If monster mansions in Jackson, Wyo., or Sun Valley, Idaho, can boast million-dollar views, what’s a historic cabin in Washington’s Glacier Peak Wilderness worth? From this cabin that used to be a wildfire lookout, you can see a sea of summits, glaciers, a volcano and hidden lakes mostly surrounded by uncut forests. Green Mountain Lookout, […]
A fire lookout in a wilderness speaks of our past
Posted inRange
Rural counties dying off
By Kenneth Johnson, the Daily Yonder Editor’s Note: Kenneth Johnson, a demographer at The Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire, has published a study of natural decreases in U.S. communities. The full study can be found here. Below are excerpts from Johnson’s report. Carsey Institute. Data from Census Bureau and National Center for […]
Posted inGoat
Doing the unspeakable
Can the U.S. take a big bite out of its greenhouse gas emissions without muttering the words climate change? The Obama administration is betting it can. And it’s testing the political waters with a new round of vehicle emissions rules to cover cars made between 2017 and 2025. From the Washington Post’sJuliet Eilperin: Heather Zichal, […]
Posted inJune 27, 2011: Hydrofracked?
A fee-dodging retiree forces a national forest to rethink access charges
Soft-spoken, bespectacled Jim Smith makes an unlikely activist. The former Mobil Oil geophysicist retired to Sedona, Ariz., about 10 years ago, drawn by the spectacular red-rock scenery. In November 2009, Smith drove five miles of rough road to the Vultee Arch trailhead and backpacked in for a night. When he returned, he found the Forest […]
Posted inArticles
The growth of newspapers across the U.S.: 1690-2011
Your browser does not support iframes.
Posted inArticles
Rural papers doing better than their city counterparts
Walk in to a town council meeting in Pinedale, Wyoming, and you’re likely to find as many as three local reporters scribbling notes and asking questions. That news in a town of 2,030 residents is covered by two newspapers and a website is partly explained by the abundance of mineral wealth in surrounding Sublette County, […]
Posted inRange
An idea of Eden
I’ve been lucky enough to spend the past several days in paradise, which for me is the rough, unforgiving backcountry to southeastern Utah. Everyone has their own idea of Eden, shaped by individual as well as cultural ideals. These can shift and evolve due to circumstance, inclination, and, sometimes, tragedy. I haven’t always appreciated pinyon/juniper/sagebrush […]
Posted inGoat
Can YOU carry a concealed weapon without a permit?
“Starting Friday, Wyoming will join three other states in allowing individuals to carry a concealed weapon without a permit.” Which inspired me to make this flow chart to help you decide if YOU can carry a concealed weapon without a permit. Can you? Read the flow chart to find out… View the flowchart in its […]
Posted inRange
Out of their mines
By Heather Hansen, Red Lodge Clearing House In a narrow canyon, not far above where I live in Boulder, is the old, abandoned Captain Jack Mill. In its heyday in the late 19th century, gold and silver were processed there, after being blasted from their hiding places in several area mines. Nowadays, contaminants from those efforts, including […]
Posted inWotr
Why the Southwest is burning
No big thing happens for just one reason. This season’s fires, cutting broad swaths across the Southwest, result from the convergence of three powerful forces: climatic drought, institutional tunnel vision, and old-fashioned human frailty. On the face of it, the drought is simple: There hasn’t been much rain or snow across much of the region, […]
Posted inWotr
The adolescent West
Logan, Utah, isn’t too anything. It’s not too big or too small, but it’s also not just right. Like many Western towns and small cities of about 50,000 people, it’s as confused as a hormonally challenged adolescent. Policy moods swing wildly between pro-development mayors and ones that want to go back to family-friendly neighborhoods. We want […]
Posted inRange
SEC Loosening of Rule Let Natural Gas Firms Recalculate Reserves, Potential Profits
Marian Wang, ProPublica Editor’s note: This blog post was originally published at ProPublica, an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest. Natural gas has been widely promoted across the political spectrum as a key to solving U.S. energy problems. “The potential for natural gas is enormous,” President Obama said recently, referencing […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
Mule versus machine
THE WORLD The U.S. military would love to send sure-footed robots to Afghanistan so that machines — and not soldiers — can hump bulky equipment straight up mountains. Boston Dynamics has worked since 2004 on what it calls its “Big Dog cargo ‘bot,” yet the robot is still too big, too noisy and too expensive […]
Posted inRange
With Heavy Government Help, Solar Continues Expansion in West
By Michael Beall, 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
The crow knows your nose
Cross-posted from The Last Word on Nothing. Crow diving at a masked researcher in Seattle. Photo by Keith Brust I have a running joke with my husband’s cousin, Roger. At family reunions, I tell him how much I like crows. He tells me how much he likes to shoot them. Hilarious, right? Here’s the satisfying […]
Posted inWotr
Bullies get their way in New Mexico’s wolf recovery program
There’s a sign near my house that reads, “Don’t just stand there, Stop Bullying!” I remember being teased by the cool girls in middle school during the 1980s. Having survived adolescence, I naively assumed that pint-sized tormenters mature before reaching adulthood. But not always: Adult bullies employing the tactics of gossip, misinformation and fear have […]
Posted inJune 27, 2011: Hydrofracked?
The ‘Utah solution’ to immigration
Utah State Rep. Bill Wright is conservative to the bone. The Republican seems flabbergasted by the immigration debate that’s flared up since the passage of Arizona’s SB1070 last spring. Critics say the law — tied up in federal courts over its questionable constitutionality — legitimizes racial profiling in order to ferret out undocumented residents. But […]
Posted inGoat
New Mexico wildfire poses a double threat
Although I don’t live in New Mexico, I worked as a journalist in Colorado’s part of the Four Corners region for a while, and spent a fair bit of time in the northern part of the Land of Enchantment. This connection is perhaps one reason why, on Monday, I became obsessed with the Las Conchas […]
Posted inGoat
The wacky world of immigration
I love the printed word, love having something informative and solid and paper at ready in my hands when I recline on my patio with a nice IPA. But as a magazine writer, I have to say: There are serious drawbacks to being constrained by a tight print schedule. Sometimes, right after your story goes […]
Posted inRange
Throw away the old playbook
Idaho’s Bannock County is considering an ordinance that would create an “overlay” zoning district on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation. The idea is that the county would “serve” non-Indians who live on the reservation, while the tribes would then be limited to zoning its own members. This is a script from an old playbook. Basically, […]