Updated 8/3/2011, 2:46 pm A grouse, a prairie chicken, and a rabbit walk into a bar. The bartender looks up and says, “There’s a two for one special on drinks tonight. Who’s game?” Okay, cheesy pun, I admit. But here’s a worse joke: In June, Safari Club International, a wealthy hunters’ rights group, filed a […]
Game on, Government!
Posted inRange
What does it mean nowadays to be a Westerner?
By Steve Bunk, NewWest.net Former Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt’s re-entry in the political fray in recent weeks, which he says was precipitated by fears over the future of the nation’s wild lands, brings up the question of what it means nowadays to be a Westerner. To many people, the answer probably would be […]
Posted inJuly 25, 2011: The Global West
Montana’s stream access law stays strong
In late May, as melting La Niña-fed snowpack shoved western Montana’s rivers over their banks, the state began closing fishing access sites, including several on the bloated Bitterroot River. Thus, floodwaters accomplished what some state lawmakers, earlier in the year, could not: Removing anglers from the Bitterroot and other streams. The Republican-dominated state Legislature was […]
Posted inAugust 8, 2011: Ganjanomics
The global is local
Thank you for publishing Jonathan Thompson’s article about international economic influences on the American West’s natural resources (HCN, 7/25/11). A recent drive to Victor, Colo., was a perfect illustration of the disparity between international profits and marginal local benefits. With the value of gold rising in the face of unstable national currencies, the town of […]
Posted inAugust 8, 2011: Ganjanomics
No diving allowed
The idea that fertilizing streams — deliberately or inadvertently — is beneficial needs a complete evaluation (HCN, 6/27/11). The stream section immediately below the outfall from a sewage treatment plant may be more productive, but that can contribute to low dissolved oxygen. This means that it is less suitable for spawning; developing eggs and fry […]
Posted inAugust 8, 2011: Ganjanomics
‘Grab the bucks, gimme the jobs’
Forgive me if I am wrong in thinking it incongruous that pretty much the same people who are very cranked up about leaving our children and grandchildren with trillions of dollars in debt don’t seem to care about leaving them with environmental catastrophes related to fracking and other shortsighted “grab the bucks now, give me […]
Posted inAugust 8, 2011: Ganjanomics
A border crosser does not an immigrant make
I take exception to the use of the word “immigrant” by HCN or Utah (HCN, 6/27/11). As one knowledgeable about Mormon values, I pondered what had come over the Beehive State, but then I remembered Mormons are, if nothing else, pro-business. I also pondered presidential and media hypocrisy as another state “supersedes” federal jurisdiction on […]
Posted inRange
BLM issues final EIS for Over the River
The federal Bureau of Land Management has issued a final Environmental Impact Statement for the controversial “Over the River” art installation. Proposed by the artist Christo and his late wife Jeanne Claude, the project would suspend nearly six total miles of translucent fabric in various spots along a 42-mile stretch of the Arkansas River between […]
Posted inGoat
Next train to … China?
Billionaire Forrest Mars, of Mars candy bar fame, used to be the Tongue River Railroad’s most high-profile foe. The much-disputed rail line — first proposed some 30 years ago — gained new momentum in recent years as interest mounted in mining southeastern Montana’s untapped coal reserves, which currently have no path to market. Mars, like […]
Posted inBlog
Industry boosts pro-fracking PR
Like you, lately I’ve been getting a rapid education in fracking, the natural gas extraction method that’s been much in the public eye, including extensive coverage of the April spill in Pennsylvania , the release of the anti-fracking documentary Gasland, and HCN’s recent in-depth article “Hydrofracked?” in the June 27th issue. The environmental justice connection […]
Posted inRange
Hydropower remains dominant energy source in the West
By Jamie Bedwell, guest writer at NewWest.net ABOUT THIS SERIES: Students from The University of Montana School of Journalism, with the help of American Public Media’s Public Insight Network, reported and wrote stories for New West on the energy economy of the Rocky Mountain region. The project originated as part of the Green Thread initiative […]
Posted inGoat
How much should hunters with ATVs be regulated?
The hunters stalked their game for hours, carefully taking note of scat and tracks the herd left behind. They hunted on foot through the West’s backcountry wilds, through brush and over mountains. A rumble in the distance sounded like the characteristic clap of a Rocky Mountain thunderstorm. It spooked the elk. Over the hill emerged […]
Posted inJuly 25, 2011: The Global West
A former energy company lawyer now fights for the other side
In the 1990s, oil and gas was booming, and industry attorney Lance Astrella had it all: a thriving practice, a plump paycheck and a reputation as one of the best in the business. Then one night, disturbed by rumors of drillers trashing private property, he attended a community meeting in Denver. One by one, people […]
Posted inRange
How troubling is ocean acidification?
By Jennifer Langston, Sightline.org This post is part of the research project: Northwest Ocean Acidification Not every commercial fisherman is convinced that curbing carbon emissions is necessary to stop global warming. But the evidence that fossil fuel pollution is making the oceans more corrosive—and removing building basic building blocks of the marine world—starts to get […]
Posted inGoat
Ignorance is blissless
Ever noticed how the loudest, most enraged environmental critics (you know, the ones with the tumescent neck vein that throbs angrily at the slightest mention of endangered species or roadless areas) are usually the people who know the least about environmental issues? “Global warming? That’s BS! Our state had record snowfall this year.” “Green energy? […]
Posted inWotr
Ice matters
“Now I know a glacier,” said Leon, a playwright from New York. We sat across from each other in front of a small driftwood fire, the cool Alaskan evening wrapping us in darkness. Leon had just spent five days with me as an artist-in-residence in the wilderness area where I work. Each day, our near […]
Posted inGoat
A civil disobedient for the modern era?
Unjust laws exist; shall we be content to obey them?Or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded?Or shall we transgress them at once? In 1849, Henry David Thoreau posed these questions in his essay, “Civil Disobedience.” Yesterday, a civil insurgent from the climate-change generation, Tim DeChristopher, was sentenced to […]
Posted inJuly 25, 2011: The Global West
Milestone in Cobell Indian trust case
In a crowded federal courtroom near the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on June 20, the first person to testify was Elouise Pepion Cobell, a member of Montana’s Blackfeet Tribe. Cobell, 65, exemplifies persistence. She grew up in a house without utilities and has worked as a banker and the treasurer of her tribe. Testifying […]
Posted inGoat
Bad bills on the rise
Two bills being considered in the House continue Republican-led efforts to weaken environmental protections. HR. 1581, the Wilderness and Roadless Area Release Act, would drop protections on at least 43 million acres of public land. Roadless national forest lands and wilderness study areas would be “released” for unfettered access to off-highway vehicles, oil and gas […]
Posted inRange
Naming the wind
Living in the West means living with the wind. Some of our winds even have names like chinook, dust devil, black roller and blue norther. Many of us learned of another name this July, when a “haboob” struck Phoenix. It’s a blinding dust storm, provoked by strong gusts from a thunderstorm. The National Weather Service […]