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 […]
The next boom: oil shale
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, […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
Heard around the West
COLORADO In the photo, it looks like a cozy den for hobbits, peeking out from underground with a hillside rolling right over its roof. But the builder of this “ultimate secure home” boasts that it can “withstand almost any natural or manmade disaster you can name,” including a nuclear blast and biological and chemical war. […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
Our Green Mountain
In Reno, Nev., there is a hole in the air where a hotel/casino once stood. Back in the 1980s, my wife and I sometimes stayed there. I stand across the street from it today, and I wonder where life goes. I gauge the approximate height of five or six stories, guess where a room would […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
Leave only footprints, and turn the darn phone off
The other day on a national forest trail, we passed a lone hiker. Cell phone glued to her ear, chattering away, she stomped by us without the usual trail civility of at least a smile. Engrossed in the world at her ear, I doubt she even registered the beargrass blooming at her feet. Since cell […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
The myth trafficker
Note: This article is one of several feature stories in a special issue about community media in the West. DOUGLAS, Arizona — Keoki Skinner sits on a park bench under moonlight, talking quietly into his cell phone. There’s a rumor going around that a federal agent is involved with a drug trafficker, and Skinner wants […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
Sleepers
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, “The myth trafficker,” in a special issue about community media in the West. If you’re a paper-and-staples kind of person, several magazines and newsletters provide good independent commentary on water, including the Water Education Foundation’s Western Water magazine, the University of Arizona’s […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
The wet Net
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, “The myth trafficker,” in a special issue about community media in the West. John Orr created the “Coyote Gulch” blog in 2002 to follow Denver-area politics, but the following November, that topic converged with his other love — Colorado water. Voters were […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
Waterblogged
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, “The myth trafficker,” in a special issue about community media in the West. Water in the West is a bit like Tibetan Buddhism: Everybody claims to be interested in it, but few people have the patience to figure out what it’s about. […]