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 […]
The Most Visited National Parks Could Be Self Sufficient
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 […]
Posted inJanuary 24, 2011: Serendipity in the Desert
Trickster’s territory
The self-important folks of Greenwood Village need an emergency dose of irony — and quick (HCN, 12/20/10)! Continuing that ignoble American tradition of forcing the indigenous off their land, they really can’t complain when Mr. Trickster tries to take back what is rightfully his. I must say, Mr. Coyote is far more patient and understanding […]
Posted inJanuary 24, 2011: Serendipity in the Desert
Lessons from coyote country
After reading “Trickster moves to town,” I came to the conclusion that a lot of people who live in or near coyote country have little understanding of what it means to coexist with wild animals (HCN, 12/20/10). I lived in a subdivision southeast of Santa Fe, N.M., for more than 10 years and had numerous […]
Posted inRange
An anti-wilderness knee jerk
I guess it was predictable. No sooner had Interior Secretary Salazar announced that the BLM would manage certain public domain lands for their backcountry values, than the Farm Bureau Federation and its political allies went on the attack. According to them Salazar’s decision amounts to yet another “land grab” by the Obama Administration on behalf […]
Posted inArticles
Pinon Ridge uranium mill clears state hurdle
Long-dormant industry could rise again in Colorado
Posted inGoat
Bad Omens for Arch Coal
State officials in Montana and Washington are cracking down on projects that could expand coal production and trade in several Western states. Arch Coal Inc., a St. Louis-based company with a major stake in the expansion, doesn’t seem the least bit daunted–though maybe they should be. On January 12, the company paid $25 million for […]
Posted inRange
Celebrating Martin Luther King Day
I know how to celebrate most holidays. On Independence Day, I reread the Declaration of Independence and watch fireworks after dark. To bring in the New Year, I try to stay up till midnight. On Thanksgiving I feast with family, and so on. But I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to celebrate on Martin […]
Posted inRange
Rants from the Hill: In Defense of Missiles
“Rants from the Hill” are Michael Branch’s monthly musings on life in the high country of Nevada’s western Great Basin desert. The hill from which I rant is good for many things: to hold our house up high into the teeth of the desert wind and generate an updraft on which harriers kite; to give […]
Posted inRange
Saving Montana’s trees, one ranch at a time
By Heather Hansen, Red Lodge Clearing House When forestry experts in Montana concluded last week that December’s cold snap did little to kill beetle larvae nestled under lodgepole and ponderosa pine bark, it was harsh news for those watching the ever-growing bands of reddish-brown beetle-killed forests across the West. It would take at least a […]