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 […]
Groundwater (mis)management
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 […]
Posted inDecember 26, 2011: Perilous Passages
A Q&A with former Colorado National Monument head Joan Anzelmo
In 1976, fresh from the University of Maryland with degrees in French and Spanish, Joan Anzelmo began her National Park Service career greeting international tourists at the agency’s new Visitor Center in Washington, D.C. But it wasn’t long before the former “city girl” came out West, where she spent most of her 35-year tenure, including […]
Posted inRange
Lessons Learned From the Musselshell: River History
Editor’s note: This is the first blog in a series by contributor Wendy Beye, chronicling a restoration effort on Montana’s Musselshell River. The waters of the Musselshell River originate in the Little Belt, Crazy, and Castle Mountains in central Montana. Several small creeks join forces west of Martinsdale and gather momentum as they flow east […]
Posted inWotr
Go take it off the mountain
When they emerge from the trees while cruising down a popular run at Montana’s Whitefish Mountain Resort, skiers suddenly encounter the back of a life-size statue of Jesus Christ. Clad in a flowing blue robe, the statue’s arms stretch toward the Flathead Valley below. It has been here for over half a century — a […]
Posted inDecember 26, 2011: Perilous Passages
Raymond Ansotegui and the art of artificially inseminating cattle
It’s an early June morning on Montana’s 60,000-acre Bair Ranch, north of the Crazy Mountains. Black cow-calf pairs dot the pastures under a frigid rain. It streams from the hats and soaks the chaps of the men and women who exit the bunkhouse, fully caffeinated and sated by steak and eggs. They are here to […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
Do not sink teeth into animal testicles
MONTANABob Ream, chairman of the state Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission, was driving to north-central Montana just before sunrise to hunt deer, when a deer jumped in front of his car and made the trip unnecessary. The deer was a goner, “but only its hindquarter was damaged,” reports the Independent Record, “so Ream tagged it.” […]
Posted inRange
Winning the day
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 […]
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 […]