A dozen miles from Lake Powell, up the Dirty Devil River, our canoes enter the old lake-bottom layer. Dirt banks rise above our heads, and the turbid river churns through an alley bounded by sand walls. Bend by tight bend we cut deeper into the canyon of fine sands. On top, a fringe of tamarisk […]
Whoever thought the Lake Powell bathtub was a good idea?
Posted inGoat
Names in high places
An old college friend lives near Seattle. He’s about as chauvinistic about his Cascades as I am about our Rocky Mountains. I used to annoy him by pointing out that his majestic Mt. Rainier was only 14,410 feet high, while our rather nondescript Mt. Harvard was a towering 14,420. And Harvard is only the third-tallest […]
Posted inRange
HCN Reader Photo: Western Sandpipers
Given all the sad news and images out of the Gulf lately, particularly of oil-covered fauna like birds, I thought I’d highlight this reader-submitted photo of two happy and healthy Western sandpipers – as a reminder that there are still some things right with the world. This photograph is from Flickr member SigmaEye, a regular […]
Posted inWotr
We need a new Civilian Conservation Corps
I’m 59 years old. I’ve been a professional photographer for 40 years. And now I’m done. Not because I’m retired, but because I’ve outlived my profession. Technological change has met economic downturn in a perfect storm in which I am sinking. The same seismic shifts have transformed music, journalism, design and publishing. This revolution has […]
Posted inGoat
Spray, don’t shoot
The meaning of a recent court case in Wyoming is clear: you can’t kill a grizzly just because you’re frightened. 41-year-old Stephen Westmoreland shot a female grizzly last fall just outside of Grand Teton National Park that showed no sign of aggression. He’d been gutting a deer and was “covered in animal blood,” according to […]
Posted inWotr
Here’s to a water czar with the unlikely name of Chips
Twenty years ago, many car bumpers in Colorado sported a no-holds-barred sticker: “Dam the Denver Water Board.” It was easy enough to dislike the agency then. It was big — Colorado’s largest water utility and one of the largest in the West — and it reflexively used its political muscle and economic sway to realize […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
Of guns and mordant humor
THE WESTIt became official Feb. 22: Visitors to national parks can now tote loaded firearms, openly carrying legal handguns, rifles and shotguns. But oh, the many restrictions, as noted in a handy brochure available at parks. Here’s a major one: Although it is legal to carry loaded weapons in national parks, existing laws and regulations […]
Posted inMay 24, 2010: Accidental Wilderness
What lies beneath?
The Farmer’s DaughterJim Harrison308 pages, hardcover: $24.Grove Press, 2010. It’s a favorite trope in Western literature and film: The soft-boiled city slicker who’s “hardened up” by the rural West, taught the value of a good day’s labor and stripped of frivolous notions of comfort and security. The land tempers you, according to popular mythology, instilling […]
Posted inMay 24, 2010: Accidental Wilderness
Saving wildlands, ignoring urban lands?
I feel that the “Flare up” article misses the real story and scapegoats environmental groups (HCN, 4/26/10). Libby has asbestos problems? Those awful environmental groups! Sinclair refinery spilling too much pollution? Where are the environmentalists!? Environmental groups aren’t superheroes, fixing refineries, organizing labor and healing the sick. Instead, you should ask the real questions: Who […]
Posted inMay 24, 2010: Accidental Wilderness
Let’s make a (national) deal
When I read the subhead of Jonathan Thompson’s article “Wilderness by Committee,” I inwardly groaned (HCN, 4/26/10). Thompson wrote: “Federal land protection is all about dealmaking.” Here in Montana, we are being confronted with this kind of “dealmaking” in the form of Sen. Jon Tester’s Forest Jobs and Recreation Act, the fruit of three separate […]
Posted inMay 24, 2010: Accidental Wilderness
It’s cultural, not rational
It’s hard to see rural opposition to public-land protection as anything more than a front on the great American culture war (HCN, 4/26/10). To hear, again, the opposition of San Juan County, Utah, commissioners to new national monuments or to wilderness designations confounds economic rationality. National parks and monuments are big drivers of economic activity […]
Posted inMay 24, 2010: Accidental Wilderness
HCN wins awards
We’re thrilled to announce that we’ve received the prestigious 2010 Utne Independent Press Award for Environmental Coverage. “High Country News covers this vast (Western) landscape like an experienced backcountry guide, pointing out the threats along with the wonders,” wrote the Utne judges. “Whether its writers are watchdogging resource-intensive industries like ranching, mining, drilling, and logging […]
Posted inMay 24, 2010: Accidental Wilderness
Going to extremes
How wacky grandstanders hijack Western politics … and what some reformers plan to do about it.
Posted inMay 24, 2010: Accidental Wilderness
Civics lesson
In your April 26 edition of “Heard Around the West,” author Betsy Marston clearly enjoys poking fun at the Utah parents who want to ensure that certain schools in their counties are using the proper terminology to describe our system of government. She obviously thinks that republic is simply short for Republican, and what could […]
Posted inMay 24, 2010: Accidental Wilderness
Birding, fast and slow
First, a confession: I am a serious birder. Maybe too serious: For 364 days a year, I lead field trips for beginners, share my spotting scope and am happy to explain the differences between, say, a song sparrow and a savannah sparrow to anyone who is interested (and, perhaps, to a few who might not […]
Posted inBlog
Pack the truck…..we’re headed to Colorado
A rather unimpressive photo of former Democratic presidential candidate Gary Hart accompanies the headline “You gotta have Hart” in the July 8, 1983 issue of High Country News. Click for larger version Reported by then-editor Dan Whipple, the article is set in Snowmass, Colo., at the Sierra Club’s First International Assembly where presidential candidates and […]
Posted inGoat
Wildfire costs rising
There’s an old saying that “Floods are acts of God. Flood damage is an act of man.” That is, we mortals don’t control rainfall, but we can decide not to build in flood plains. A similar argument might apply to wildfires, according to a recent report from Headwaters Economics, which describes itself as an “independent, […]