Colorado’s Cache la Poudre River flows east out of Rocky Mountain National Park and through a canyon northwest of Fort Collins. Along the way, like any other Western river, it is diverted to water croplands and fill washing machines. It is a magnet for rafters and fisher-folk, and the people of Fort Collins regard it […]
The Poudre: A river besieged by thirsty cities
Posted inGoat
Hunters become the hunted
Yesterday, on the opening day of Idaho’s first wolf season in decades, at least two hunters made quick use of their recently purchased wolf tags. The hunt began amidst whirling debate, after Montana Federal Judge Donald W. Molloy delayed ruling on a lawsuit brought by 13 environmental groups to halt the hunt. Concerned that the […]
Posted inRange
Thunderstorm in late August
It slid into the Deer Lodge Valley, like twilight come too soon. When the storm first crossed the horizon I was up on the National Forest, rattling the four-wheeler along a rough two-track road that climbed through a series of meadows toward the Continental Divide. Around here, summer storms are mostly predictable. This particular weather […]
Posted inGoat
State Parks Spread the Wealth
The Road-Warrior anarchy that may await some state parks in the West (see “Lawless Future” in this week’s issue) if funding cutbacks close park gates may not have much of an impact on overall state revenues. Despite what many good-hearted park defenders argue, state parks don’t rake in piles of cash. Only 13 of California’s sexiest state […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
Magical encounter
Michael “Skeeter” Pilarski admits he has never seen a fairy, but that doesn’t mean they’re not around. “Fairies manifest themselves differently to different people,” he told The Seattle Times, “and besides, only about 10 percent of people have ‘the sight.’” Pilarski is the founder and organizer of the ninth annual Fairy and Human Relations Congress, […]
Posted inRange
HCN Reader Photo: Pronghorns in Montana
This week’s reader photo comes from Madrid Miner, who’s been posting some lovely shots up on the HCN Flickr group. You can add your photos to our Flickr group; we pick one a week to feature on our site.
Posted inGoat
The River Dry
If we keep sucking down Colorado River water the way we have been (likely), and if climate change reduces the amount of water in the system (also likely) there’s a fifty-fifty chance that the system’s reservoirs will hit bottom by the middle of this century. That’s the stark conclusion of a new study released in […]
Posted inWotr
Whose Valles Caldera is it?
When people try to describe the Valles Caldera National Preserve in New Mexico, they sometimes compare it to Yellowstone National Park. Both offer stunning landscapes born of volcanic activity, and both are filled with wildlife. Though only 89,000 acres, Valles Caldera contains thousands of elk, vast grasslands, streams and mountains, all within the sunken remnant […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
Commuter commune
City parks in Phoenix stand empty much of the year, sizzling in the beastly heat that routinely climbs over 100 degrees. Fortunately, the valley’s new light-rail system has become a cool and movable feast, reports the Arizona Republic, in a story that was headlined “Singin’ on the Train.” The 20 miles of track linking Phoenix […]
Posted inGoat
Today’s best fire pics
This morning, the fires continue to burn in California, Utah, Arizona, Colorado and elsewhere. And the haunting yet beautiful fire photos continue to make their way into the Intertubes so that those of us who are lucky enough to be far away from the fires can experience them vicariously, and safely. The L.A. Times probably […]
Posted inGoat
Summer’s almost over (and fire season is here)
Yowch. It’s hot out and it’s dry and it’s smoky. Often, in this part of Colorado, the end of August marks the tail end of the wet monsoon season. This year, the monsoons were rather feeble, if they arrived at all, and during the last two weeks we’ve experienced some of our hottest days of […]
Posted inGoat
Eenie meenie (money) moe
In this era of hyped-up security concerns about our southern border, why would a remote Montana border station with a daily average of three travelers get $15 million of stimulus money? Montana Sens. Jon Tester and Max Baucus say it’s because they asked Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to fund projects in their state, whose […]
Posted inRange
When a step aside was ‘a godsend’
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy jumped into American Indian issues with zeal after his brother, Bobby, was assassinated. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy had used the Indian Education Subcommittee as his platform during his extensive travels across Indian Country with the anti-poverty tour. A young Ted Kennedy wrote in Look Magazine that RFK “saw, as I have […]
Posted inAugust 31, 2009: The dark side of dairies
Writers of the Native American Renaissance
In Beauty I Walk: The Literary Roots of Native American WritingEdited by Jarod Ramsey and Lori Burlingame395 pages, softcover: $27.95.University of New Mexico Press, 2008. “Appreciation” is a slippery word, especially when applied to culture. More shallow than understanding, but deeper than mere pleasure, you might describe it as knowledge lite. Perhaps that’s why In […]
Posted inAugust 31, 2009: The dark side of dairies
Romancing the stone
NAME Maurice McKinneyAGE 83HOMETOWN Whittier, Calif.OCCUPATION Retired gold miner and gemologist HCN SUBSCRIBER SINCE 2008 (longtime reader) For some time now, we’ve been receiving occasional — and very entertaining — letters from HCN reader Maurice McKinney. The self-described rockhound writes about his love of gems, Mexico and the great outdoors. “All my life I was […]
Posted inAugust 31, 2009: The dark side of dairies
Ring’s Reid grab
I was dismayed at the meanness and lack of balance displayed in the article entitled “The same old Sen. Reid” (HCN, 8/3/09). If it were not for the hard work of Harry Reid, we would not have the passage by Congress of the Omnibus Bill, Great Basin National Park, removal of lead from the drinking […]
Posted inAugust 31, 2009: The dark side of dairies
Righteous steak, too
Your review of my book Righteous Porkchop had a serious flaw (HCN, 8/3/09). The reviewer suggested that I intentionally avoid criticizing cattle ranching because of my own involvement in it. This fundamentally misses the argument the book is making about modern industrialized food production, namely that today’s confinement poultry, hog, and dairy operations, which keep […]
Posted inAugust 31, 2009: The dark side of dairies
Reid’s water grab
It is good to see Harry Reid’s cover being blown by Ray Ring (HCN, 8/3/09). For people in rural Nevada, Reid’s two-faced BS is common knowledge. Here in Lyon County, Nevada’s largest ag-producing county, Sen. Reid is the power behind the $200 million added to the Farm Bill to purchase the water rights of local […]
Posted inAugust 31, 2009: The dark side of dairies
Collaborative misinformation
Gary Nabhan’s hit piece on Jon Jarvis, Obama’s nominee for Director of the National Park Service, is misinformed, replete with false assertions and does a disservice to dedicated, longtime agency employees (HCN, 8/3/09). Nabhan’s assertion that Jarvis and Point Reyes National Seashore Superintendent Don Neubacher are trying to “phase out” and “evict” oyster farming and […]
Posted inAugust 31, 2009: The dark side of dairies
As the crow flies
Crow Planet — Essential Wisdom from the Urban WildernessLyanda Lynn Haupt230 pages, hardcover: $23.99. Little, Brown and Company. 2009. Even though crows are unusually smart, make attentive parents, use tools, can learn to speak and are notoriously playful, they can’t seem to shake their bad reputation. They’re far more “loud, large, and conspicuous” than most […]