Why does it have to be so complicated? All we ask of nature is to be able to do what we want to do; no more, no less. We like to think of our impact on the world as controlled and businesslike, with only one variable changing at a time. But no matter how hard […]
You can’t stop nature
Posted inWotr
When you’re wrong, you’re wrong
Let’s start by reviewing the stereotypes: ATV’ers are rowdy environment-hating backcountry ramblers who blow exhaust in the faces of mountain bikers as they pass them on the trail. Mountain bikers are self-righteous trail users always working to get backcountry access closed off to all-terrain vehicles, right? If only it were that simple. On a recent […]
Posted inDecember 10, 2007: Rebels with a Lost Cause
A snake in the grass
In Zero at the Bone, Tucson writing instructor Erec Toso describes how his brush with death reveals the poison in our daily lives – complacency. Summer rains wash over the desert; life stirs, and snakes wait for prey. When vacation ends, Toso dreads returning to work at the University of Arizona – the traffic, the […]
Posted inDecember 10, 2007: Rebels with a Lost Cause
The hidden history of a sneeze
In 1966, a severely asthmatic child named Gregg Mitman was one of an estimated 12.6 million allergy sufferers in the United States. Today, allergic asthma and hay fever affect more than 50 million Americans – roughly 20 percent of the population. In Breathing Space, Mitman, now a medical historian, traces the causes and effects of […]
Posted inDecember 10, 2007: Rebels with a Lost Cause
A water racket
Missing from Matt Jenkins’ article about Metropolitan Water District’s “kinder, gentler” approach to acquiring agricultural water is the fact that irrigation districts are profiting by reselling water they got for next to nothing from federal taxpayers (HCN, 11/12/07). An Environmental Working Group investigation found that in 2002 – the same year Jenkins reports that the […]
Posted inDecember 10, 2007: Rebels with a Lost Cause
‘An unwinnable fight to save clueless people’
Christine Hoekenga writes that Neal Hitchcock says that the Forest Service has to “borrow money from other programs to cover emergency costs” (HCN, 11/12/07). That’s not actually true. The 45 percent of budgeted fire suppression and any “budget overruns” are, if you will, stolen from other programs. They do not get repaid, thus starving the […]
Posted inDecember 10, 2007: Rebels with a Lost Cause
Burned again
Decades of fire suppression had nothing to do with Southern California’s wildland fires this past October. I am extremely disappointed that you would ignore the past 20 years of scientific research and instead repeat the same old tired assumptions about wildfires “in general” as being driven by “unnatural” fuel loads and apply them to California […]
Posted inDecember 10, 2007: Rebels with a Lost Cause
Two weeks in the West
A few days before Thanksgiving, about five dozen employees of Vail Resorts were hard at work. The Colorado ski resort had staffed up for a mid-November opening, but these workers weren’t running ski lifts or grooming the slopes. Instead, they were picking up trash; the snow had not arrived, the opening was delayed and they […]
Posted inArticles
Carpe Noctem
I pledge devotion to the stars of the majestic Milky Way Galaxy and to a dark night sky in which they shine; one cosmos, overhead, clearly visible, with liberty from light and dark skies for all. — Jack Troeger, Dark Sky Initiative In 2001, Florida developer and amateur astronomer Gene Turner came to southeastern Arizona […]
Posted inDecember 10, 2007: Rebels with a Lost Cause
Heard Around the West
WASHINGTON Given the number of accidents and attacks against bicyclists in Seattle, riders may want to don flak jackets. In September, a cyclist was hit by a truck and killed, and in October, a rider accused the driver of a sport utility vehicle of trying to intimidate or even hit him, reports the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. […]
Posted inDecember 10, 2007: Rebels with a Lost Cause
In Montana, a festival of light
Turn off all the other lights!” my almost-3-year-old son, Andrew, hollered, once we had kindled the candles in our Hanukah menorahs. It was the last night of the eight-day holiday, so we had eight candles, plus the shamash, or helper candle, in three menorahs. This made for 27 candles glowing in our otherwise pitch-dark living […]
Posted inDecember 10, 2007: Rebels with a Lost Cause
Wake up to the West, wannabe presidents
The Democratic presidential debate in Nevada this November was promoted as a chance for candidates to engage with the West and its concerns, but it might as well have been held in Anywhere, USA. The moderator, four journalists and most of the audience ignored every critical issue that’s central to our region. The first issue, […]
Posted inDecember 10, 2007: Rebels with a Lost Cause
Rebels with a lost cause
A movement of property-rights lawyers emerged from the sagebrush in the 1970s to fight a wave of environmental regulations. They are still fighting in courtrooms across the West, but their role remains ambiguous.
Posted inDecember 10, 2007: Rebels with a Lost Cause
Jim Detterline to the rescue
NAME Jim Detterline OCCUPATION Rocky Mountain National Park ranger NUMBER OF TIMES STRUCK BY LIGHTNING Three MOST TURTLES EVER OWNED AT ONE TIME 80 (When Detterline was a kid) DEGREES Master’s in vertebrate zoology, Ph.D. in invertebrate zoology HOBBIES Plays the trumpet Jim Detterline is a man of average size, lean, but not small. Still, […]
Posted inDecember 10, 2007: Rebels with a Lost Cause
Toxic legacy
A Cold War-era landfill may threaten Albuquerque’s aquifer
Posted inDecember 10, 2007: Rebels with a Lost Cause
Quest for darkness
“Your life can be changed by a firsthand connection with the night sky.”
Posted inDecember 10, 2007: Rebels with a Lost Cause
Dear friends
COLORADO, CALIFORNIA AND ENGLAND We enjoy each of our visitors but we’re a bit behind in writing about them; we’re still catching up on the folks who came to see us in late September and early October. Nancy and Dennis Johnson dropped into the office while on a Western Slope leaf-peeping trip. Since moving to […]
Posted inArticles
Red Desert rarity
Wyoming moves to protect Adobe Town –
but will the feds follow suit?
Posted inArticles
Seven Ways to Enjoy Natural Darkness
* Try walking outside in a dark location while keeping your flashlight in your pocket. * By covering your flashlight with red cellophane or a red filter, you can prevent it from disrupting your night vision. Small flashlights work better than large ones. * Spend time looking through telescopes (stargazing) and learning about the cosmos […]
Posted inWotr
Trees for two: A mother and son saw together
In old Forest Service photos, a trail crew was always young men with crew cuts, their white t-shirts tight against their lean bodies. What would those men make of us, a mother-son team swaying together over a crosscut saw? My ponytail is going gray and 19-year-old Lee wears a stained shirt with the sleeves ripped […]