I was pleased to see an article highlighting some of the great river restoration successes on Fossil Creek (HCN, 10/01/07). It is unfortunate, however, that the article also seems intent on creating a dam-removal controversy where one does not exist. River restoration practitioners – and the conservation groups that we often work with – are […]
Risky dam business
Posted inOctober 29, 2007: Which Way West
Don’t pop the cork yet
Despite the odd title – “A downside to downing dams?” – the relatively positive restoration story provided a glimpse into the inherent complexity of dam removal (HCN, 10/01/07). But there is much more to the Fossil Creek story. Getting to the point of dam removal is seldom easy. The Fossil Creek power plant decommissioning (done) […]
Posted inOctober 29, 2007: Which Way West
Deer yes, cows no
I want to correct a misperception by Nathaniel Hoffman in his article entitled “Sheep v. Sheep” (HCN, 10/01/07). Nathaniel incorrectly describes Western Watersheds Project as an anti-grazing group. In fact, Western Watersheds Project is very much pro-grazing – just not by domestic livestock. Jon Marvel Executive Director, Western Watersheds Project Hailey, Idaho This article appeared […]
Posted inOctober 29, 2007: Which Way West
‘Men standing in the shadows began to weep’
Two authors explore wildfire deaths and liability
Posted inOctober 29, 2007: Which Way West
Looking forward, looking back
William Kittredge is a man peculiarly suited to write about the West. He comes from a family that used the land as Westerners did long ago, before everything began to run out. The son of a rancher in southeastern Oregon, Kittredge grew into his father’s job, tried to manage the land and the men, and […]
Posted inOctober 29, 2007: Which Way West
Mystery in Montana
Red Rover, Deirdre McNamer’s fourth novel, begins with a gunshot. Maybe it’s an accident, or maybe it’s a suicide. Then again, perhaps it’s something more. The setting is Missoula, Mont., 1946, and the deceased is Aiden Tierney, a former FBI agent who’d been fighting a disease caught while chasing Nazis in Argentina. “Someone said the […]
Posted inOctober 29, 2007: Which Way West
Literary trivia of the West
Think you know your Western literature? Answer 15 or more correctly and count yourself among the true Western literati. 1) Where were David Brower, Charles Park and John McPhee camping in the first section of Encounters with the Archdruid? 2) Which fictional fishing village in Washington was the site of Kabuo Miyamoto’s trial for allegedly […]
Posted inOctober 29, 2007: Which Way West
Fall reading
We’ve pored over the latest from publishers and picked out a selection of books – by Western authors and/or on Western subjects – that we’d like to curl up with this fall. All have recently been released, or will be in the next few months; we’ve listed them here alphabetically by categories, according to the […]
Posted inOctober 29, 2007: Which Way West
No frigate like a book
This issue of High Country News departs from our usual fare – it’s still devoted to news and to truth, but of a different variety. News, not of mining and drilling and public policy, but of thought-provoking books and of authors well worth getting to know. Truth, not as found in facts and statistics, but […]
Posted inOctober 29, 2007: Which Way West
Heard Around the West
OREGON Rick Kirschner, a naturopath who works with corporations to resolve staff conflicts, has been hired to train the trash-talking city council of Ashland, a city better known for hosting the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. The therapist will have his work cut out for him. At the last meeting of the seven-member group, Councilman David Chapman […]
Posted inOctober 29, 2007: Which Way West
In Large and Sunlit Land
Here, in large and sunlit land … I will lay my hand in my neighbor’s hand And together we will atone For the set folly and the red breach And the black waste of it all. -Rudyard Kipling On New Year’s Eve 1987, in Niger, West Africa, I camped with friends at the foot […]
Posted inOctober 29, 2007: Which Way West
Six Good Places
There’s a workaday village – or its ruins, anyway – hidden in the wilderness of the Sierra Nevada. I found it by following a feeling, one mapped onto my brain by ancient forces. Lately this map has begun guiding me in other places: Venice. Vancouver. Aix-en-Provence. Seattle. Even Portland, where I live. And it has […]
Posted inOctober 29, 2007: Which Way West
Another near-death experience for environmentalism
Where were you the day environmentalism died? It was Oct. 6, 2004, when social researchers and environmental policy strategists Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger instigated the world’s greenest catfight by distributing their essay The Death of Environmentalism at a meeting of the Environmental Grantmakers Association. The pamphlet charged that the environmental movement had become just […]
Posted inWotr
Truckers or skiers, take your pick
Any conversation about the West’s dangerous interstate highways might explore why more truckers don’t use I-90 or I-70, instead of Wyoming’s infamous I-80, which stretches across the southern part of the state. Given Interstate 80’s high altitude and snow-prone disposition, plus forecasts that traffic will increase to over 14,000 vehicles a day, everyone should be […]
Posted inWotr
How many nuclear bombs do we need?
“When I became conscious, it was a dead city.” The college students in the room are silent as Shigeko Sasamori stands in front of them. It looks as though she wears light pink lipstick. Up close, the scars around her mouth, neck and hands are clearly visible. The morning American pilots dropped an atomic bomb […]
Posted inWotr
Exploring the shrinking marvel of Lake Powell
I grew up thinking of Lake Powell as sacred in the way that a mass grave is sacred. But I’m also a practical person, and I see the lake as a giant highway offering access to some of the most spectacular country in the West. It was the practical side that agreed when my wife […]