By Steve Bunk, 1-25-11 The West’s outdoor recreational industry—including ski resorts, outfitters, and others—is on track to have a stronger say in how national forests are managed in coming years. A vigorous lobbying effort, in which recreational groups and politicians of Rocky Mountain states played key roles, has had a big impact on new regulations […]
Is Recreation in the Rockies Becoming a Bigger Forest Service Priority?
Posted inRange
Health cuts and Indian Country
Journalists like me have played the role of Chicken Little for many years. We have written dozens of stories about the consequences of an election, predicting what will happen after Republicans win and fulfill their promises to drastically cut government. Only very little happened. Sure, there were significant budget cuts and restructuring of programs under […]
Posted inRange
The return of nullification
The “Doctrine of Nullification” may be known only to American history buffs, but that could soon change, for Idaho is about to resurrect it and several other states — mostly in the West — appear poised to follow. Put briefly, the Doctrine holds that states have the authority to declare a federal law unconstitutional and […]
Posted inGoat
Mud Woman Rolls On
Coming January 30, the Denver Art Museum will open the doors to its freshly renovated American Indian galleries, featuring the well-known Santa Clara Pueblo sculptor Roxanne Swentzell among other fine artists. “People think there are no artists on our floor,” curator of native arts Nancy Blomberg says, referring to the stereotype of American Indian artists […]
Posted inJanuary 24, 2011: Serendipity in the Desert
Ronald Reagan: The accidental environmentalist
Expect to be hearing plenty about Ronald Reagan: The centennial of his birth is coming up soon. Our 40th president was born on Feb. 6, 1911, in Tampico, Ill. A commemorative postage stamp is in the works, along with traveling exhibits, academic symposiums and sculpture unveilings. Few Western environmentalists will be celebrating — but maybe […]
Posted inJanuary 24, 2011: Serendipity in the Desert
Utah’s Sagebrush Rebellion capital mellows as animal-lovers and enviros move in
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 […]
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 […]