On February 27, Wyoming passed a set of laws designed to flesh out a legal framework for burying carbon emissions in the geologic cavities, or “pore spaces,” that lie beneath significant portions of the state. The rules attempt to answer a few pertinent questions. Notably: Who will be responsible for the carbon once it’s been injected […]
Crossed purposes in Wyoming?
Posted inWotr
Dwindling supplies inflame water wars
I have a classic Western postcard tacked to the bulletin board above my computer. It shows two men in a field holding shovels over their heads, locked in mock battle. Behind them runs an irrigation ditch. The caption reads: “Discussing Western Water Rights, A Western Pastime.” The postcard makes me laugh because I know firsthand […]
Posted inGoat
Mixed messages
Yesterday, the New York Times had a swell interactive map that showed unemployment rates in every county in the nation. It showed that, with the exception of Michigan, the West is getting whacked by job losses harder than just about anyone else. California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington are all awash with high unemployment rates. The […]
Posted inMarch 2, 2009: How low will it go?
A desert poet takes his work inside
Richard Shelton has taught writing in prisons for 30 years
Posted inArticles
Straddling the Canadian border
A Tulalip Indian works to maintain traditions with family on the other side
Posted inGoat
My pet gripe
Have you noticed that Americans are always declaring something in their back yard the biggest, longest, cleanest, dirtiest and my personal favorite, most pristine? One community in rural Northern California decided a while back to erect the nation’s “tallest” flagpole as an economic development project. Grants were obtained and the pole went up. For a […]
Posted inWotr
We need a renewables roadmap
If anybody had any doubt that clean energy has arrived, President Obama’s speech to Congress Feb. 24 should dispel those concerns. Obama told Congress and the nation that clean energy, along with education and health care, are central to our economic revival. Obama recognized that if the United States can “harness the power of clean, […]
Posted inGoat
Endangered Species Act restored
Gray wolves and other endangered species will be happy about President Barack Obama’s decision on Tuesday to bring back the original rules of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). In December 2008, as a parting gift, the Bush administration introduced rules to allow federal projects to bypass a mandatory review from either the U.S. Fish & […]
Posted inMarch 2, 2009: How low will it go?
Closing in
Western military bases are getting squeezed by sprawl
Posted inGoat
Requiem for a jaguar
On Feb. 20, we wrote that for the first time ever in the U.S., scientists had trapped a jaguar and fitted it with a radio tracking collar. Just 10 days later, though, the big cat was dead. Known as Macho B, he had prowled 500 square miles of the U.S.-Mexico border region for more than […]
Posted inGoat
Western water woes
A deal in the 1920s divided water rights amongst Western states. But back then, water conditions were more ideal. Now that we’re in somewhat of a prolonged drought, many water managers are warning that there may not be enough water to fulfill the Colorado River Compact. Matt Jenkins spun an excellent tale about the issue […]
Posted inGoat
A loss for Klamath dam and water deals
In a defeat for those organizations and interests which support proposed Klamath River Water and Dam Deals, the California Water Resources Board has rejected a request from energy giant PacifiCorp to once again delay consideration of the impacts PacifiCorp’s five Klamath River dams have on water quality. In a late February letter to “interested parties” […]
Posted inWotr
What Wallace Stegner knew
In a tribute celebrating the 100th birthday of Western writer Wallace Stegner, New York Times columnist Timothy Egan recently wrote that if Señor Stegner were here to blow out the candles on his cake, he would still be angry about the “East Coast Media Conspiracy.” The beloved author of Angle of Repose and The Big […]
Posted inGoat
Tell me sweet little lies…
Bottled water has always been an elaborate PR scam– both an invented necessity and a bizarre symbol of luxury. Nevertheless, I buy it sometimes, especially on long car trips. I don’t know why, but I usually pick Fiji. Maybe it’s the square shape and snazzy palm frond label. I have always known that I am being seduced by […]
Posted inMarch 2, 2009: How low will it go?
Welcome to the era of scarcity
I have a classic Western postcard tacked to the bulletin board above my computer. It shows two men in a field with shovels raised above their heads, locked in mock battle. Behind them runs an irrigation ditch. The headline reads: “Discussing Western Water Rights, A Western Pastime.” The postcard makes me laugh because I know […]
Posted inMarch 2, 2009: How low will it go?
Train in vain
Nowhere in “All Aboard” do I find concern about what increased rail will do to small rural communities like mine (HCN, 2/02/09). We are facing a proposed railroad yard, the ninth largest in the nation, smack across from a state park and a new affordable housing development, which will destroy the upper Santa Cruz Valley, […]
Posted inMarch 2, 2009: How low will it go?
Stewardship, not politics
My husband and I count ourselves among those “who care about the West,” and we are activists on behalf of the natural environment. This does not mean, however, that we stand at the political left; nor do we want to be bombarded with liberal bromides. Case in point: “Putting our house back in order” by […]
Posted inMarch 2, 2009: How low will it go?
Remembering Rocky Flats
Regarding your story “The Half-life of Memory,” I had the pleasure of serving on the Rocky Flats Citizens Advisory Board (RFCAB), and in 2000 we had the chance to tour Building 771 (HCN, 2/16/09). The DOE considered 771 to be the most dangerous building in America. The opportunity to walk through a building that was […]
Posted inMarch 2, 2009: How low will it go?
Political Sabotage
Denver Johnston’s letter to the editor claims HCN failed to provide “diverging viewpoints” on the Bush administration in the Dec. 22 issue (HCN, 2/02/09). Unfortunately, the people of the Bush administration who concocted the present disaster did not do so from merely divergent viewpoints, inadequate facts or confused values. They worked diligently and deliberately to […]
Posted inMarch 2, 2009: How low will it go?
Of flotsam and jetsam
As poetry students at a California university, my friend Merie and I walked to class along the beach. We often paused to examine dead seagulls, whose glazed eyes and tar-matted feathers we described in our would-be avant-garde verse. Somehow we never questioned where the birds came from or even why they were dead. Twenty years […]