Each spring, on the shores of Nevada’s Pyramid Lake, fishermen in waders stand 50 feet out in the water, on stepladders, casting long, narrow loops for huge Lahontan trout. They look a little like Kodiak bears lined up on an Alaskan river. But, these men aren’t the only fishers around. American white pelicans glide long, […]
It’s a skunk-eat-pelican-eat-trout world out there
Posted inApril 26, 2010: Nevada's Pot of Gold
Grasshoppered!
“A metabolic wildfire”: That’s how entomologist-nature writer Jeffrey Lockwood of the University of Wyoming describes a grasshopper outbreak. At high densities — say 30 per square yard — a swarm can obliterate rangeland vegetation like “a maniac on a riding mower.” And with last year’s bumper crop of grasshoppers and the potential for a warm, […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
“The gas of life”
UTAHSome parents in Utah County are pressing their school district to stop spreading “false educational ideas,” reports the Salt Lake Tribune. What might a false educational idea be? The notion that the word “democracy” defines our system of government. To parents who belong to a group called “Utah’s Republic,” which advocates a strict interpretation of […]
Posted inGoat
Myths about myths
You’ll probably soon hear about the “five myths about green energy,” if you haven’t already. They’re the talking points of a book to be published this week, Power Hungry: The Myths of “Green” Energy and the Real Fuels of the Future by Robert Bryce, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. He wrote […]
Posted inApril 26, 2010: Nevada's Pot of Gold
From Alaska to Paonia
Paonia, Colo., was a planned rest stop for visitors Helen Pohlig and Marilyn Rudolph, who were driving from Arizona to Helen’s home in St. Paul, Minn. “We purposefully chose a route that would take us through here,” said Helen, a lawyer and longtime subscriber. On their tour of HCN headquarters, she brought her dog Annie, […]
Posted inApril 26, 2010: Nevada's Pot of Gold
A Western state of mind
Best of the West 2009: New Stories from the Wide Side of the MissouriEdited by James Thomas and D. Seth Horton286 pages, softcover: $19.95.University of Texas Press, 2009. This impressive anthology of contemporary short fiction grounded in the American West showcases 18 stories from emerging writers and literary stars, selected from publications as diverse as […]
Posted inApril 26, 2010: Nevada's Pot of Gold
Wilderness by committee
Federal land protection is all about dealmaking
Posted inApril 26, 2010: Nevada's Pot of Gold
Viva la Archives!
Budget cuts threaten California water’s institutional memory
Posted inApril 26, 2010: Nevada's Pot of Gold
Skeptical of Calera
I have read several positive reports (including the one in HCN on March 15) about Calera Corporation’s presumed process that uses seawater or brine to sequester carbon dioxide, particularly from coal-fired power plants. Calera claims to produce a mixture of calcium and magnesium carbonates (limestone, dolomite, etc.) that can be used as a substitute for […]
Posted inApril 26, 2010: Nevada's Pot of Gold
Size matters?
I’m still laughing at one of the photos in “Mobile Nation” (HCN, 3/15/10)! Was that a bit of editorializing in the photo of the gentleman in his land-yacht watching the “male enhancement” commercial? Was the author trying to make some sort of Freudian connection between the size of a guy’s RV and his, uh … […]
Posted inApril 26, 2010: Nevada's Pot of Gold
Plus they never have to mow the lawn
The only thing missing in “Mobile Nation” was the real reason all those communal, neighborly, flag-waving, self-identified not-liberal RV settlers are so happy (HCN, 3/15/10). First, they don’t have to work any more. Second, there are no children around. And last, the government gives them a place to live for almost nothing. So much for […]
Posted inApril 26, 2010: Nevada's Pot of Gold
Pika politics
What’s the connection between pika populations and climate change? It’s complicated.
Posted inApril 26, 2010: Nevada's Pot of Gold
Hard times reshuffle the political deck
A couple of years ago, signs asking “Why Does Ritter Hate Oil and Gas?” sprouted along western Colorado’s roadsides, just as Gov. Bill Ritter promised new regulations designed to temper the state’s frenzied drilling boom. Industry boosters claimed Ritter would regulate them right out of the state. And oddly enough, within the year, many companies […]
Posted inApril 26, 2010: Nevada's Pot of Gold
Crossing over
A city girl moves to the mountains for love
Posted inApril 26, 2010: Nevada's Pot of Gold
Building a more effective environmental movement
The Rebirth of Environmentalism: Grassroots Activism from the Spotted Owl to the Polar BearDouglas Bevington285 pages, softcover: $35. Island Press, 2009. In The Rebirth of Environmentalism, activist Douglas Bevington explores the relationship between large national organizations like the Sierra Club and small “grassroots biodiversity groups” like Northwest California’s Environmental Protection Information Center. Bevington describes the […]
Posted inWotr
Floyd Dominy, the colossus of dams, dies at 100
Former Bureau of Reclamation commissioner built Glen Canyon dam
Posted inWotr
The burbling air show of migrating snow geese
I was visiting Choteau, Mont., with my friend, Bill, when a cheery checkout clerk said, “I bet you’re here for the geese.” Our blank looks confirmed our out-of-towner status. “Snow geese,” she said. “They’re migrating north again now.” She told us how plump Arctic birds gather by the thousands in the wheat fields near her […]
Posted inApril 26, 2010: Nevada's Pot of Gold
Sinclair flare up
Accident-prone refinery burdens Wyoming town
Posted inBlog
EJ for Earth Day
I was satisfied that if we could tap into the environmental concerns of the general public and infuse the student anti-war energy into the environmental cause, we could generate a demonstration that would force this issue onto the political agenda. It was a big gamble, but worth a try. – Senator Gaylord Nelson, Founder of […]
