The gas industry won the battle of the stickers that festooned people’s ball caps, chests and arms. Some 2,000 folks had gathered in Grand Junction to tell the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission their feelings about proposed new rules for oil and gas drilling in Colorado. It was easy to see that “Please don’t […]
A little regulation can be a very good thing
Posted inOctober 13, 2008: Back to the future
Battleground!
No matter who wins in November, one thing is certain about this year’s election: the Interior West has finally arrived. For the last 40 years, campaigns generally flew right over the eight states in the interior. Their sparse populations, relative handful of electoral votes and status as Republican strongholds meant they just weren’t worth fighting […]
Posted inArticles
Guest workers: Laborers or commodity?
Mexican workers are people with “a good old-fashioned work ethic” who are “very friendly and easy to work with,” says www.mexican-workers.com. Labormex.com, which guarantees the lowest prices around for Mexican workers, boasts that hiring them is “the most cost effective way of handling all your agricultural labor requirements.” Some companies, however, temper their advertising copy […]
Posted inJune 9, 2008: Why the West needs Mythic Cowboys
Heard Around the West
CALIFORNIA Thanks to skyrocketing prices for gas, a new breed of criminal has begun preying on restaurants, reports The Associated Press. “It’s like a war zone going on right now over grease,” says David Levenson, who owns a grease-hauling business in San Francisco. Levenson pumps used cooking oil from 400 restaurants, but recently he’s found […]
Posted inJune 9, 2008: Why the West needs Mythic Cowboys
The luckiest horse in Reno
When the men approached, the black foal might have been nursing. Or she might have been on her side, giving her wobbly legs a rest, leaning into her mother under the starry desert sky. At the sound of the vehicle, the band prepared to move and did move at once, for horses are animals of […]
Posted inJune 9, 2008: Why the West needs Mythic Cowboys
Conservation groups come and go. Why?
Over the past 20 years or so, I’ve been affiliated with at least a dozen environmental groups, and I’ve seen it happen several times. So has everyone who’s been involved in the movement. I’m talking about professionalization. It begins when a group of grassroots activists begins to feel overwhelmed. They can’t keep up with the […]
Posted inJune 9, 2008: Why the West needs Mythic Cowboys
Every picture tells a story
I think that HCN could have exercised better judgment with the cover photo for the story “Pillaging the Past” (HCN, 4/28/08). I see a conflict between the use of that particular image and the contents of Childs’ article. Pillaging isn’t just about removing objects — it’s also about respect for them. Placing human remains on […]
Posted inJune 9, 2008: Why the West needs Mythic Cowboys
Sticks and stones
I just want to assure Ron Gillett that even though I’m an enviro, I wasn’t born under a rock, nor am I a “wolf-thug terrorist” or “full of ‘crap’ and ‘baloney’ ” when it comes to wolves having little impact on elk and deer populations (HCN, 5/12/08). Certainly, if wolf populations explode and there aren’t […]
Posted inJune 9, 2008: Why the West needs Mythic Cowboys
The most dangerous game
Ron Gillett did have two interesting comments when referring to wolves: “They engage in ‘sport binge killing’ and “(wolves) are the most cruel, vicious animals in North America …” (HCN, 5/12/08). I find them interesting for two reasons. The first is that human beings (for the most part) engage in “sport binge killing” almost every […]
Posted inJune 9, 2008: Why the West needs Mythic Cowboys
Doom! Doom!
The (May 12) issue of High Country News is just pure fodder for cultural criticism of the New West. “Boom! Boom!” posits a clash of distinct economies without even acknowledging the direct link between the two, and suggests the amenities economy is somehow better for the environment. Go back and read your Dec. 25, 2006, […]
Posted inJune 9, 2008: Why the West needs Mythic Cowboys
The latest trend in name-calling
The Cold War was actually rather heated when I was growing up in the 1950s and ’60s. America was more or less “at war” with the Communists as a matter of foreign policy. It affected our domestic discourse because politicians so often sought to discredit their opponents as “Communist sympathizers” or “comsymps” — “soft on […]
Posted inJune 9, 2008: Why the West needs Mythic Cowboys
Easing into development
A backdoor agreement between the Forest Service and a timber company cuts out counties
Posted inJune 9, 2008: Why the West needs Mythic Cowboys
Life, liberty and the pursuit of … game?
Right-to-hunt amendments coming to a state near you
Posted inJune 9, 2008: Why the West needs Mythic Cowboys
Warp, weft and Wal-Mart
Name Marie Begay Age Late 60s Vocation Traditional hand-weaving Number of sheep owned 80 Where Marie gets her wool Most of her wool comes from her own sheep, though she trades wool with family members to broaden her color choices. Yarn needed for a typical rug Marie’s rugs approach “tapestry” quality, running 50 to 60 […]
Posted inJune 9, 2008: Why the West needs Mythic Cowboys
Two weeks in the West
One toy “screams down the trails” and “tackles mud, rocks, and anything else nature throws its way.” The other “dances over everything from muddy single track to boulder fields.” With their grippy rubber treads and bomber construction, both may sound like fun to outdoorsy gearheads of all stripes. But the difference between the two underscores […]
Posted inJune 9, 2008: Why the West needs Mythic Cowboys
Cowboy up to the energy boom
I knew it was going to be an interesting evening when the folks in the audience began bending my ear before the event got started. On May 15, High Country News convened a panel discussion on western Colorado’s red-hot energy economy. Shirley Adams told me point-blank that she had come because she had “something to […]
Posted inJune 9, 2008: Why the West needs Mythic Cowboys
Why the West needs Mythic Cowboys
The first Great Truth of contemporary life is that the West is changing. And the second Great Truth is that the Cowboy Myth is an anachronistic view that denies the first truth and assures that we will become a socioeconomic backwater. What we need to do, or so we are told by those who purport […]
Posted inJune 9, 2008: Why the West needs Mythic Cowboys
Walking on a Wire
Los Angeles needs green power. Does it have to tear up the desert to get it?