The toxic politics of cap-and-trade
Western Climate Initiative moves forward, smaller than imagined
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
Posted inDecember 6, 2010: Toxic Past, Toxic Present
Backyard poisons?
This is a sidebar to the feature story, Pesticides from Old Farmland Leave Toxic Legacy. Amanda Ryder and her family live two blocks from Robertson Elementary, one of many Yakima schools that required cleanup due to the high levels of lead and arsenic in its soil. The orchard that contaminated the school’s playground once extended […]
Posted inDecember 6, 2010: Toxic Past, Toxic Present
All hopped up
Chinook, Magnum and American Fuggle — these are just some of the Pacific Northwest’s many organic hop varieties. But despite rapid growth in organic craft beer production, they’re hardly flying off the shelves. That’s because, until recently, USDA rules allowed organic brewers to use much cheaper conventional hops. In 2007, the National Organic Standards Board […]
Posted inDecember 6, 2010: Toxic Past, Toxic Present
A visit to a ghost town in San Francisco Bay
The course of time and tide
Posted inDecember 6, 2010: Toxic Past, Toxic Present
A contaminated history unearthed
Yellow Dirt: An American Story of a Poisoned Land and a People BetrayedJudy Pasternak336 pages, hardcover: $26.Free Press, 2010. In 2006, the L.A. Times ran an exposé by reporter Judy Pasternak on the effects of uranium mining in the Navajo homeland. The articles had a remarkable impact, inspiring congressional hearings and Superfund cleanups. But Pasternak […]
Posted inRange
Weighing the costs of unobtainium
By Heather Hansen, Red Lodge Clearing House As this year comes to a close, anxiety continues to mount on how public and private interests in the US are going to get their hands on enough rare earth elements (REE) to maintain and grow the industries that rely on them. The race is on to strategize […]
Posted inArticles
Our forest
This video accompanies the story: The supposedly-protected Wyoming Range faces new energy development. Please wait while the player loads. Note: you must have Javascript enabled and the Adobe Flash Player installed. Learn more about the pending natural gas development at the Wyoming Range website. The Forest Service’s environmental analysis will be posted for public […]
Posted inArticles
Mixing oil and water in California
This video accompanies the story, “Oil and Water Mix in California.” Please wait while the player loads. Note: you must have Javascript enabled and the Adobe Flash Player installed. Produced in association with This American Land.
Posted inWotr
The Great Plains is the latest new frontier
Local entrepeneurs could revive a dying region
Posted inBlog
Pondering palm oil
On the surface, it seems that environmental justice should be one of those no-brainer, win-win concepts that everyone can support. Look a little deeper, however, and enacting environmental justice can become impossibly complicated and divisive. Few things exemplify this paradox more than the case of palm oil. In recent years this seemingly innocuous, rather boring-sounding […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
The color-shifting skink
COLORADO Thanks to Colorado Outdoors, the magazine of the state’s Department of Natural Resources, we have a new favorite wild animal — the color-shifting skink. It resembles a stocky snake with lizard-like legs. And like many lizards, it has the wonderful ability to discard and then regenerate its tail any time a predator pounces on […]
Posted inNovember 22, 2010: Hardrock Showdown
Housing keeps getting tighter all the time
Moab resident feels development squeeze