Looking at the 2008 election in “Two Weeks in the West,” Jonathan Thompson appropriately pointed out the condescending nature of the New York Post’s headline about a New Mexican politician tossing his “sombrero” into the presidential ring. He then went on in the same paragraph to use the same inappropriate style by including the religious […]
Labels are for pickle jars
Posted inMarch 5, 2007: Wish You Weren’t Here
Let’s start with a Kennecott Mine
The “Condemned” article stated that “private parties” like corporations can condemn private property, bypassing government, for “public use” in five Western states. If that is the case, then why can’t “private parties” like incorporated environmental groups condemn the private property of corporations for “public use”? Rather than fight to change the state constitutions, use existing […]
Posted inMarch 5, 2007: Wish You Weren’t Here
The once-over on overgrazing
Please do not take the editorial advice from Mark Salvo concerning the use of the word “overgrazing.” It is ironic that Salvo portrays himself as being on the side of “rational discourse” when he appears in fact to be one of those zealots who believes that any grazing in that nonexistent monolith he calls “the […]
Posted inMarch 5, 2007: Wish You Weren’t Here
A moment of silence for our meat
Laura Paskus’ article on the traveling butchering unit in Taos seemed very insensitive. “Beginning this spring, cattle, pigs, lamb, goats, even bison, will trot up the ramp leading into the back of the Mobile Matanza, where they’ll be met by …” This line is complemented by a picture of a man sharpening a large knife. […]
Posted inMarch 5, 2007: Wish You Weren’t Here
A wolf’s life
NAME: B7 WEIGHT AT RELEASE: 74 pounds AT DEATH: 97 pounds ESTIMATED WEIGHT IN HIS PRIME: 120 pounds RELEASED: Indian Creek, Idaho, Jan. 20, 1995 ESTIMATED AGE: 13.75-14.75 years old ORIGINAL PACK: The Oldman River, Alberta KNOWN FOR: Being the last of the 29 wolves introduced into the U.S. from Canada in 1995 EMBARRASSING FACTS: […]
Posted inMarch 5, 2007: Wish You Weren’t Here
Stream leases languish
Efforts to privatize instream-flow protection fall short
Posted inMarch 5, 2007: Wish You Weren’t Here
Getting the lead out
A proposed ban on lead ammo in California could save condors
Posted inMarch 5, 2007: Wish You Weren’t Here
Two weeks in the West
This is the way the world ends: Not with a bang, but a whimper
Posted inMarch 5, 2007: Wish You Weren’t Here
Welcome to the Homogocene
The snow has started to melt off the pasture behind our house, revealing an emerald-green carpet of grass. It’s a welcome sight, but how, you might wonder, could the grass already be green in mid-February? Because it is cheatgrass, an exotic Eurasian species that springs up and matures faster than any of the West’s native […]
Posted inMarch 5, 2007: Wish You Weren’t Here
Heard around the West
THE NATION Pity Gail Kimbell, the first woman appointed chief of the U.S. Forest Service. On Feb. 5 — her first day of work — President Bush proposed cutting her budget by 2 percent and eliminating more than 2,100 Forest Service jobs. A week later, Kimbell’s job got even more uncomfortable when she had to […]
Posted inMarch 5, 2007: Wish You Weren’t Here
Don’t move a mussel
Whether you raft, kayak, fish or swim in Western waters, you can make sure quagga mussels — and other aquatic invasives — don’t travel with you. Here’s how. Before leaving any body of water: Inspect your boat, trailer, clothing and any other wet gear for plants, fish or animals, and remove them on site. Wash […]
Posted inMarch 5, 2007: Wish You Weren’t Here
Battling over ballast
The zebra mussel’s aptitude as an invader is rivaled only by its skill as a lobbyist. In 1990, while the mussels’ mischief on the Great Lakes reached its height, Congress passed a law aimed at regulating ballast water — the water, hauled by empty ships for stability and balance, that is also the mussels’ most […]
Posted inMarch 5, 2007: Wish You Weren’t Here
We’re Honored
High Country News Northern Rockies Editor Ray Ring has won the 2006 George Polk Award for Political Reporting for his story, “Taking Liberties,” an in-depth look at a secretive libertarian campaign to cripple land-use planning in six Western states. One of the most prestigious prizes in American journalism, the Polk Award was established at Long […]
Posted inMarch 5, 2007: Wish You Weren’t Here
Wish You Weren’t Here
Quagga mussels — an extraordinarily prolific and costly invasive species — jump from the Midwest to Lake Mead. Dealing with them will be anything but a vacation.
Posted inFebruary 19, 2007: One nation, under fire
The end of ‘analysis paralysis’?
The Forest Service overhauls its forest-planning process — but goes too far
Posted inWotr
Don’t send a check, send yourself
When I first visited “Carnage Canyon” in the 1970s, it was clear to me how it got its name. The place was a mess. It had become a racetrack for racing bikes and motorcycles that zipped up and down the sides of the canyon. A few years later, people dragged in old refrigerators, cars and […]
Posted inWotr
Snowbound
“The sun that brief December day rose cheerless over hill of gray…” I’ll never forget the grim smile on my father’s wind-burned face as he pulled back my bedroom curtains. Snow was falling so heavily outside that I couldn’t see the pump house 20 feet away. “Snow tracing down the thickening sky its mute and […]
Posted inWotr
Death of a New Westerner
Late on a Friday night last October, word came to me that my best friend, Bill Benge, had died suddenly of a massive heart attack in Moab, Utah. He was only 60. We had both come from large cities to Moab as young men, more than 30 years ago, and had chosen, for our own […]
Posted inFebruary 19, 2007: One nation, under fire
Heard around the West
THE NATION Molly Ivins, that passionate defender of the underdog, died recently from breast cancer at age 62, leaving behind hilarious books skewering the Texas Legislature and a Texas homeboy named George W. Bush. The word “scrappy” doesn’t begin to describe her style. John Nichols, in a tribute to Ivins in the Nation, called her […]
Posted inFebruary 19, 2007: One nation, under fire
The Land of the Dry
Like many of us who have lived in the West for a long time, I think it’s the best place to be. We have more open space, grander vistas, cleaner air, purer water, more wildlife, and less traffic than those who live at lower elevations. The country itself — all that public land close to […]