Judge orders a new, hard look at Monsanto’s sugar beets
Biotech beet-down
Posted inWotr
Lament of a cat lady
Recently, my cousin called me with a problem. Her two grown daughters are sharing an apartment. One of them has a 3-year-old cat; the other is allergic to cats. It isn’t working out. The cat has to go. Naturally, the first impulse is to call me. I never intended to become a “cat lady.” In […]
Posted inOctober 26, 2009: The newest Westerners
The good seats don’t come cheap
More proof that if you’ve got power, you probably have money that helped you get it. Sixteen Westerners are among the 50 richest Congressfolk, according to Roll Call’s annual ranking. The math, however, amounts to lowball estimates: On financial disclosure forms, lawmakers report in ranges ($1 million to $5 million, for example), so the totals […]
Posted inRange
HCN Reader Photo: A Still Moment at Navajo Arch
Fall, for me at least, is the time of still moments, of stepping back and watching silently as the light shifts and the colors change. This photo, by Flickr user juliaahbell, while black and white, seemed to capture that feeling perfectly. High Country News picks a reader photo each week (approximately) – join our Flickr […]
Posted inOctober 12, 2009: Silenced Springs?
Suck this, Vegas!
It’s time to change the way we think about water in the West
Posted inOctober 12, 2009: Silenced Springs?
Vegas forges ahead on pipeline plan
Great Basin pumping project is closer to reality
Posted inOctober 12, 2009: Silenced Springs?
Silenced Springs?
Great Basin waters face threats big and small.
Posted inGoat
Good reading
If you need to stay indoors because it’s cold, wet and windy outside, or because you worry about being mistaken for an elk if you go outdoors, here’s some good reading. In the New Republic, Jackson Lears provides a thought-provoking essay that combines review of six environmental books, among them an anthology of […]
Posted inGoat
Tapping into methane
Last fall, we wrote about the enormous amounts of greenhouse gas vented by coal mines (in the West, methane emissions from mines are equivalent to the emissions from 1.9 million cars). And methane, an explosive gas vented for miner safety, is 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide in terms of heat-trapping. At many East […]
Posted inGoat
The changing face of the West
Last Monday, I drove over McClure Pass to Carbondale, Colo., to join NPR reporter Jeff Brady, Rocky Mountain Community Radio correspondent Bente Birkeland, Aspen Times columnist Paul Anderson, and KDNK community radio News Director Conrad Wilson for a lively (and live) discussion of Western issues and how they play out in Colorado. You can find […]
Posted inWotr
Blame it all on my crazy biology teacher
With fall in the air, I get this funny feeling that my homework isn’t done. It is true I was one of “those” students who tested patience, strained policies, broke rules and spent quality time on a chair in the hallway. I guess it was a natural aptitude, like yodeling. My parents urged me to […]
Posted inGoat
Harvesting grievances
All summer long, farmers in California’s Central Valley have complained about their parched fields—one even likened their communities to tumbleweeds about to blow away—and they blame their thirsty crops on fish. Endangered Species Act protections for smelt and salmon in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta limit the amount of water pumped out of Northern California, much […]
Posted inWotr
Libby is not what you think
Libby, Mont., is a strange place. In the morning, the Cabinet Mountains sparkle, sporting new snow way up on the highest peaks. Folks arrive at work, open the front doors of their businesses and shout out “Mornin’” from across the street. Joggers pass by my house, dodging a stray doe that lingers after a night […]
Posted inRange
Wolf victory still elusive
A recent opinion piece by Mike Medberry wisely suggested that there needs to be a reasonable middle ground in the deeply polemical attitudes toward managing wolves in the West. Unfortunately, this encouraging argument was followed by much of the same tired, politicized and oversimplified rhetoric, pitting environmental groups against the government and mischaracterizing the premise […]
Posted inArticles
Place-based Forest Law
Questions and Opportunities Presented by Senator Tester’s Forest Jobs and Recreation Act
Posted inWotr
Con: The cult of canning exposed
I hate this time of year. The leaves crackle underfoot like the bones of tiny children. And the light takes on a certain harshness that reminds me that, even as I grow closer to death, I have gotten no closer to realizing my dreams. Most of that is made tolerable with a dose of self-medication, […]
Posted inGoat
Snowpacks melting sooner
Why are mountain snowpacks melting sooner these days? Part of it may be climate change associated with increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but there’s something else in the air — dust (a/k/a airborne particulate matter). Snow reflects sunlight quite well, as evidenced by the blinding glare it produces and […]
Posted inSeptember 14, 2009: Home
When reverence isn’t enough
A visit with philosopher and writer Kathleen Dean Moore
Posted inGoat
California’s State Parks: No New Closures
In July, after $14.2 million was cut from the California State Parks’ operating budget, it looked like up to 100 parks might have to close to make ends meet. Park supporters have thus spent the last few months anxiously speculating about which parks would fall to Governor Schwarzenegger’s death panels. But today they got a […]