In 1971, Congress made the iconic status of wild horses a matter of law. That year they declared “that wild free-roaming horses and burros are living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West …” Wild horses “enrich” our lives, they continued, and “are fast disappearing from the American scene.” Today, not so […]
Wild horses gone wild
Posted inWotr
Organic goes down a slippery road
Here’s the sad news: Even as the demand for organic food continues to explode, organic farmers in America are getting thrown under the very beet cart they helped build. The Chinese are taking over market share, especially of vegetables and agricultural commodities like soy, thanks to several American-based multinational food corporations that have hijacked the […]
Posted inJuly 20, 2009: Thinking Outside the Timber Box
A tenderfoot in Taos
An exhausted mother. A lively baby. A compassionate drunkard.
Posted inGoat
“Organic mecca” organizes against GMO sugar beets
The Boulder Daily Camera calls them “organic industry heavyweights.” And they’re out to make sure Boulder County Commissioners disallow the request of six area farmers to grow Roundup Ready sugar beets on open space land. Not because of the scientific and economic arguments against GMOs — enumerated later — but because it may besmirch the […]
Posted inGoat
Not out of the woods
History is rife with artists who were underappreciated in their time: Vincent van Gogh, Johann Sebastian Bach, Emily Dickinson, etc. Christo and Jeanne-Claude, whose elaborate outdoor art installations include “The Gates” in Central Park and “The Umbrellas” in California and Japan, are not those kind of artists. While their works are usually met with some kind […]
Posted inGoat
Numbers for the Birds
My experience with bird-watching is generally limited to trying to answer the question of “What did the cat leave in the yard this time?” And sometimes I’ve pulled over to watch eagles eating roadkill. But I do not recall ever driving out of my way to see a pelican or a ptarmigan. […]
Posted inGoat
Food fight
Who knew ordering a steak dinner could be so political? The American food industry is undergoing some major policy changes, challenging ranchers and farmers across the West. Oregon cattle ranchers are struggling to deal with the recession, increasingly health-conscious consumers, and environmental concerns about land use . Fears over food safety have led to a […]
Posted inWotr
Nostalgia for the front lines
This spring on a warm May afternoon, an electric line went down a few miles east of where I live in Homer, Alaska. Sparks from the live wire ignited dry grasses, and the flames, fanned by wind, traveled quickly to a forest of beetle-killed trees. In two days, the Seventeen Mile Fire, named for its […]
Posted inGoat
NW Renewables: Infrastructure needed
By Sharon Fisher, NewWest.Net Guest Writer, 7-14-09 The Northwest—Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana—is arguably the riches region of the United States for renewable energy resources such as geothermal, hydro, wind, and solar, said Paul Manson, president of Seabreeze Power Corp., speaking at the Pacific Northwest Economic Region conference today (with a windmill pin on his […]
Posted inGoat
Species viability on national forests preserved!
Yet another attempt by the Bush Administration to change federal regulations in order to accelerate logging on the national forests has apparently gone down in flames. On the last day of June a federal judge in Oakland overturned regulations the Bush Administration crafted in order to gut a provision of the National Forest Management Act. […]
Posted inGoat
Pre-season politics
“No matter how Diane Denish spins it, isn’t it still the same game?” That’s the question—posed in a familiar, cynical tone—that kicked-off New Mexico’s election season this week. Unfortunately for New Mexicans who hadn’t quite recovered from last year’s ad wars, the ominous narrators of political advertising are already back to haunt the Land of […]
Posted inJuly 20, 2009: Thinking Outside the Timber Box
Cultural blight
Plant disease threatens traditions of California tribes.
Posted inRay
Enviro infighting on forest deal
When I researched my new High Country News story on bold experiments emerging in national forests, I talked to a bunch of people whom I couldn’t fit into the magazine story. That’s a drawback of magazines — the pages are not infinite the way the Web is. So I’m going to use my blog to […]
Posted inJuly 20, 2009: Thinking Outside the Timber Box
Let’s get bigger
The article “Let’s Get Small” noted some problems with incentives for distributed generation in California — many of which I experience with my 1.2 kilowatt photovoltaic system (HCN, 6/22 & 7/6/09). Two years ago, I generated $25 more electricity than I used. I lost this “credit” at the end of my one-year net metering period. […]
Posted inWotr
How a small town resembles Facebook
“I’m looking for a crib,” I said, and my friends reacted predictably. “I’m so out of touch!” lamented one, while another asked if I had an announcement to make, then raced over to my wife’s spot to ask if she was pregnant. The unusual aspect of this small-town rumor-mongering was its location. We weren’t in […]
Posted inJuly 20, 2009: Thinking Outside the Timber Box
Unintended castor-quences
“Voyage of the dammed” by Kevin Taylor doesn’t mention one of the negative impacts of beaver — their indirect influence on native plants and animals when non-native species are present (HCN, 6/8/09). For example, beavers strongly prefer native cottonwoods over non-native salt cedar (tamarisk) and Russian olive. This selective foraging gives a substantial additional advantage […]
Posted inJuly 20, 2009: Thinking Outside the Timber Box
Biomass is where it’s at
I have checked your “Alternative Alternative Energy: An HCN Special Report” issue over carefully, twice now, and it appears that my eyes are not deceiving me — you really did ignore the potential contributions of woody biomass (HCN, 6/22 & 7/6/09). This is shortsighted, to say the least.Forest biomass is plentiful, carbon-neutral and essential to […]
Posted inJuly 20, 2009: Thinking Outside the Timber Box
Wavin’ in Oregon
In your otherwise excellent series of articles on renewable energy in the West, a few gaps were evident (HCN, 6/22 & 7/6/09). Your map on page 16 leaves the impression that Oregon is far behind neighboring states in alternative energy projects (see correction, page 11). In fact, many wind energy sites not noted on the […]
Posted inJuly 20, 2009: Thinking Outside the Timber Box
Bull riders for Jesus
I wish Craig Childs had attended Cowboy Church during his PBR bull riding experience in Billings (HCN, 5/25/09). He might have had a different perspective in his article concerning the “wild life” of bull riders. They are all not drinkers and carousers as implied in his article. Cowboy Church is organized and attended by many […]
Posted inJuly 20, 2009: Thinking Outside the Timber Box
Even hard-liners want to experiment in Arizona
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Taking control of the machine.” “We squashed the timber industry and the Forest Service, and dictated the terms of surrender” in the Southwest, says Kieran Suckling, the director of the Center for Biological Diversity. He’s talking about a war that began in the 1980s, […]