In 2001, a week before George W. Bush took the oath of office, the Forest Service dropped a bombshell. It released the 1,800 page Sierra Nevada Framework, a plan for how to manage 11.5 million acres of Sierra Nevada forests to protect the California spotted owl, reduce wildfires and protect habitat. Unlike previous plans, which […]
USFS vs. your ability to sue them
Posted inRange
Towards a greater Canyonlands
This week the U.S. Senate is wading through nearly 100 budget amendments tacked onto the federal spending bill. This continuing resolution—which would prevent a government shutdown and fund federal agencies through the rest of the year—includes some unrelated, politically-charged measures which, while ultimately non-binding, give an interesting peek into political agendas. According to aides, GOP […]
Posted inWotr
Of cars, booze, guns and angry mothers
Years ago, when I was much younger and dumber, I sometimes drove after drinking too much, occasionally even with a beer in hand. Once a state policeman stopped me leaving the small town of Joseph, Ore., and asked me to count backwards, touch my toes and walk a line. Fortunately, he knew me, and so […]
Posted inGoat
The enviros’ new money man
On Monday, Congressman Steve Lynch, a Democrat seeking his party’s support to run for the Massachusetts Senate seat vacated by our new Secretary of State, John Kerry, received a menacing letter. “Because climate change is such a serious issue,” it read, “we are asking you, Congressman Lynch, today to do one of two things by high […]
Posted inGoat
An upside to the gun-buying frenzy
The last five years have been quite nice for the firearm industry. Gun and ammunition makers had a bonanza in 2009, thanks to fears that a newly-elected President Obama would sent out jackbooted, United Nations thugs in black helicopters to steal their guns (and maybe build bike paths, too!). It didn’t happen, of course. Yet […]
Posted inWotr
Smug alert
Perhaps drilling rigs should be allowed in cities, towns and even into our own metaphorical backyards. It would be good for the environment. Maybe not your personal environment, but more broadly for our environment. Community planners for decades have urged mixed-use development, in which we combine work, play and shopping in closer physical proximity. Lately, we’ve […]
Posted inGoat
The West’s best critter-cams
In the usual Monday-morning email deluge, one message caught my eye: “Live Webcam Captures Peregrine Falcons Laying Eggs.” The advertised falcon was in Maine, not around here, but who can resist peeking at a rare bird on her nest? It’s sort of like looking in somebody’s windows, except in a non-creepy way that won’t get […]
Posted inGoat
To kill or not to kill?
Recently, it seems people on both sides of the pond have horse slaughter on the brain. In Europe, the discovery of horsemeat in Ikea’s purportedly all-beef meatballs has countries pointing fingers at each other, trying pin the blame for mislabeled meat on someone else. Ultimately, the issue seems to boil down to different degrees of […]
Posted inMarch 18, 2013: Second annual travel issue
Tribal casinos expand and go upscale
Note: This story is part of a special HCN magazine issue devoted to travel in the West. The Navajo Nation’s first casino opened in 2008 with a dramatic design — a simple, massive structure shaped like a tent. Prominently located between Interstate 40 and the red-rock cliffs just east of Gallup, N.M., it’s a shell […]
Posted inMarch 18, 2013: Second annual travel issue
Westerners love erotic landscapes
Note: This essay is part of a special HCN magazine issue devoted to travel in the West. On this October morning in southern Idaho, the air is dry and frosty, and the shifting sand dunes reflected in the lake at Bruneau are soft and curvy –– feminine shapes. The woman I love becomes one with […]
Posted inMarch 18, 2013: Second annual travel issue
Visitors to public lands seek different experiences than in the past
Note: This story is part of a special HCN magazine issue devoted to travel in the West. People who visit Oregon’s state parks have a surprising desire to stay in yurts, even booking them months in advance. Eighteen state parks offer 96 “standard yurts” described by the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department as “really cool” […]
Posted inMarch 18, 2013: Second annual travel issue
Trouble for more than one Arizona river
Thanks for spreading the news of growing threats to the San Pedro (“Standoff on the San Pedro,” HCN, 2/18/13). However, the San Pedro is not “the Southwest’s last free-flowing major desert river.” In fact, the Verde River is the longest surviving living river in Arizona. A much larger river, it supports a healthy riparian habitat […]
Posted inMarch 18, 2013: Second annual travel issue
Travel, HCN-style
Note: This is an introduction to a special HCN magazine issue devoted to travel in the West. My wife, Linda, and I try to avoid the expected when we travel. When our kids were young, for instance, we all vacationed for several days in Orlando, Fla., the site of Disney World. But we didn’t spend […]
Posted inMarch 18, 2013: Second annual travel issue
Craig Childs on hidden, trail-free BLM gems
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 talks with HCN contributing editor and Western adventurer Craig Childs. Thumbnail photo licensed under Creative Commons, courtesy Flickr user Conservation Lands Foundation.
Posted inMarch 18, 2013: Second annual travel issue
Kids in the backcountry: The earlier, the better
Note: This essay is part of a special HCN magazine issue devoted to travel in the West. The three of them race out in front of us — dots of colorful energy bushwhacking across the tundra, elevation over 10,000 feet, deep in the northern Wyoming’s Washakie Wilderness. Ruby, 11, Sawyer, 13, and Eli, 14. They […]
Posted inMarch 18, 2013: Second annual travel issue
It’s time to get real
The San Luis Valley is a wonderful place that needs to be preserved (“Farming on the Fringe,” HCN, 2/18/13). The water issues will only get worse as the climate goes into this hotter drier spell — one that could last thousands of years. I’m glad the local people are working on a solution to their […]
Posted inMarch 18, 2013: Second annual travel issue
HCN takes a break
Note: This Dear Friends is part of a special HCN magazine issue devoted to travel in the West. In mid-March, as the last of the scanty winter snow melts here in Paonia, Colo., the HCN crew will be taking one of our four annual publishing breaks. Look for the next issue to hit your mailbox, […]
Posted inMarch 18, 2013: Second annual travel issue
Field notes from a solo paddle in Alaska’s Inside Passage
Note: This story is part of a special HCN magazine issue devoted to travel in the West. Mid-day on the last Fourth of July, I sat in my kayak and watched a parade like nothing I’d ever seen: Icebergs shaped like elaborate floats bobbed past me, one resembling an eagle, another a house, still others […]
Posted inMarch 18, 2013: Second annual travel issue
Beijing’s toxic brew, explained
The really big difference between air quality in Salt Lake City and Beijing — indeed, any city of size that lies north of the Yangtze River — stems from particulates and other emissions in the exhaust from many widely dispersed furnaces whose associated boilers feed into district heating systems, which are the primary means for […]