Protesters armed with posters opposing a ban on fishing, canoeing, boating and other recreation paraded 200 boats in a “Death of Recreation Parade” July 9. Locals worried about Idaho’s Deer Flat National Wildlife Refuge’s proposed comprehensive conservation plan were demonstrating to express concern that the new plan would limit their recreational pursuits and the industries […]
Boats vs. birds
Posted inWotr
The gift of runoff in a wet season
One recent evening, a friend and I walked along a mountain creek in central Colorado that only a few hours before had been covered with snow. Boulders once visible had been replaced by froth and waves, and the water velocity was so great that the middle of the creek was a foot higher than its […]
Posted inWotr
Is wildfire always a question of when?
Even before Arizona Sen. John McCain told the media that illegal immigrants were burning down the forests of Arizona, some local ranchers had begun spreading the same rumor. Then as the Chiricahua Mountains in southeastern Arizona burned, a different kind of smoke rose from my email inbox: “It’s those damn illegals, ya know.” “They found […]
Posted inRange
The climate impact of coal exports
By Eric de Place, Sightline.org This post is part of the research project: The Dirt on Coal One of the nation’s most respected resource economists, Dr. Thomas M. Power, just released a new white paper showing that coal exports to China will increase that country’s coal burning and pollution, and decrease investments in energy efficiency. […]
Posted inBlog
Reflecting on nuclear crises doesn’t leave clear answers
Southeast Utah – It’s another magnificent day here in the remote pinyon/juniper backcountry; the recent afternoon rains have cooled the air and sharpened the views of Canyonlands and the Abajo mountains off in the distance. As a freshly arrived, part-time resident, I’m keenly appreciative of the ambient sounds of this region: the wind (gentle today), […]
Posted inJuly 25, 2011: The Global West
Where’s the science?
High Country News has a well-deserved reputation for reporting that explores the complexities and subtleties of environmental issues. “Wolf whiplash” was a jarring contrast that blamed repeated legal action by environmental groups for recent legislation that removed wolves in five states from the endangered species list (HCN, 5/30/11). As the story suggests, this legislation opens […]
Posted inJuly 25, 2011: The Global West
Speaking truth to the Forest Service
Thanks for reporting on Jim Smith, who courageously pursued and won his 2010 court case against the Coconino National Forest for “parking and hiking” without paying fees (HCN, 6/27/11). I respectfully disagree with labeling him a “fee-dodger,” though, as the online version of your story did. Jim is a fee truth-teller! The Federal Lands Recreation […]
Posted inJuly 25, 2011: The Global West
Prove it already
The EPA cannot prove communication between oil and gas wells and potable water sources (HCN, 6/27/11). I discussed your fracking story with a friend who is a petroleum chemical engineer, and he believes only one well in a thousand may have communication. He believes poor cement jobs on the casing are more the culprit than […]
Posted inJuly 25, 2011: The Global West
Living in a world of hurt
I’ve been aware of fracking for many years (HCN, 6/27/11). But until the relatively recent controversy over its effect on well water in Pavillion, Wyo., I was less informed than I should have been. Development of any energy source has consequences. Rampant development of fossil fuels puts regulators way behind in preventing environmental catastrophes, and […]
Posted inJuly 25, 2011: The Global West
Fancy a drink?
Thank you for publishing Abrahm Lustgarten’s important article about Louis Meeks and his damaged water well (HCN, 6/27/11). Mr. Meeks is clearly a hero in the 21st century American West. EnCana Corporation once prided itself on utilizing “best practices” in the production of gas wells. So I was encouraged when EnCana spokesman Randy Teeuwen spoke […]
Posted inGoat
What’s for dinner?
Flying over Washington’s Puget Sound from SeaTac Airport, the view today is a wash of blues and whites. Low-hanging soupy, humid air vagues the sharp edges of an industrial waterfront. Blurred boatwake lines sketch the harbors and bays. The ocean looks smooth from here – unbroken and dull in the flat light save for a […]
Posted inWotr
Famous or obscure, our rivers are priceless
I have never visited the Louisiana Gulf Coast or Alaska’s Valdez Bay, but like you, I carry indelible mental images of spewing pipelines and oil-soaked seabirds from the environmental disasters that happened there. Now the images are hitting closer to home. The Yellowstone River runs the length of my home state of Montana like a […]
Posted inRange
Rants from the Hill: The Hills are Alive
“Rants from the Hill” are Michael Branch’s monthly musings on life in the high country of Nevada’s western Great Basin desert. From a very early age I’ve held the deep and unwavering conviction that musicals–especially movie musicals–represent the most intolerable and misguided aesthetic form in the checkered history of human civilization. In addition to being […]
Posted inRange
If polluting was a criminal offense, would it happen as much?
By Heather Hansen, Red Lodge Clearing House Whenever I hear the term oil “spill” — which seems too often lately — I cringe. Not just because the environment has taken another one on the chin, but because it makes the incident sounds like a tipped glass of milk that can be mopped up with a napkin. […]
Posted inArticles
Rocky Mountain wolf recovery leader was not your average bureaucrat
Ed Bangs has long been a lightning rod for the controversy around the return of wolves to the U.S. Northern Rockies. Based in Helena, Mont., he led the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s wolf-recovery effort from 1988, when the region had only a few naturally occurring wolves, through the reintroduction of Canadian wolves in 1995 […]
Posted inGoat
After Yellowstone River oil spill, domestic water well testing trickles in
When nearly 42,000 of gallons of crude oil rushed down the Yellowstone River July 1, the Environmental Protection Agency said its first concern was human health. Individuals and communities downstream of the spill who have long used it as a clean drinking water source must now await results as the agency tests their wells for […]
Posted inWotr
Going down the road feeling bad
It’s the morning after surgery. My chest throbs. Is it time for pain medicine? I grit my teeth and roll over to check the clock on the bedside table. Except there is no clock on the bedside table, just a blocky beige phone on an unrecognizable bureau. I remember where I am just before I […]
Posted inArticles
Leadville, an old Colorado mining town, may resume mining
For more than a century, Leadville was to Western mining towns what the Rolling Stones were to rock ‘n’ rollers: the biggest, richest, wickedest and longest-lasting act around. It’s also among the highest, nearly two miles above sea level at the headwaters of the Arkansas River in central Colorado. Now, after an absence of a […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
Tourist trouble
THE WEST A tourist from North Carolina received a chastening lesson during a guided fishing trip on the Colorado River. Trenton Austin Ganey’s group had stopped at a beach below Glen Canyon dam, leaving Ganey, 29, free to hike up to a petroglyph known as the “Descending Sheep Panel.” Alone there, Ganey scratched “TRENT” in […]
Posted inGoat
Montana Fly Shops Welcome New Customers: Hair Stylists
Despite their reputation as hangouts for brawny hook and bullet types, fly-fishing shops–particularly the fly-tying sections–have always been a tad swishy. No matter how you slice it, scores of straight-faced men poking through purple Krystal Flash and pearl Flashabou or inquiring about the next shipment of pink chenille isn’t exactly manly. But a recent women’s […]