By Lisa Stiffler Stormwater obviously causes problems for the environment and infrastructure, washing away salmon eggs in torrents of runoff and flooding basements. But does it threaten human health as well? You bet it does, and in ways that might surprise you. Polluted runoff flushes raw sewage across beaches, triggers blooms of toxic algae in […]
Washington runoff causes stormwater stomachaches
Posted inFebruary 7, 2011: Obama and the West
Western court scraps intervention restrictions for enviro lawsuits
In mid-January, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals published a 13-page opinion with a simple message: mea culpa. A panel of judges tossed the little-known but long-standing “federal defendant rule,” which had limited or prevented private groups, local and state governments from joining environmental lawsuits. The 9th Circuit, which oversees hundreds of millions of acres […]
Posted inGoat
Quieting the Grand Canyon cacophony
In early February, the National Park Service released a draft plan that promises to restore peace and quiet to big chunks of the Grand Canyon by sharply reducing helicopter and airplane tourism. Since 1987, the Park Service has been trying to cut down on noise from sightseeing flights over Grand Canyon and other parks, which […]
Posted inGoat
Teaching climate change in coal country
In the Powder River Basin, on a vast, grassy plain between the Big Horn Mountains and the Black Hills, the city of Gillette, Wyoming sits on top of America’s largest coal deposit. So close is the city to the strip mines that students at Campbell County High School can look out the window and see […]
Posted inRange
Artificial Flooding May Help Grand Canyon
By David Frey, 2-09-11 When Glen Canyon Dam blocked the natural flow of the Colorado River to create Lake Powell, it unleashed a torrent of effects downstream, including in the Grand Canyon, where the once-muddy river became a blue waterway where native plants and animals struggled to survive. And they say the artificial flooding will […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
Cultural exchange
OREGON Someday, there may be a Disney movie based on a black bear named Windfall who didn’t know she was a bear because she was brought up to be a princess, doted on by two loggers in the dense backwoods of Coos County, Ore. Writing in the Medford Mail Tribune, Mark Freeman says the father-son […]
Posted inGoat
USDA to farmers: plant genetically modified crops!
The biotech fairy must be whispering a whole lot of sweet nothings (made with genetically-modified sugar) into U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack’s ear. Or something. In late January, the Secretary announced the USDA’s decision to completely deregulate genetically modified alfalfa, allowing it to be planted anywhere, without restriction. Just about a week later, […]
Posted inGoat
“What’s good for the rancher is good for the grouse”
Last spring, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determined that the greater sage grouse deserved listing under the Endangered Species Act, but declined to extend federal protections because resources were limited and other species were in more peril. At the time, the decision looked like the kind of politically savvy, centrist maneuver that has become […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 2011: Obama and the West
A Nez Perce elder spreads love for lamprey
Elmer Crow waits patiently while a crowd of fifth-graders settles on the lawn outside the Morrison Knudson Nature Center in Boise, Idaho. One by one, the students stop squirming as they realize that the Nez Perce elder is watching them, hands folded behind his back. Crow’s face is solemn but his eyes are playful. The […]
Posted inGoat
The Visual West – Image 5
At about 4 p.m. every Winter afternoon, a small herd of mule deer meanders from the sagebrush and snow-clad flanks of Western Colorado’s Mt. Lamborn onto the numerous irrigated pastures below. There, they eat everything they can — dried grass, alfalfa and exotic weeds — to combat the nightly cold and the lingering effects […]
Posted inRange
Caveat emptor with eco-labels
Last September I noted that the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) had drawn the wrong kind of attention when it certified the Fraser River sockeye fishery despite opposition from scientists and environmentalists. The MSC tried to counter its critics, but the controversy instead joined a growing litany of complaints about the substance of its fish labeling […]
Posted inGoat
Conservation progress in the Wyoming Range
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 […]
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 […]