I had a flashback today as I went out to irrigate the field of corn on our small ranch in Western Colorado: It was 30 years ago or so, and I was lying flat on my back in a deeply eroded gully on the campus of my old high school outside St. Louis. Ten feet […]
Knee high by the Fourth of July
Posted inArticles
Primer 6: Immigration
To get a glimpse of the complexity of the issues surrounding immigration in the United States, one need only watch the peculiar dances of this year’s presidential candidates, and the way a few of them stumbled and lost the beat and fell to the ground at the end. Somewhere, somehow, someone in the ranks of […]
Posted inGoat
Of vocabulary and the Fourth
Many small towns promote an “Old-fashioned Fourth of July celebration,” and mine is no exception, starting with an afternoon parade and concluding with fireworks after dusk. Judging by old newspapers and the memories of old-timers, we miss several “old-fashioned” aspects of the celebration: modern kids don’t enjoy much access to potent fireworks like silver salutes […]
Posted inGoat
Of parks and particulates
In yet another goodwill gesture to the energy industry, the feds are proposing to loosen air quality restrictions in some national parks and wilderness areas. The EPA’s new rule would change the way in which emissions are reported, allowing power plants to substitute an annual average in place of averages for shorter periods, such as […]
Posted inArticles
Riparian restoration guru
NAME: Bill Zeedyk AGE: 72 years OCCUPATION: Riparian restoration guru MILES DRIVEN TO EDUCATE THE MASSES: 35,000-40,000 per year. FAVORITE ROAD FOOD: Nestle’s Crunch bars. He eats them by the box. CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT: A seven-foot walking stick, cut from a century plant while hiking in the El Concillo Mountains. It serves as a pointer […]
Posted inArticles
Regulating the river
Jim Hagenbarth has spent his life ranching along the banks of the Big Hole River in southwestern Montana, on land his family has worked for more than a century. The area remains sparsely populated and mostly agricultural, much as it was when Hagenbarth used to get in trouble as a kid for riding calves behind […]
Posted inArticles
Beloved companion or Parisian dinner?
There are right ways — and there are wrong ways — to dispose of an unwanted horse, according to Brent Glover, who for 33 years has operated Orphan Acres, a 50-acre equine sanctuary in northwestern Idaho. Here are some of the wrong ways, based on recently reported incidents: Don’t tie the horse to a stockyard […]
Posted inGoat
There’s one man’s veto Congress can’t override
When the Bogeyman goes to sleep at night, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris. Chuck Norris, on the other hand, does not sleep. He waits. He is the reason Waldo is hiding. He uses pepper spray to season his steaks. He uses 8×10 sheets of plywood as toilet paper. And Norris, the former “Walker, […]
Posted inGoat
Democratic? National Convention comes to Denver
The 2008 Democratic National Convention is looming – and the recurring questions about free speech, public spaces and national security are on the minds of freedom-loving people everywhere. Not surprisingly, those who plan to protest at the Democratic National Convention next month will most likely be confined to a fenced in “designated protest zone.” This […]
Posted inJune 23, 2008: Peace on the Klamath
Peace on the Klamath
The enemies in the West’s most vicious water war have finally reached a ceasefire. This is the story of how it happened.
Posted inJune 23, 2008: Peace on the Klamath
Heard Around the West
NEVADA Debbie Rivenburgh is the general manager of a bordello in Pahrump, Nev., 60 miles from Las Vegas — one of 27 legal brothels in the state. In 21 years, she says, no college has ever called to request an intimate tour of her desert establishment. Then Randolph College in Virginia, a private liberal arts […]
Posted inJune 23, 2008: Peace on the Klamath
Credo: The People’s West
How citizens and communities can reinvent their relationship with the American landscape Lifelong locals know their home. They understand the land’s intimate cycles from decades and generations of living in place, a miracle of stability and identity. We can never hope to restore or sustain landscapes and watersheds without the cooperation of local citizens. They […]
Posted inJune 23, 2008: Peace on the Klamath
Solo journeys, life lessons
The nine essays in Mary Beath’s new book celebrate nature from the viewpoint of an “independent woman pursuing adventures that include self-exploration.” An avid hiker, the artist and award-winning poet moved to New Mexico from New York almost 20 years ago. Her title piece sums up this collection’s recurring theme: the risks and rewards of […]
Posted inJune 23, 2008: Peace on the Klamath
Loves, losses and utter disasters
In 1967, Harry Lynch — a tall, gawky 20-year-old who seemed very much out of his element — walked into Ruth Carson’s writing class at a community college in Oakland, Calif., fulfilled an in-class assignment by writing a poem, and became an enduring, persistently enigmatic figure in his teacher’s life. Years later, Ruth, watching television […]
Posted inJune 23, 2008: Peace on the Klamath
Dewey Bridge: In memoriam
When old Dewey Bridge was burned to death in April by a 7-year-old playing with matches, it was almost more bad news than I could bear to hear. One relic after another of the rural West’s past has vanished, but this was one I thought would survive. The bridge was originally brought in pieces from […]
Posted inJune 23, 2008: Peace on the Klamath
What’s the penalty for “shooting under the influence ”
I have one very small quibble with Ed Quillen’s article “Cold Dead Fingers” (HCN, 4/28/08). Mr. Quillen seems to conflate “rights” and “responsibilities” in saying: “Owning a gun is more than a right; it is also a responsibility. …” (I have trouble thinking how a right can be something more than a right in this […]
Posted inJune 23, 2008: Peace on the Klamath
The population tsunami
As I read “Climate Revolutionary,” I wondered what Mary Wood suggests for population (HCN, 5/12/08). As I read in “Heard around the West” that “The bill to help farmers more quickly recruit legal workers passed the (Colorado) House …,” I pondered labor activist Cesar Chavez’s forgotten legacy. Nations with high growth rates hinder efforts by […]
Posted inJune 23, 2008: Peace on the Klamath
Don’t fill ’er up, plug ’er in
The “Heard Around the West” note about the introduction of the “Smart fortwo” car in the U.S. should, I suppose, seem to be good news (HCN, 5/26/08). We should not be distracted, however, from the fact that the sooner we convert to all-electric vehicles powered by wind turbines or another solar source, the better it […]
Posted inJune 23, 2008: Peace on the Klamath
Green in more ways than one
Regarding your story “Green and Mean”: While there was some benefit from the level of anti-Pombo ads that Defenders of Wildlife ran in 2006, they take far too much credit (HCN, 5/26/08). As an activist in that race, I can cite mistake after mistake that Defenders made, generally in playing fast and loose with the […]
Posted inJune 23, 2008: Peace on the Klamath
The dark side of the cowboy myth
There are some things to sympathize with in Jeffrey Lockwood’s lament regarding criticism of the Cowboy Myth (HCN, 6/9/08). A sense of place and connections with the land are good values that might help us save this Last Best Place. There are also many sound reasons for criticizing the Cowboy Myth, and for the now […]