For much of our country’s history, chopping down forests and plowing up prairie were considered patriotic acts. Farming, which rid the earth of so-called non-productive land and transformed it into fields of grain, was a necessary nation-building activity. It took a few decades, but we finally realized that in our rush to control nature, we […]
Not all government programs need cutting
Posted inGoat
Demise of the housing growth machine
In 2008, the Morrison Institute for Public Policy at Arizona State University released a report called Megapolitan: Arizona’s Sun Corridor. It predicted that the corridor, stretching from Nogales in the south to Prescott in the north, with Phoenix and Tucson at its heart, would more than double its population by 2040, requiring some 3.7 million […]
Posted inGoat
Feds crack down on “new California gold rush”
If you live in one of the 9 Western states where marijuana has been legalized for medical use, you may have noticed that there suddenly seem to be an awful lot of bright-faced, completely healthy twenty-somethings who claim to have chronic pain or glaucoma. While many people use the drug to help deal with real, […]
Posted inWotr
For the love of garlic
Garlic: I can’t live without it. I’ve been growing this onion relative since the mid-1990s and have learned that good garlic is the product of both nature and nurture – good genes and good cultivation. Now is the best time to buy garlic for planting because it was just harvested in August, and the best […]
Posted inOctober 17, 2011: A Burning Problem
Where have all the Hatfields gone?
Politics aside, we need more senators and representatives like Mark Hatfield (HCN, 9/5/11). We used to have a couple of politicians here in Arizona who were political opposites — I mean really opposite. But they both got things done for the state: the straight-talkin’ Barry Goldwater and the great (for the landscape) Udalls. Can we […]
Posted inOctober 17, 2011: A Burning Problem
The violence of the open road
If you stand near the highway and listen to the trucks rip past at 85 to 90 miles per hour, you should be disturbed (HCN, 8/22/11). These speeds and the vehicle weights are lethal. The violence here is profound, and yet it has become normalized. It is absurd what we sacrifice for mobility: air, water, […]
Posted inOctober 17, 2011: A Burning Problem
The Hatfield legacy: “deep and wide and wonderful”
Nice job praising Sen. Mark Hatfield (HCN, 9/5/2011). In 1974, we started the Environmental Center at Oregon State and one of our first recruits was Andy Kerr, who quickly quit school to dedicate his life to saving Oregon wildlands. Andy did a hell of a job, and still does. But I will never forget the […]
Posted inOctober 17, 2011: A Burning Problem
Praise for Brad Tyer’s “Lost Opportunity”
Gorgeous article (HCN, 9/19/11). Insightful and sophisticated; layered in scope; ethical and pragmatic; beautifully written. Emily DePrangTucson, Arizona Top-shelf journalism. It’s almost cruel to have to wait a year for the book after reading such astute reporting and beautiful prose. Keila SzpallerMissoula, Montana Phenomenal story. Deeply reported, deeply personal, too. I’d like to see more […]
Posted inOctober 17, 2011: A Burning Problem
Phoenix remembered
Great essay by Aaron Gilbreath (HCN, 9/5/11)! I got to Phoenix in July of 1965, when there was still a real monsoon season that brought rain with the dust, and cooler evenings. The city didn’t have the wildlife that keep you company, but you knew you were in the desert during the dry times, too, […]
Posted inOctober 17, 2011: A Burning Problem
Missing in action: top dogs
This article, coupled with an article I read not long ago about the inherent danger in eliminating large predators in a region — the lion in Africa — and the economic hardship it creates, fit so well together (HCN, 8/22/11). The implications are fascinating and ominous. We eliminate the large predators, such as wolves, and […]
Posted inOctober 17, 2011: A Burning Problem
It’s a feral, feral world
Why don’t you do an article comparable to that about feral hogs on the Western Canada goose, a species that some people regard as cuddly (“To catch a swine,” HCN, 8/22/11)? Others, like me, regard the goose situation in this country as a prime example of everything that could possibly go wrong in species intervention […]
Posted inRange
Breaching the Elwha dams: A time lapse video
By Alan Durning, Sightline.org My hobby this week has been watching the demolition of the two dams on the Elwha River via webcams. The long awaited dam removal is opening the pristine waters of the Elwha inside Olympic National Park to wild salmon for the first time in a century. I cobbled together video of […]
Posted inGoat
Too much poop can be hazardous to your health
Should large quantities of manure from giant commercial farms be considered hazardous waste? They’re not right now, and at least 14 members of Congress want to keep it that way. The group, which includes Idaho Representative Mike Simpson (R), recently signed on to the Superfund Common Sense Act, a bill that would prevent the Environmental […]
Posted inArticles
Lessons for the Colorado River from drought-stricken Australia
This spring, Brad Udall, director of the Western Water Assessment, spent four months in Australia working with its Department of Water. Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin has seen remarkable water reform in recent years in response to a long and devastating drought. Udall believes those reforms hold important lessons for the Colorado River Basin. HCN assistant editor […]
Posted inGoat
Resource plans rescinded for sage grouse
Wildlife advocates won a round against energy development and grazing in Wyoming and Idaho last week, when Idaho Chief U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill overturned two Bureau of Land Management resource management plans in favor of the Hailey, Idaho-based Western Watersheds Project. The nonprofit conservation group argued the BLM was too hasty in development […]
Posted inWotr
Out stealing rocks from special places
A few months ago, I was making my way up Notchtop, a spire of rock in Rocky Mountain National Park. Just below the summit, I squatted over a thumb-sized piece of black and white rock and picked it up. I took a quick glance around to see if anyone was watching — besides my climbing […]
Posted inSeptember 19, 2011: Redemption
The mirage of pristine wilderness
One summer day, I went with my father and daughter to Schmitz Park in West Seattle, famous for being among the only chunks of old-growth forest within city limits. A few urban noises penetrated the 50-acre park, mostly airplanes and boat horns. But it was markedly quiet — and beautiful. The turf was springy with […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
‘Never again’
WYOMING With the cutting of a ceremonial barbed wire fence, the Heart Mountain Interpretive Learning Center near Cody, Wyo., officially opened Aug. 20. It was a dramatic moment for the more than 250 Japanese Americans who were present: All had been imprisoned there during World War II. A crowd of nearly 1,200 other people joined […]
Posted inGoat
The urban wild
In the beginning was the bat. Roger, Isolde,* and I sipped margaritas on a warm August evening in their Boulder condo. Suddenly, Roger slammed down his drink, pointed to the ceiling and screamed, “Look out!” As a black, papery blur fluttered around the living room, I dived to the floor and slithered under the table. […]