We name fires the way we name hurricanes, giving them the identity that comes with our naming. Naming our fears also makes them a little more manageable, which is probably the main reason we go to the doctor, seeking a word for what ails us, because having that name is at least as comforting as […]
Giving names to smoke and fire
Posted inGoat
From predator to prey
It’s getting harder to be a wolf in the Northern Rockies. Last spring, a rider on a budget bill took gray wolves off the endangered species list in Idaho and Montana. On Friday, Wyoming joined the club when U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services declared the state’s wolf population to be recovered and no longer in […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
Dark days for bovines
WASHINGTON: “It’s all downhill from here, sweetie.” Courtesy Alexis Alloway. COLORADO These are dark days for bovines. In northeastern Colorado, 50 cows keeled over this summer, most likely from anthrax, which thrives during drought. That sad news came on the heels of a grisly spate of livestock mutilations in the western part of the state. […]
Posted inWotr
Taking my chances in grizzly country
When I travel in grizzly bear country (admittedly less often than I used to and far less frequently than I would like), I leave the bear spray at home. In fact, I’ve never even owned a canister of it. Never wanted to. My basic rationale, if you can call it that, is that I would […]
Posted inRange
Rinella aims for the impossible, scores a hit
Book Review:Meat Eater, Adventures from the life of an American HunterBy Steven Rinella231 pages; Spiegel & Grau. 2012 Periodically, an outdoor writer aims for the impossible: to explain the why of modern hunting, as opposed to producing just another “how to” book. The task is impossible because the motivations behind hunting are as individual as […]
Posted inGoat
Promise of the Sea
In the not-too-distant future, when some Oregon residents plug their laptops into an electrical outlet they could be using juice generated by the fierce waves that roll shoreward along the Pacific Northwest coast. An early step toward this possibility is scheduled to happen next month when a barge will carry a 260-ton buoy to a […]
Posted inSeptember 3, 2012: Identity Politics, Montana Style
The Bay Area Chevron explosion shows gaps in refinery safety
When a crude-processing unit at Chevron’s Richmond, Calif., refinery burst into flame in early August, sirens wailed through local neighborhoods as pillars of smoke blackened the sky over the city and surrounding hillsides. The plant’s emergency management system issued 18,000 calls to nearby residents, urging them to “shelter in place” — closing windows, sealing cracks […]
Posted inWotr
Don’t ever forget Cecil Garland
Cecil Garland is not well known beyond the Big Blackfoot River of western Montana. But in this scenic valley, he is remembered as the hardware store owner and WWII veteran who led a 10-year fight to designate the 240,000-acre Scapegoat Wilderness. He is a legend among conservationists, largely because the Scapegoat was the first wilderness […]
Posted inRange
Rants from the Hill: Pleistocene rewilding
“Rants from the Hill” are Michael Branch’s monthly musings on life in the high country of Nevada’s western Great Basin desert. In a 2006 article [PDF] in The American Naturalist, a small herd of perfectly respectable conservation biologists advocates a bold ecological restoration project they call “Pleistocene Rewilding.” The concept itself is outrageously wild. First […]
Posted inSeptember 3, 2012: Identity Politics, Montana Style
Rehberg and Tester: Policy differences
Jon Tester, a conservative Democrat: Sen. Tester sponsored the controversial measure that took Northern Rockies wolves off the endangered species list in 2011 — a move praised by ranchers and elk hunters. It triggered disagreements among environmentalists. (Some liked it and some condemned it.) He also: • Sponsored a bill that guaranteed 678,000 acres of […]
Posted inSeptember 3, 2012: Identity Politics, Montana Style
Who is Denny Rehberg, really?
The three candidates look too formal for Montana, dressed in suits and neckties for the first debate in the state’s most important race this election season. But the setting is classic Montana: A pine-paneled room in a lodge on the edge of the Big Sky ski resort, beside a trout-filled river surrounded by mid-June wildflowers. […]
Posted inSeptember 3, 2012: Identity Politics, Montana Style
Mother nature’s hot heyday
I really think that proper defensible space during the High Park fire was a crapshoot (HCN, 8/6/12, ‘Lessons burned?’). The fire moved so fast, with the intense wind gusts, through such dry and dead vegetation, that even if you had 30 feet of defensible space, your house could have easily caught fire. I live in […]
Posted inSeptember 3, 2012: Identity Politics, Montana Style
Money trumps prudence
The picture here is one of common sense and ethical behavior being given up and replaced with an attitude of do whatever it takes to make money (HCN, 8/6/12, ‘The Bakken’s shadow boom‘). Where do they think billions of gallons of polluted water are going to go when reinjected into the very same rock formations […]
Posted inSeptember 3, 2012: Identity Politics, Montana Style
Misleading omissions
‘The Secret Gardens‘ is offensive and misleading in that it makes it seem as if the Coast Salish lived only in the past (HCN, 8/6/12). It makes no mention of the modern Coast Salish tribes who no doubt know a lot about these camas patches. Has botanist Madrona Murphy contacted any of the Duwamish, Jamestown, […]
Posted inSeptember 3, 2012: Identity Politics, Montana Style
Madrona Murphy responds
Unfortunately, camas cultivation in the San Juan archipelago effectively ended more than 150 years ago. All the same, this study was extensively informed by interviews with living Coast Salish families with ancestry in the islands or ties to the islands, as well as unpublished field notes of interviews conducted 25 to 65 years ago with […]
Posted inSeptember 3, 2012: Identity Politics, Montana Style
(Don’t) Let it burn
This summer, Forest Service firefighters are stomping out wildfires they might have let burn in other years. A ‘temporary’ policy change requires local foresters to get permission from their regional supervisors for anything but full suppression, owing to fears that the current hot, dry conditions could cause remote fires to rage out of control. And […]
Posted inSeptember 3, 2012: Identity Politics, Montana Style
Adopt a biologist
One way outdoor-gear companies could help improve their image and be more effective would be to put some of the millions spent on advertising and sponsorships into conservation organizations (HCN, 7/23/12, ‘The Hardest Climb‘). Sponsor field biologists, conservation groups and field stations rather than athletes. Biologists use these companies’ equipment just as much, and often […]
Posted inSeptember 3, 2012: Identity Politics, Montana Style
A way out of California’s water morass?
This well-written piece accurately portrays the problems and solutions facing California’s beleaguered Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (HCN, 8/20/12, ‘Tunneling under California’s water wars‘). Current operations in the Delta have failed to provide water to family farmers and 25 million Californians, and failed to protect the region’s ecosystem. Doing nothing to improve this situation means more of […]
Posted inSeptember 3, 2012: Identity Politics, Montana Style
Return to innocence: A review of Queen of America
Queen of AmericaLuis Alberto Urrea492 pages, softcover:$14.99.Little, Brown and Company, 2011. It’s hard to be a saint, but being a saint’s father, husband or friend can’t be easy, either. ‘Not all crosses are made of wood,’ as Luis Alberto Urrea observes in his novel Queen of America. It’s a sequel to his 2005 book, […]