The enemy is out there. It is green. It is slimy. Toxic algae outbreaks are a growing problem on our nation’s lakes, and maybe one you love. I’m lucky to live in a county with more than 150 lakes, including the biggest, cleanest freshwater lake in the western United States. Yet even here, we see […]
Green slime – coming soon to a lake near you?
Posted inGoat
Idaho Wild and Scenic Rivers and the Nez Perce Tribe trump tar sands megaloads—for now
It’s a tough time for megaloads in Idaho. A federal judge recently ruled that the Forest Service has the authority to stop the humungous hauls of Canadian tar sands-bound mining equipment from traveling through the Lochsa and Clearwater River corridor – and that they should use it. In response, the Forest Service just closed the […]
Posted inRange
Policy blueprint for a renewable energy future
This post was originally published on the Natural Resources Defense Council Staff Blog, Switchboard. There is a deep irony at work in the intersection of energy and the environment. The biggest threat to our planet is climate change, caused in large part by our profligate use of energy. And one of the biggest solutions is […]
Posted inGoat
Oregon study confirms that cutting conifers can help sage grouse
I must have looked like an idiot to the folks watching me from the big diesel pickup. It was a scorching day in July of 2012, and I had been ushered out in front of the rig to toddle down a dusty, high-desert two track behind a line of greater sage grouse hens like a […]
Posted inSeptember 16, 2013: Intimate Geographies
Reconciling family narrative with textbook history in Montana’s Bighorn Valley
An essay by Joe Wilkins.
Posted inGoat
Killer bees could help solve honeybee colony collapse
First, to get the blood pumping, a few shots of hysteria: A recent Los Angeles Times headline sums it up: “Killer bee season underway with a vengeance.” Whoa, and not just because of the cliché. So far this year, the list of killer-bee victims in the U.S. begins with a confirmed fatality, 62-year-old Larry Goodwin, […]
Posted inWotr
Nebraska’s 22 mountain lions in the crosshairs
The larger question looms: Who “owns” wildlife in the state?
Posted inGoat
Debunking the drill-your-way-to-low-gas-prices myth
Something funny happened over the last few weeks. First, the price of oil started climbing. Then, the announcement came that U.S. fields were producing more oil than they had since 1989. Wait? Isn’t that exactly the opposite of what’s supposed to happen under the energy independence myth? The myth goes something like this: The more […]
Posted inSeptember 16, 2013: Intimate Geographies
Colorado Poet Laureate David Mason’s four-year road trip
Bringing poetry to an entire state, one county at a time.
Posted inGoat
Floods have hit more than just Colorado, but will they fix the Southwest drought?
Remember early July in the Southwest? New Mexico and Arizona were in the grip of record drought exacerbated by record high temperatures. Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly declared a state of emergency for drought on July 2. Feral horses across the Rez were dying of thirst. Crops withered. Lake Powell, which got only a meagre […]
Posted inGoat
Add one to the introduced species list: mountain goats in the La Sal Mountains
You’d think we’d have learned by now. But humans, it seems, just aren’t content to let nature well enough alone – especially when hunters with money are involved. That seems to be the main reason why the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources last week released 20 mountain goats into the La Sal Mountains just east […]
Posted inWotr
Immersed in the wild, trekking part of the Pacific Crest Trail
Living on wilderness time for 300 miles.
Posted inGoat
Wolf update: Montana tries to attract more hunters as feds consider national delisting
Montana’s wolf hunters hung up their bows last Saturday as archery season closed and rifle season began. Five years after the federal government dropped Montana’s wolves from the Endangered Species List and the state took over management, officials are still trying to trim the state’s growing wolf population. This year, each hunter can bag five […]
Posted inGoat
Colorado floods will leave long-lasting impacts
Massive flooding along Colorado’s Front Range last week is finally starting to abate. In most areas water levels are dropping (although they’re now rising in some downstream communities, threatening to create further chaos). Assistant Editor Cally Carswell wrote on Monday about how geography and development made such a disaster inevitable. Five to 18 inches of […]
Posted inWotr
Gold, guns, and suckers born every minute
With the right kind of marketing any unsound idea can flourish in the West.
Posted inRange
True Believers would destroy the Indian health system
Congress always works on two tracks. The first rail is legislation that gives the government authority to spend money. The second rail is one that actually appropriates the funds. It’s that second law that dictates how the government can spend dollars for the Indian Health Service (or any other program) under parameters set by law. […]
Posted inGoat
Could drought and a court case stop water deliveries to the Salton Sea?
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has an unenviable job in a wet year, but in prolonged periods of drought, the task of managing the Colorado River is even harder. The agency is in charge of balancing the water levels in the country’s two largest reservoirs, the serpentine desert lakes called Powell and Mead. Seven Western […]
Posted inWotr
Will we finally pass a sensible Farm Bill?
Examining the long-delayed bill and finding lots to lambaste.
Posted inGoat
Eagle permit extensions could be a boon for the wind industry
Since U.S. Fish and Wildlife researchers released a study this month announcing that at least 85 eagles have died in collisions with wind turbines since 1997 in 10 states, discussion has heated around a federal rule change that would extend eagle casualty permits to last up to 30 years. The new rule would mean wind […]
Posted inSeptember 16, 2013: Intimate Geographies
The renegade cartographer
Dave Imus challenges the murkiness of modern mapmaking.