Are trade-offs in Wyoming’s Jonah natural gas field a boon for wildlife?
Conservation calculus
Posted inRange
Remembering Labor on Labor Day
Labor Day comes on Monday. It inspires thoughts of picnics and mountain outings, but it also brings to mind a conversation I had years ago with my state representative — the rare Republican who carried a union card. Several mines had closed. Our area had lost a lot of well-paid steady jobs with excellent benefits. […]
Posted inWotr
Notes from the underground: The secret life of mushrooms
Finding the first mushroom of the season is one of those “Eureka!” moments, so when I went out a few weeks ago for an initial survey of the national forest nearest me, I got pretty excited when I saw a crinkled white blob sitting on a nest of moss. “Wow, a new species on the […]
Posted inGoat
Deconstructing Lisa
It’s official: The Tea Party toppled Lisa Murkowski. On Tuesday, the Alaska incumbent conceded the state’s Republican U.S. Senate primary to staunch anti-government challenger Joe Miller, the state’s newest overnight political sensation. (Take note, Harry Reid.) Murkowski was the ranking Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Her loss will shake-up that important […]
Posted inRange
What will the Indian health system look like?
What will the Indian health system look like a decade from now? That’s an impossible question to answer. There is the potential of a court ruling striking down at least part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. And, there is always the possibility of Congress will rewrite the law (I view this as […]
Posted inArticles
The harm of hallowed ground
Why do we fight over places where bad things happened?
Posted inGoat
Land trade angers locals
A land swap between the feds and the most generous campaign contributor to a Colorado congressman is stirring up controversy on the state’s Western Slope. If the plan goes through, the National Park Service will gain two valuable inholdings, and, proponents say, the traded federal land will be even better protected than it is now […]
Posted inRange
Enchanted with carbon caps
New Mexico is known for its stunning desert and mountain landscapes, vibrant mix of cultures and unique history. But this month the state is perched on the brink of becoming a leader in climate change regulation and plays a major role in moving the nation to a greener, stronger economy. The New Mexico Environmental Improvement […]
Posted inGoat
The ethics of wildcrafting
Thoreau once said, “The woods and fields are a table always spread.” Apparently the National Park Service agrees. In blatant noncompliance (or perhaps misinterpretation) of its own leave no trace policy, national park managers have been allowing Native Americans to harvest wild plants and roots from parks, according to a letter from the Public Employees […]
Posted inGoat
On the radio
Laura Paskus was recently interviewed about her story “The life and death of Desert Rock” on KVNF, Paonia’s community radio station, by former HCN intern Ariana Brocious. Take a listen below, or check out an interview Laura did with KUNM in Albuquerque. Listen here!
Posted inApril 13, 2009: The Desert That Breaks Annie Proulx’s Heart
The call of the semi-wild
The cars head slowly up the mesa through a patchwork of open fields and cedar woodlands. Binoculars around my neck, I sit in the backseat of the lead vehicle, a well-used Subaru station wagon. Jason Beason, a young father and biologist who works for the Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory, is our driver and expedition leader. […]
Posted inWotr
EPA hearings can be so, like, high school
I recently attended an EPA hearing in Denver. I’m an environmental attorney who left my job to spend a year teaching in Italy, and now that I’m back in the United States, I’m relieved that this country has a rational system of environmental regulation. (Italy has great shoes and amazing cappuccino, but environmental regulation? Fuhgeddaboudit.) […]
Posted inRange
The role of higher education
Recently, the New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote “We should be able to….establish a set of concrete understandings about what government should and shouldn’t do. We should be able to have a grounded conversation based on principles 95 percent of Americans support.” Instead, as former congressman (and now Chairman of the National Endowment on […]
Posted inBlog
Cows, coyotes and a revelation
Reporting on the West’s public lands and environment can be a gloomy task. The news from four decades of High Country News – battles over massive strip mines, ancient forests decimated by greedy timber companies, the sorry state of public grazing land, gas wells popping up like a pox and recreation enthusiasts trampling the land […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
“Where do you get your questions?”
NEVADAThe last we noticed, elected officials don’t place one hand on the Constitution and solemnly swear to uphold the Bible. But Republican Sharron Angle, a Tea Party favorite who’s running against Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., sounds as though she’s more than ready to switch books. A former teacher at a religious school and a longtime […]
Posted inAugust 20, 2010: A Hell of an Anniversary
‘Clean and healthful environment’
Montana’s constitution could stop a huge mine
Posted inAugust 20, 2010: A Hell of an Anniversary
Our founder, the man and the myth
Tom Bell still inspires a young Westerner
Posted inAugust 20, 2010: A Hell of an Anniversary
A Hell of an Anniversary
HCN’s founder, Tom Bell, marks our 40th year with a prediction: We’re all doomed
Posted inAugust 20, 2010: A Hell of an Anniversary
Visitors with flowers and fire extinguishers
We continue to enjoy a steady stream of visitors to our Paonia, Colo., office. We’re always impressed that so many of you find us, since our little town is more than an hour and a half from the nearest interstate highway. In mid-July, subscribers Lucy Meinhardt and Dave Zumwalt left us a note. “It seems […]
Posted inAugust 20, 2010: A Hell of an Anniversary
Up fur debate
Steel-jaws, conibears, snares: Endangered species and pets in the West have been injured and killed by these “body-gripping” traps, triggering a wave of recent public concern. After six Mexican wolves were hurt in New Mexico, leaving two with leg amputations (including AM871, alpha male of the Middle Fork Pack, captured by a trail cam at […]