On January 25, Jacque Buchanan, the supervisor of the Bridger-Teton National Forest, made a somewhat unusual decision when she told the Bureau of Land Management to buy back 44,720 acres (roughly 70 square miles) worth of gas leases — called 44-7 for short — that the agency sold at auction in 2005 and 2006. Environmental […]
Conservation progress in the Wyoming Range
Posted inRange
Official State Guns
As Betsy Marston noted in Heard Around the West recently, Utah lawmakers are considering an Official State Gun: the .45-caliber M1911 semi-automatic pistol, designed a century ago for the U.S. Army and still in use by some American military personnel. It’s also a popular pistol for target-shooting and concealed-carry. The Utah connection is that the […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 2011: Obama and the West
Welcome, new interns
Two more interns have joined us for six months of “journalism boot camp.” We’re also delighted to announce that Emilene Ostlind, intern extraordinaire from the Summer/Fall 2010 session, is staying on as an Editorial Fellow. When Sierra Crane-Murdoch was tagging birds in Vermont in 2007 to monitor their migration, she found herself more interested in […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 2011: Obama and the West
The latest: NPS’ Teresa Chambers
BackstorySeven years ago, U.S. Park Police Chief Teresa Chambers told the press that the Park Police budget would come up $12 million short in 2004, possibly endangering public safety (HCN, 8/16/04, “Park police chief canned for candidness”). Within days she was put on administrative leave, and six months later she was fired. Chambers immediately appealed […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 2011: Obama and the West
The latest: Biomass emissions
BackstoryThe West’s nascent biomass industry faces many challenges as power producers try to turn things like beetle-killed trees and switchgrass into energy. Regulatory uncertainty remains a problem: Last spring, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed new rules that require industrial sources, like coal-fired power plants, to obtain air permits and limit their greenhouse gas emissions. Biomass-fueled […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 2011: Obama and the West
Religious leaders shouldn’t duck their responsibility
On a Sunday morning last fall, leaders from Christian, Jewish, Muslim and other faiths led the third annual “blessing of the waves” in Huntington Beach, Calif. The event celebrated the ocean’s spiritual value and also protested marine pollution, including the rapid acidification of the world’s oceans associated with climate change. Over 3,000 people participated, and […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 2011: Obama and the West
Reasons to persevere
Blind Your PoniesStanley Gordon West400 pages, softcover: $14.95.Algonquin Books, 2011. Willow Creek, the Montana town at the heart of Stanley Gordon West’s new novel, Blind Your Ponies, is home to the Broncos, a high school basketball team on a losing streak. It’s also a way station for adults escaping their pasts, and the basketball team’s […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 2011: Obama and the West
Presidential style
Our first president, George Washington, was cautious and reserved. He emphasized honesty and dedication, as well as punctuality. Abraham Lincoln was emotional and reflective, deeply empathetic and driven by his conscience. Teddy Roosevelt had an up-front, in-your-face style and liked to say, “I always believe in going hard at everything.” The personalities of these presidents […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 2011: Obama and the West
Judith Lewis Mernit on Obama’s enviro record
HCN contributing editor Judith Lewis Mernit talks with Cally Carswell about how the Obama administration’s environmental policies are impacting the West. You can catch High Country Views approximately every other week. Available via our RSS feed, and for download now through iTunes.
Posted inFebruary 7, 2011: Obama and the West
A closer look at Obama’s judges, federal agencies, and his approach to science and secrecy
Federal judges Background Judges strive to be objective, but they’re only human. Studies show that federal judges appointed by Democratic presidents show a slight tendency to rule in favor of environmentalists’ positions, while Republican judges tend toward the opposite. When Obama took office, nearly 60 percent of the active federal judges were Republican. Since a […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 2011: Obama and the West
Obama’s record on Western environmental issues
In the late fall of 2008, the staff of the nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility gathered at the Airlie Retreat Center in Virginia’s horse country to plot strategies for a new day dawning: Barack Obama had just been elected president, promising fresh progress on issues that had frustrated environmentalists throughout the eight years of […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 2011: Obama and the West
Not-so-small losses
The Delta issue is a complicated topic, and one with far-ranging impacts (HCN, 12/20/10). But the writer missed the following key point: Though the hundreds of millions of dollars that farmers lost last year because of water cutbacks are a tiny fraction of California’s $1.74 trillion economy, they hit hard locally. California’s loss in productivity […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 2011: Obama and the West
Glimpses of the high desert
Where the Crooked River Rises: A High Desert HomeEllen Waterston144 pages, softcover: $18.95.Oregon State University Press, 2010. In 1973, Ellen Waterston, a New England transplant, and her husband drove into the high desert of eastern Oregon. “In our rundown pickup with Montana plates and a cab-over camper we looked more like evacuees from the Dust […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 2011: Obama and the West
County kickbacks
Though Westerners tend to idealize frontier independence, rural county governments often rely on Uncle Sam. Federal payment programs meant to compensate counties for lost cash from tax-exempt public lands distributed about $900 million nationwide in 2009. One of these programs — the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act (SRS) — was barely renewed in […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 2011: Obama and the West
Arrogant irrigators
“California Dreamin’ ” provided a good overview of the water issues in the San Francisco Bay-Delta region of California (HCN, 12/20/10). However, additional information on the Westlands Water District would have made the article even better. Westlands is comprised mostly of large family or corporate-owned farms. They are one of the primary beneficiaries of the […]
Posted inRange
Does the California constitution hold the key to solving the state’s “water crisis”?
Western watermasters are the folks who make sure all water right holders on an irrigation system get a fair share of available water. Usually they like to maintain low profiles. That helps with a job which has potential to engender conflict, lawsuits and even violence. Watermaster Craig Wilson recently raised his profile when he spoke […]
Posted inGoat
Tricking beetles and protecting whitebark pine – a video
Whitebark pine are an important forage species for grizzly bear, as we — and others — have written. They’re also a species that writers and nature lovers seem to specially connect with; our own Ed Marston and Earthjustice’s Doug Honnold have written odes to them in these pages. Writer and photographer David Gonzales has founded […]
Posted inWotr
The woodpile and me
My husband claims not to believe in the “end times” and all that, but I’m not sure I trust his denials. How else, other than a firm belief in a coming apocalypse, to explain his obsession with firewood? Never mind that we live in Cortez, Colo., on the fringe of the desert, in a home […]
Posted inJanuary 24, 2011: Serendipity in the Desert
State and municipal governments fertilize local food craze
Over the last 80 years, federal policy has increasingly put small farmers at a disadvantage by massively subsidizing a centralized, industrial agriculture system that produces cheap food. Activists have spent decades pushing federal reforms, such as organic standards, with incremental success. Now, a surge of state and local government policies that promote local food and […]
Posted inBlog
Ethical metalsmiths
Around here, one sort of business seems to be surviving the Great Recession just fine: those “We Buy Gold!” places. Most seem to be sidelines of related outfits, such as independent jewelers and pawnshops, but I’ve also seen them cropping up in such surprising locations as tire repair shops and convenience stores. Another variant is […]