Abandoned mines — about 31,000 of them — linger like ghosts on the West’s public lands. It’s harder to find exact numbers for old mines on private land, but Colorado, for example, has about 14,000, compared to 3,299 public-land sites. In the San Juan Mountains, water from snowmelt and rainfall picks up mining remnants like […]
Biochar makeover for abandoned mines?
Posted inAugust 8, 2011: Ganjanomics
A Western mystery with an environmental twist: a review of Buried by the Roan
Buried by the RoanMark Stevens346 pages, softcover: $14.95.People’s Press, 2011. In his second mystery novel, Buried by the Roan, Colorado writer Mark Stevens tells a “ripped from the headlines” story involving natural gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. The story is set in and around the Roan Plateau area between Glenwood Springs and Meeker, […]
Posted inRange
A tale of three women conservationists
In the beginning, there was only water as far as the eye could see, according to the Chemehuevi Indians, who once traversed the rocky peaks and steep slopes of what is now Joshua Tree National Park. Ocean Woman, afloat on a woven boat with wolf, mountain lion and coyote, created the land by rubbing dead […]
Posted inGoat
The Visual West: Going with the Monsoonal Flow
Over the past several weeks, the monsoon season has kicked in nicely across the Southwest, reaching up into Colorado, where it has created some spectacular lightning, downpours and sunsets. In my humble opinion, summer afternoons during monsoon season were meant to be spent working (not too vigorously) in the garden and watching the thunderheads build […]
Posted inWotr
Bootstrapping in Roundup
The morning of May 26, the town of Roundup in central Montana became separated from the world. The Musselshell River, normally a lazy brown trickle, had been transformed overnight into a raging monster a half-mile wide that swept away everything in its path. In the wee hours, the sheriff’s department received word from 20 miles […]
Posted inJuly 25, 2011: The Global West
Wedding in the shadowed valley
When I got married, my husband was in the midst of a slide into bipolar disorder that would last for years, nearly kill us both, and ultimately end our marriage. I hadn’t told many people about what was going on. Nor had I thought to reconsider my decision to get married. We had already been […]
Posted inGoat
Proposed Alaska dam pushes state to examine hydropower options
Corrected August 5, 2011, 2:53 p.m. Mile 184 on the Susitna River halfway between Anchorage and Fairbanks may look a little different in 12 years. Imagine a 700-foot high dam with a reservoir 39 miles long. That’s what could be there if the proposed $4.5 billion Susitna-Watana hydroelectric project secures permits and financing. The project […]
Posted inWotr
The return of the Lords of Yesterday
A couple of decades ago, the West’s conservationists dreamed a lovely dream: The region’s traditional extractive industry base, which had taken such a huge environmental toll, would soon make way for a kinder, gentler economy based on protecting the land for recreation and tourism. And the dream seemed on the verge of coming true; during […]
Posted inGoat
Game on, Government!
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 […]
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 […]