Well, they’re not exactly kids, but HCN is pleased to welcome two new interns to our Paonia, Colorado, office for six months of journalism boot camp. And we’re also delighted that Krista Langlois, our extraordinary editorial fellow, is staying for another six months. Growing up in Toronto, new editorial intern Sarah Tory devoured books on […]
New kids in town
Posted inAugust 4, 2014: Idaho's Sewer System
Meeting needs
I respect John Olivas’ choice to ban fracking from his area (“Ready for a fight,” HCN, 6/23/14). But on the other side of the coin, in areas like Wyoming that derive a lot of money from fossil fuel activities, the environmentalist should respect our choice to prefer jobs. The Environmental Protection Agency’s latest emission rules […]
Posted inAugust 4, 2014: Idaho's Sewer System
Lay of the land
How to Read the American West: A Field GuideWilliam Wyckoff384 pages, paperback: $44.95.University of Washington Press, 2014. Too hefty to be carried in a hip pocket or even a daypack, William Wyckoff’s How To Read The American West is a field guide unlike any other, with a focus on patterns, variations and the distribution of […]
Posted inAugust 4, 2014: Idaho's Sewer System
Future defenders
Maybe instead it’s the death of parenting (HCN, 7/21/14). Take your children backpacking. Start ’em early and start small. It can be done. Get creative. Make it happen. Leave the devices at home. It does not need to be expensive. No doubt it’s cheaper than 129 other things Americans do on vacation. Lord knows wildlands […]
Posted inAugust 4, 2014: Idaho's Sewer System
Early eulogies
Methinks Christopher Ketcham is a bit premature with his eulogy, “The death of backpacking?” (HCN, 7/21/14). Backpacking is not so much a sport as an activity whose ebb and flow in popularity reflects that of the natural world he enters on his sojourns. Nothing in that world stays the same. It gets hot, it gets […]
Posted inAugust 4, 2014: Idaho's Sewer System
Climate changes for wolverine listing
What good can the Endangered Species Act do in a warming world?
Posted inAugust 4, 2014: Idaho's Sewer System
California water waster fines and condoms from conservationists.
COLORADOYou could almost hear the teeth gnashing in Aspen. A well-connected man, Robert K. Steel, chairman of the board of the Aspen Institute, exploited a loophole in county regulations so that his daughter could be married in remote splendor – in a “pristine sub-alpine meadow on the backside of Aspen Mountain at 10,000 in elevation,” […]
Posted inAugust 4, 2014: Idaho's Sewer System
A once nomadic firefighter decides to stay put
There’s a wildfire burning three miles from my house. Sparked by lightning, the column of smoke went nuclear yesterday, pushing flame through deadfall on the rugged shoulder of Chief Joseph Mountain in northwestern Oregon. This is a mountain we climb and ski and hike, the place where, with a glance, we can see the elevation […]
Posted inRange
Rants from the Hill: Hunting for Scorpions
“Rants from the Hill” are Michael Branch’s monthly musings on life in the high country of western Nevada’s Great Basin Desert. Our seven-year-old daughter, Caroline, is a tireless athlete, while her older sister, Hannah, is the family intellectual. This is why my wife, Eryn, and I were surprised when Caroline chose for her weeklong summer […]
Posted inAugust 4, 2014: Idaho's Sewer System
The Latest: 20,000 Utah acres protected from drilling
BackstoryFor years, Utah conservationists struggled to protect sensitive environments from four-wheeling, oil and gas and other development – until conservative lawmakers like Republican Rep. Rob Bishop realized that state-held lands with wilderness characteristics could be used to bargain for mineral-rich, federally owned tracts. In 2013, Bishop began negotiating a compromise with wilderness advocates, off-roaders and […]
Posted inGoat
Was the fatal thunderstorm in California a climate phenomenon?
The weather of Venice Beach, California, where I live, is for the most part stable, and almost always predictable. No sudden squalls appear out of the southwest to chase skateboarders off their concrete ramps; never do we hear the civil-defense sirens warning of an approaching tornado. Living here, swimming and surfing at the beach a […]
Posted inGoat
Colorado water users gird for first statewide plan
Last year, 14 years into a regional drought, forecasts predicted that as many as 2.5 million Coloradans could be without sufficient water supplies by 2050. And yet the state still had no official plan to deal with its looming water crisis. In response to the troubling situation, Governor Hickenlooper issued an executive order: Colorado needed […]
Posted inJuly 21, 2014: On the Wild Edge
The virtues of old-school car camping
Backwoods adventure isn’t the only way to develop an affinity for the outdoors.
Posted inGoat
Colorado River Basin groundwater levels drop even faster than reservoirs
When Lake Mead is full it’s the largest reservoir in the U.S., capable of holding two years’ worth of water from the Colorado River. But the Southwest has been trapped in a 14-year drought, and the states Mead feeds – Nevada, Arizona and California – are thirsty. The reservoir is now only about half full […]
Posted inJuly 21, 2014: On the Wild Edge
Gear companies go local
A new crop of manufacturers try to succeed without selling out.
Posted inWotr
Why I am a Tea Party member
Every once in a while, someone asks me why I helped start the Tea Party in Bozeman, Montana. To make the story short, I say something like this: It was spring 2009, and I’d become increasingly disenchanted with both political parties’ support of rampant government overspending; I worried about its impact on our nation and […]
Posted inJuly 21, 2014: On the Wild Edge
Are we smart enough to solve our raven problem?
As ravens spread, they’re finding friends and foes in Western states.
Posted inGoat
‘Lucking out’ for Wyoming’s winter smog
Air quality gets a boost from the state’s infamous sagebrush and wind.
Posted inGoat
The work of a Wall Street wrangler
Jay Ellis will consider buying scenic ranchland across the West on two conditions. First, the acreage needs to be close enough to towns with “amenities” — entertainment, places to eat, and an airport or landing strip. The parcel also needs to contain “live water,” or some combination of lakes, rivers and streams. Then, after spending […]