THE WEST Everybody hates cheatgrass, though it must be admitted that the fluttery plant with the prickly seeds succeeds on sagebrush lands like nobody’s business. A Eurasian invader, it pops up in the spring before native plants do, spreads like wildfire — and burns like wildfire, too. As Wyoming Wildlife magazine put it, cheatgrass “simply […]
Cheaters and cheatgrass
Posted inWotr
Nothing “wise” about advocating poaching
Hunting season just closed here in Montana, and I oiled my rifle for its annual winter hibernation. After all, hunting regulations — and the law in general — are something I respect. It’s too bad that more community leaders out West fail to grasp that fundamental tenet of citizenship. In central Idaho last month, a […]
Posted inRange
Gasland — The Review
Editor’s note: David Zetland, a Western water economist, offers an insider’s perspective into water politics and economics. We will be cross-posting occasional posts and content from his blog, Aguanomics, here on the Range. [I guess that Rachel Carson’s work is not yet done…] JD insisted that I watch this documentary about hydraulic fracturing for natural […]
Posted inGoat
It’s not all lights and sirens
It wasn’t an abnormal day in most respects. No wreck-causing foul weather slicked the winding mountain roads. There hadn’t been an accident at any of the three underground coal mines just upvalley, where a steep canyon cradles the sinuous North Fork River. Even so, both of the ambulances that serve tiny Paonia, Colo. were out […]
Posted inBlog
Small Nevada tribe sues BLM over coal ash landfill
At a Southern Nevada Health District public hearing this October, farmer Norm Tom said that he and his tribe had “seen a lot of death” in the last 35 years, and he placed the blame squarely on the neighboring Reid Gardner coal-fueled power plant, run by Nevada’s primary power company, NV Energy. “Every time we […]
Posted inDecember 6, 2010: Toxic Past, Toxic Present
The supposedly protected Wyoming Range faces new energy development
Legacy energy leases remain in prime hunting lands
Posted inRange
Is high speed rail becoming more viable in the Intermountain West?
By Allan Best If you look at a map showing federally designated high-speed rail corridors in the United States, the Great Plains and intermountain West look like some kind of giant inland sea. From Kansas City to Sacramento, it’s all blank. But representatives from several of the West’s metropolitan areas – Denver, Salt Lake City, […]
Posted inGoat
Goldilocks and the three bears
Once upon a time Goldilocks was hiking across northwest Wyoming and she met a big fierce grizzly bear. Grizzlies were once severely endangered throughout this part of the West, down to just over 100 bears in the 1970’s. But today more than 600 of these hostile bruins haunt the Yellowstone area. And this summer in […]
Posted inWotr
Ranchers can fight global climate change, one acre at a time
If you are worried about climate change, these are not the best of times. The decision by the U.S. Senate to postpone climate legislation and the failure of last year’s Copenhagen summit to produce tangible progress on limiting greenhouse gases means that Business-As-Usual still rules the world. The carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere has […]
Posted inRange
Westerners and the White House
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson didn’t get far with his 2008 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008, but that may not deter his immediate predecessor, Republican Gary Johnson, from seeking his party’s nomination as the jockeying for 2012 begins just after the 2010 midterms. Johnson served two terms as governor from 1995 to […]
Posted inDecember 6, 2010: Toxic Past, Toxic Present
Reed between the lines
Regarding the commercialization of Arundo donax (giant reed) in Oregon: This is not an ideal approach to biomass production (HCN, 11/8/10). This huge invasive “grass” causes millions of dollars in damage to river systems here in California and elsewhere. Many conservationists and resource managers are extremely cautious about promoting the expansion of something that is […]
Posted inDecember 6, 2010: Toxic Past, Toxic Present
What lies beneath
It started with a rumor. A pregnant woman heard warnings of birth defects among children born in her subdivision and contacted state health officials. The rumor was reportedly false, but tests revealed that the ground and water beneath the neighborhood were laced with poison. This is Barber Orchard, just outside of Waynesville, N.C. From 1903 […]
Posted inDecember 6, 2010: Toxic Past, Toxic Present
Western Climate Initiative moves forward, smaller than imagined
The toxic politics of cap-and-trade
Posted inDecember 6, 2010: Toxic Past, Toxic Present
There’s always something in the water
Hal Walter’s recent Writers on the Range essay “There’s Something in the Water” (HCN, 11/8/10) highlights a concern shared by every water-quality professional in the Rocky Mountain West: the presumption of safety. As a member of the Colorado Water Quality Association Board of Directors and a certified water specialist, I can unequivocally state that few […]
Posted inDecember 6, 2010: Toxic Past, Toxic Present
Seven months of solitude
Breaking into the BackcountrySteve Edwards192 pages, softcover: $16.95.University of Nebraska Press, 2010. “In the seven months I spent in the backcountry, in relative solitude, I rarely felt as alone as I do sitting at this table,” writes Steve Edwards, describing his return to the family dining room after a lengthy sojourn by Oregon’s Rogue River. […]
Posted inDecember 6, 2010: Toxic Past, Toxic Present
Santa goat is coming to town!
The holidays are rolling around, so we’ll be hosting our annual Open House here in our western Colorado office on Wednesday, Dec. 15. Please join us at 119 Grand Ave., Paonia, for refreshments and conversation from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. POETS, BIKERS AND WINE-LOVERS COME TO CALLGeoff Wheeler stopped by our headquarters to visit […]
Posted inDecember 6, 2010: Toxic Past, Toxic Present
Room for everyone
On this sunny spring Saturday, everyone has the same idea — to soak in the hot pools at the edge of the Mojave. So when the hikers come around the bend, my heart goes out to them. I see their crests fall, their ultra-light packs get heavier. They stop and check their maps to see […]
Posted inDecember 6, 2010: Toxic Past, Toxic Present
Poetry in motion
I was walking down the sidewalk the other day, talking to myself, when I heard a person come up behind me, making the kind of polite noises that a person makes so as not to startle the person ahead into doing something violent. It was a young coworker. We smiled and chatted and I explained […]
Posted inDecember 6, 2010: Toxic Past, Toxic Present
Just say ‘no’ to Dr. No
My thanks to Arnold Hamilton, Denver Nicks and Ray Ring for having the journalistic guts to call out two of the most inept and unproductive members of that elite legislative body derisively referred to as the “Dead Poets Society” (HCN, 11/8/10). Even in a body where incompetence is the expectation and the norm, I can […]
Posted inDecember 6, 2010: Toxic Past, Toxic Present
How to Play Safely in the Soil
A few suggestions to dramatically reduce exposure to possible contaminants — without breaking the bank