As one of your Republican subscribers, I must take issue with your Dec. 22 cover illustration and the strong general tone of the editorial content therein (HCN, 12/22/08). If broader reach and credibility are your goals, you need to curb your frothing hatred of George W. Bush, which sometimes gets in the way of straightforward, […]
A mean lean — to the left
Posted inGoat
Shell game
Shell Oil has filed a claim on about an eighth of the spring flow in Colorado’s Yampa River. The company hopes to divert the water to an as-yet-nonexistent reservoir near the town of Maybell in the northwest corner of the state. From the 45,000-acre foot lake, the water would flow to oil shale operations and be […]
Posted inJanuary 19, 2009: Blood Quantum
Blood Quantum
A complicated system that determines tribal membership threatens the future of American Indians
Posted inGoat
Understanding agriculture…and farmers too!
If you know farmers, you know that most of them can be relied upon to provide gloomy reports looking backward and gloomier forecasts going forward. If most of the farmers I know have a good year, they will not talk about it but instead will tell you about all the bad things that are about […]
Posted inGoat
Water activists want paradigm shift from Obama
Over 100 U.S. water activists put their heads together in Fall 2008 and published a hefty, ambitious report called “A Blueprint for Clean Water.” The Waterkeeper Alliance report is directed at the incoming Obama administration, and proposes a whopping 58 reforms ranging from desalination to global warming. Curling up with a cup of coffee and […]
Posted inGoat
The Big Melt continues
We know coal and other dirty fuels help heat up the planet, but it looks like they’re also messing with Western water supplies. Scientists at the DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (press release here) have found that when soot from power plants and diesel engines settles on mountain snow, the darker snow absorbs more heat […]
Posted inWotr
Forest Service skips a chance to do things right
If you’re like me and can’t keep up with the Bush administration’s last-minute policy changes, you might have failed to notice a recent announcement by the U.S. Forest Service. In its rush to tie up loose ends, the Forest Service is hammering out new internal agency guidance documents, called “directives.” These directives guide the management […]
Posted inGoat
Obama should pick Kemmis to help run Interior or Ag
Up front: I know Dan Kemmis. I’ve interviewed him, hung out with him at events, read his books and other writings. I like Dan for his careful manner and his visionary, out-of-the-box thinking about the West. I also like how he’s grounded in the real world. So add my voice to the back-channel chorus calling […]
Posted inGoat
Drilling and the race card
I’m old enough to remember the great civil rights struggles of the 1960s, as well as the organizations that led them, like the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Student Non-violent Co-ordinating Committee, and the Congress of Racial Equality. They accomplished much, and even though our next American president will be an African-American, there is doubtless […]
Posted inGoat
Plum over, for a forest development deal
At least one last-minute Bush rule change won’t be happening, not because the administration thought better of it, but because the company involved decided to back off in the face of bad publicity. Last May, we reported on an under-the-table deal that Plum Creek Timber Company, which owns 1.2 million acres of forest in Montana, […]
Posted inWotr
A tale of heartbreakin’ and asskickin’
He loved Silas. Then she kicked the tar out of him.
Posted inGoat
Interior design at the Interior Department
When U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar of Colorado takes office later this month as Secretary of the Department of Interior, he’ll have one plush “executive washroom.” According to the Washington Post, outgoing Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne recently spent $235,000 of our tax money on a new bathroom for the fifth-floor office. The renovation included a new […]
Posted inGoat
Ex-HCN board member named Idaho lt. guv
Brad Little is a widely respected third-generation Idaho rancher, working livestock and crops. He’s taken a leadership role in many ag and business groups. He’s also a longtime Republican legislator, now serving as a state senator and Majority Caucus Chairman. He’s involved in efforts to resolve livestock grazing and timber management controversies on public lands, […]
Posted inGoat
Reflections on “Methow homecoming”
Christopher Solomon’s essay (Methow homecoming, 12-8-08 edition) struck a heart chord with me. Like Solomon I escaped from the East Coast with a master’s degree (mine was more useful; it came with a teaching credential) and went looking for a home in the West. And like Solomon and Rick Bass whom he quotes my wanderings […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
Parking is primo in Vail
Ah, Vail, where big money still gets spent on a crucial item like a parking space. The Vail Daily says a treasured spot within Vail’s heated indoor Founders Garage is now on offer for $500,000. “Parking is going up in Vail,” said Buzz Schleper, the spot’s owner. “There’s always somebody out there who has money […]
Posted inGoat
EPA botched perchlorate analysis, report says
The Environmental Protection Agency apparently erred in its analysis of the potential human health impacts of perchlorate, according to a draft report by the agency’s inspector general. Perchlorate is a major element of rocket fuel that has contaminated drinking water in dozens of states. The chemical acts in concert with a handful of other chemicals […]
Posted inWotr
The wild we take for granted
Recently I was obligated to serve as a course official for a cross-country meet, which is a fancy way of saying that I got to spend a morning standing out in the drizzle on a golf course, waving young runners past. I was stationed at the end of a path that led through a grove […]
Posted inArticles
Video: Humor in a world gone mad
Travis Kelly creates cartoons in order to stay sane