No matter what time of day or night the phone rings, the voice that summons me sounds tired and desperate. But that’s not the only reason I go. I’m known there, so I seldom wait long before someone comes for me, leads me into the little room, closes the door, asks to see my ID […]
A simple act
Posted inWotr
Don’t like the local rag? Start your own
My fingers pounded on the sticky keyboard. It was 2 a.m.; I’d given up drinking coffee a few hours earlier and was now chewing coffee beans chased with chocolate chips. In less than five hours, I’d make the 50-mile drive over two high mountain passes to the printer’s in Durango, in western Colorado, fretting the […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
Big yellow taxi — in Duke City
At once meditative and profane, Robert Leonard’s Yellow Cab traces his after-dark odysseys as a University of New Mexico anthropology professor who moonlights behind the wheel of a taxi. Leonard makes us privy to the stream of confessions from the back seat, narrating them in a breezy, urban voice, with the world-weary persona of someone […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
What’s wrong with the EPA?
If you’re wondering why this nation’s environmental laws aren’t implemented coherently or consistently, grab David Schoenbrod’s latest, Saving Our Environment from Washington. From a Natural Resources Defense attorney turned Yale law professor, the book is part memoir, part manifesto. And considering the potentially boring topic, Schoenbrod does an excellent job of explaining how laws such […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
A tribal renaissance
If, when you think of Indian country, you think first of its particular heartaches — alcoholism, violence, poverty, and hopelessness — then read Blood Struggle, Charles Wilkinson’s inspiring account of Indians’ political and legal victories during the last fifty years. A catalog of Indian achievements rather than problems is rare, welcome, and a little unexpected, […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
Resist!
In response to your Sept. 4 story, “States crack down on illegal immigrants”: I care about the West. I don’t want to walk in a forest which sports two humans for every tree, or hike on an ocean beach that is solid human bodies — Coney Island, for instance. Resisting immigration seems to be the […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
Enviros avoid the real problem
“Reborn” by Jonathan Thompson in your Sept. 4, 2006, issue beautifully displayed the intellectual dishonesty of the environmental movement, as exemplified by Greenpeace founder Patrick Moore. Neither friends nor enemies of the environment want to reduce demand by “talking about population control or conservation measures. …” Instead, they want to build nuclear power plants to […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
The next boom: oil shale
Remnants of the nuclear frenzy that swept across the Colorado Plateau from the 1950s still scar the landscape, especially in the form of exploration roads carved into the wilderness. Bob Dawson’s image on the cover of your Sept. 4 issue reflects the fact that impacts on the built environment often fade more quickly than disruptions […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
Nuclear power is no silver bullet
Nuclear power cannot solve all our energy needs. Greenpeace founder Patrick Moore thinks a greater amount of our power should come from nuclear energy. However, it’s unsuitable for anything beyond baseload demand because nuclear power plants cannot be easily turned on and off. There are ways around this, but they add considerably to the already […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
Fight fire with fire
When Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., verbally attacked a Forest Service Hotshot crew in the Billings airport in July (“You did a piss-poor job. … didn’t do a goddamn thing but sit around and get paid $10,000.”), the Hotshots did the only thing federal employees can do: Instead of responding to Burns, they called back to […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
The BLM chooses to say ‘yes’
John Leshy is correct when he states in your Sept. 4, 2006, article “When Can the BLM Say ‘No’?” that “It’s absolutely clear that the agencies have discretion (about offering leases).” The BLM’s attitude that it has “little authority to prevent drilling,” is the consequence of a self-imposed Bush administration policy not required by any […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
‘They both do not exist’
“They both do not exist.” — Wyoming Attorney General Patrick Crank, equating the federally protected Preble’s meadow jumping mouse with the mythical jackalope. Crank made the comparison at a congressional hearing on the mouse in Greeley, Colo., in September. U.S. Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., led the hearing. This article appeared in the print edition of […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
Give us your poor, your uninsured…
Many Westerners live in poverty, but even more lack health insurance. U.S. Percentage below poverty level: 12.6 Percentage without health coverage: 15.7 New Mexico Percentage below poverty level: 17.9 Percentage without health coverage: 21.1 Arizona Percentage below poverty level: 15.2 Percentage without health coverage: 8.1 Montana Percentage below poverty level: 13.8 Percentage without health coverage: […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
The longevity of place and race
Westerners, in general, live longer than other Americans, according to a recent study by the Harvard University Initiative for Global Health. Northern Plains residents live longest, but 29 of the 50 counties with the highest life expectancy are in the West — 16 in Colorado. Native Americans, however, aren’t as fortunate: Nationally, they have a […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
Free will flounders in the courts
Judges in Nevada and Montana threw out a handful of libertarian ballot measures in September. Montana State Judge Dirk Sandefur ruled that petition circulators engaged in a “pattern of fraud,” deceiving people into signing the petitions for a trio of ballot measures in that state. The measures sought to limit land-use regulations and taxes, and […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
Take that nuke waste and shove it
“We wanted to put a spike right through the heart of this project and this does it,” said Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, R, praising the Interior Department’s Sept. 7 rejection of the Skull Valley Goshute Tribe’s plan to store spent nuclear fuel rods on its reservation. The site, southwest of Salt Lake City, would have […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
Half a Roan for gas, and half for everyone else
The BLM’s management plan for western Colorado’s Roan Plateau, released in Sept. 7, manages to upset everyone. The plan opens the plateau’s gas reserves to energy companies, irking environmentalists, but limits surface development to only half of the 34,758 acres on top of the plateau. The plateau, known for its wildlife and scenery, is believed […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
It’s shady in the Interior
The U.S. Interior Department’s top watchdog, Inspector General Earl Devaney, blasted the department before Congress on Sept. 13 for waiving billions of dollars in federal royalty payments from oil and gas companies. He’s also disgusted by the department’s refusal to address conflict-of-interest issues, specifically those including J. Steven Griles, an oil and gas lobbyist-turned deputy […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
Roadless returns!
On Sept. 19, U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Laporte reinstated protection for some 50 million acres of roadless national forest land. (Separate rules govern the roughly 9 million roadless acres of Alaska’s Tongass.) Laporte ruled that the Forest Service violated the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act when, in 2005, it repealed President […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
Dottie Fox, one of the greatest old broads
It’s never pleasant to read the obituary of someone you’ve met several times and admired for more years than you can remember. But the several obituaries of wilderness advocate Dottie Fox of Aspen, 86, who died Sept. 11, glowed with admiration for her joie de vivre and effectiveness. As reported by the Rocky Mountain News, […]