As a black park ranger, I’m often asked why more minorities don’t visit national parks or participate more in outdoor activities. That’s a short question with a long answer, and one part of it involves the perpetuation of historical inaccuracy, since the victors get to write what passes for history as portrayed in movies and […]
Natural diversity
Posted inJuly 23, 2007: Hydrogen Highway Revisited
Throwing raptors into flight
NAME: Rob Domenech VOCATION: founder and lead biologist for Raptor View Research Institute HOME BASE: Missoula, Montana KNOWN FOR: banding more golden eagles in the U.S. than all other banding stations combined SPARE-TIME SPORT: grappling jujitsu On an exposed ridge in Montana’s Helena National Forest, high on the blustery Rocky Mountain Front, Rob Domenech recoils […]
Posted inJuly 23, 2007: Hydrogen Highway Revisited
When the Joneses go solar
As photovoltaic panels pop up on rooftops, planners feel the pain
Posted inJuly 23, 2007: Hydrogen Highway Revisited
Fear in the Valley
Immigrants in southern Colorado live in the shadows of anxiety following a high-profile raid
Posted inJuly 23, 2007: Hydrogen Highway Revisited
Two weeks in the West
This summer, the West is as crispy as that chicken you left on the grill for too long during the Fourth of July. Mercury topped the 100-degree mark everywhere from Boise to Tucson in late June and early July. During the first week in July, records fell in every Western state except New Mexico. Although […]
Posted inJuly 23, 2007: Hydrogen Highway Revisited
Global charming
In England to meet with erstwhile British Prime Minister Tony Blair last month, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger spoke optimistically about solutions to global warming. Business opportunities, he said, could make clean technology the “new gold rush,” according to the Sunday Telegraph of London. “Technology in the end is going to save the day. Technology is […]
Posted inJuly 23, 2007: Hydrogen Highway Revisited
Hydrogen Highway Revisited
Is Arnold Schwarzenegger’s plan to fill California highways with hydrogen-fueled cars visionary — or just hot air?
Posted inArticles
Getting fresh with the West’s groundwater
That shot of hot air coming from the bottom of the refrigerator may soon serve a greater purpose than just warming your feet. A new saltwater distillation technique that uses solar energy and waste heat from appliances could provide remote Southwestern communities with clean drinking water. Researchers Nirmala Khandan and Veera Gude of New Mexico […]
Posted inWotr
The memory of a mountain
A long time ago, I climbed a mountain with my mother. It was back in the early ’80s, when she was only slightly older than I am now — hard for me to believe, even though I’ve done the math and know it’s true. The mountain was Pikes Peak in Colorado. We climbed it from […]
Posted inWotr
Yes, we are all tourons
“How far is it to Harts Pass?” a tourist couple once asked me. I told them it was about 20 miles. “How far is it back?” they asked. That natural selection has not rendered tourists extinct seems a mystery that defies evolution. And if you believe God created tourists, you’ve probably wondered, “What was He […]
Posted inWotr
Our public lands should reflect white, black and brown
As a black park ranger, I’m often asked why more minorities don’t visit national parks or participate more in outdoor activities. That’s a short question with a long answer, and one part of it involves the perpetuation of historical inaccuracy, since the victors get to write what passes for history as portrayed in movies and […]
Posted inWotr
The backyard cat whisperer
I am on all fours in a gravel path in my yard, tapping the ground with one hand, holding a leash with the other.I am whispering insistently.The summer sun burns my neck.Seen from the road, through stalks of dead cheatgrass, my butt would appear to hover, a blue-jeans moon at noon. “Shack-le-ton.Shack-le-ton!SHACK-le-ton.” Is anyone watching? […]
Posted inWotr
An EPA staffer fights to the end
Six years into this grand experiment called the Bush-Cheney administration, it’s easy to be blasé about how drastically morale has fallen within the offices of federal agencies. It’s with respect, then, and not flippancy, that I write these words: The political system that destroys the careers and lives of environmentally minded civil servants is about […]
Posted inWotr
Who will pick up the pieces when this boom ends?
Sometime in the 1950s, an oil and gas boom hit Big Piney, Wyo. I was 12, and I remember the excitement of seeing new kids in school, big trucks on the dusty roads and lots of people in the cafés and on the streets. I remember summer evenings when my dad loaded us into the […]
Posted inArticles
Turning the tide
One hundred and fifty years ago, the Indian tribes of Washington state signed treaties that were supposed to guarantee, forever, their right to collect shellfish from the beaches of Puget Sound. Not long after, the government started selling off the region’s most productive tidelands to commercial shellfish growers, who were never notified of the Indians’ […]
Posted inArticles
Utah plans to join the Wild and Scenic Rivers System
For almost 40 years, the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act has been protecting beautiful rivers in states across the West – except two. Utah and Nevada have yet to place any rivers on the Wild and Scenic list, which was started in 1968 to protect outstanding rivers from development. For Utah, however, that could change […]
Posted inWotr
Water does move uphill toward money
Now that I’m out of college, I thought it was time to ask my elders for advice about investing in the stock market. They must have seen how confused I looked, because a week later, an investment letter arrived that promised to answer all my questions, and, incidentally, make me rich, fast. The letter featured […]
Posted inWotr
A Navajo journalist makes it the hard way
On May 11, after much struggle and sacrifice, I received a master’s degree in English. What that tells me is that if I could run a startup magazine on a zero budget, graduate with distinction and win some journalism awards from a national journalism association along the way, then others can do it, too. But […]
Posted inWotr
Under Las Vegas
The catacombs of ancient Rome served as houses of worship for Jews and Christians. In the early 1800s, the sewers of Paris yielded gold, jewels and relics of the revolution. Closer to home, thousands of people lived in the subway and train tunnels of New York City in the 1980s and ‘90s. Beneath the neon, […]