Last year Mora became the first county in the nation to permanently ban oil and gas development.
The man behind a New Mexico county’s fracking ban
Posted inJune 23, 2014: River of No Return
Woven Identities: Basketry Art of Western North America by Valerie K. Verzuh
Woven Identities: Basketry Art of Western North America Valerie K. Verzuh, 219 pages, hardcover: $34.95, Museum of New Mexico Press, 2013 Few Native American languages have a word for “art.” Basket-weaving is not considered art, in the sense of work made for display; rather, as one Apache elder says, it is the creation of “pieces […]
Posted inJune 23, 2014: River of No Return
Which tributaries should be protected like the rivers they feed?
New rules may help regulators enforce an ambiguous law.
Posted inJune 23, 2014: River of No Return
What hides in the waters
My mom spent part of her childhood in a tiny Illinois town along the Mississippi River. During spring, as the upper Midwest’s snowmelt collided with drenching rains, the river often jumped its banks, flooding cornfields with silty waters and thrashing catfish, and turning the town into a sort of Huck Finn-style Venice, its few houses […]
Posted inJune 23, 2014: River of No Return
Wannabe gonzo drivel
The false-equivalence tagline ” ‘gun nuts’ on both sides of the debate,” plus the Hunter S. Thompson wannabe photo should have been warning enough, but I went ahead and read Dan Baum’s article (“The Great Gun-Rights Divide,” HCN 5/26/14). It didn’t fail to disappoint. While not nearly as amusing as Thompson’s gonzo journalism, it was […]
Posted inJune 23, 2014: River of No Return
The catbird seat
Rick Bombaci hit many nails on the head in “The Big Nasty” (HCN, 5/26/14), but he missed a few. Before my horses and I got too old and lame to hit the mountain trails, I resorted to hanging a trash bag from my saddle horn to carry out the beer cans left by snowmobilers during the […]
Posted inJune 23, 2014: River of No Return
Summer publishing break
In our 22-issue-per-year publishing schedule, we’ll be skipping the next issue. Look for High Country News in your mailbox again around July 21. You can keep up with Western news and views on our website, hcn.org, for fresh articles, and follow us on Twitter and Facebook. June board meetingAt the tail end of May, 10 […]
Posted inJune 23, 2014: River of No Return
Duwamish sludge, from source to sink
A little over three miles from the mouth of the Lower Duwamish Waterway (once known as the Duwamish River), there is a small piece of property wreathed with chain-link fence and signs that warn in various languages of various threats to life and limb. This is Terminal 117, or T-117, former home of roofing material […]
Posted inJune 23, 2014: River of No Return
Out here meets out there
Calamity JaneBernard Schopen270 pages, softcover:$16.95.Baobab Press, 2013. After two decades of silence, former mystery writer Bernard Schopen is back with Calamity Jane, a new novel that asks serious questions about the West. His protagonist, independent filmmaker Jane Harmon, returns triumphantly from Hollywood to Blue Lake, Nevada, to showcase The Last Roundup, a documentary she’s made […]
Posted inJune 23, 2014: River of No Return
Hooligans etch on a petroglyph, a cow breaks a natural gas line and a new website helps ranchers navigate drought.
NORTH DAKOTAEveryone knows that ravens can manipulate sticks as tools, and that squawking magpies enjoy teasing dogs and cats, but who knew that cows – with their bodies alone – could make pipes spill natural gas? In Bismarck, North Dakota, one cow apparently did just that, simply by trying to satisfy an itch or maybe […]
Posted inJune 23, 2014: River of No Return
Farmstead photo
Kudos to Michael Hudson for the spectacular image of the abandoned Kansas farmstead (“These were called the High Plains,” HCN, 5/26/14). I’d be pleased to have Julene Bair refer to me as “a grass man” and would be even more pleased if I had been there when Hudson took that sad and glorious photo. Ray […]
Posted inJune 23, 2014: River of No Return
Diversity as cynical distraction
Like many in the National Park Service, as well as retirees, I think this elevation of diversity to one of the most important issues facing the agency is a cynical distraction from more serious issues like commercialization, invasive species and climate change (“Parks for All?” HCN, 5/12/14). No one is against diversity, but how serious […]
Posted inJune 23, 2014: River of No Return
A Refugee in Her Own Land
Katie Gale: A Coast Salish Woman’s Life on Oyster BayLlyn De Danaan336 pages, hardcover: $29.95.Bison Books, 2013. In Katie Gale, anthropologist Llyn De Danaan chronicles the life of a 19th century Salish woman who married a white man, gave birth to four children, became a successful oysterwoman, suffered greatly in a divorce settlement, and watched […]
Posted inJune 23, 2014: River of No Return
A new mapping tool shows how states value wildlife
Habitat seen as a crucial resource in some states more than others.
Posted inJune 23, 2014: River of No Return
A false divide
Dan Baum’s recent article would have us believe that gun violence prevention is a deeply divided, polarized issue. It is not. The fringe of the gun-rights movement, who are a small proportion of gun owners, and their deep-pocketed backers in the NRA would like us to believe this narrative, because it foments fear and helps […]
Posted inJune 23, 2014: River of No Return
A better way to save
High Country News has an ad stating, “Together, we can save a forest” (HCN, 4/14/14), encouraging subscribers to elect email over snail mail and suggesting this could save a forest. Ads like this perpetuate the myth that paper use is leading to the loss of forestland. This takes the spotlight off the real threats to […]
Posted inGoat
BP energy review reveals lingering addiction to fossil fuels
The 2014 BP Statistical Review of World Energy, released this month, is a rather dry document made up of spreadsheets and a few charts filled with stats on global energy production and consumption during 2013. But look behind the numbers, and what you’ll find is anything but dull: A detailed accounting of how much energy […]
Posted inJune 9, 2014: Border Out of Control
When a parent dies, do we let the house fall?
Every generation must decide what to do with the lives that preceded theirs.
Posted inGoat
Fuzzy math clouds carbon emission numbers
President Obama’s announcement earlier this month of new regulations requiring reductions in carbon emissions from the nation’s coal-fired power plants brought the predictable howls of doom from industry representatives, conservatives and lawmakers from coal-producing states. “The president’s plan would indeed cause a surge in electricity bills — costs stand to go up $17 billion every […]
Posted inWotr
Fighting GMO’s: a passionate bunch of people move mountains
Did this really happen? Did a young organic farmer discover that the multinational agricultural firm Syngenta had secretly planted genetically modified sugar beets (banned in the company’s native Switzerland) near his small fields, and in other leased plots around southern Oregon’s Rogue Valley? Did he then plough under his own crop because of the risk […]