WELCOME, JANIEC! Janiec (rhymes with “Denise”) Gutierrez is the newest addition to our marketing department and is responsible for advertising sales. Janiec, a native of Southern California, moved to town last May after becoming engaged to a Paonian she met in Germany, where they were both working in the outdoor industry. She enjoys the pink […]
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Posted inFebruary 6, 2006: The Killing Fields
Time for a little outrage
Outrage is a risky emotion. It tends to carry people over the cliff of acceptable behavior, sometimes into acts of destructive extremism. Yet some of our best conservation writers, like John Muir and Rachel Carson, have tapped their heartfelt outrage over the abuse of nature and created literature that inspires the rest of us to […]
Posted inFebruary 6, 2006: The Killing Fields
The Killing Fields
A buffalo hunt turns into a slaughter on the border of Yellowstone National Park. But could this be the key to setting the animals free?
Posted inWotr
A teacher looks back at racism
In 1961, when I came to Browning, Mont., to teach, I emerged from my little rental — all dressed up — to investigate the town. A path headed towards the main street across a weedy empty lot. A tall Indian in a wide-brimmed hat started towards me. Was I going to have to walk into […]
Posted inWotr
Portland and Seattle steal all the rain
My wife was just climbing into bed, and I was already heavy with sleep after a coastal trip the other night, when something began tearing at the screen outside our small bedroom window. This something was eager to come inside. In the few seconds it took for us to yell and wave our arms madly […]
Posted inWotr
What peak oil means to every American
In 1970, oil production within the United States peaked — reached its maximum production rate — at not much more than 10 million barrels of oil per day. That means since 1970, oil production in this country has been declining, and we now import 58 percent of the oil we use. The sheer scale of […]
Posted inWotr
The unbearable triteness of skiing
Q: Why did Utah choose the slogan “The Greatest Snow on Earth” when it so closely resembled the Ringling Brothers slogan “The Greatest Show on Earth?” A: Both businesses attract a lot of bozos. It’s okay to hate skiing and to own an automobile without a ski rack. You don’t need to have your computer […]
Posted inWotr
Climate change is pulling the trigger
I once spent an entire summer catching frogs. Most people, I gather, do this in elementary school: I was in my early 20s, with a supposedly marketable college degree. I guess I should have done something a little, well, more mature. But I had an excuse. I’d been hired by the U.S. Geological Survey to […]
Posted inWotr
For Sale: The West
It’s disconcerting to look at the ads in the local newspaper these days. I’m bound to recognize someone I know who has just cast in his or her lot with Re/Max, Coldwell Banker or another of the multitude of agencies now playing the West’s biggest gambling game: Real Estate Roulette. He or she will be […]
Posted inJanuary 23, 2006: Timberlands up for grabs
Eight decades of magic and beauty at Ghost Ranch
New Mexico’s most famous resort, Ghost Ranch, has charmed many visitors. One overwhelmed admirer proclaimed that any description of the place amounted to “an advertisement for God and New Mexico.” Area historian Lesley Poling-Kempes tells the story of Ghost Ranch and its lovers in her absorbing new book, Ghost Ranch. Ghost Ranch covers 20,000 acres […]
Posted inJanuary 23, 2006: Timberlands up for grabs
Deciphering humanity’s hardware
History buffs can easily get an education alongside Western highways. Interpretive signs point out where Chief Joseph retreated, and where Lewis and Clark spent the winter. But what if you want to know what’s coming out of the smokestack in the distance? Or what gets made inside that gigantic steel structure you just passed? The […]
Posted inJanuary 23, 2006: Timberlands up for grabs
A watery mystery in New Mexico
Even if you haven’t read a mystery novel since the Hardy Boys, give Rudolfo Anaya’s new book, Jemez Spring, a whirl. All in one day, Sonny Baca, an Albuquerque private investigator, works to solve the governor’s murder at the Jemez Springs Bath House and deactivate a nuclear bomb left in the Valles Caldera to blow […]
Posted inJanuary 23, 2006: Timberlands up for grabs
Planting seeds for preservation
In Cities in the Wilderness, former Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt asks: “Is it realistic to suggest expanding land protection programs in a season when the Bush administration and Congress are intent not upon expanding, but upon shrinking the reach of our environmental laws?” Babbitt’s answer is a resounding “Yes.” He continues, “History instructs […]
Posted inJanuary 23, 2006: Timberlands up for grabs
A eulogy for the West that was
Mourning the loss of a special place has become a common plaint in the West. Changes in paradise always evoke regret and loss, especially when they happen on your watch and seem irrevocable. Roger Brown, a 70-year-old filmmaker who lives near Gypsum, Colo., has written, photographed and self-published Requiem for the West, an impassioned lament […]
Posted inJanuary 23, 2006: Timberlands up for grabs
Meth is bad news, period
I was disturbed by the letter writer who proposed legalizing methamphetamines for oil field workers or anyone else who feels meth “helps” them (HCN, 11/28/05: The bright side of meth). Here in Hawaii, meth is considered the greatest reason for crime (auto theft, house break-ins and robberies), violence and family abuse. Crystal meth, its popular […]
Posted inJanuary 23, 2006: Timberlands up for grabs
Wind energy not a panacea
The article “Forget Idealism” talks of the benefits of transitioning our energy supply from fossil fuels to renewable sources such as wind and solar (HCN, 12/12/05: Forget Idealism). As in many discussions previous to this one, the author fails to address the environmental impacts of wind-power fields. The photo associated with this article says it […]
Posted inJanuary 23, 2006: Timberlands up for grabs
The Ghosts of 1913
In response to Hal Rothman’s letter: “Solving the West’s Water Problems with Economic Progress” is a beguiling tune, if you’re attracted to that sort of music, but this is the one I hum: Economic growth IS the problem (HCN, 12/26/05: Letters). Consider this: John Muir, the great naturalist and writer, won many noble battles but […]
Posted inJanuary 23, 2006: Timberlands up for grabs
Sociology is essential
I see there’s another letter condemning HCN’s “drift” into “sociology” eye. One of the biggest mistakes made by conservationists and environmentalists in the past 40 or 50 years was to drift away from sociology. Sociology has to do with the way we humans treat each other and that in turn has enormous implications for how […]
Posted inJanuary 23, 2006: Timberlands up for grabs
Seniors reject more wilderness access
Erik Schultz’s piece about his tragic fall, which left him a paraplegic and unable to savor the wilderness, makes a (HCN, 12/12/05: Wheelchairs and wilderness can coexist). Why? If it’s a choice between personal satisfaction and wilderness protection, we must choose wilderness. Bob Marshall, Ed Abbey, Aldo Leopold — all considered mechanization of wild nature […]
Posted inJanuary 23, 2006: Timberlands up for grabs
Seniors want more wilderness access
Regarding Erik Schultz’s column, “Wheelchairs and Wilderness Can Co-exist” (HCN, 12/12/05: Wheelchairs and wilderness can coexist): Erik and Congressman Simpson are to be congratulated for the progress they have made in opening a wilderness area to handicapped persons — be it ever so small. I look from another perspective — that of aging senior citizens. […]