Here’s a news item you might recall, though it never got much play in the Lower 48: Alaska wildlife officials targeted more than 600 wolves for death by aerial gunning during the 2006-2007 season. In just a few months, they’d gotten close, killing 560. And as an inducement to hunters, state officials said they’d pay […]
A wolf tale that’s all too true
Posted inWotr
When it’s all too much
I don’t know how it happened, but somehow we ended up with five computers at home, along with the attendant plethora of mice, keyboards, monitors and printers. They were given to us, or we got them on sale, or we bought them outright. About half the stuff we didn’t use, ever. One of the hard […]
Posted inWotr
Condors – the best air show in the West
If you’re standing on the Vermilion Cliffs at sunset, looking south towards the Grand Canyon, there’s a good chance you might see a wonder of the West, the California condor. As this largest bird in North America glides over 3,000-foot-high cliffs, its wingspan of 10 feet wide makes its presence unmistakable. In other places along […]
Posted inWotr
Even four-footed employees deserve to retire
For at least two decades, Edith Ann belonged to everyone, and to no one. Nobody could agree how old she was, just that the little bay quarter horse had lived at California’s Golden Gate National Recreation Area for as long as anyone could remember. Three generations of park visitors knew Edith Ann, and many made […]
Posted inWotr
Kansas — yes, Kansas — leads the way toward innovation
Southwest Kansas gets little national attention. I recall a Calvin Trillin story about a small town there on the parched plains, isolated and insignificant. Yet the town had become a vital part of the Vietnam War because of its factory, then in frantic production manufacturing concertina barbed wire. Before that, Truman Capote made the small […]
Posted inWotr
Nuclear power is back with a bang
Blind faith in nuclear power overseas, growing resistance to coal-fired power plants, and skyrocketing oil prices have driven uranium prices up and resurrected a half-dead market. President Bush calls it the cleanest, safest energy in the world. We were duped once before and paid dearly for our short-sightedness. The radioactive dust still hasn’t settled from […]
Posted inNovember 12, 2007: L.A. Bets on the Farm
The power of music, the power of obsession
Flamenco, says a character in Sarah Bird’s dramatic and well-written novel, The Flamenco Academy, is an “obsessive-compulsive disorder set to a great beat.” The novel weaves the history of flamenco with the search for identity and the power of obsession. Albuquerque high-school seniors Rae and Didi make an unlikely duo. Rae, the narrator, is a […]
Posted inNovember 12, 2007: L.A. Bets on the Farm
How a restaurant changed the world
Chez Panisse is a French restaurant in an old home in Berkeley, Calif. Its menu is set, like that of a dinner party, and changes every night. Whether or not you’ve eaten there, you’ve felt its influence, which has rippled through the West and the world over the past 37 years. The organic craze and […]
Posted inNovember 12, 2007: L.A. Bets on the Farm
Offsets, schmoffsets
I appreciate Rick Craig’s illuminating the concerns of the scientific community, and some forward-thinking members of Congress, regarding tree planting as a means of offsetting CO2 production (HCN, 10/15/07). Planting trees does nothing to alleviate our appetite for fossil fuels and petroleum-derived consumer products. Real estate developers are now jumping onto the bandwagon of planting […]
Posted inNovember 12, 2007: L.A. Bets on the Farm
We prefer pinot grigio and brie
I read with understanding and dismay the essay by Evelyn Spence on the RV blight (HCN, 10/15/07). I hope she will soften her point of view in due time … I’m an elderly rancher/horse dealer/painter, with two RVs at present, both of which she forgot to mention: “Chinook” and “Airstream.” Music to my ears. Named […]
Posted inNovember 12, 2007: L.A. Bets on the Farm
When’s breakfast?
How wonderful that you can experience a little of what I was able to experience 45 years ago, when campgrounds weren’t crowded, you could drink from springs and creeks before giardia was imported from central Asia, many places that are now housing developments were wilderness, and we didn’t have Gore-Tex, lightweight tents, foam mattresses, sleeping […]
Posted inNovember 12, 2007: L.A. Bets on the Farm
They’ve earned it
All I can say to Evelyn Spence is, “Been there … Done that! NOT doing it anymore, so eat your heart out, babe!” (HCN, 10/15/07). Your day will come whenever you get tired of the rocks poking you in the back and the smoke stinging your eyes. If you have a tent, you have more […]
Posted inNovember 12, 2007: L.A. Bets on the Farm
Happy campers
I find I must respond to Evelyn Spence’s somewhat arrogant and self-serving essay on RV owners (HCN, 10/15/07). There are as many reasons why people choose to camp with RVs as there are people who own them. What you don’t understand is that many of us are not camping all of the time. Sometimes we […]
Posted inNovember 12, 2007: L.A. Bets on the Farm
Children of the canyon
Thank you so much for publishing “Eminent domain’s poster children” (HCN, 10/15/07). I hope it serves as a way to inform people about the issue we are facing in southeast Colorado. This proposed land grab stands to ruin not only lives but the beautiful landscape and history of this area. We are working together as […]
Posted inNovember 12, 2007: L.A. Bets on the Farm
Will the cat come back?
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service claims that border fencing won’t jeopardize the jaguar because the U.S. Southwest is unneeded turf for conserving the species worldwide (HCN, 10/15/07). Unless someone reverses this myopic policy in court, we can forget about federal protection of jaguar habitat any time soon, since, by inference, the same would apply […]
Posted inNovember 12, 2007: L.A. Bets on the Farm
Sniffin’ out scat for conservation
NAME Wicket OCCUPATION Scat detection dog AGE 3 HOBBIES Playing with balls, chasing the stream from a hose Go to work,” Aimee Hurt calls. It’s a cool August afternoon in Montana’s Blackfoot Valley. Dressed in an orange vest and bear bells, Wicket begins sweeping across the trail, running in wide arcs, jumping downed trees, traveling […]
Posted inNovember 12, 2007: L.A. Bets on the Farm
Two weeks in the West
Thousands of Southern Californians fled their homes in October as smoke billowed from buildings and 70 mile-an-hour Santa Ana winds whipped flames across the landscape. Residents took up shovels and garden hoses to fend off the flames until fire crews arrived from across the state, the rest of the West and even Mexico. Seven people […]
Posted inNovember 12, 2007: L.A. Bets on the Farm
Heard Around the West
UTAH AND OREGON The West used to pride itself on a live-and-let-live attitude. No more. In Orem, Utah, on Feb. 11, a judge will begin hearing the case against Betty Perry, 70, who refused to water her lawn and then resisted arrest when a policeman came to cite her for having brown grass. The jury […]
Posted inNovember 12, 2007: L.A. Bets on the Farm
Bury it standing
A few weekends back, I was out in the front yard, digging a deep hole. I cut out wedges of turf to mark the dimensions, then went down through layers of topsoil. The first foot was easy, through rich moist dirt. After that I hit seams of gravel. The ground got drier and harder the […]
Posted inNovember 12, 2007: L.A. Bets on the Farm
The Sunflower State says a historic no to coal
Southwest Kansas gets little national attention. I recall a Calvin Trillin story about a small town there on the parched plains, isolated and insignificant. Yet the town had become a vital part of the Vietnam War because of its factory, then in frantic production manufacturing concertina barbed wire. Before that, Truman Capote made the small […]