“No thief who has to pay for what he steals will steal for long.” — Nevada rancher Wayne Hage, explaining to High Country News in 1995 why he had filed a lawsuit against the federal government over restrictions on his livestock grazing. That landmark Sagebrush Rebellion lawsuit, hailed as protecting the rights of Western ranchers […]
One Sagebrush Rebellion flickers out — or does it?
Posted inWotr
Childhood’s end
My 7-year-old daughter Willa came home from school last week and said she knew what sex was. Her friend Melissa had told her. “OK, what is it?” My wife Ellen asked, as I poured the bourbon for the Manhattan I knew I’d need. “It’s when a man and a woman lie down together and kiss.” […]
Posted inGoat
Cheer up, Melon Queen
On a reporting trip over the weekend, I found myself riding in an old Ford pick-up draped with watermelon banners, wearing a sparkly top hat and holding a microphone out the window. As the truck crawled down Main Street in Green River, Utah, children scrambled like spiders to pick up thrown candy as retirees in […]
Posted inWotr
Harness the wind, create a job
In mid-August, Vestas, the world’s largest manufacturer of wind power turbines, announced it would cut 20 percent of the workforce at its Pueblo, Colo., plant. Less than a week later, the company said it would lay off an additional 1,400 workers worldwide. “It is always unfortunate to have to say goodbye to good colleagues in […]
Posted inSeptember 17, 2012: Pallids in Purgatory
The politics of public health
On August 28, Utah Congressional candidate Mia Love took the podium at the Republican National Convention to riff on “personal responsibility” and the convention’s “We Built It” refrain — a distortion of President Obama’s words about how public infrastructure helps people run their businesses. Love didn’t mention Tropical Storm Isaac, which a few days before […]
Posted inGoat
Recreation.gov — nice try, needs work
Ever wanted to plan a vacation around a bunch of federally-managed recreation sites, but didn’t know where to turn? Yeah, me neither. I mean, sometimes I plan trips to visit particular national parks, but I don’t generally think of a vacation to, say, San Francisco, in terms of what federal facilities I can go see […]
Posted inRange
Jaguar versus the copper mine
By Heather Hansen, Red Lodge Clearing House There’s an extraordinary 70,000-square-mile region that encompasses part of southeastern Arizona, southwestern New Mexico and northwestern Mexico. This area, called the Sky Islands, is characterized by forested mountain ranges divided by desert or grassland valleys. Roughly 30 miles south of Tucson, smack in the middle of the Santa Rita Mountains portion […]
Posted inWotr
Pondering change in the Great Basin
I’m standing on the shores of Summer Lake, or, to be more accurate, what used to be a lakeshore but is now a dry lakebed in Oregon’s high desert. I’m here with a group of writers, scientists and artists, all of us gathered to talk about changes in the northern Great Basin. Sharp environmental contrasts, […]
Posted inGoat
An audience for old Indians
Roland McCook wouldn’t care if he died tomorrow. Last Thursday, he stood before an amphitheater of aging white folks outside the Paonia public library. I wanted to hear what he wanted to say because most of the country doesn’t listen to old people, especially old Indians. A woman asked McCook, who is a Northern Ute […]
Posted inSeptember 17, 2012: Pallids in Purgatory
What about Pebble Mine?
As a recently retired U.S. Geological Survey hydrologist, I’m reassured to know that Alaska Lt. Governor Mead Treadwell appreciates the role of science in protecting the environment (“The U.S. is an ‘Arctic Nation,’ “ HCN, 8/20/12). Many decision-makers don’t. I would have been extremely interested to hear Treadwell’s position on the Pebble Mine proposed for […]
Posted inSeptember 17, 2012: Pallids in Purgatory
Treadwell can’t have his oil and solve climate change, too
Lt. Governor Mead Treadwell is under the dangerous impression that he can have his cake and eat it too when it comes to Alaska’s non-renewable natural resources (“The U.S. is an ‘Arctic Nation,’ ” HCN, 8/20/12). We all hope for economic recovery, and oil reserves are certainly a fast path to that for Alaska. But […]
Posted inSeptember 17, 2012: Pallids in Purgatory
The great New Mexican juniper massacre
385,000 years: That’s the estimated collective age of old, live junipers illegally cut for firewood between July 2010 and November 2011 on Bureau of Land Management land in northern and central New Mexico. Hardest hit have been the surreally beautiful badlands west of the small town of Cuba, now stippled with freshly sawed tree stumps, […]
Posted inSeptember 17, 2012: Pallids in Purgatory
Song of loss and redemption: A review of Theft
Theft BK Loren224 pages, softcover: $16.Counterpoint, 2012. Development’s brutal erosion of the landscape is a fact of life in the West. In the hands of lesser writers, it often becomes a cliché — shorthand for the destructive side of human nature and the grief and rage it provokes. Even when tackled by good writers, it […]
Posted inSeptember 17, 2012: Pallids in Purgatory
See you in October
A heads-up: High Country News staffers will be taking a much needed two-week publishing break after this issue. We’ll be catching up on work around the office as well as harvesting North Fork Valley produce and watching the aspens change. Look for our special annual books and essays issue around Oct. 15, and visit hcn.org […]
Posted inSeptember 17, 2012: Pallids in Purgatory
Salvation for our dam nation?
On Washington’s White Salmon River last October 26th, sirens bleated, a man barked, “Fire in the hole!” and a cavity was blasted in the bottom of the 125-foot high Condit Dam. A few suspenseful seconds passed. Then, the reservoir behind the dam erupted through the hole and became a river again, although the water was […]
Posted inSeptember 17, 2012: Pallids in Purgatory
Only more water will help the Bay Delta
Emily Green’s story, “Tunneling under California’s water wars,” reads as if it were written by Governor Jerry Brown’s office (HCN, 8/20/12). Those who extract water from the Bay Delta want a reliable supply. Unfortunately, that is not possible. We must adapt to a future with less water, not continue to demand more. Merely moving the […]
Posted inSeptember 17, 2012: Pallids in Purgatory
Home improvement: A review of Sugarhouse
Sugarhouse: Turning the Neighborhood Crack House into Our Home Sweet HomeMatthew Batt258 pages, softcover: $14.95Mariner, 2012. Matthew Batt is a perpetual student, earning his Ph.D. in English from the University of Utah while his wife, Jenae, works — until she finally gets tired of supporting his grad-school habit. “I got home from ‘class’ one night, […]
Posted inSeptember 17, 2012: Pallids in Purgatory
History through a wide-angle lens
History is conveniently framed in your story about the conflict over Taos land grants (“Troubled Taos,” HCN, 8/20/12). Nowhere is the King of Spain’s right to grant the land in the first place ever questioned. One cannot argue there is a greater good in returning the land grants to Spanish grantees on the basis of […]
Posted inSeptember 17, 2012: Pallids in Purgatory
Scientific superheroes
Other researchers investigating new tools and tricks to help suppress invasive cheatgrass: Nancy Shaw, U.S. Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Boise, Idaho Shaw’s investigation into new seed-drilling tools could mean the difference between success and failure for many native seeds. She’s been testing a minimum till drill, which reduces soil disturbance, compaction and erosion. Using it, […]
