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 […]
HCN wins awards
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, […]
Posted inGoat
A Swift SWIP hike
A typical thru-hiker might walk 15-20 miles a day to finish a long trail. Adam Bradley managed 40 a day when he set the record for the 2,700-mile Pacific Crest Trail in 2009; so his latest escapade — averaging 31 miles a day for 16 days — was probably a breeze. The 501-mile trek began […]
Posted inWotr
The Arizona solution
Having lived in Colorado for all of my 59 years, I’ve certainly suffered from immigration. It’s cost me a job or two because immigrants from the East Coast went to better schools and boasted more impressive résumés. I’ve had to compete against well-heeled California immigrants for housing. After these immigrants settle in, they assault our […]
Posted inRange
Archives and legal precedents
Within the Currents offerings in the April 26th edition Matt Jenkins provide readers with a description (for subscribers only) of one of the West’s most important archives – The Water Resources Center Archive at the University of California in Berkeley. Matt tells us that historian Donald Worster was among those who did research at the […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
NBIMBY
COLORADO AND UTAHMesa State College on Colorado’s Western Slope displayed a bit of insensitivity to its Grand Junction neighbors recently, announcing that it was planning to create a “body farm” in one of the city’s fastest-growing residential areas. A body farm is a place where criminal justice students study the slow process of decay in […]
Posted inGoat
The Spirit of Mt. St. Helens
Thirty years (and one day) ago, Mount St. Helens blew its top. Or rather, its side. After months of heightened seismic activity, a 5.1 magnitude earthquake caused the flank of the mountain to suddenly fall away. The landslide — the largest ever recorded — slammed into Spirit Lake at the foot of the volcano. A […]
Posted inMay 24, 2010: Accidental Wilderness
Last rites in salmon country?
As California’s water war grinds on, salmon fishermen gear up for a risky season
Posted inMay 24, 2010: Accidental Wilderness
Clean air, hazy politics
Colorado air quality law pits coal against gas, rural against urban greens
Posted inBlog
Grand Canyon uranium threatens tribal water
Last week, a delegation of leaders from Arizona’s Havasupai Tribe traveled to Washington D.C., to advocate for the protection of the Grand Canyon region from a potential onslaught of uranium extraction activities. These four women – tribal council members and traditional elders – voiced their concern for the safety of the land, the purity of […]
Posted inMay 24, 2010: Accidental Wilderness
For wilderness, look to a wasteland
Select DOD and DOE sites in the West
Posted inMay 24, 2010: Accidental Wilderness
Accidental Wilderness
Hanford, White Sands and other ‘wastelands’ are good for bombs—and biodiversity.
Posted inHeard Around the West
Doggone it
THE WORLDEveryone loves dogs, right? Don’t be so sure. In its spring issue, Earth Island Journal reviewed the book Time to Eat the Dog: The Real Guide to Sustainable Living, by New Zealanders Robert and Brenda Vale. The Vales found that the carbon impact of a dog is double that of an SUV, that a […]
Posted inWotr
Springtime is whine-time
Spring is the cruelest month in the mountain West. Yes, I know that spring technically occupies three months as one-quarter of the four annual seasons. But here in northeastern Utah, it really only lasts a month. And it doesn’t even last a distinct month; what I’m saying is that you get about 31 days of […]