Kanab, UtahOn a crisp June morning in the heart of Sagebrush Rebel country, a steady stream of rental cars, minivans and SUVs flows north from Kanab on Highway 89, heading toward the serene, red-rock walls of Angel Canyon. As the highway curves, the landscape flickers through sun and shadows, the sandstone glowing like embers in […]
Utah’s Sagebrush Rebellion capital mellows as animal-lovers and enviros move in
Posted inJanuary 24, 2011: Serendipity in the Desert
The latest: Wyoming Range
Update on HCN’s coverage of natural gas development
Posted inJanuary 24, 2011: Serendipity in the Desert
The latest: Northern spotted owl
Update on HCN’s coverage of owl management in the Northwest
Posted inJanuary 24, 2011: Serendipity in the Desert
Rethinking national parks and wilderness
Review of Uncertain Path: A Search for the Future of National Parks
Posted inJanuary 24, 2011: Serendipity in the Desert
Decades of drilling
Western states’ energy extraction compared to others
Posted inJanuary 24, 2011: Serendipity in the Desert
A dark moment, a glimmer of light
The connection might seem tenuous, but I think that the West’s most shocking recent event — the Jan. 8 bloodbath in Tucson, Ariz. — has a correlation with our Utah cover story. The “Tucson massacre,” as it’s being called — in which an apparently mentally ill young man shot Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 18 […]
Posted inWotr
A poet whom readers won’t let go
Remembering William Stafford, a popular Northwestern poet
Posted inBlog
Water use: something we Arizonans can control
It’s an understatement to say that we’ve had a pretty grim new year so far here in the Grand Canyon State. First, of course, was the horrifying shooting rampage in Tucson on January 8th. Plenty has been said already about the possible causes and implications of that tragic event, and plenty more hard things need […]
Posted inGoat
The Visual West – Image 3
I can’t seem to sleep; I’m fighting a cold which makes breathing a conscious endeavor, but I think the real cause of my insomnia is the full moon. With a reflective boost from the January snow cover, our dark little corner of rural Colorado glows like a mall parking lot in the center of Denver, […]
Posted inGoat
Bring the electrons home
On New Year’s Day, the city of Boulder, Colo., started down a road toward energy independence by decoupling with their electrical utility, Xcel Energy. After three years of negotiations for more green power failed, Boulder let its 20-year franchise agreement with Xcel expire at the end of 2010. When voters in the environmentally-minded city approved […]
Posted inRange
The Most Visited National Parks Could Be Self Sufficient
By Shawn Regan Visitors to national parks got into the parks for free this weekend, the first of 17 days in 2011 the National Park Service is waiving entrance fees. While it’s hard to complain about what seems like a free lunch, the NPS can ill afford such freebies. Its backlog in deferred maintenance projects […]
Posted inRange
Salazar goes wild
By Heather Hansen, Red Lodge Clearing House It wasn’t long after Interior Secretary Ken Salazar was in Denver last month, announcing a new “Wild Lands” policy, that debate over the order flared: will it illegally lock up too much land as “hands off” wilderness, or does it rightfully restore protection for wild tracts of land? […]
Posted inBlog
Tribes: The Overlooked U.S. Climate Delegate
Editors Note: This piece is cross posted from Mother Earth Journal, where reporter Terri Hansen writes about indigenous people and the environment. The Cancun dust has settled, though I can’t shake the images of tourist luxury. As one of 10 Earth Journalism Network U.S. Climate Media Fellows I spent two weeks last December reporting the […]
Posted inGoat
Canis lupus update
“People freak out, flat-out freak out, when a wolf shows up.” That’s Douglas Smith, leader of the Yellowstone wolf project, quoted in our story last year (“Prodigal Dogs“) about the return of gray wolves to Colorado. And some people freak out enough to kill roaming wolves, despite the penalty — up to a $100,000 fine […]
Posted inJanuary 24, 2011: Serendipity in the Desert
Time to face the music
With regard to the impossibly complex topic of water availability in the American West, and in California in particular, the only apparent “truth” is to acknowledge the obvious: that there is not enough, nor will there ever be enough water, to meet present and future demand in California (HCN, 12/20/10). That’s the hard part. The […]
Posted inJanuary 24, 2011: Serendipity in the Desert
Monument, schmonument
It’s refreshing to see the Obama administration take some protective steps on the National Landscape Conservation System lands (HCN, 12/20/10). Unfortunately, telling an agency with a tradition of neglect and exploitation to focus on conservation may be optimistic, especially when federal lands will face hostility and budget cuts from conservatives in the new Congress. President […]
Posted inJanuary 24, 2011: Serendipity in the Desert
Toxic soil, East to West
I read with interest Rebecca Clarren’s article about lead arsenate and other chemicals contaminating old orchard sites in the West (HCN, 12/6/10). Alas, as we Eastern morel foragers have discovered, one does not have to go West to encounter this problem. In a recent paper, Elinoar Shavit, a fellow member of the New York Mycological […]
Posted inArticles
High Country Views, A conversation with Michael Berman
In this episode of High Country Views, writer Pat Toomay sits down with acclaimed landscape photographer Michael Berman to talk about his craft and the draw of the desert. This podcast accompanies the story, “My walkabout with Michael,” and the slideshow, “Wilderness photographer.” Listen here! You can catch High Country Views approximately every […]