Yee-haw! It’s great to see High Country News riding full bore to expose the awful “takings” initiatives under way in six Western states (HCN, 7/24/06: Taking Liberties). HCN is right on when it asserts that people were snookered into voting for this awful legislation in Oregon, where I lived at the time. Even my conservationist and […]
Measure 37 snookered voters
Posted inAugust 21, 2006: The Lure of the Lawn
Mainstream libertarians
Not all libertarians are affiliated with the Libertarian Party and get just 1 to 2 percent of the vote in elections (HCN, 7/24/06: Taking Liberties). The majority of libertarians these days are active in the GOP and actually win elections, like Congressmen Ron Paul of Texas, Jeff Flake of Arizona, Butch Otter of Idaho, and Dana […]
Posted inAugust 21, 2006: The Lure of the Lawn
Land is not chattel
Your otherwise excellent article on Measure 37 omitted one area that has cried for rebuttal — the term “property rights” (HCN, 7/24/06: Taking Liberties). All land in the United States (with the possible exception of tribal lands) comes as a conveyance from the government. That grant came and comes with strings, of which there are four: […]
Posted inAugust 21, 2006: The Lure of the Lawn
‘Tamarisk Hunter’ not far from the mark
Thought-provoking piece of fiction (nonfiction?) (HCN, 6/26/06: The Tamarisk Hunter). Good writing and imagery. The city of Grand Junction is very involved in the “coalition” of Colorado water users funding the efforts of Jim Lochhead in negotiations between the Upper and Lower Basin states. Your scenarios are not far from the mark and touch on some […]
Posted inAugust 21, 2006: The Lure of the Lawn
Stick to the news
Remember, always, you are High Country News and not a literary sheet specializing in fiction, such as your issue featuring “The Tamarisk Hunter” (HCN, 6/26/06:The Tamarisk Hunter). If I want summer reading, I will pick my own fiction. I subscribe to you for balanced, in-depth news on natural resource issues in the West. Tom McAllister […]
Posted inAugust 21, 2006: The Lure of the Lawn
A Calie cheers for ‘Tamarisk Hunter’
Just finished reading “The Tamarisk Hunter” (HCN, 6/26/06:The Tamarisk Hunter). Wow! What a great piece of fiction (maybe)! The excellent illustrations set the stage. This was a nice twist in a great paper. Ken Decker Santee, California This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline A Calie cheers for ‘Tamarisk […]
Posted inAugust 21, 2006: The Lure of the Lawn
Stiles responds
I’d like to respond to Kevin Walker’s recent letter (HCN, 7/24/06: SUWA’s on the right track). He rejects my comments that enviro groups like SUWA have ignored impacts from non-motorized recreation and the “amenities economy.” He also calls “completely false” my assertion that SUWA altered a proposed wilderness boundary to avoid conflicts with the “24 Hours […]
Posted inAugust 21, 2006: The Lure of the Lawn
Heard around the West
NEVADA Thanks to two wet winters in a row, it’s a booming summer for Western toads in the Washoe and Lemmon valleys of Nevada, reports the Reno Gazette-Journal. Suddenly, toads and toadlets are everywhere, and there’s the danger that you’ll step on one as you cross the street, or mow down hundreds when you cut […]
Posted inAugust 21, 2006: The Lure of the Lawn
Nine reasons why a river is good for the soul
SILT. Healthy particles of silt are suspended in the river, buffed off eons of Wingate sandstone and the debris of flash floods fire-hosing through twisted arroyos. These tiny particles of soil, mud, stone, trees and bones scour our skin as we float in the slow, warm current of the river. We drift in silence, particles […]
Posted inAugust 21, 2006: The Lure of the Lawn
How we lost our ranch to gas drilling
Our cattle, our dreams and our ranching lives are now a thing of the past. My husband and I felt obligated to sell everything we had worked for over nine years in Silt, in western Colorado, to escape the impacts of gas drilling. As one who has lived through the experience, I can say that […]
Posted inAugust 21, 2006: The Lure of the Lawn
Xeric Families of the West
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “The Lure of the Lawn.” Harold and Joan Leinbach First, it was floods, which left 10 inches of water standing in Harold and Joan Leinbach’s Boulder yard — and seeping under their foundation — in the spring of 1995. Then it was drought, which […]
Posted inAugust 21, 2006: The Lure of the Lawn
What is Xeriscaping?
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “The Lure of the Lawn.” Twenty-five years ago, Ken Ball and his Denver Water colleagues developed the seven basic principles of Xeriscaping. Those commandments are still in use today. Plan and design the landscape for water conservation and beauty from the start. Create practical […]
Posted inAugust 21, 2006: The Lure of the Lawn
Have golf’s glory days gone by?
The game that brought grass to the desert appears to be drying up
Posted inAugust 21, 2006: The Lure of the Lawn
Safety first
NAME Steve Ficklin VOCATION Petroleum Engineering Technician AGE 54 HOME BASE Silt, Colorado KNOWN FOR Keeping drill rigs from blowing up HOBBIES Working brainteaser math problems, fishing, hunting, camping. HE SAYS “Each hole is different. No two wells are identical.” Steve Ficklin doesn’t talk a lot. As he drives along a dirt road outside the […]
Posted inAugust 21, 2006: The Lure of the Lawn
Clearing a path for power
Plans for power lines and pipelines would make it easier to tap the West’s energy boom
Posted inAugust 21, 2006: The Lure of the Lawn
Tribes tackle taggers
Gang culture — and violence — hit rural Indian reservations
Posted inAugust 21, 2006: The Lure of the Lawn
Wilderness cliffhanger
Three compromise bills pass the House, await Senate approval
Posted inAugust 21, 2006: The Lure of the Lawn
Two weeks in the West
“No one will look upon her tenure as the golden age of the Park Service.” — Jeff Ruch of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, on the recent resignation of Park Service Chief Fran Mainella. Mainella’s tenure was contentious — the agency was widely criticized for a 2005 management policy that emphasized recreation over conservation, and […]
Posted inAugust 21, 2006: The Lure of the Lawn
Dear friends
CONGRATS, MATT AND PAOLO HCN staffers recently took home two more writing awards. West Coast correspondent Matt Jenkins received the 2006 James V. Risser Prize for Western Environmental Journalism for his story “Squeezing Water from a Stone” (HCN, 9/19/05: Squeezing Water from a Stone). Judges had high praise for Matt’s story about the implications of Las […]
Posted inAugust 21, 2006: The Lure of the Lawn
A green obsession
One of my favorite refrigerator pictures is a shot of my father-in-law, Bob Cook. He’s seated atop a brand-new John Deere mowing machine, wearing a grin that could outshine any kid’s on Christmas morning. Why is this man so happy? It’s partly the machine, which is one of those fancy, hand-controlled models that can spin […]