I was nervous. Students don’t understand that teachers are often as anxious as they are the first time a class meets. It had been more than 20 years since I’d taught in a college classroom. I felt rusty and insecure. My biggest fear? That I’d face a group of freshmen with their arms crossed and […]
Open minds and free expression – what a rare treat!
Posted inWotr
When mud-boggers rip up the land, penalize them
Flashing red and blue lights sent me a strong message: I was busted. I’d just passed a truck as I drove into a small, southwestern Oregon town and neglected to slow down to 30 mph. I got a ticket. Deterrents work, yet there are places where deterrents don’t reach, and drivers of all-terrain vehicles know […]
Posted inArticles
Advice from a horse
If going hunting twice in his life makes Mitt Romney a “lifetime hunter,” then you could say I’m a lifetime horse rider. Besides a couple of childhood pony rides, I took one riding lesson as a teenager from an instructor whose teaching style resembled that of a Russian ballet mistress — when she cracked her […]
Posted inWotr
Going wild in the city
A skunk, red-tailed hawk, rabbits, squirrels, robins — all have dined in my city yard, within sight of Wyoming’s Capitol dome. But when we moved to this corner of a busy one-way street in Cheyenne, Wyo., 15 years ago, the yard was a mess. The parkways, those supposedly green spaces between the street and sidewalk, […]
Posted inWotr
Extreme commuters are maybe even you and me
This spring was a kind of religious experience. A couple of hot days in May, followed by an entire Memorial Day weekend of rain. On a hike, we looked over rolling green foothills and were moved to sing “Danny Boy” melodramatically, into the fierce wind. The lilacs this year were a purple-white fireworks show, and […]
Posted inWotr
A hope for Father’s Day from a divorced father
I will celebrate this Father’s Day by cashing in what’s left of my retirement account so that I can — once again — go to court to request more time with my kids. My almost 10-year status as a non-custodial parent has helped me become accustomed to the almost insurmountable odds and legal fees that […]
Posted inJune 11, 2007: Brave New Hay
Brave New Hay
Is Monsanto erasing the line between what is natural and what is not?
Posted inJune 11, 2007: Brave New Hay
Piscatorial theology
My father was raised on a farm on the shore of Montana’s Flathead Lake at the turn of the last century. The local rivers were all trout streams then, teeming with salmon, cutthroat and rainbow. For Dad, fly-fishing was more than a passion — it was a religion, one that lasted all his life. My […]
Posted inJune 11, 2007: Brave New Hay
Western open space: Land of intrinsic worth
In some parts of the West, conversations about land use can be hazardous to your health. This time, you can leave the brass knuckles at home; all you need is a bookmark. The writers in Home Land aren’t just old-time Westerners; they include a descendant of New York coal miners, a wildlife biologist, and a […]
Posted inJune 11, 2007: Brave New Hay
Impressions of Pueblo prehistory
Every branch of science needs its voice — the popular writer who makes research come alive, in ways that scientists rarely manage. With House of Rain, Craig Childs lays claim to be the voice of Southwestern archaeology. Moving across the region, he conjures up sites, scientists, and the prehistoric people of the Colorado Plateau. Those […]
Posted inJune 11, 2007: Brave New Hay
Send buses, trains and cable cars
Kudos to Bill Cook for “Why the West should copy Swiss ski transit.” What seems so apparent to ordinary citizens gets lost on our transportation planners — many of whom seem stuck in “auto” mode (HCN, 4/30/07). Yes, developing a transit system will be costly, but building and maintaining an environmentally and community sensitive highway […]
Posted inJune 11, 2007: Brave New Hay
Global warming fact-check
Robert Hoff’s letter in which he called to “just have the facts” on global warming moved me to set straight a number of his (HCN, 4/30/07). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), to which he refers, is considered by most scientists to produce one of the most comprehensive surveys of climate science, and the […]
Posted inJune 11, 2007: Brave New Hay
The ideology of the cancer cell
Thank you for the important article on the Verde River (HCN, 5/14/07). I do not understand Yavapai County Supervisor Carol Springer’s statement, “If we can’t grow at all in the future, because we lose our right to pump groundwater, we will cease to exist. There is no such thing as a static kind of a […]
Posted inJune 11, 2007: Brave New Hay
But where would Mariah Carey ski?
I had just finished reading a headline in the May 15 New York Times online, “Scientists Back Off Theory of a Colder Europe in a Warming World,” when I picked High Country News out of my mailbox and read the column about “climate-change denial” written by the director of environmental affairs for Aspen Ski Company […]
Posted inJune 11, 2007: Brave New Hay
John Nichols and his 19th miracle
NAME: John Nichols VOCATION: Author of 19 books offiction and nonfiction, including The Milagro Beanfield War, The Sterile Cuckoo, Conjugal Bliss, The Voice of the Butterfly and If Mountains Die. AGE: 66 Thoughts on Death and THE Afterlife “You just die. It’s over, Rover.” Advice: “Part of surviving is not to stress yourself out and […]
Posted inJune 11, 2007: Brave New Hay
Native hum
As honeybees vanish, farmers turn to the wild pollinators in their back yards
Posted inJune 11, 2007: Brave New Hay
Two weeks in the West
Maybe it’s the weather; drought or abnormally dry weather is afflicting 70 percent of the West. Maybe the creeks gushing with unseasonably early snowmelt inspired lawmakers. Or maybe it’s just that last month marked the end of the legislative season. Whatever the reason, May was a big month for states — from Utah to California […]
Posted inJune 11, 2007: Brave New Hay
Cow feed from Planet 9
In Hollywood science fiction, genetic modification leads to monsters with extensible jaws and rampaging epidemics that threaten mankind’s existence. In real-world science fact, altered DNA usually expresses itself more mundanely. Until recently, for instance, it was hard to think of a reason to fear a pasture. But as Matt Jenkins found while reporting this issue’s […]
Posted inArticles
A struggling sea
The Salton Sea, one of California’s largest lakes and a safe haven for thousands of migratory birds, is suffering a case of severe dehydration. Water loss and rising salinity and nutrient concentrations have endangered this saltwater lake in southeastern California. Left untreated, the sea’s ecosystem could collapse within the next few decades, according to the […]
Posted inJune 11, 2007: Brave New Hay
Heard Around the West
COLORADO Decked in virginal veils and jaunty bowties, 178 canine couples walked down the aisle recently in Littleton, Colo., though we’re still wondering how a ring fits over a toe that sports a claw. The mock nuptials weren’t just a dotty indulgence for dog lovers, reports the Denver Post. “Bow Wow Vows” raised over $3,000 […]