Agency swings into action, to industry’s dismay
The EPA rides again
Posted inGoat
Safe(r) CX
They were, to say the least, a bit promiscuous. Between 2006 and 2008, the Bureau of Land Management — the primary agency responsible for overseeing drilling on federal lands — permitted more than 6,100 oil and gas projects without detailed environmental review using special “categorical exclusions,” according to a Government Accountability Office analysis. The waivers […]
Posted inGoat
Floral fizzle?
Climate change is sucking the color from the Sonoran Desert. The winter flowers that generally carpet the ground — white woolly daisies, Mexican golden poppies, purple Arizona lupine — are still in hiding. Their seeds lie dormant in the soil, waiting for the rains that are necessary to spark growth. It usually takes at least […]
Posted inRange
Timber Corporations, Real Estate and Community Forests
Weyerhauser – the nation’s largest timber company – has announced that it will convert itself into a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT). The company’s stock rose about 7% when the conversion was announced in December. The Weyerhauser announcement came as no surprise to those familiar with western forest management; it has been under discussion for […]
Posted inGoat
Avatar: an allegory of the West?
For better or worse, one of the most significant environmental events of the holiday season may have been James Cameron’s Avatar. The blockbuster, which tells the story of an alien tribe beset by big business and their mercenaries on the intergalactic frontier, has captured this planet’s imagination. Avatar has been praised by some as a […]
Posted inWotr
In considering the future, include Plan B.
Over Christmas break my family paddled the Rio Grande River along the border of Big Bend National Park in Texas. More than a week along, we stopped at a riverside hot springs to soak off a layer or two of grit. A man appeared, walking down the trail from a nearby road. He was short, […]
Posted inJanuary 11, 2010: Breakdown
‘The Cadillac of California irrigation districts’
Westlands has more than a tiny fish to blame for its troubles.
Posted inGoat
The count is coming
All sorts of numbers emerge from the U.S. Census Bureau, but only one set of numbers is required by the U.S. Constitution. That’s the population of each state, which determines how many representatives the state has in the U.S. House of Representatives. The total is fixed by law at 435, and each state […]
Posted inJanuary 11, 2010: Breakdown
Water war, or peace?
As 2009 came to an end, I asked readers of our HCN Commons e-mail newsletter what they thought the West’s big issues would be in 2010. The predominant response wasn’t all that surprising: Water, water and water. Several people agree that this could be the year when water agencies finally acknowledge the natural limits of […]
Posted inWotr
The Navajo Nation signals it’s ready for more reforms
When it comes to political reform on the Navajo Nation, one should never, ever, expect anything to change fast. Recently, voters agreed to reduce membership on the Navajo Nation Council from an unwieldy 88 members to 24, while also giving the president line-item veto authority. The reforms were passed overwhelmingly — once again. The same […]
Posted inGoat
The West leads the country in personal bankruptcy filings
Every state saw a rise in bankruptcy filings in 2009, but the West — hit hardest by the collapse of the real estate market — showed the most increases. The Associated Press reports nationwide figures of more than 1.4 million filings, making 2009 the 7th worst year on record. Arizona led the way, with a […]
Posted inGoat
They’re baa-aaack. . .
A sunken-eyed old man dressed in stiff, black Puritan clothes stalks a suburban neighborhood. The TV turns on by itself. A toy phone rings and rings — tinny and off-key — in the dead of night. A little blond girl crawls out of bed. Lifts the receiver to her ear, pauses, turns. Then, in a […]
Posted inGoat
Petroglyph protection, at last
The world’s longest outdoor art gallery will finally get some protection from the gas drilling that threatens it. Eastern Utah’s Nine Mile Canyon, some 78 miles long, contains hundreds of homesteaders’ cabins, stage stops, cliff dwellings and granaries, and more than 10,000 Anasazi and Fremont petroglyphs. For two decades, conservationists and historians have sought protection […]
Posted inRange
Ray Ring, Andy Stahl and the Clinton Roadless Rule
Ray Ring’s response to Andy Stahl’s letter (12-21 & 1-4 edition) taking exception to a point in Ray’s article on the Clinton Administration’s roadless area rulemaking ( 11-9 edition) was not adequate. While there are partisans within the Forest Service on each “side” of the roadless debate, anyone who works closely with the agency knows […]
Posted inRange
Welcoming Energy Production Home
In 2007, the Oxford American Dictionary named “locavore” the word of the year. As most High Country News readers know, locavores are people who choose to consume food that is locally grown, harvested, or produced, usually within 100 miles of the purchase point. The locavore movement came into being after a small group of people […]
Posted inWotr
Snow job leads to a reporter’s exit
There’s an old saying in Colorado’s ski country regarding weather reports and predictions of snowfall: “I’ll believe it when I’m shoveling it.” That’s what I was thinking to myself several weeks ago as I sat on my couch, sifting through some ideas for a weekly opinion column in the western Colorado-based Summit Daily News, where […]
Posted inWotr
When doing the right thing gets complicated
It was dark, and about 30 of us were grouped around a campfire in a forest in the Pacific Northwest, when Tim, the owl expert, said, “I think it would be really weird to be a ‘sparred’ owl.” A sparred owl is what you get when a spotted owl mates with a barred owl. I […]