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 […]
Waiting with bated breath
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.
Posted inWotr
Some Earth Firsters celebrate in Idaho two decades later
One year ago, an aging contingent of Earth Firsters plus some of their young’uns converged on the banks of the Salmon River in central Idaho. Sixty or more stalwarts met to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the beginning of the so-called Cove-Mallard Campaign, a successful effort to prevent clear-cuts from replacing huge, old forests in […]
Posted inRange
Feral vs. wild horses
The question of whether mustangs in the West are feral versus wild is a controversial one; it’s got a knack for appearing in the comment section of many a mustang story. Mustang advocates are adamant the wild horse is a bona fide North American wildlife species – on par with deer, elk, bison and pronghorn. […]
Posted inWotr
Roadkill: It’s what’s for dinner
Last week, the governor of Montana signed a bill making it legal to salvage and eat wild animals that had been hit and killed by cars – in short, allowing humans to scavenge edible roadkill. The law applies to deer, elk, antelope and moose, and aligns the state with other states such as Alaska, Illinois, […]
Posted inGoat
The legacy of Documerica
Here at High Country News, we’ve been reading and writinga lot about how the federal funding cuts from sequestration will hit home in the West. But as usual, it takes a personal experience to make things real. For me, it came while sitting on a pit toilet at a Bureau of Land Management trailhead outside […]
Posted inArticles
Researchers go to Utah to experience another planet: Mars
In March, photographer and science enthusiast Jim Urquhart ventured into the Utah desert to join a team of researchers at the Mars Desert Research Station. He came back with a collection of surreal images both extra-terrestrial and intriguing.