Empire of Shadows: the Epic Story of YellowstoneGeorge Black548 pages, hardcover: $35. St. Martin’s Press, 2012. Whenever my country’s absurd politics wear me out, I remind myself that we were the first nation to have a true national park: Yellowstone. Sometimes, I’ll even drive the four hours or so south from my home to the […]
The violent story of our first national park: A review of Empire of Shadows
Posted inNovember 12, 2012: Nowhere to run
The bastard child of the range
About 10 years ago, reporter Dave Philipps found himself staring in awe at the thousands of captive mustangs corralled near Cañon City, Colo. He was there to write about wild horses rounded up from public rangelands by the Bureau of Land Management. Some were adopted out, he was told, but most would go into “retirement”: […]
Posted inNovember 12, 2012: Nowhere to run
Legend of the gray-headed hunter
“Red sky at morning, hunter take warning,” I told Jimmy Jack Mormon, as we stumbled along a frozen rutted road in the Montana dawn. “Ssshhh,” Jimmy ordered. “You’re warning the deer.” “Oh, they’ve already heard about me,” I whispered back. I’d missed two the evening before. Beautiful does, both, stepping carefully out of a willow […]
Posted inNovember 12, 2012: Nowhere to run
Feds reluctant to kill wild horses
If caring for captive wild horses costs so much, why not just sell them for slaughter? It’s the “simple solution,” former Bureau of Land Management wild horse and burro program chief Don Glenn, now working for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, told a federal advisory panel this spring. “It makes no sense for the taxpayers […]
Posted inNovember 12, 2012: Nowhere to run
BLM “ecosanctuaries” unlikely to provide relief for wild horses
On a crisp May morning, Madeleine Pickens, a 65-year-old businesswoman and the soon-to-be-ex-wife of billionaire financier T. Boone Pickens, steps out onto the weathered porch of her old Nevada ranch house wearing taut white riding pants, suede boots and movie-star glasses under glossy platinum hair. She points briskly, using a dachshund mix named Tommy that […]
Posted inNovember 12, 2012: Nowhere to run
Inslee’s opportunity
I hope Jay Inslee wins the Washington gubernatorial race and takes a courageous and legacy-making stand with the governor of Oregon to remove the Snake River dams to restore the salmon runs (“Races where the environment matters. Sort of.” HCN, 10/29/12). The science on this is conclusive. If Jay can win his race, it will […]
Posted inNovember 12, 2012: Nowhere to run
Getting involved with the West
The High Country News Board of Directors gathered in Santa Fe, N.M., in late September to toss around story ideas with readers, discuss HCN‘s growing digital audience, and strategize about the future. The context for the discussions was a proposed $2.2 million budget that aims to improve the quality of the magazine and website, while […]
Posted inNovember 12, 2012: Nowhere to run
Enough (political stories) already
I was disappointed with what appears to be a new political stance on the part of HCN (“Red State Rising,” HCN, 10/29/12). First came an article devoted to electoral politics in Montana and Denny Rehberg. Now comes the most recent edition on the politics of Utah. While I recognize the essential nature of politics as […]
Posted inNovember 12, 2012: Nowhere to run
Economics, not environmental regs, are battering coal power
This fall, as temperatures cooled down and politics heated up, red, white and blue signs sprouted in Delta County in western Colorado, just down from the North Fork Valley’s three huge underground coal mines. “Stop the war on coal. Fire Obama,” they say. By the time you read this, the world will know who won […]
Posted inNovember 12, 2012: Nowhere to run
BLM mission fail?
The following comments were posted at HCN.org in response to Jodi Peterson‘s Oct. 16 blog “BLM looks for balance,” which concerned the recent wave of criticism the agency has received for its outsized focus on fossil fuel extraction. I retired after almost 35 years in BLM field offices. I believe the concept of public lands […]
Posted inNovember 12, 2012: Nowhere to run
A review of On Arctic Ground
On Arctic Ground: Tracking Time Through Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve,Debbie S. Miller,142 pages, hardcover:$29.95.Braided River, 2012. The National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska is the largest single chunk of public land in the country — more than 10 times the size of Yellowstone National Park and home to caribou, polar bears and large populations of migratory […]
Posted inGoat
Great minds think alike?
On Tuesday night, Paonia, Colo.’s non-television-owning crowd packed the local theater to watch the election. Over cans of PBR, bags of popcorn and the glow of our smartphones, we watched as announcers flicked through graphics of county-by-county results on their touch-screen TVs. Looking around the theater, you never would have known that our rural western […]
Posted inOctober 29, 2012: Red State Rising
Fire Wall: Escaping Four Mile Canyon
In the 18 minutes it took to evacuate my board-and-batten cabin in Colorado, I operated under a mountainous range of delusions, not least of which hinged upon my faulty understandings of metals, the flukiness of wildfires, and the persistence of history and memory. Danger, for one, didn’t seem imminent. When a neighborly deputy drove by […]
Posted inWotr
We’ve been picking up what you throw away
Since March 2010, I’ve become intimately acquainted with many of the things that people in our society no longer want to live with: empty liquor bottles, deflated soccer balls, the guts of deer, aluminum siding. My team and I have picked up this stuff on roadsides from the Atlantic Coast to the Pacific Coast. It’s […]
Posted inGoat
Pot measures pass
“Federal law still says marijuana is an illegal drug, so don’t break out the Cheetos or goldfish too quickly.” That was the word from Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper’s office Tuesday night in response to voters passing a ballot initiative legalizing pot sales for recreational use in the state. A similar initiative passed in Washington State, […]
Posted inWotr
Shoot it yourself
People hunt animals for a lot of reasons, from filling a freezer to festooning a wall with antlers. As a meat hunter, I’m looking for a year’s worth of protein, with or without antlers attached. Even though I don’t hunt for the post-kill posing or big racks, as a hunter I’m lumped together with everyone […]
Posted inRange
Sportsmen sealed reelection for Sen. Jon Tester
Outside special interests dumped some $30 million dollars on the Montana race for the US Senate between Democratic incumbent Jon Tester and Republican challenger Denny Rehberg, but the race came down to something that costs $19: A Montana resident hunting and fishing license. Sportsmen issues of access, wolves and gun rights headlined both the news […]