In reading the issue of June 7, I was rather shocked by the disparity of funding for programs covered. In particular, $120 million for razorback suckers and $1.4 million to help Native Americans integrate into the modern school system. Leon JonesOgden, Utah This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline […]
Native fish vs. native Americans
Posted inJuly 19, 2010: The Ute Paradox
It’s the science, not the numbers
Hal Herring’s recent article on wolf hunts mischaracterizes Defenders of Wildlife’s position as supporting a population goal of 450 wolves per state, when we do not in fact seek such a target (HCN, 5/10/10). It’s tempting to try to come up with a number of wolves that all stakeholders can agree on, in hopes of […]
Posted inJuly 19, 2010: The Ute Paradox
How to return a pot
Imagine discovering a pot tucked inside an ancient ruin on a hike. That’d really look nice on my mantel, you think, and grab it. Later, you learn that collecting artifacts from public lands is not only illegal, it permanently destroys the object’s original context and meaning — the information that helps archaeologists piece together the […]
Posted inJuly 19, 2010: The Ute Paradox
HCN rocks with eTown
ETown, the eco-groovy weekly radio music show based in Boulder, Colo., will honor HCN Founder Tom Bell and HCN‘s 40th Anniversary with its E-chievement Award at a special concert July 30 at the Redrocks Amphitheater near Denver. The “Greenrocks at Redrocks” event will feature great music from Lyle Lovett and Taj Mahal, a little stage […]
Posted inJuly 19, 2010: The Ute Paradox
Green on brown
Your recent article regarding renewable energy on brownfields is accurate and well-timed (HCN, 6/7/10). This idea makes sense for developers and site owners like mining companies, but the advantages for land conservation deserve to be more fleshed out. Siting large renewable energy projects on disturbed areas eases the pressure to develop pristine public lands such […]
Posted inJuly 19, 2010: The Ute Paradox
Dust takes a toll
Soil in the West’s air disrupts health, snow cover, even rainfall
Posted inRange
New national monument is an idea worth considering
By Bill Schneider, NewWest.net guest blogger, 7-15-10 Back in February somebody leaked seven pages of a “vision document” conceived within the Department of the Interior and created quite a political uproar. OMG! Top brass in the Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service (all Interior Department agencies) and a few […]
Posted inJuly 19, 2010: The Ute Paradox
Turning back the tide
Preserving the beautiful and fragile Elkhorn Slough
Posted inGoat
Shutting down the batcave
Like some nightmarish scene from a horror film, bats have been dying by the millions from a pervasive, infectious fungus that causes white-nose syndrome. As Madeline Bodin relates in her recent HCN story “Bracing for White-Nose Syndrome” the fungus looks like powder on the faces and wings of bats and kills them by driving them […]
Posted inBlog
This Saturday, Prayers for the Peaks
Earlier this week I had the good fortune to share a conversation with David Johns, acting president of the Navajo medicine men’s association. Mr. Johns and his colleagues in the Dine Hataalii Association (DHA) are preparing for a Navajo Nation-wide day of prayer this Saturday, to support the campaign to protect the holy San Francisco […]
Posted inRange
Rants from the Hill: Greetings from Nevada
“Rants from the Hill” are Michael Branch’s monthly reflections on life in the high country of Nevada’s western Great Basin desert. I live with my wife and two young daughters in the high desert of the western Great Basin, at 6,000 feet on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada, on a desiccated hilltop so […]
Posted inWotr
Our cheap food comes at a high price
We have the food system we asked for. There’s a reason a burger at McDonald’s sells for about a buck. There’s a reason the food is of such poor quality in places where healthy nutrition is most important — our schools, hospitals and nursing homes. What we support prospers; what we feed grows. If we […]
Posted inJuly 19, 2010: The Ute Paradox
Border creep
Surrendering U.S. turf : That’s the impression given by new signs on some Bureau of Land Management land in southern Arizona. The signs — which warn people to avoid the area south of Interstate 8 — were installed after a local sheriff’s deputy was reportedly shot by a Mexican drug trafficker in late April. “We […]
Posted inArticles
Not good news for the locals
Afghans might learn from history what happens to people who live above valuable minerals.
Posted inRange
HCN Reader Photo – the Palouse
This reader photo spotlights a beautiful section of the Northwest, the Palouse. Photographer Joe Rocchio points out that the now-agricultural region was once a prairie; it must have been incredibly beautiful then, too. Browse eh existing images and add your photos to our HCN Flickr pool; we periodically feature them on the Range community […]
Posted inJuly 19, 2010: The Ute Paradox
The fight for the Flathead
Environmental victories come in increments, not meetings
Posted inJuly 19, 2010: The Ute Paradox
Peril in paradise
The Light In High Places: A Naturalist Looks at Wyoming Wilderness, Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep, Cowboys, and Other Rare SpeciesJoe Hutto256 pages, hardcover: $24.95.Skyhorse Publishing, 2009. To Joe Hutto, a “romantic scientist,” it seemed that the vast grandeur of Wyoming’s Wind River Range existed “in spite of us,” that “human civilization and technology had proven […]
Posted inJuly 19, 2010: The Ute Paradox
An example and an antidote
Imagination in PlaceWendell Berry196 pages, hardcover, $24.Counterpoint, 2010. Wendell Berry, the author of 50 books of poetry, fiction and nonfiction, is a farmer who has lived his life in service to “local geography and local culture.” By chance and choice, he tells us in his new collection of essays, Imagination in Place, he has lived […]
Posted inRange
The Mojave National Preserve Conservancy
Chris Clarke could see the entire northern part of the Mojave National Preserve from the summit of Kessler Peak. Light from that magical hour around sunset highlighted distant mountains and ridgelines. The view was spectacular. But as the sun dipped below the horizon he realized the path he’d taken to climb to the top was […]