Note: This is a response to a Writers on the Range column by Ted Williams, headlined “Extreme Green.” Industry-funded zealots are angling to prevent nonprofits from protecting veterans, children, workers and the environment. With the absurd argument that nonprofits are getting rich by making the government follow its own laws, they want to ensure that […]
Suckling responds: Cashing in? Nope, just saving species every day
Posted inRange
Dental boot camp brings services to Alaska natives
BETHEL, Alaska — Conan Murat has a tough schedule. About every other week he packs up a portable dental office, checks his groceries, sleeping bags and other supplies, then he flies to one of his 13 assigned remote villages in the Yukon-Kushkokwin Delta. Then remote is a relative word: Murat’s base is Aniak, some 90 […]
Posted inGoat
A wild week in Washington
In a remote alpine valley in 1968, Rocky Wilson shot the last grizzly bear to be killed in the North Cascades. Since then, biologists have longed for proof that any grizzlies remain; some wondered if they were all gone. But with the click of a camera, hiker Joe Sebille brought the North Cascades grizzly bear […]
Posted inJuly 25, 2011: The Global West
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 inJuly 25, 2011: The Global West
When the locals don’t want your coal, sell it overseas
The world’s largest surface coal mine complex is a landscape unto itself. Six 200-foot-high draglines tear open the earth and scoop the black coal into gigantic dump trucks that make school buses look like playthings. Two dozen loaded-down trains, each a mile long, slide out of the mine complex every day, headed for power plants […]
Posted inJuly 25, 2011: The Global West
Global Players in the West’s Extraction Economy
Your browser does not support iframes.
Posted inJuly 25, 2011: The Global West
Boom or bust for the West’s fossil fuel economy?
How big will the American West’s current fossil-fuel boom become, and how long will it last? Any answer involves as much art as science, but according to the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), which each year calculate outlooks for future energy production in the United States and around the […]
Posted inJuly 25, 2011: The Global West
The Global West: how foreign investment fuels resource extraction in Western states
Douglas, Wyo., population 5,000 and home of the legendary jackalope, lies in an almost puritanical landscape — beautiful, yet shy about that beauty, concealing it modestly under a beige blanket of grass and shrubs. A collection of low-slung stone and brick buildings sits at the town’s center, with tree-shaded residential neighborhoods radiating out from it. […]
Posted inJuly 25, 2011: The Global West
The fight over a much-needed pesticide: methyl iodide
In May, on a farm outside of Sanger, Calif., a man in a white hazmat suit and a gas mask drove a hulking tractor over bare ground, injecting toxic gas 12 inches deep in the soil. Behind the machine, plastic tarps unrolled like Saran Wrap over the land to contain the chemical. In the next […]
Posted inJuly 25, 2011: The Global West
HCN enters the digital world
On a beautiful blue-skied June weekend, the High Country News Board of Directors gathered at our headquarters in Paonia, Colo., to discuss everything from how the editorial staff develops story ideas to the ongoing evolution of digital technology. A presentation by staff on plans to roll out HCN content for mobile phones, tablet computers and […]
Posted inJuly 25, 2011: The Global West
Can YOU carry a concealed weapon in Wyoming? A guide
When President Obama took office, state lawmakers started loosening firearms restrictions, fearing the administration would try to toughen gun laws. It hasn’t, but states continue to relax their own. On July 1, Wyoming became one of four states to allow residents to carry concealed weapons without a permit. (Arizona, Alaska and Vermont are the others.) […]
Posted inJuly 25, 2011: The Global West
Building a bridge to love: A review of Randy Lopez Goes Home
Randy Lopez Goes Home: A NovelRudolfo Anaya168 pages, hardcover: $19.95.University of Oklahoma Press, 2011. No one in the village of Agua Bendita, N.M., remembers Randy Lopez when he returns — not even his own godparents. Did he stay away too long, seeking wisdom among the gringos? Has he lost his identity? Is Sofia, his true […]
Posted inJuly 25, 2011: The Global West
An L.A. story, in incidents and rhythms: A review of The Book of Want
The Book of Want: A NovelDaniel A. Olivas144 pages, softcover: $16.95.University of Arizona Press, 2011. “I want … I want everything. Everything that makes life beautiful.” So says Conchita, one of the many characters in Los Angeles writer Daniel Olivas’ The Book of Want. That Conchita is a voluptuous, amorous, unmarried 62-year-old with a penchant […]
Posted inGoat
Don’t Forget The Little Guys!
In May, the environmental advocacy group WildEarth Guardians struck a significant bargain with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that will require the agency to consider federal protections for more than 250 species under the Endangered Species Act. To solidify the agreement, The Center for Biological Diversity, which collaborated with the Guardians in earlier discussions […]
Posted inRange
Three Books from Indian Country
Here are my three picks for the best in summer reading: 1. Walter Echo-Hawk’s In the Courts of the Conquerors: The Ten Worst Indian Law Cases Ever Decided. 2. Roberta Ulrich’s American Indian Nations from Termination to Restoration, 1953-2006. 3. Alison Owings’ Indian Voices: Listening to Native Americans. Echo-Hawk’s book ought to retire the entire […]
Posted inArticles
In search of diversity in our national parks
In the crowd of tourists on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, the Griffin family immediately caught my eye. Allen, Hashmareen and their two small boys were surrounded by thousands of other visitors, but the Griffins stood out because they were among only a handful of African-Americans I encountered in my travels. People of […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
The criminals who built the West
IDAHO Jeffrey John Shaw was not what you’d call a “natural” rancher when he moved to Marsing, Idaho, population 890, in the mid-1990s. He had a thick Boston accent, knew beans about cattle, and wore bib overalls and straw hats that were a little over-the-top country, says a neighbor. But he gained the trust of […]
Posted inRange
Judge halts Montana megaload shipments
By New West Editor In what appears to be a major victory for those fighting the transport of oversized oil refinery equipment through Idaho and Montana to the Kearl Oil Sands in Canada, a judge has ruled that the Montana Department of Transportation is in violation of the law and issued a preliminary injunction. The […]