How three Western Republicans are defying party ideology by accepting the Medicaid expansion.
Western GOP governors buck their party on Obamacare
Posted inOctober 28, 2013: Lifeblood of the Delta
The long journey of the Gila trout
Destructive New Mexico fires may have a silver lining for a threatened fish.
Posted inGoat
New satellite technology to detect wildfires an acre in size
What started as a small blaze in the backcountry of central California this summer became the 250,000-acre Yosemite Rim Fire that forced thousands of nearby residents out of their homes. The tab at the end of the fire fighting efforts tallied over $100 million, and that’s not including lost revenue, damaged structures or the tens […]
Posted inOctober 28, 2013: Lifeblood of the Delta
Zombies invade the West!
Well, perhaps not yet, but it’s only a matter of time before the flesh-eating hordes are upon us. And who better to dodge the undead than High Country News? Not only are we well-versed in geography, as publishing industry veterans, we’re proven survivalists. So what’s our advice? This article appeared in the print edition of […]
Posted inOctober 28, 2013: Lifeblood of the Delta
How does the Colorado River drought stack up?
It’s one of the worst of the millennium.
Posted inOctober 28, 2013: Lifeblood of the Delta
The Latest: Montana puts new limits on renewable energy contracts
Updated 10/29/13 BackstoryIdaho is one of the few Western states that doesn’t mandate that some percentage of its electricity come from renewable sources. With little incentive to promote such projects, Idaho Power, the state’s biggest utility, lobbied regulators to effectively lock out new commercial wind farms in 2010. It lowered the maximum size for renewable […]
Posted inOctober 28, 2013: Lifeblood of the Delta
Let’s all fire our machine guns at once!
Mishaps and mayhem from around the West.
Posted inOctober 28, 2013: Lifeblood of the Delta
HCN’s Coverage of the Federal Shutdown
The following comments were posted in response to Jonathan Thompson’s blog, “The shutdown hits the West harder.” Thompson considered the region’s high percentage of federal employees and uninsured. It’s not just feds who are furloughedThank you for pointing out that the furloughed employees are not all in Washington, D.C., and are not all “federal” employees. […]
Posted inOctober 28, 2013: Lifeblood of the Delta
Fall ‘friendraiser’ and board meeting
The first snow was fluttering down when High Country News‘ staff and board members arrived in Hailey, Idaho, for a late September meeting. But the white flakes couldn’t quite cover the black tracks left by a summer fire that rampaged down ravines to the edge of town. Signs – many in front of insurance offices […]
Posted inOctober 28, 2013: Lifeblood of the Delta
Big water, big dreams
The Emerald Mile: the Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand CanyonKevin Fedarko432 pages, hardcover: $30.Scribner, 2013. When did we get so petty? At a time when we’re faced with huge issues – a changing climate, a healthcare crisis, a democracy threatened by money in politics, the legacy […]
Posted inOctober 28, 2013: Lifeblood of the Delta
A review of At Home in the West: The Lure of Public Land
At Home in the West: The Lure of Public LandWilliam S. Sutton, with Toby Jurovics and Susan B. Moldenhauer, 200 pages, hardcover: $50. George F. Thompson Publishing, 2013. In the essay that kicks off his beautiful black-and-white photography book, At Home in the West: The Lure of Public Land, William S. Sutton says he began […]
Posted inOctober 28, 2013: Lifeblood of the Delta
A delta reborn in drought
K-K-KKSSSSCH. It was the noise we all dreaded aboard the Rusty Pickle, one of three rafts floating down the muddy San Juan River in southeast Utah. The gravelly grind – felt in the teeth as much as heard by the ears – became a regular feature as our boats beached on sandbar after sandbar, forcing […]
Posted inOctober 28, 2013: Lifeblood of the Delta
The Latest: Woodland caribou are in danger of disappearing from the U.S.
Environmental groups file suit over caribou habitat.
Posted inGoat
“Idiot-proof” citizen science results in 16 new diatom species
Loren Bahls is not your typical retiree. After stepping down as head of water quality management for the state of Montana in 1996 – then retiring again from private consulting in 2009 – Bahls finally found time to pursue his real passion: Tiny, glass-walled microbes called diatoms that practically cover the surface of the Earth. […]
Posted inGoat
Immigration reform bills still give feds rein to trample border ecology
The environmental onslaught caused by the construction of the U.S.-Mexico border fence may have started with a mouse. When the federal government first built a section of border fence south of San Diego in 1990, it left nearby grasses – habitat to an imperiled mouse – to grow long to comply with the Endangered Species […]
Posted inOctober 14, 2013: The New Geronimo?
New Mexico’s groundwater protections may take a hit
The state has long been a leader in this area – is that about to change?
Posted inWotr
Not all endangered species live in the forest
Struggling individuals in the rural West deserve as much support as, say, grizzlies.
Posted inGoat
California’s energy storage requirement may revolutionize the grid
The spring of 2011 was wetter than usual in the Pacific Northwest. A huge snow year was followed by rain, and during the peak runoff water was ripping through the hydroelectric turbines on Bonneville Power Administration’s dams. Spring is also the windy season, and hundreds of new turbines in the region were also pumping juice […]
Posted inWotr
Fresh look at the wolf-grizzly relationship
An essay on the Yellowstone study that shows these predators’ fascinating survival dance.