In 1881, a Brulé Lakota man in South Dakota who shot and killed another member of his tribe was sentenced to death by federal officials who thought the tribal punishment of eight horses, $600 and a blanket was too lenient. The case set a precedent that certain crimes committed on tribal lands are to be […]
A report aims to change the way we think about Native justice
Posted inDecember 9, 2013: The Tree Coroners
Inside the BLM’s abrupt decision not to ban shooting in an Arizona national monument
Why guns, politics and saguaros don’t mix.
Posted inWotr
Uranium belt towns face bleak economics
A new documentary gets a good reception from both sides of the issue.
Posted inGoat
Research shows oil booms can yield long term socioeconomic decline
If an old-timer Denver wildcatter named James K. Munn has his way, there’s going to be an oil drilling boom in Escalante, Utah. Escalante’s a small town in the southern part of the state, placed right smack dab in the center of some of the most spectacular landscape in the West. Naturally, many residents, especially […]
Posted inDecember 9, 2013: The Tree Coroners
The Tree Coroners
To save the West’s forests, scientists must first learn how trees die.
Posted inGoat
States test a new prairie dog plague vaccine
Dressed in long pants, long-sleeve shirts and closed-toed shoes, a team of researchers from Colorado Parks and Wildlife gathered in a sagebrush-grass meadow near Gunnison, Colo. this summer, each with a GPS in hand. Lining up 10 meters apart along the border of a virtual grid, they walked straight lines over a Gunnison’s prairie dog […]
Posted inJanuary 11, 1980: New kind of 'public interest' group pushes growth
Farmers to try do-it-yourself sediment clean-up
In Idaho, the Environmental Protection Agency is giving farmers a shot at regulating themselves and voluntarily applying techniques to manage soil erosion. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/12.1/download-entire-issue
Posted inApril 4, 1980: Debate roils over Utah's troubled waters
Fish hawks herald man’s fate
Good news about the osprey — which was almost wiped out as a species in some parts of the U.S. before the pesticide DDT was banned in 1972 — is good news about man and the environment. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/12.7/download-entire-issue
Posted inDecember 9, 2013: The Tree Coroners
Alaska’s unexpected catch in catch-share
Fishing reform drives inequality in coastal communities.
Posted inGoat
What Arctic climate has to do with this Interior West cold snap
The recent cold snap has destroyed low temperature records in the West. In parts of Montana it hasn’t been this frigid since the ‘70s, grape growers in California have been anxious about their vines freezing, homeless shelters have been filling up, and in Oregon it’s been so cold that even a geothermal bathing pool had […]
Posted inGoat
Second Yarnell investigation reaches damning – and tragic – conclusions
As we reported in October, the first investigation of Arizona’s Yarnell Hill Fire, in which 19 hotshots were killed this summer, drew extremely cautious conclusions. No “direct causes” of the accident were identified, no one was blamed. Policies and protocols, the report said, were not violated. It was almost strangely timid, leaving some to wonder: […]
Posted inWotr
Note to concessionaires: You don’t own the land
A reminder for private companies that public land use permits don’t make them owners.
Posted inDecember 9, 2013: The Tree Coroners
Public land, locked up
In the Rocky Mountain West, more than 4 million acres of federal public land are rendered off-limits because there’s no way for the public to access them.
Posted inGoat
Feeding elk – and spreading chronic wasting disease
Imagine taking a horse-drawn sleigh ride among an elk herd numbering in the thousands. At the National Elk Refuge, such an adventure is available to winter visitors from mid-December through early April. (These) rides are the most popular winter activity, allowing riders a unique wildlife viewing experience and an incredible opportunity for photography That’s how […]
Posted inWotr
Climate anxiety is a real affliction
Understanding what “normal” weather is, in the context of history.
Posted inRange
Senate, House nearing a budget?
This is the week to watch Congress. If all goes well, Senate budget chairman Patty Murray will make a deal with the House budget chairman Paul Ryan that outlines federal spending for the rest of fiscal year 2014 and 2015. What kind of deal? As The Washington Posts Wonkblog puts it: “The budget deal Patty Murray and […]
Posted inGoat
Could the Tennessee Valley Authority put Colorado coal mines out of business?
The coal train was one of the first things I noticed when I moved to Paonia, Colo., the hometown of High Country News. When it chugged through town, whistle blasting, my bedroom windows rattled like teeth in the cold. If I was on the phone, I would tell the person on the other line to […]
Posted inNovember 25, 2013: Ecosystems 101
KDNK Radio speaks with Allen Best
Last year, when Amendment 64 legalized recreational marijuana in Colorado, it also legalized hemp. And since then, for the first time in decades, farmers around the state are considering growing the industrial fiber. On this episode of Sounds of the High Country, KDNK Radio’s collaboration with High Country News, Eric Skalac talks to reporter Allen […]
Posted inDecember 9, 2013: The Tree Coroners
Wild ideas, reconsidered
Wild Ones: A Sometimes Dismaying, Weirdly Reassuring Story About Looking at People Looking at Animals in AmericaJon Mooallem328 pages, hardcover; $27.95.Penguin Press, 2013. San Francisco-based author Jon Mooallem asks some hard questions in Wild Ones: A Sometimes Dismaying, Weirdly Reassuring Story About Looking at People Looking at Animals in America. Perhaps the hardest one, for […]