Hotels, raft guiding outfits and other tourism-dependent businesses in and around Western national parks have collectively lost millions of dollars each day that the government has been in partial shutdown. According to the Arizona Republic, the biggest hotel near Grand Canyon National Park had about half the occupancy it normally does this time of year, […]
Which Western politicians are to blame for the shutdown?
Posted inWotr
In describing weather, remember the caveats
The numbers get squirrely when it comes to explaining massive flooding.
Posted inArticles
Travels with migrant farmworkers
A conversation with Seth Holmes about on-the-ground research for his new book.
Posted inGoat
Montana’s largest utility diversifies its energy mix with hydropower
Montana’s largest utility company, NorthWestern Energy, is moving to diversify its energy mix – an increasing trend in the industry. Seeing the regulatory noose tightening on coal, and questioning the long-term promise of natural gas, the company recently announced plans to buy Montana’s 11 hydroelectric dams from their Pennsylvanian owners. By adding 630 megawatts of […]
Posted inGoat
When a rare puma dies during a government shutdown, who do you call?
Dan Cooper didn’t know about the mountain lion until the local news media called on Monday afternoon to tell him. By that time, the animal had been dead for several hours; all anyone knew was that it had been struck by a car on the 101 freeway, which cuts through the Santa Monica Mountains on […]
Posted inRange
Rants from the Hill: Seashells on Desert Mountaintops
“Rants from the Hill” are Michael Branch’s monthly musings on life in the high country of western Nevada’s Great Basin Desert. Our daughter Caroline is six years old, a fact that is less important to her than the much more exciting fact that she is about to turn seven. The other day Caroline and I […]
Posted inWotr
Why we don’t “get” climate change
Does humanity’s poor time-depth perception explain our lack of environmental coordination?
Posted inGoat
A family’s mission to document the most isolated spot in each state
Let there be no mistake: Rebecca and Ryan Means don’t hate roads. “We enjoy driving around on them,” Ryan says. “But what we’re saying is we have plenty. Maybe as a country we should think about not laying any more down.” Rebecca, 40, and Ryan, 41, are conservation biologists from Florida, and they’re on a […]
Posted inSeptember 16, 2013: Intimate Geographies
Ruth Kirk, pioneering guidebook author
A natural and human histories expert of the West reflects on her work.
Posted inArticles
Kids will be kids
Photographer Rebecca Drobis looks for universal images of youth on the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana.
Posted inArticles
We need a locagua movement
Whole Foods Market earlier this year opened a store in the Colorado mountain town of Frisco. Located at 9,097 feet, it can boast it’s the chain’s highest-elevation outlet. Like each of the 393 other Whole Foods markets, the Frisco store goes out of its way to emphasize local connections. In a nod to Frisco’s four […]
Posted inWotr
Repairing flood-damaged roads means paying more taxes
It’s time for Coloradans to step up.
Posted inGoat
New Mexico’s Valles Caldera Preserve will soon welcome hikers
In northern New Mexico’s Jemez Mountains, hikers are finally getting access to some stunning lands that have long been off limits – the 89,000 acres of the Valles Caldera Preserve. Starting Dec. 6, 2013, much of the preserve’s forests, meadows and streams will be opened* to unrestricted cross-country hiking for a $10 daily fee. “The […]
Posted inGoat
Trickle-down effect of the federal shutdown
Tuesday morning at the High Country News office began with a flurry of Twitter messages from federal agencies as they entered a social media blackout. Until some undetermined future, it will be radio silence from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, EPA, NASA and the National Science Foundation. Websites will not be updated; apparently […]
Posted inGoat
Government shutdown hits environmental enforcement
Question: How do the feds close a million square miles of public land in the event of a government shut down? Answer: They don’t. Not for lack of trying. Roads to popular areas like the Grand Canyon boat launch at Lee’s Ferry have been blocked, much to the chagrin of boaters, some of whom travel across […]
Posted inWotr
Killing and grinning
Most hunters really do understand the significance of killing a wild animal.
Posted inGoat
The shutdown hits the West harder
Western states have a higher percentage of federal employees than the nation as a whole.
Posted inGoat
Chronic wasting disease: forgotten, but not gone
As an environmental journalist, I know full well how difficult it can be to get people interested in a creeping problem. Climate change is a perfect example—its effects are hard to pin down and slow to develop. Wildfire, on the other hand, is dramatic, deadly and easily identifiable as a problem, especially if your house […]
Posted inFebruary 6, 2012: Can evolution help snowshoe hares adapt to climate change?
Can snowshoe hares outrace climate change?
Winner of National Association of Science Writers’ 2013 Science in Society Award!