Among my most sulfurous and vitriolic Rants–those far too profane to grace this page–are those inspired by my family’s housecat, Lucy. Those of you who follow these Rants know that I live in wild country, at high elevation, with terrible weather, and surrounded by a spate of voracious predators of every stripe. This is hardly […]
Rants from the Hill: Lucy the Desert Cat
Posted inGoat
The pulse of the river
For a journalist, sitting through last week’s conference on the Colorado River, hosted by the Natural Resources Law Center at the University of Colorado, was a great way to take the river’s pulse — to get a sense of how the river’s water czars, academic wonks, scientists and other minders are thinking about the basin’s […]
Posted inJune 13, 2011: Under the Flight Path
Fire fight: Forest Service explores chemical retardant hazards
What’s worse for the forest: wildfires or the chemicals dropped from planes to stop them? The U.S. Forest Service tackles this question in its 370-page study of fire-retardants’ ecological impacts, released May 13. It’s a dilemma: Retardants kill fish, contaminate aquifers and fertilize noxious weeds, but unchecked fires destroy homes, wreck some habitats, ruin views […]
Posted inRange
Peak and Ecological Flows in Oregon
As western states face proposals to divert and allocate the last available surface water – winter and wet season water – a debate is raging over how much of that water must be left instream to keep our rivers and their tributaries ecologically dynamic and alive. The recognition that rivers need “peak flows” is a […]
Posted inWotr
The revolution will be motorized
Growing threats of violence; increasing rage; calls to restore liberty by throwing off unjust and unconstitutional government rule. The voices of the angry are loud, and they’re likely coming soon to a BLM Bureau of Land Management or Forest Service office near you. The issue that inspires this fury is closing roads through public lands. […]
Posted inRange
Are Indians and Westerners halfway to a lost decade?
Last week I wrote about how this economic crisis will impact Indian Country through the loss of government-funded jobs. Indeed, readers reacted to my commentary with two basic responses. One group said it’s time for Native Americans to get off the dole; another asked why tribes aren’t solving this problem on their own? But Indian […]
Posted inRange
Where’s the conservation?
By Heather Hansen, Red Lodge Clearing House “Navigating the Future of the Colorado River,” a conference held at the University of Colorado Law School last week, was filled with folks who have spent decades studying the river, interpreting the Law of the River (as the Compact of 1922 and many subsequent agreements are called) and […]
Posted inGoat
Antelope as indicators
When the first winter storms buried northeast Montana last November, the thousands of pronghorn antelope that spent the summer around the state’s border with Alberta and Saskatchewan started making their way south. Normally, they move into the north side of the state’s Milk River valley and find enough sagebrush sticking out of the snow to […]
Posted inJune 13, 2011: Under the Flight Path
The Las Vegas effect
On a recent visit to Las Vegas, Nev., I strolled along the Strip, checking out the extravagant casino hotels and ogling tourists from around the world who had come to gamble and be entertained. Popular shows included hypnotist magicians, Cirque du Soleil’s spinning acrobats, and four tuxedoed white Australians singing classic Motown hits. Vegas is […]
Posted inJune 13, 2011: Under the Flight Path
Staying afloat on the flood
Lisa Jones aptly addressed all the causes of the “Flood of Ill Health” that has afflicted us since the water came (HCN, 5/16/11). I say “us,” as I have been around so long that the Three Affiliated Tribes of Fort Berthold made me an “adopted” member in 1995, the year of my retirement. I still […]
Posted inJune 13, 2011: Under the Flight Path
State trust lands at a glance
Among publicly owned lands, state trust lands are an anomaly. Granted at statehood by the federal government, they run in patchwork patterns across the West, from the red Utah desert to the dense forests of Oregon. Their arrangement on the landscape is utterly arbitrary — generally, two square-mile sections, numbered 16 and 36 in every […]
Posted inJune 13, 2011: Under the Flight Path
Rafters and writers come to call
In early May, subscribers John and Susan Lobonc stopped by our Paonia, Colo., office while on a driving tour of national parks. They came all the way from Naperville, Ill., and arrived just as rainstorms were dousing the region. Their spirits were undampened, though, and they were excited to see the West they read about […]
Posted inJune 13, 2011: Under the Flight Path
Locked boxes
Post offices were among the first institutions in many frontier towns. Now, as Western outposts shrink, losing grocery stores and then gas stations, they’re among the last to leave, says Postal Service spokesman David Rupert. In 1900, there were about 77,000 post offices in the U.S.; today, there are just 27,000. The USPS is funded […]
Posted inJune 13, 2011: Under the Flight Path
The key player: Elling B. Halvorson
Born St. Paul, Minnesota, 1932 Education Oregon’s Willamette University, 1955 bachelor’s degree concentrating in economics and engineering Big break Founded a construction company specializing in work in difficult locations, such as remote mountainsides and the Alaska bush. That led to him building a water pipeline from the North to the South Rim of the Grand […]
Posted inJune 13, 2011: Under the Flight Path
Two helicopters fly over the Grand Canyon
Listen to the sound of two helicopters flying over the Grand Canyon at the Dripping Springs trail. Audio courtesy Mike Garvey.
Posted inJune 13, 2011: Under the Flight Path
Sounds of the Grand Canyon, followed by a quiet helicopter
The natural sounds of birds and wind in the Grand Canyon, followed by the sound of one of the newer, quieter helicopters used in overflights. Sound clip taken at Dripping Springs trail by Mike Garvey.
Posted inJune 13, 2011: Under the Flight Path
Park Service finally drafts a solution to conflicts over canyon flights
Hermits Rest, Grand Canyon National Park At the end of the road along the Grand Canyon’s South Rim, past Hermits Rest, a famous rock cabin built in 1914 that’s now a rustic souvenir and snack shop, there’s an inviting rock outcropping where you can stretch out in solitude and gaze across the canyon. On a […]
Posted inJune 13, 2011: Under the Flight Path
How developers and businessmen cash in on Grand Canyon overflights
Tusayan, Arizona In the lobby of Papillon Helicopters’ terminal at Grand Canyon National Park Airport, Enrique Ochoa stared at his smart phone, searching for a WiFi signal. Unlike the scores of late-April tourists, who were waiting to board one of Papillon’s noisy helicopters for a $175, 30-minute Grand Canyon sightseeing flight, Ochoa was simply trying […]
Posted inJune 13, 2011: Under the Flight Path
Chronicling a lost river: A review of Dry River
Dry River: Stories of Life, Death, and Redemption on the Santa CruzKen Lamberton288 pages, softcover: $24.95.University of Arizona Press, 2011. In the desert classic The Land of Little Rain (1903), Mary Austin described the Mojave as “a land of lost rivers, with little in it to love; yet a land that once visited must be […]