It’s time for Coloradans to step up.
Repairing flood-damaged roads means paying more taxes
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!
Posted inGoat
Why are the conclusions of the Yarnell Hill Fire investigation so timid?
Some brutal details have emerged about the Granite Mountain Hotshots’ last day of life. The 19 firefighters were just 600 yards from the safety of the ranch they were headed toward when they were forced to deploy their fire shelters and were quickly overtaken by flames and 2,000-plus-degree heat. Just 40 minutes or so before […]
Posted inWotr
A world beneath Lake Powell is being resurrected
Drought in the Colorado River Basin reveals unseen marvels.
Posted inGoat
Proposed farm bill cuts food aid programs
If the House has its way with the nearly expired farm bill, $40 billion would be cut from the federal food stamps program over the next ten years. These cuts could mean that the 9 million Westerners who rely on the program will find it harder than ever to put meals on the table. Every […]
Posted inGoat
Touring Hopi via a 10K running race at dawn
I run. And I weep. My tears may come from the fact that it’s 6 a.m., or perhaps from the burning in legs and lungs as I try to hold the pace of the leaders. But I’m pretty sure my sobs come from a deep joy inspired by the way the rising sun lights up […]
Posted inSeptember 16, 2013: Intimate Geographies
Marginalia: an essay
On a trek across the Arctic, a writer’s map becomes a record of the journey.
Posted inGoat
Check those attics: An archivist’s plea for your old newspapers
Halloween night in the windy railroad town of Livingston, Mont.: a Burlington Northern train, consisting of just three locomotives, hisses from the yard and begins the long, slow climb toward Bozeman. Nobody is onboard but a hobo. The engines crest the pass, pick up speed on the downgrade, hit 80 mph and jump the tracks. […]
Posted inMay 26, 1986: The fate of the grizzly
At Capitol Reef, the Mormons made the desert fruitful
The largest orchard in any national park is surrounded by some of the driest desert in southern Utah. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/18.10/download-entire-issue
Posted inGoat
Dispatch from a Colorado coal confab, where new emissions regs were top of mind
As U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Chief Gina McCarthy finishes a three-state tour to plug her new power plant emissions standards, coal industry representatives met in Delta County in western Colorado for an annual trade conference. Thursday morning started with the usual reports on which Komatsu haul trucks, draglines and Hitachi excavators are en vogue. An […]
Posted inArticles
Dear readers, take our four-minute survey!
HCN.org is getting a facelift. Don’t miss the action.
Posted inGoat
Stickers, salmon and stocks: Pebble Mine by the numbers
Spend even a short while in Alaska, and you’ll begin to see them. They adorn water bottles and truck caps, laptops and storefronts, boats and banjos. Eventually, you notice them cropping up outside the state too, and soon, even in the shimmering heat of the Utah desert, you can’t escape the white circular stickers slashed […]
Posted inWotr
My 15 years with that flaming guy
The truth is Burning Man is middle-aged, but still more fun than you can dream of.