Consider this issue’s cover an early April Fools’ prank of sorts. We took inspiration from Outside magazine, the home of the “Top 10 Secret Getaways” that are obviously no longer secret by the time the issue comes off the press. Those headlines are the bane of our cover story’s author, M. John Fayhee, who has […]
The next boomtown
Posted inMarch 20, 2006: Town Shopping
Town Shopping
Maintaining karmic balance in the New West’s real estate economy
Posted inWotr
Selling forestland won’t solve the real problem
Selling federal forest land to subsidize rural schools and road projects is a bad idea for many reasons. But a proposal to do just that, incorporated into the Bush administration’s 2007 budget, has one powerful virtue: It has focused welcome public attention on a century-old welfare program that has yet to achieve its goals. Bush […]
Posted inWotr
Oil shale is still a pig in a poke
More than half the world’s oil shale is found in Utah and Colorado, and for a century, men have tried to unlock this energy source. The rocks have proved stubborn, promising much, delivering little. “I find it disturbing that we import oil from Canadian tar sands, even though our oil shale resource remains undeveloped,” complains […]
Posted inWotr
SUWA, can you spare a dime?
When I made southeast Utah my home, almost 30 years ago, I came for one reason — the rocks — the most stunning display of intricately carved, brilliantly hued red rocks imaginable. It’s the kind of place one can believe only exists in dreams. I’ve lived here ever since. Naturally, I went searching for kindred […]
Posted inMarch 6, 2006: Save Our Snow
Save Our Snow
Can Aspen and other Western towns put a dent in a global problem?
Posted inWotr
Requiem for a messy small town
I live in one of those Western towns that’s booming. Fast and furious. Set near a national park, surrounded by 2.3 million acres of national forest, and right at the base of a ski resort, Whitefish, Mont., lures not only visitors but also the affluent who want to buy into the Montana lifestyle. Ironically, newcomers […]
Posted inMarch 6, 2006: Save Our Snow
Exploring High Mountain Lakes in the Rockies
Exploring High Mountain Lakes in the Rockies Fred W. Rabe 146 pages, softcover: $29.95 Aquatic Ecosystems, 2006. Exploring High Mountain Lakes in the Rockies features dozens of color photographs, maps and sketches. But it’s not a travel guide to the approximately 8,000 high-elevation lakes speckling the region; instead of trails, biologist Fred Rabe describes geology, […]
Posted inMarch 6, 2006: Save Our Snow
Got Sun? Go Solar
Got Sun? Go Solar Rex A. Ewing and Doug Pratt 160 pages, softcover: $18.95, PixyJack Press, 2005. Tired of waiting for Washington, D.C., to make a serious commitment to solar power? Then pick up this information-packed but very readable book and get started on your own. Authors Rex Ewing and Doug Pratt explain home renewable […]
Posted inMarch 6, 2006: Save Our Snow
Friends in high places
Breaking Through the Clouds is a compilation of essays by Richard Fleck, a scholar, writer and wanderer of the West’s high mountains. Fleck deftly weaves in the history and human background of each peak, quoting John Wesley Powell on the first ascent of Longs Peak in what is now Rocky Mountain National Park. Far from […]
Posted inMarch 6, 2006: Save Our Snow
Big dams, big battles
Like it or not, dams define the West. This is the birthplace of big dams — Hoover, Glen Canyon, Grand Coulee — and to a large extent, these monuments have written the history of our cities and our agriculture. These days, Westerners talk more about taking down big dams than about building new ones. But […]
Posted inMarch 6, 2006: Save Our Snow
Keep buffalo corralled
As I see it, a person has the God-given right to protect life and property (HCN, 2/6/06: The Killing Fields). Yellowstone National Park encompasses approximately 2,219,799 acres. There are approximately 4,000 head of buffalo that roam freely upon this land (taxpayers’ land). This would amount to about 554.94 acres per head of buffalo. If any […]
Posted inMarch 6, 2006: Save Our Snow
Grateful for real hunters
Thanks to Hal Herring for a fantastic article (HCN, 2/6/06: The Killing Fields)! I’m not a hunter, but I’m definitely a meat-eater. I feel honored and grateful to be on the same side of the table as the real hunters who respect and steward the game and habitat. David Wicks Rye, Colorado This article appeared […]
Posted inMarch 6, 2006: Save Our Snow
Sympathy for destroyers
In response to the story about a judge ordering environmentalists to post a $10,000 bond, rather than focus on the amount of the bond, or the legitimacy or strength of the case, HCN could have openly debated the chilling effect of prohibitive costs on the public’s right to environmental justice (HCN, 2/6/06: Judge orders litigating […]
Posted inMarch 6, 2006: Save Our Snow
Most enviro cases legit
In response to your article “Judge orders litigating enviros to pony up,” do you ever fact-check for ridiculous statements like Engstedt’s — “Ninety-eight percent of these cases are not legitimate” (HCN, 2/6/06: Judge orders litigating enviros to pony up)? In truth, I’ve been the lawyer bringing these cases for Alliance for the Wild Rockies, The […]
Posted inMarch 6, 2006: Save Our Snow
Neither bison nor mustangs are truly free
I was heartened to read that even though Hal Herring called it “hunting” throughout his story of the Yellowstone buffalo, he finally called it what it truly was, an ugly slaughter (HCN, 2/6/06: The Killing Fields). Killing those placid buffalo was no more hunting than going out to the back pasture and plugging your Hereford […]
Posted inMarch 6, 2006: Save Our Snow
Time for a little outreach
In your Feb. 6 editorial, you provide a great example of one common misunderstanding: “These days, hunters seem to rarely assert their political power toward conservation ends” (HCN, 2/6/06: Time for a little outrage). I would be the first to agree that some hunting groups let their reluctance to criticize Republicans get in the way […]
Posted inMarch 6, 2006: Save Our Snow
Corporate agriculture doesn’t control universities
I would like to compliment Sam Western on a well-written and insightful article (HCN, 12/26/05: A New Green Revolution). However, I am curious about the origin of the erroneous statement in the sidebar concerning universities and organic research: “While the Legislature provides some funding, companies such as Dow, Syngenta and Monsanto fund most of the […]
Posted inMarch 6, 2006: Save Our Snow
Wilderness: The new anti-nuclear weapon
On Jan. 6, President Bush signed into law the first new Utah wilderness area since 1984 — and made it a little harder for nuclear power plant operators to ship radioactive waste to a nearby Indian reservation. The new Cedar Mountain Wilderness protects some 100,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management land about 45 miles […]
Posted inMarch 6, 2006: Save Our Snow
Energy company stakes out wildlife refuge
Iridescent dragonflies, shimmering wetlands, and the many imperiled species that call a southeastern New Mexico wildlife refuge home may soon have a new neighbor: gas wells. Yates Petroleum Co., based in Artesia, N.M., told U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials last month it plans to drill two wells in Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge — […]