Happy New Year. Or, I should say, happy election year. From now on, the national battle for president (as well as the house and the senate) shifts from a vague threat to an actual election. But not just any election, because the 2012 result could represent a significant threat to Indian Country. No matter who […]
Winning the day
Posted inWotr
Las Vegas needs to let the market decide where the water goes
The famous slogan, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas,” once assured visitors that they were exempt from the wages of sins committed in the city of lights. It was the inspired product of the Las Vegas convention and tourism bureau. Not to be outdone, the local water authority is still promising cheap water in […]
Posted inDecember 26, 2011: Perilous Passages
The perilous journey of Wyoming’s migrating pronghorn
On a blustery spring day, I crouched behind sagebrush at the edge of the Green River in western Wyoming, waiting for pronghorn to pass by on their northern migration. Occasional snowflakes fluttered into the steel-colored water. I pulled my arms inside my down jacket, zipped to the chin. Hours went by. Then, across the river, […]
Posted inWotr
A novel solution to the drug problem
A cop friend told me not long ago that he had changed his mind completely on the idea of legalizing drugs. His current take: “Legalize everything but meth and hang the meth-pushers” — or something close to that. We were talking about a kid we both had known back in the day, a kid who […]
Posted inGoat
Waking up from the holiday food coma
If you were watching TV news over Christmas weekend, you likely saw weather forecasts mapping Santa’s position over the U.S., a few feel-good stories about hard-case animals finding happy homes, and a report or two about how on Dec. 26, gift-recipients thunder back into the malls to return what they got for what they REALLLY […]
Posted inRange
Former New Mexico governor leaves GOP
Until Dec. 28, there were two former Western governors seeking the Republican presidential nomination. One remains in the race. Jon Huntsman, Jr., was governor of Utah from 2005 until he resigned in 2009 to serve as U.S. ambassador to China. He hasn’t gained much traction to date — a reputation for sanity has not been […]
Posted inRange
Tribes could turn the tables on water control
By Heather Hansen, Red Lodge Clearing House It seems like every week there’s another article about the future of western water—how much we’ll have, where it will come from, and who will get it. Since it’s key to our sustainability and growth, it’s something we ought to be talking about. But there’s a key element that […]
Posted inGoat
A tale of two wolf populations
The Minnesota State Fair is the Land of 10,000 Lakes’ great melting pot. Enthusiasm for the “great Minnesota get together” is, to an outsider, strangely universal. Minneapolis hipsters — who can rock skinny jeans and ironic, retro eyewear with the best of Brooklyn — relish the opportunity to gorge on fried food on a stick […]
Posted inWotr
Survival tips for 2012
In this New Year, we can’t take anything for granted when the global financial system of speculative swindles, leveraged frauds and doomed debts keeps circumnavigating the bowl. Another bailout might extend this game of charades; another scantily clad stimulus package might temporarily succeed in goosing our economy — but only at the cost of rendering […]
Posted inDecember 26, 2011: Perilous Passages
Protecting wildlife corridors remains more theory than practice
updated Dec. 30, 3011 Every May for the past five years, Jackson Hole, Wyo., has celebrated the return of 300 or so Antilocapra americana to nearby Grand Teton National Park. The revelry is not just to honor the animals for completing their remarkable 120-mile-long seasonal migration. It also salutes a Herculean communal effort: the 2008 […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
All I want for Christmas is a rifle
ARIZONAAlthough the Scottsdale Gun Club has yet to start selling Christmas cards showing baby Jesus cradling a machine gun in the manger, or the Magi bringing gifts of frankincense, myrrh and crates full of extra ammo, the club did offer its members a unique photo op: posing with Santa Claus while holding military-style rifles. Choices […]
Posted inGoat
Insects — the neglected 99 percent
This December, the Xerces Society celebrated its 40th anniversary. Not bad for a group that champions the spineless. No, the Xerces Society isn’t a fraternity of bank executives or mortgage lenders. It’s a Portland, Oregon-based non-profit dedicated to the protection of invertebrates, animals that lack a physical (rather than metaphorical) backbone. Animals like earthworms, bumblebees, […]
Posted inWotr
Some things deserve to stay the same
More so than any other landscape in Big Sky Country, Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front derives its wonder from a violent juxtaposition of geological forms. The Front is the convergence of two mega-ecosystems that together cover roughly a quarter of our country — the Northern Plains and the Northern Rockies. This is where each seemingly limitless […]
Posted inGoat
Coal: curbed but not crushed
updated Dec. 29, 2011 For many Christmases to come, we Westerners are likely to have coal in our stockings. Or at least in our power plants. About 45 percent of our electricity is produced by burning coal. And even if our own demand dropped drastically, China is an emerging market for Western coal. Nonetheless, several […]
Posted inDecember 26, 2011: Perilous Passages
Boulder, Colo., votes for energy independence — from its utility
On election night this November in Boulder, Colo., under the stained-glass ceiling of the Hotel Boulderado, about 100 progressive-leaning voters crowded around a screen showing preliminary results. Early in the evening, the odds of the city breaking its ties with Minnesota-based corporate utility Xcel Energy to pursue locally produced, clean power seemed as dark as […]
Posted inGoat
The circular logic of energy independence
“From its beginning 200 years ago, throughout its history, America has made great sacrifices of blood and also of treasure to achieve and maintain its independence. In the last third of this century, our independence will depend on maintaining and achieving self-sufficiency in energy.” President Richard Nixon said this back in 1973, after oil producers […]
Posted inDecember 26, 2011: Perilous Passages
Is Colorado Springs the new Babylon?
“Is Phoenix the new Babylon?” resonates in Colorado Springs (HCN, 11/28/11). Colorado Springs Utilities, a city-owned full-service utility — gas, sewer, electricity and water — has committed $2.1 billion to build a pipeline to bring water to the city from Pueblo Reservoir, a project known as the Southern Delivery System. That amount does not include […]
Posted inDecember 26, 2011: Perilous Passages
The year 2011, in apocalyptic weather events
Worried that the world may end in 2012 à la the alleged Mayan prophecies? You might want to get your head out of those New Age clouds and look around: 2011 was plenty apocalyptic worldwide and in the West. Here’s a month-by-month roundup of the region’s freakiest climate and weather events. January 2011 is ushered […]
