Usually, the lies we tell ourselves are subconscious and hard to describe. That’s why I found two items in HCN‘s recent “urban sustainability” issue so maddening (1/20/14). In “The Vegas Paradox,” Jonathan Thompson informs us that southern Nevada’s official goals would have developers building huge numbers of new “Water Smart” homes by 2035 to achieve […]
One man’s sustainable city is another’s environmental scourge
Posted inFebruary 17, 2014: The Gila $olution
Older and wiser
I first heard of WildEarth Guardians’ quiet effort to buy out grazing permits in New Mexico’s Gila country more than two years ago. Headlines instantly blared in my head: “Anti-grazing enviros pay off anti-enviro ranchers to make way for wolves!” What a great story, I thought: It would show enemies becoming if not friends, then […]
Posted inFebruary 17, 2014: The Gila $olution
New HCN employees and several visitors at the office.
Thank you for helping us blow our gift-subscription goal out of the water! Our loyal readers gave their friends and families more than 1,600 holiday gift subscriptions. We joyfully welcome our new readers and thank our existing ones for sharing your commitment to our journalism and to the region that binds us together. New development […]
Posted inFebruary 17, 2014: The Gila $olution
Montana escape
High and InsideRussell Rowland230 pages, softcover: $16.95Bangtail Press, 2013. Ex-Red Sox pitcher Pete Hurley comes to Bozeman to start a new life after a series of tragic mishaps that left him publicly shamed in Massachusetts. “Just as I was about to get over the incident that ended my baseball career,” he explains, “a drunken accident […]
Posted inFebruary 17, 2014: The Gila $olution
How political extremism and primary reforms limit choices for Western voters
‘Top-two’ primary systems banish third parties from the ballot.
Posted inFebruary 17, 2014: The Gila $olution
Counterpoint: Brave New L.A.
In his essay, “Brave New L.A.,” Jon Christensen cites what he considers two pivotal and progressive moments in Los Angeles’ quest for sustainability: the July rise of former Los Angeles City Council Member Eric Garcetti to the mayor’s office and the November centenary of the Los Angeles Aqueduct (HCN, 1/20/14). Both occasions can equally be […]
Posted inGoat
Owls react to megafire and climate trends in central Colorado
In the 1980s, when ecologist Brian Linkhart first started digging around in old woodpecker holes in Colorado for flammulated owls – fuzzy, black-eyed creatures weighing just one to two ounces – his research was all about the birds. He wanted to understand if and where the secretive little animals were breeding – questions he pursued […]
Posted inArticles
A city beyond the fog and under one roof
Photographs of isolation and community in Whittier, Alaska.
Posted inGoat
Boldt ruling to let Natives manage fisheries is still vastly influential, 40 years later
The Boldt Decision turned 40 this week, marking four decades since tribes of the Pacific Northwest were granted a 50-50 share of salmon and steelhead fisheries and co-manager status over their natural resources. Just this week, Washington state legislators are expected to decide on a bill that would pardon the dozens of activists arrested in […]
Posted inGoat
Of mice and myth: Colorado flood recovery the latest chapter in Preble’s mouse saga
The Preble’s meadow jumping mouse makes for an unlikely villain. It’s an unassuming, nocturnal rodent that spends its life scurrying through streamside brush, gnawing on bugs and seeds. When imperiled, as it often is by owls and foxes, it can leap three feet in the air. Sixty percent of its body length is tail. And, […]
Posted inWotr
A rock star was my teacher
Re-encountering a science nut who instilled in me a love of wilderness.
Posted inGoat
Policies and pollinators: How the feds deepen the precipitous decline of monarchs
The numbers are in from Mexico, and they ain’t pretty. Every fall, monarch butterflies fly thousands of miles from the Great Plains to their winter grounds in central Mexico, where they’re scrupulously counted by the World Wildlife Fund. In 1996, the overwintering monarchs blanketed 45 acres of forest. This year, they cover only about 1.6 […]
Posted inWotr
Recapture Canyon and an illegal ATV trail
A Utah county attempts to gain right of way on an illegal ATV trail built on public land.
Posted inGoat
Troubleweeds: Russian thistle buries roads and homes in southeastern Colorado
J.D. Wright pauses to check in with his wife of 51 years. “Do you remember, Mama, when that wind was?” After a few minutes perusing her cellphone photos, she reports back: Tumbleweeds first buried the house on November 17. The gusts screamed up and there they were, piled so deep over the doors and windows […]
Posted inWotr
I admit it: I’m an environmental hypocrite
Yup, I hang my clothes to dry – right after I burn fossil fuels to get them clean.
Posted inFebruary 3, 2014: The Hanford Whistleblowers
Wilderness therapy redefines itself
But the irresponsible caregivers and tragedies of the past prove hard to shake.
Posted inGoat
With Gila River deadline looming, New Mexico debates its water options
In the Colorado River drainage basin, where states and cities routinely wrestle over limited water, and where a 14-year drought may portend long-term scarcity, new water sources are rare and precious. Thanks to a decade-old settlement, New Mexico has access to just such a resource. But, after years of debate, and with just months before […]
Posted inFebruary 3, 2014: The Hanford Whistleblowers
The Hanford Whistleblowers
For decades, insiders have reported problems in the cleanup of our worst nuclear mess — but is anyone listening?
Posted inOctober 26, 1973: Black clouds gather
Superb wilderness considered
The Forest Service will hold hearings on management proposals for the primitive areas that border Idaho’s Salmon River, a chunk of land that could become one of the largest wilderness areas in the lower 48 states. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/5.21/download-entire-issue
Posted inFebruary 3, 2014: The Hanford Whistleblowers
An ode to snow
Laura Pritchett on the joy of snow.