There are few sights as lovely as a diatom. Single-celled, photosynthetic algae with intricate skeletons made of pure silica, they fascinated famous 19th century German zoologist Ernst Haekel, who painted this illustration in oils. Recently they have also become fascinating to scientists developing biologically-based solar panels. Diatoms are ecological workhorses. For at least 100 million […]
Single-celled solar
Posted inApril 13, 2009: The Desert That Breaks Annie Proulx’s Heart
Why I ride the Greyhound
Bus passengers become citizens of the world.
Posted inWotr
Interior Secretary Salazar is on the right track
I’m a third-generation Colorado native, and for me, the Rockies have always been all about blue skies and fresh air. Yet I’m old enough to remember the brown cloud that used to hover over Denver. I also remember that after amendments to the Clean Air Act took effect in 1990, I could once again see […]
Posted inGoat
spam…
Spam – not SPAM – is the stuff of evil Internet marketers. It’s bred in dark, dark spaces and spread to the intangible depths of E-mails and pop-up ads of YOUR computer. And today, I found out that spam’s got quite the environmental impact! Well, I’d never actually eaten SPAM until today, but I thought […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
Salmonid stanzas
Eleven years ago, a weekend tradition began in Astoria, Ore., the coastal town at the mouth of the Columbia River that once boasted scores of busy salmon canneries. It’s called the annual Fisher Poets Gathering, and this time participants in what one observer called “the blue-collar school of poetry” were given just 24 hours to […]
Posted inApril 13, 2009: The Desert That Breaks Annie Proulx’s Heart
Conservation or cop-out?
Lack of participation could scuttle voluntary efforts to protect species
Posted inGoat
Score one for Grand Staircase-Escalante
Thirteen years ago, when outgoing President Clinton designated Grand Staircase-Escalante a national monument, the outcry from some southeast Utah residents was deafening (and HCN was there to write about it). Angry ranchers called their representatives and demanded repeal, locals burned Clinton in effigy, billboards saying NO MONUMENT! went up along the highways. Garfield and Kane […]
Posted inWotr
How one “girl ranger” helped save the Southwest
Ed Abbey once called her a “girl ranger,” and that’s what she was, the very first. Lynell Schalk began her federal career tracking grave robbers and pothunters in southeast Utah, and ended it catching pot growers in western Oregon. She broke through the sagebrush ceiling as the first female special agent in charge in the […]
Posted inGoat
Tea Party Day is coming
Even here in the boondocks, far from any place that Fox News has ever covered, it’s impossible to escape the publicity about the impending “Tea Party on Tax Day.” First came a robocall on Saturday; a husky male voice advised me to “show that you care about our country” by “attending a Tea Party on […]
Posted inGoat
Subterranean seltzer water
In an ideal world, we’d be able to stash most of our planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions in underground formations, where they would turn to stone. As High Country News has reported in the past, the carbon in C02 can be incorporated into calcium carbonate, or limestone, through chemical reactions. That’s a good thing for climate […]
Posted inApril 13, 2009: The Desert That Breaks Annie Proulx’s Heart
Fishing for solace
Yellowstone Autumn: A Season of Discovery in a Wondrous LandW.D. Wetherell166 pages, hardcover: $24.95.University of Nebraska Press, 2009. An engaging blend of history lesson, fly-fishing essay and philosophical treatise, Yellowstone Autumn describes a veteran writer’s three weeks of solitude in Yellowstone National Park. Walter Wetherell makes the trip from New England to commemorate his 55th […]
Posted inApril 13, 2009: The Desert That Breaks Annie Proulx’s Heart
Wanted: your support and ideas
By now, you should have received our reader survey and spring fund-raising appeal for the Research Fund, which helps to pay our writers, photographers and artists, among other things. Please complete the survey (and return it to us in the postage-paid envelope). And please consider including a donation to support our work – we need […]
Posted inApril 13, 2009: The Desert That Breaks Annie Proulx’s Heart
Nonprofits reap the profits
Green, Inc. – An Environmental Insider Reveals How a Good Cause Has Gone BadChristine MacDonald288 pages, hardcover: $24.95.The Lyons Press, 2008. Inflated executive salaries. Top brass hobnobbing at expensive getaways. Questionable side deals negotiated with no concern for the everyday folks affected by them. These problems aren’t just native to Wall Street. They also occur […]
Posted inApril 13, 2009: The Desert That Breaks Annie Proulx’s Heart
Avalanches for dummies
NameHomer HometownBozeman, Mont. OccupationExtreme-sports guinea pig Best LookPowder beard A man leans on a bamboo pole high above the slopes at Bridger Bowl near Bozeman, Mont. From a distance, he appears remarkably calm, even as ski patrollers throw explosives onto the snow-loaded slope directly above him. There’s a loud blast and a fracture forms in […]
Posted inApril 13, 2009: The Desert That Breaks Annie Proulx’s Heart
Columbia Basin (Political) Science
An investigation into the Bonneville Power Administration’s influence on salmon research
Posted inGoat
Your turn, our turn
Today and tomorrow only, fellow intern Terray Sylvester and I will be guest blogging at the National Recreation & Parks Association Blog. The forum is called Y Become Involved? Basically, we’ll be discussing a big issue that public lands are facing: How to get young people involved in parks, recreation, and conservation activities. As with […]
Posted inGoat
It takes a village…
It’s National Library Week (April 12 – 18), and here in HCN‘s hometown of Paonia, Colo. we just celebrated the opening of our brand-new public library. After 5 years of hard work, the old, dingy, 3,700-square-foot library has been replaced by an 8,000-square-foot building with tall windows that let in plenty of light and a […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
Prickly P.R.
Porcupines have gotten such a bad rap lately — and yes, some of them do girdle and kill backyard trees in pricy subdivisions — that it’s time to make amends to these thorniest of large rodents, says Colorado Outdoors, the colorful publication of the state’s Division of Wildlife. Porcupines are handsome in an outlandish way, […]
Posted inGoat
California’s Central Water War Heats Up
California’s State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project (CVP) – which serve the vast Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys of California – have projected dramatically reduced water delivery to all water users. Municipalities, wildlife refuges and farmers who hold water rights can expect to receive 50% to 60% of what has been requested. […]