It takes a long time to find a curved-tusk mammoth, especially if it’s been obscured beneath tamarisk, oak brush and tenacious Russian olive bushes. I’d heard stories about mammoths once roaming the land that’s now San Juan County in southeastern Utah, but a beast from the Pleistocene is hard to locate on rock cliffs and […]
How to find a 13,000 year-old mammoth
Posted inHeard Around the West
China hearts cowboys
THE WEST AND CHINAIt’s no secret that many Germans adore the Old West, but who knew that prosperous second-home buyers in China would also succumb to “cowhide, antler chandeliers, saddle blankets, lodgepole chairs, wagon wheels, Navajo rugs, iron light fixtures, wildlife-scene fireplace screens, wooden snowshoes, leather throw pillows, horseshoes, Charles Russell prints and plaid curtains”? […]
Posted inGoat
Sheep vs. bear, agency vs. agency
In many ways, the tale of Yellowstone’s grizzly bears is one of remarkable success. When the species was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1975, there may have been as few as 136 of the bruins wandering in and around Yellowstone National Park. By 2006, there were more than 500, and in […]
Posted inGoat
Video of trapped bobcat riles Las Vegas
If you’re interested in how animals struggle when they’re caught by trappers — and how trappers think and act — here you go: This video was made by Tracy Truman, a lawyer and longtime trapper who serves as an adviser on “wildlife matters” to the Clark County government (around Las Vegas) and the Nevada Wildlife […]
Posted inRange
Rants from the Hill: Words and Clouds
“Rants from the Hill” are Michael Branch’s monthly musings on life in the high country of Nevada’s western Great Basin desert. Our corner of the western Great Basin is tucked into the rain shadow of the Sierra crest, which knocks the bottom out of those big, wet storms that rise in the Pacific and cross […]
Posted inGoat
The Sackett Saga
It’s hard not to feel for Mike and Chantell Sackett, the Idaho couple who in 2007 saw their plans for a dream home on a remote Idaho lake kiboshed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Last week, when their case against the agency became the first case of 2012 to go before the U.S. Supreme […]
Posted inGoat
Genetically modified or no, farmed salmon a risky proposition
Get ready, folks: A genetically modified salmon, AquAdvantage, may soon be approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in U.S. commercial fish farming. That is, assuming that an opposition bill that made it halfway through Congress last session doesn’t derail the 15-year permitting process, and fierce opposition from environmental groups doesn’t convince the […]
Posted inGoat
Amid scandal, a top Alaska wildlife official quits
Alaska’s politically-charged system of wildlife management — detailed in a 2011 HCN cover story — is looking disgraceful now. Corey Rossi — the controversial director of wildlife conservation, within the Alaska Department of Fish and Game — has been charged with 12 counts of violating hunting regulations. Rossi, 51, has resigned — and many of […]
Posted inGoat
Friday news roundup: Mining ban and river otters
At the beginning of this week, I was ignorantly enjoying the warmth of “Juneuary”. By the end of the week, my revelry was repaid with a 6-degree morning that froze me to my bicycle. As the world turned and cooled, the poli-enviro reality show continued to unfold. So with due diligence from this frozen biker’s […]
Posted inWotr
A big win for democracy in Big Sky country – for now
Toward the end of the robber-baron era of the 19th century, the U.S. Senate took the extraordinary action of denying a seat to mining titan W. A. Clark. The senators had determined that Clark bribed Montana’s state legislators to get the Senate appointment. Outrage over the incident contributed to passage of the 17th Amendment, which […]
Posted inDecember 26, 2011: Perilous Passages
No matter how long you live in your small town, you’ll never be a native
The woman behind the counter asked where I lived. It turns out she grew up in the very same small town, population 300. She said she had to leave it to find a job, moving to the nearest place with a population nearer 10,000.“So you must be the new trash that’s moving in,” she mused. […]
Posted inGoat
Renewables forecast: rainy with patchy sunshine
A few headlines last week celebrated the news that in the U.S. renewable energy production now surpasses nuclear energy production. The increase, however, is hardly coming from the solar panels adorning your roof. Conventional hydroelectric power still makes up the majority of renewable energy, as it has for decades. And, according to the National Hydropower […]
Posted inRange
Why railroads want coal exports
By Eric dePlace, Sightline.org This post is part of the research project: Northwest Coal Exports Here are three pictures that help explain why American railways seem to be supporting coal export proposals in Northwest. It’s because railways are very closely connected to the coal industry. Consider: Coal so dwarfs every other rail-hauled commodity that it […]
Posted inWotr
Fixing what ain’t broken in Foggy Bottom
There may be many distinguishing features of the current U.S. House of Representatives, but one that sticks out recently is the tendency to do things that don’t need to be done. First, keep in mind that Lisa Jackson, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, has made it clear on several occasions that the EPA has […]
Posted inGoat
Groundwater (mis)management
A few years ago, Easterday Ranches, one of the largest feedlot operators in the Northwest, began planning a new 30,000-head facility in eastern Washington’s Franklin County. Easterday purchased some water rights from a nearby farm entitling it to withdraw 282,106 gallons of groundwater per day, 58,921 of which could be used for drinking water for […]
Posted inGoat
Ungulate roundup
As 2012 begins, the various native ungulate species of the West are getting transplanted to new turf – and thinned out by diseases on their home ranges. Here’s a roundup of recent news about bighorns, pronghorns, deer, elk and bison. In southern Colorado, recently-transplanted desert bighorn have joined forces with an existing bighorn band. In […]
Posted inWotr
Resolutions for living smarter in 2012
I can’t say that if you try to do everything on this list you’ll win a gold star, but you will definitely save money, feel virtuous and lose weight. It’s a tough-love list of resolutions that work: Cook: Preservative-laden fast food costs more and makes you fatter. Bake bread: Simple, cheap and cheering. Eat local: […]
Posted inArticles
On Keystone XL route, states allow different risks, reap different benefits
This article was first published by InsideClimate News. If the Keystone XL oil pipeline were approved today, residents in the six states along its route would not receive equal treatment from TransCanada, the company that wants to build the project. The differences are particularly striking when it comes to tax revenue and environmental protection. States […]
Posted inRange
Target shooting on public lands should be regulated
Recently, I participated in a spirited response sequence to an blog post in HCN on yet another heated debate about motorized vs. non-motorized travel on public lands. The article’s author, Marian Lyman Kirst, described non-motorized travel as “quiet” use, a handy, aggregate term that is widely used to describe activities such as hiking, bicycling, kayaking, […]
Posted inRange
Montana is full.
I saw the bumper sticker and the headline on the same day. The newspaper read: Montana’s population estimated to pass 1 million. The bumper sticker read: Montana is full. Go home. The Census Bureau says Montana has grown 10 percent over the past decade, and would soon break 1 million people. Barely. How can a […]