Understanding another religion is no easy business. Americans nowadays often fool ourselves that religions can be put on or off like a suit of clothes, and that our own world-view is not religious unless we say so. We — especially secular humanists — also claim superiority for our idea of “nature,” an abstract space separate […]
The Hopi and eagle share a long relationship
Posted inWotr
Citing religious freedom is no excuse
Among the “cool facts” about golden eagles listed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology is this: “Members of the Hopi tribe remove nestlings, raise them in captivity, and sacrifice them.” “Cool” is not a word the Eagle Defense Network and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) would use. For the last 12 years, they’ve frightened […]
Posted inGoat
Changing of the guard at the Department of Interior
Monday was Sally Jewell‘s first day on the job as the nation’s new Secretary of Interior. She replaces Ken Salazar, Obama’s first-term choice. The second woman ever to serve as the head of Interior (Gale Norton, considered a nemesis of conservationists, was the first), Jewell is now in charge of 70,000 employees and 500 million […]
Posted inRange
Pipeline paradox
Despite many high-profile protests and acts of civil disobedience focused on the adverse effects of extracting and burning the fossil fuels the Keystone XL pipeline would transport, Americans have curious, if not contradictory, views of climate and the pipeline. The KXL, if constructed by TransCanada, would move up to 830,000 barrels per day of tar sands (which […]
Posted inApril 15, 2013: Sacrificial Land
Deconstructing environmentalists’ opposition to renewable energy
KDNK, a public radio station in Carbondale, Colo., regularly interviews High Country News writers and editors, in a feature they call “Sounds of the High Country.” Here, KDNK’s Nelson Harvey talk with High Country News associate editor Sarah Gilman about why some environmentalists are divided about the appropriate way to address climate change. Thumbnail image courtesy […]
Posted inApril 15, 2013: Sacrificial Land
Where’s the skepticism?
From reading “Gambling on rez tourism,” it seems HCN has become a voice for the gambling industry (3/18/13). After touting the wonderful financial benefits to be gained by building increasingly outlandish theme park-style casinos, this article spent scarcely a word on the negative impacts suffered by locals. There was one dismissive paragraph that began: “Putting aside some […]
Posted inApril 15, 2013: Sacrificial Land
Waiting with bated breath
We’re pleased to announce that High Country News has been nominated for the 2013 Utne Media Award in the Environmental Coverage category. (The other finalists are Grist, OnEarth and Resurgence/Ecologist.) Presented by Utne Reader, a digest of independent media, the awards “publicly celebrate the (media outlets) which consistently impress us with the high quality of […]
Posted inApril 15, 2013: Sacrificial Land
Ruins ruined in New Mexico, too
Tsankawi, a satellite ancestral Pueblo site of Bandelier National Monument, like the archaeological sites of Cedar Mesa, has been minimally supervised, and because it is right off the highway to the park it is often visited by people who want a less-groomed experience (“Ruining the ruins?” HCN, 3/4/13). Unfortunately, that hands-off approach has taken its […]
Posted inApril 15, 2013: Sacrificial Land
On losing nothing
Sir John Franklin would not recognize today’s Arctic. When the British explorer set out through the vast archipelago at the edge of North America in 1845, he had reason to believe he could find the Northwest Passage — a valuable shipping route connecting the Atlantic and Pacific. Much of the continent’s northern coast had been […]
Posted inApril 15, 2013: Sacrificial Land
How the amount of fish you eat impacts water quality
Idaho plans to conduct a $300,000 study to learn how much fish its residents eat from state waters. The amount consumed helps determine regulatory limits for pollutant levels in rivers and lakes. Most Western states use the EPA’s default fish-consumption rate, a cracker-sized 17.5 grams per day, to set human health standards for dozens of […]
Posted inApril 15, 2013: Sacrificial Land
Federal austerity hits home in the West
When the Tea Party tide crested in 2010, a number of Western Republicans surfed it into the U.S. House of Representatives. There was Colorado Springs’ Rep. Doug Lamborn, who promotes gutting the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, saying it’s “low-hanging fruit” that must be picked to shrink the federal deficit. New Mexico Rep. Steve Pearce harnessed […]
Posted inApril 15, 2013: Sacrificial Land
Downstream depletions
The practices of San Luis Valley farmers also have dramatic consequences for communities downstream (“Farming on the Fringe,” HCN, 2/18/13). The Rio Grande Compact allows the dewatering of the main stem of the Rio Grande through Taos County, N.M. Frequently, because of the heavy irrigation demands of the San Luis Valley farmers, the river is […]
Posted inApril 15, 2013: Sacrificial Land
Bikers aren’t the only bandits
I just returned home from a long vacation to southern Arizona to find High Country News’ travel issue in my mailbox. “Volunteer tourism” by Henry Ring and Craig Childs’ “Secret Getaways of a BLM Groupie” were particularly well done (HCN, 3/18/13). Thousands of volunteers give tens of thousands of hours to protect and maintain our […]
Posted inApril 15, 2013: Sacrificial Land
Beatification of a sinner: a review of The Soledad Crucifixion
The Soledad CrucifixionNancy Wood336 pages, paperback: $21.95.University of New Mexico Press, 2012. In Nancy Wood’s newest novel, The Soledad Crucifixion, we find ourselves in Camposanto in the Territory of New Mexico, in the year 1897. Lorenzo Soledad has just been nailed to a cross. “On this, the last day of his life, the priest found […]
Posted inApril 15, 2013: Sacrificial Land
A fresh take on an old crime: A review of The Case of D.B. Cooper’s Parachute
The Case of D.B. Cooper’s ParachuteWilliam L. Sullivan411 pages, paperback: $14.95.Navillus Press, 2012. In November 1971, a man traveling under the name “Dan Cooper” hijacked a Boeing 727 flying between Portland and Seattle, demanded $200,000 from the FBI, then parachuted from the plane into history, somewhere in the Northwestern wilds. The FBI has searched unsuccessfully […]
Posted inGoat
The who, what, where and why of letting it burn
A dusting of new snow here in Paonia, Colo., HCN’s home base, is making it difficult to imagine the fast-approaching fire season. But it won’t be long before the walkie-talkies crackle to life and giant tanker aircraft are dusting the mountains with red fire-suppressant. 1) Was the fire human-caused? If so, the Forest Service will […]
Posted inGoat
Return to the bat cave
Since 2006, a powdery white fungus has killed at least five and half million bats that would otherwise be eating insects, pollinating flowers and hanging out in caves. But as far as scientists know, the disease called white-nose syndrome, which grows on bat snouts and wings, hasn’t infected a single bat in the Western United […]
Posted inArticles
A long-time defender talks grizzly conservation
A Q&A with Louisa Willcox, who has spent 30 years fighting for grizzly protections.