NOTE this list is a sidebar to the main story — “Disposable Workers of the Oil and Gas Fields.” — At least 89 people died on the job in the Interior West’s oil and gas industry from 2000 to 2006, in a variety of accidents, including 90-foot falls, massive explosions, poison gas inhalations and crushings […]
Fatalities in the energy fields: 2000-2006
Posted inApril 2, 2007: Disposable Workers of the Oil and Gas Fields
Dear friends
VISITOR, SINGULAR Spring is coming to our valley, but visitors are still far and few between. Wilf Bruschke of nearby Montrose, Colo., came by recently to check us out and start a new subscription. BURY ME GREEN Singer/songwriter John Winn of Grand Junction, Colo., tells us his latest CD, Wild Stallion, contains a song titled […]
Posted inApril 2, 2007: Disposable Workers of the Oil and Gas Fields
Disposable workers of the oil and gas fields
If you don’t have a college degree, it’s the best job in the West. Unless you die, unnoticed.
Posted inArticles
The Gila’s Monster
Cottonwoods support the banks of New Mexico’s Gila River, and sycamores shade endangered Southwestern willow flycatchers and threatened loach minnows. For those who live near it, the Gila – the state’s last free-flowing river – is both a source of water and a font of contention. In 2004, the Arizona Water Settlements Act re-distributed some […]
Posted inWotr
March madness trims the herd
The yearling cow elk started showing up in the yard the first week of March, and at first nothing seemed wrong. During the day she fed along the back fence; as evening approached, she came in closer to the house, nibbling on the first green sprouts of lawn before bedding down under the ash trees. […]
Posted inWotr
Down but not out in Missoula, Montana
The American dream is alive and well in Missoula, Mont., sort of. Not long after arriving here in the late 1990s, I found myself in the same conversation about real estate, hearing the same words and sharing the same sentiment. “You can’t eat the landscape,” someone would say, and everyone within earshot would laugh at […]
Posted inWotr
Wolves have a reputation that’s larger than life
Ever since he ate Little Red Riding Hood’s grandma and blew down the houses of two-thirds of the little pigs, the wolf has been Big and Bad. Everyone knows what big teeth he has. But can those gleaming incisors explain the startling decline of elk herds in the Yellowstone area? Some people think so. Hunters […]
Posted inArticles
Bunny project breeds success
Cameras were clicking in central Washington March 13, when state Fish and Wildlife officials released 20 endangered Columbia Basin pygmy rabbits. Onlookers, enamored with the creatures’ fuzzy ears and dark eyes, were “just like paparazzi,” says Madonna Luers, department spokeswoman, “bunny paparazzi.” The reintroduction was the culmination of a captive breeding program designed to save […]
Posted inMarch 19, 2007: The Silence of the Bees
The Silence of the Bees
The perilous existence of a migratory beekeeper amid a great bee die-off
Posted inWotr
Down the alleys and through the collectibles
The blue mountains are mottled with cloud shadows. Cottonwoods stir in the breeze, and that sizzling sound mixes with the tinkling of distant wind chimes. Birdsong also fills the ears. A clump of green grass grows luxuriantly next to a dumpster. Yes, a dumpster. I’ve been walking in the alleys lately. A century ago […]
Posted inWotr
Picture a town that celebrates its old businesses
We’ve heard the story so often we could tell it ourselves. And we do. Another family-owned business in another Western town closes. This time it’s Roedel Drug in Cheyenne, Wyo., dispensing medicine, greeting cards, lipstick, film, lavender soap, teapots and good fellowship for 118 years. When I moved here 15 years ago, Roedel’s employees […]
Posted inWotr
The single women who homesteaded the West
The women who settled in the Old West defy stereotypes.
Posted inMarch 19, 2007: The Silence of the Bees
Heard around the West
CALIFORNIA Sometimes you can be too vigilant. Someone who spotted a black bag on the side of a road in eastern California reported that it had a suspiciously “foul odor.” A sheriff’s deputy investigated, says the Grass Valley-Nevada City Union. Inside the bag, wrapped in a blue towel, was a dead fish. WASHINGTON AND […]
Posted inMarch 19, 2007: The Silence of the Bees
The romance of deceleration
As we back the snowmobiles off the trailer, the couple in the car nearby is scowling. I can see their faces through the windshield, and I know why they’re unhappy: They have to share the trail with us. They’ll be on skinny, light skis, using only as much power as their muscles can generate, while […]
Posted inMarch 19, 2007: The Silence of the Bees
Taking the conservation movement to task
Tired of discussing the alleged death of environmentalism? Fear not: Why Conservation is Failing and How It Can Regain Ground is no dirge, but a complex and cogent analysis of the American environmental movement. University of Illinois law professor Eric Freyfogle claims that “The conservation cause … is stymied less because of its disciplined opponents […]
Posted inMarch 19, 2007: The Silence of the Bees
Mortal fear and a state of wild grace
“Grace” is not the first word that comes to mind when you picture two naked women running hell-bent through the desert night, fleeing from UFOs. “Fear” seems more apt — the primal kind that stems from being chased in the dark by a faceless predator while having numerous opportunities to impale tender flesh on ocotillo […]
Posted inMarch 19, 2007: The Silence of the Bees
Border truths
I really enjoyed the article “One Nation Under Fire.” I am a contract archaeologist working at the San Miguel Gate, monitoring the archaeological sites during the construction of vehicle barriers. I thought that your article was very true to the situation. So many people seem to underestimate the issues along the border and on the […]
Posted inMarch 19, 2007: The Silence of the Bees
Mecklin ha visitado a México quince veces
“Whack-a-Mole” is Editor John Mecklin’s free expression about opposition to immigration, but if one opposes illegal aliens one is branded “xenophobic” by Mr. Mecklin. I ask Mr. Mecklin, how many times has he visited Mexico, or been billeted with blacks, Hispanics or Asians? Ever had Hispanic roommates? People that oppose illegal immigration (70 percent of […]
Posted inMarch 19, 2007: The Silence of the Bees
Reefer madness is a lie
I object to author John Dougherty’s assessment that “Marijuana isn’t the only drug being smuggled” across the Tohono O’odham Nation’s border with Mexico. Marijuana is not a drug. It is a plant that is smoked without any processing necessary, unlike the commercial tobacco that kills millions every year. There has never been any legitimate proof […]
Posted inMarch 19, 2007: The Silence of the Bees
Busy as a Buchmann
NAME: Stephen Buchmann HOMETOWN: Tucson, Arizona AGE: 53 VOCATION: Pollination ecologist FAVORITE INSECT: Bees, especially the genus Centris, which can be seen visiting paloverde blossoms in the Sonoran desert. FAVORITE HONEY: The honey from the lady bee, “Xunan Kab,” a stingless bee kept by the Maya of southern Mexico. MOST STINGS IN A DAY: 200-300 […]