebrating the birth of the Wilderness Act
High Country News coverage of the evolution of wilderness since 1970.
Posted inArticles
We need new words for the Bakken boom
I live in western North Dakota in an area filled with life, from feisty small towns to wildlife, prairies, a national park and the national grasslands. But all of this has been buried underneath one simple term: The Bakken. The Bakken is the geological term for a shale formation of the same name that extends […]
Posted inArticles
Yes, wildlife contraception works
When my 12-year-old son encounters any phenomenon that doesn’t yet fit into his worldview, he’ll sometimes ask, “Dad, is that a ‘thing,’” meaning, is it something worth caring about? This isn’t just my son’s problem, of course; at times we all face bewildering novelty. And if it’s a thing like a new technology that makes […]
Posted inArticles
Want a trophy buck? Ditch the camo and get a guide
Study looks at successful types of big game hunters
Posted inSeptember 1, 2014: Lost in the Woods
Zen and the art of wildflower science
In the Rocky Mountains, a long-term study yields surprises.
Posted inSeptember 1, 2014: Lost in the Woods
Murder in Old San Francisco
Review of ‘Frog Music’ by Emma Donoghue
Posted inSeptember 1, 2014: Lost in the Woods
Sovereign contempt
Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson’s Lost Pacific Empire:A Story of Wealth, Ambition and SurvivalPeter Stark366 pages, hardcover: $27.99.HarperCollins, 2014. Everyone knows about the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804-’06, but another entrepreneurial foray a few years later — larger, bolder, and, ultimately, a debacle – has fallen into historical oblivion. The Astor Expedition […]
Posted inSeptember 1, 2014: Lost in the Woods
A dam difficult job
California’s drought through the eyes of a water manager.
Posted inSeptember 1, 2014: Lost in the Woods
Wildfire and bare-bottom bike riders
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
Posted inArticles
Rants from the Hill: The Bucket List
When making a to-do list is the most important thing on your to-do list.
Posted inArticles
Fracking Georgia O’Keeffe Country
Drill rigs pop up near Navajo communities, Chaco Canyon and the iconic Black Place.
Posted inSeptember 1, 2014: Lost in the Woods
From paradise to Paonia
Here in HCN’s tiny hometown, Paonia, Colorado, we remain amazed by — and grateful for — all the folks who drop by just to say hello, since Paonia is on the way to pretty much nowhere else. Ulli Lange, 80, and family and friends, visited right before July Fourth and Paonia’s Cherry Days celebration. Ulli, […]
Posted inSeptember 1, 2014: Lost in the Woods
Watching the world slip away
How our children respond to a world threatened by climate change.
Posted inSeptember 1, 2014: Lost in the Woods
Forestry fandango
In 2013, the U.S. Forest Service thinned and intentionally burned more than 2 million acres of the nation’s public land, which is largely in the West, in order to improve forest health and reduce the risk of destructive wildfires near houses and towns. That’s an impressive figure, until you consider that the agency itself acknowledges […]