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 […]
The mirage of pristine wilderness
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. […]
Posted inWotr
Those buck-tooth dammers are back, big-time
“Nine degrees,” I called out, thigh-deep in the beaver pond. On the bank, foot propped on an aspen log, Sam Bixler recorded the temperature. My other partner, Dave Bolger, called out the water temperature some 60 feet upstream from the slack water of the beaver pond: “Five degrees.” The icy stream was Pennock Creek, elevation […]
Posted inRange
Down with the “National Insecurity and Federal Lands Destruction Act”
By Heather Hansen, Red Lodge Clearing House Updated afternoon of 10/5/11 to reflect recent changes to the bill. I was cruising along the shoreline of Upper Waterton Lake a few years back, crossing from Canada to Goat Haunt, Montana. It was around the time of the sixth anniversary of 9/11 and, as we crossed the international […]
Posted inGoat
A feel good ferret story (mostly)
Last week, or maybe it was the week before, a familiar sound drifted over from the hay field abutting the property where I live. Pop! Pop! Pop! My boyfriend and I looked at each other: “Prairie dogs,” we said in unison. Another few bite the dust. Our neighbors don’t seem to like the rodents, and […]
Posted inSeptember 19, 2011: Redemption
A part of something old: writer Kim Stafford’s storied places
In southwest Portland lies a strip of untamed land, bounded by busy roads in a dense, urban landscape. It is not a park, simply a tract of woods that developers missed. It is also not pristine nature, but it is what writer and Portland native Kim Stafford calls a “scattered Eden.” Those woods are just […]
Posted inRange
Why rural communities deserve investment
By Chuck Hassebrook, the Daily Yonder We cannot build a strong nation on a foundation of crumbling communities. Even the sound elements are weakened by those not maintained. So it would be a mistake to write off rural communities and suspend federal investment in their future, as advocated by some in the September […]
Posted inWotr
Only one thing is certain: A grizzly got killed
As with most crime stories, the details of why Jeremy Hill killed a grizzly bear in northern Idaho were slow to emerge. The federal prosecutors who charged Hill with a misdemeanor in early August were stingy with information, beyond saying that he had killed the juvenile male on his property, thereby violating the Endangered Species […]
Posted inGoat
The middles of nowhere
Crossposted from the Last Word on Nothing As someone preoccupied with odd, mysterious places, I have a longstanding appreciation for an odd, mysterious organization called The Center for Land Use Interpretation. Equal parts arts organization, archive, and amateur detective agency, the Los Angeles-based CLUI (rhymes with gooey) has a particular interest in the forgotten spaces of the […]
Posted inRange
Feeling the wasteful weight of the electronics age
A university campus like the one where I work is a fine place to receive constant reminders of one’s age. For years, decades really, I paid no heed to older colleagues who complained that they had little in common with their undergraduate students. Now, however, I fully recognize that although I diligently work at keeping […]
Posted inGoat
Fish fight on the Elwha
On Sept. 15, an excavator tore the first chunks of concrete from the Glines Canyon dam on Washington state’s Elwha River. It was a historic moment, kicking off the largest dam removal in U.S. history. When the dams are gone, salmon will swim up the Elwha for the first time in nearly 100 years. Seventy miles […]
Posted inSeptember 19, 2011: Redemption
Cody Cortez: A faux-file of the West’s most mysterious writer
As fiercely reclusive as he is enigmatic, Cody Cortez is probably the most compelling Western writer you’ve never heard of. He lives off the grid and loathes the trappings of the literary life, spurning bookstore readings and appearances on National Public Radio. Among devotees, though, the pages of his books-in-progress, especially his memoir-in-the-making, Cowboy Rinpoche, […]
Posted inGoat
Pearls of discontent
Last week, The National Park Service released a draft environmental impact statement that assesses the impacts the commercial shellfish company has on the estuary where it’s based–particularly its impacts on eelgrass, water quality, and wildlife–and evaluates the pros and cons of issuing a new permit that would allow the company to continue operating.
Posted inWotr
When it comes to importing water, nothing seems too extreme
The West’s history of developing water sources, occasionally stained with instances of outright theft, is probably best described as “complicated.” Our decisions on who should get what water — and how, and from which source they should get it — usually teetered to the side of whatever person in power had the least tolerance for […]
Posted inGoat
The business of banking
Early this August, 12 branches of a bank serving rural Washington state — the Colfax-based Bank of Whitman — shuttered their doors for good. The closure is just one more in a long series of bank failures stemming from the financial crisis. The vast majority of banks are community banks, making up 98 percent of […]
Posted inWotr
Wilderness and military use can coexist
A funny thing happened on the way to a small expansion of the nation’s prized system of wilderness. In Colorado, the state’s largest national forest wilderness proposal in nearly two decades is being ambushed by the U.S. military. At stake is the gorgeous Red Table Mountain area in central Colorado between the valleys of the […]
Posted inRange
A tale of two maulings
Two headlines recently caught my eye: in eastern Idaho, a hunter after elk with archery gear was mauled by a grizzly bear. His partner turned the attack around with pepper spray, although the bear still inflicted serious injuries. Details here. Earlier in September, another hunter was mauled in northwestern Montana, by a grizzly he and […]
Posted inSeptember 19, 2011: Redemption
Seeds of atonement: an interview with writer Shann Ray
The short stories in Shann Ray’s first book, American Masculine, reflect his lifelong interest in forgiveness and redemption, as well as in basketball and the American West. Ray’s characters struggle to live up to their families’ expectations and look up to those who are “more ready to give and forgive.” Ray, who grew up in […]
Posted inGoat
The long and winding road…
If you’re familiar with the Klamath River Basin, which straddles the Oregon-California border, you’ve likely heard the story. Leafing back through the High Country News archives, we’ve certainly told it enough times. It goes something like this: It was, in a word, a meltdown. But the disaster also helped catalyze the “peace” that Jenkins wrote […]