BackstoryCalifornia condors were nearly extinct by the 1980s. Thanks to habitat loss, wanton shooting, egg collecting, and the scavenger’s propensity for eating animal carcasses tainted by lead bullet fragments, fewer than 30 remained. After decades of captive breeding, about 200 condors now fly free in central California, Utah, Arizona and Mexico. But death by lead […]
The Latest: California is first state to ban lead ammunition to protect condors
Posted inNovember 11, 2013: Cosmic Prospecting
Regret and hope
Thanks very much for M. John Fayhee’s story, “Whose Apache Homelands?” (HCN, 10/14/13). What a sad history – doubly so because it’s forgotten and unknown by so many of us, just like nearly all Native American history in the United States. It’s good to know that there are possibilities for moving forward, that some still […]
Posted inNovember 11, 2013: Cosmic Prospecting
Political theater – with consequences
Suspending regulations? A review of irrational red tape? Boards of experts being replaced by political appointees (“A groundwater legacy on the rocks,” HCN, 10/14/13)? The Republican governor of Indiana used the exact same rhetoric as New Mexico’s governor, and called for the review of environmental regulations by folks with little expertise. These sorts of moves […]
Posted inNovember 11, 2013: Cosmic Prospecting
A timeline of our fascination with outer space
The Southwest has long been a locus for space-related activities – and cosmic secrets. Its clear, dark skies are ideal for stargazing, while its isolated deserts are perfect for cutting-edge scientific research and for conspiracy and extraterrestrial enthusiasts. From meteorites colliding with Earth millennia ago to the dream of reaching space ourselves, we have an […]
Posted inNovember 11, 2013: Cosmic Prospecting
Mailbox surprise
The staff and board were surprised and deeply humbled by the generous check that arrived in our mailbox last month, a bequest from the late Gerald Hollingworth of Steamboat Springs, Colo. Gerald was a longtime reader who shared High Country News articles with his friends and engaged them in long conversations on many Western subjects, including […]
Posted inNovember 11, 2013: Cosmic Prospecting
I love guns and coffee
Mishaps and mayhem from around the West.
Posted inNovember 11, 2013: Cosmic Prospecting
Failed secession movements litter the West
Will they ever succeed?
Posted inNovember 11, 2013: Cosmic Prospecting
An unfair portrait of decline
I was shocked to see a photo of an old motel here in Deming that has been closed for quite some time in a recent issue. It gave the impression that we are approaching ghost town status. We are 17 miles west of Akela Flats, the proposed site of the Apache Homelands Casino, the subject […]
Posted inNovember 11, 2013: Cosmic Prospecting
A survivor, searching for soul
The Old Man’s Love StoryRudolfo Anaya176 pages, hardcover: $19.95.University of Oklahoma Press, 2013. “Letting go of one’s soul mate is not easy.” So writes award-winning author and retired University of New Mexico professor Rudolfo Anaya in his latest novel, The Old Man’s Love Story. Inspired by the death of his beloved wife, Patricia, in 2010, […]
Posted inNovember 11, 2013: Cosmic Prospecting
A review of Our Beautiful, Fragile World: The Nature and Environmental Photographs of Peter Essick
Our Beautiful, Fragile World: The Nature and Environmental Photographs of Peter Essick Foreword by Jean-Michel Cousteau, 122 pages, $34.95. Rocky Nook, 2013. “I know that when people see and feel the beauty of the natural world, they understand in a profound way the need to take care of our water planet,” writes Jean-Michel Cousteau, son […]
Posted inNovember 11, 2013: Cosmic Prospecting
A historic climb revisited
The Seventymile Kid: The Lost Legacy of Harry Karstens and the First Ascent of Mount McKinleyTom Walker304 pages, softcover: $19.95Mountaineers Books, 2013. Many readers know that, 100 years ago, the Hudson Stuck expedition successfully summited Mount McKinley, North America’s highest peak. But fewer are aware of the integral role played by the expedition’s most experienced […]
Posted inGoat
Obama picks Nevadan Neil Kornze as next BLM head
A native Nevadan is expected to become the next overseer of much of the West’s public lands. Neil Kornze is President Obama’s nominee to head the Bureau of Land Management, which manages 245 million acres, mostly in Western states. Kornze joined the agency in 2011, and has been its principal deputy director since March. He […]
Posted inApril 16, 1982: The Big Secret: Highly toxic pesticides in the Rockies
Western chauvinism
To discredit a person’s testimony before a committee of the Idaho House of Representatives, all one need do is prove that the witness was born in some other state. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/14.8/download-entire-issue
Posted inApril 16, 1982: The Big Secret: Highly toxic pesticides in the Rockies
The Big Secret: Highly toxic pesticides in the Rockies
Although the use of toxic chemicals for agriculture in the Rocky Mountains is a public health concern, it is not a matter of public record. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/14.8/download-entire-issue
Posted inGoat
Will Obama’s climate preparation order force flood planners into the future?
It’s been over a month since rain-swollen creeks tore through roads and flooded homes in Colorado’s Front Range. While the camera crews have long since gone home, the disaster isn’t over for families who suffered property damage. Of the 20,000 single-family homes in the Boulder area, only 3,504 had flood insurance – one of the […]
Posted inOctober 28, 2013: Lifeblood of the Delta
Backcountry culture clashes in the North Cascades
A hunter-backpacker examines the divides between user groups.
Posted inGoat
Teton pronghorn take to highway crossings the third time around
For 15 days last year, Renee Seidler, a scientist with the Wildlife Conservation Society, sat in a truck near a highway and watched the fall migration of Wyoming’s pronghorn. It was the first time since the construction of Highway 191 that the 300-head Teton herd had an alternative to dodging cars and trucks to get […]
Posted inGoat
Dead Southern California puma would have spread genetic diversity
As I wrote in High Country News last spring, the pumas of Southern California’s Santa Monica Mountains are dying — slowly, but quite literally — for lack of genetic diversity. Blocked from migration by freeways, development and the Pacific Ocean, the lions have begun to inbreed; researchers studying the lions have, through DNA tests, found […]
Posted inWotr
Wolf populations should be assessed by packs, not individuals
The government’s decision to delist gray wolves is flawed.
Posted inGoat
Salt Lake City water managers troubleshoot climate change with local data
In many Western cities, municipal water management is a job tied to the mountains. In Salt Lake City, for example, 80 percent of the city’s water supply comes from snowpack in seven Uinta and Wasatch Mountain watersheds. Yet it’s becoming all too clear that the mountains’ water yield will decrease, come earlier in the year, […]