Wallace Stegner and the American WestPhilip L. Fradkin 323 pages, hardcover: $27.50.Alfred A. Knopf, 2008. Like wanderers returning to the old hometown after a long time away, readers of Philip Fradkin’s new biography of Wallace Stegner will recognize familiar terrain as well as make fresh discoveries. Wallace Stegner and the American West arrives 15 […]
On the Stegner trail
Posted inOctober 13, 2008: Back to the future
Bear necessities
We wound our way up a rocky cliff-side trail toward Gunsight Pass, which straddles a ragged, 7,000-foot-high ridgeline in the heart of Glacier National Park. Forty mph winds buffeted us, and a severe case of “bearanoia” held us in its grip. The rangers had suggested Gunsight Pass because it offered stunning views and a relatively […]
Posted inOctober 13, 2008: Back to the future
The great giveaway
Utah BLM swings the door wide for ATVs and energy development
Posted inOctober 13, 2008: Back to the future
The invisible man
Name Ricardo Arriagada Age 30 Occupation Goat herder What herding means, day to day Four hours in the morning and two in the evening, filling water tanks and maintaining and moving the electric fence that keeps the goats corralled. The upside of living alone in a travel trailer on the Bay Area’s exurban fringes “Things […]
Posted inGoat
A guidebook we might use
We’ve got a tight U.S. Senate race in Colorado. The incumbent Republican, Wayne Allard, is stepping out after two terms. Competing to replace him are Democrat Mark Udall and Republican Bob Schaffer. Udall’s environmental credentials seem pretty solid, given his voting record in the House, where he has represented Colorado’s second congressional district for the […]
Posted inOctober 13, 2008: Back to the future
Wildlife wars
They’ve loped to the southern edge of Wyoming’s Wind River Range, and straggled into northwestern Colorado. They’ve filled Montana forests near Missoula, Helena and Bozeman. They’ve crossed the Idaho Panhandle, padding into north-central Washington and eastern Oregon. And despite disease outbreaks and being shot by the feds for devouring the occasional cow, every year since […]
Posted inOctober 13, 2008: Back to the future
Forget Wall Street, focus on the real issues
We are approaching a crisis that stems in part from irresponsible behavior and is aggravated by our insatiable consumer culture. A lack of government oversight has let the problem grow to catastrophic levels. Now it could devastate entire economies and societies. No, I’m not talking about Wall Street. I’m talking about the crisis we seem […]
Posted inOctober 13, 2008: Back to the future
Acidifying oceans
James Zachos fishes around his desk and pulls out a plastic bag filled with chunks of deep-sea sediments. The sediments, wrested from the South Atlantic in 2003, are 55.5 million years old and ‘deep red in color because they are almost entirely clay. Missing is the abundance of shelly residue that gives abyssal sediments their typically […]
Posted inOctober 13, 2008: Back to the future
Back to the future
The earth warmed considerably some 55 million years ago. What does that tell us about our current climate dilemma?
Posted inPolitics map 2008
Battleground: an interactive map
No matter who wins in November, one thing is certain: the West has arrived.
Posted inArticles
The fruits of their labor
A guard, a vineyard owner and prisoners talk about a new farm worker program
Posted inGoat
Power to the people
The burning question in Sevier County, Utah, to build or not to build a new 270-megawatt coal-fired power plant, will be answered by voters in November. Sevier County citizens collected enough signatures to place Proposition 1, which would amend the county’s land use ordinance to require a vote before approving any permits for coal-fired plants, […]
Posted inGoat
When spines aren’t enough
To combat cactus rustlers — who can sell the saguaros to landscapers — the National Park Service is planning to imbed microchips into Arizona’s most enticing specimens. Once past the planning stages, officials at Saguaro National Park will begin injecting the cacti with dime-sized chips. Rangers will be equipped with magic microchip wands. Wave one […]
Posted inGoat
Bureau of Land Ravagement?
Just days after the federal Advisory Council on Historic Preservation raised serious concerns about the Bureau of Land Management’s plan to open up rock art-rich Nine Mile Canyon to 800 more gas wells, the agency is under the scrutiny of the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office for its extensive use of categorical exclusions to permit energy […]
Posted inOctober 13, 2008: Back to the future
A good idea – if you can get away with it
Rainwater harvesting saves water, breaks the law
Posted inOctober 13, 2008: Back to the future
Biodiversity? Not so much
Your article “McCain: T.R. or W?” contains this statement: “The San Pedro hosts the second-most biologically diverse array of mammals in the world, second only to the Costa Rican cloud forests” (HCN, 9/1/08). As far as I know, no scientists have ever claimed that the San Pedro River had biodiversity second only to Costa Rica. […]
Posted inOctober 13, 2008: Back to the future
“1,000 messy facts”
Riparian systems are varied and dynamic; riparian models are human constructs particular to individuals. Cleo Woelfe-Erskine’s article, “Riparian Repair,” failed to capture a fundamental of reclamation and even restoration: We practitioners don’t deliver a perfect facsimile of nature full-blown at the inception but rather advance the recovery process, which continues if we have been successful […]
Posted inOctober 13, 2008: Back to the future
Unnatural selection
In his letter, Neil Snyder asserts that “it’s time stop intervening on behalf of the spotted owl and let nature take its course, whatever that will be” (HCN, 9/15 & 29/08). If we had allowed nature to take its course, old-growth forests would still blanket the Pacific Northwest. Spotted owls would occupy their traditional niche, […]
Posted inOctober 13, 2008: Back to the future
Taking your life in your feet
Having lived in different parts of Arizona for many years, I would say that it is not just Phoenix that is unfriendly to pedestrians. It is the whole state. Arizona drivers think they own the road and have an inalienable right to speed. In many places, both big cities and small towns, roads have narrow […]