In Montana’s dying farm country, ‘vanguard agriculture’ puts people back on the land
A New Green Revolution
Posted inWotr
Oh, Christmas tree, oh, Christmas tree
“I will not kill another living tree for Christmas,” announced a waitress at a restaurant I frequent. It is a common misconception that cutting a fir at Christmas is killing a tree that will otherwise live. “Christmas trees are grown to be cut,” I said sagely. “That is their reason for being.” Then I recounted […]
Posted inWotr
Camping out at home
The first heating bill I got was for October, and it jumped from summer levels right up to what I was paying mid-winter last year. Mind you, I didn’t even light the furnace pilot light until Oct.10, and because the weather was nice, we only kicked in the thermostat on a handful of days, less […]
Posted inWotr
The trouble with the Endangered Species Act is us
With House approval of his “Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act” last September, Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., got a step closer to his career goal of eradicating the Endangered Species Act. Pombo, a developer posing as a rancher posing as an advocate of the public good, proclaims that the 32-year-old law is “broken” and a […]
Posted inWotr
Bet on Las Vegas for Western solutions
Las Vegas is a funny place to find solutions to the woes of Western cities, but in southern Nevada, the phenomenal growth of the last 20 years has spawned innovative ways to solve the problems of Western cities. Las Vegas has all the problems of a healthy economy — growth, sprawl, air pollution, traffic congestion, […]
Posted inDecember 12, 2005: The Final Energy Frontier
Living Within Our Means: Beyond the Fossil Fuel Credit Card
Living Within Our Means: Beyond the Fossil Fuel Credit Card Kamyar Enshayan 54 pages, softcover: $12 Congdon Printing & Imaging, 2005. Engineer and city councilman Kamyar Enshayan considers the inevitable end of the fossil-fuel joyride. Short essays ponder topics we’ll all need to grapple with — like the truth about hydrogen and ethanol and what […]
Posted inDecember 12, 2005: The Final Energy Frontier
Earth Notes
Earth Notes Edited by Peter Friederici 70 pages, softcover: $6.95 Grand Canyon Association and KNAU, 2005. Served up in two-page bites, Earth Notes is a tasty selection of tidbits about the Southwest’s canyon country. Editor Peter Friederici dishes out a smorgasbord of nicely illustrated topics ranging from heirloom plant seeds to ancient stone calendars to […]
Posted inDecember 12, 2005: The Final Energy Frontier
Bear
Bear Robert E. Bieder 286 pages, softcover: $19.95 Reaktion Books, 2005. From cave bears to dancing bears, totemic bears to teddy bears, this elegant little book comes lavishly illustrated with bear photos, drawings and paintings. Author Robert E. Bieder tells the history of this fascinating animal through time and across cultures; there’s a treat on […]
Posted inDecember 12, 2005: The Final Energy Frontier
Coming home to a Montana town
A clear stream and a cottonwood tree anchor Karen Brichoux’s pensive new novel. The Girl She Left Behind tells the story of Katherine Earle, who flees the big city to return to her tiny hometown in a Montana mountain valley. Katherine had crept away from Montana with her musician fiancé as a lovestruck 18-year-old, without […]
Posted inDecember 12, 2005: The Final Energy Frontier
Not just any book about the grasslands
In the final scene of John Price’s book, Not Just Any Land, a botanist watches buffalo moving in at an Iowa wildlife refuge and says, “There are mysteries about Iowa tallgrass only buffalo can solve.” America’s grasslands, which once stretched from the Great Plains to the Rocky Mountains, are now mostly gone, but several national […]
Posted inDecember 12, 2005: The Final Energy Frontier
County worked hard to control drilling impact
I was disappointed to read the opening statement in “Doubling density near Durango” (HCN, 11/14/05: Doubling density near Durango). As chair of the board of county commissioners who signed memoranda of understanding with BP and with Samson Resources, I can guarantee you that we did not sign “deals allowing two energy companies to double the […]
Posted inDecember 12, 2005: The Final Energy Frontier
Light rail can’t solve growth problems
I was one of those first eager riders on the new light-rail system in Salt Lake City in December of 1999 (HCN, 11/14/05: Back on track). After years of rampant population growth in the Salt Lake Valley, I find that Salt Lake City today has more traffic and congestion, the air is way more polluted, […]
Posted inDecember 12, 2005: The Final Energy Frontier
Homegrown protectionism
Thank you for your excellent story, “The Public Land’s Big Cash Crop” (HCN, 10/31/05: The Public Lands’ Big Cash Crop). As a recent transplant to Northern California, I’ve had a rapid education on the cultural impacts of this taboo plant. The argument that if only cannabis were legalized the problem would disappear was given short […]
Posted inDecember 12, 2005: The Final Energy Frontier
Skeletons in the Klamath Basin’s closets
Rebecca Clarren’s article on the Bureau of Reclamation’s Klamath River Basin Water Bank fails to mention that over the past five years, $50 million has been given to farmers in the Basin to reduce their water use through improved irrigation efficiency (HCN, 10/17/05: ‘Water bank’ drags river basin deeper into debt). Where is the water […]
Posted inDecember 12, 2005: The Final Energy Frontier
Don’t blame the Park Service
Michelle Nijhuis’s article “The Ghosts of Yosemite” seems to be little more than a rant against the National Park Service (HCN, 10/17/05: The Ghosts of Yosemite). Rather than dwelling on the threat that global warming poses to native wildlife, Nijhuis instead changes the focus to an unfair criticism of an agency that is hardly responsible […]
Posted inDecember 12, 2005: The Final Energy Frontier
‘Green’ seal of approval considered for national forests
The Forest Service is considering “green” certification for timber produced on the national forests. And though environmental groups have long touted such certification as a way to improve the management of privately owned forests, they have misgivings about using it for the public lands. Green certification for lumber is something like organic certification for food; […]
Posted inDecember 12, 2005: The Final Energy Frontier
BLM boosts winter drilling
The mule deer herd that winters on the mesa east of Pinedale has suffered a 46 percent population decline since 2002, despite a Bureau of Land Management policy that banned most natural gas drilling in the area in wintertime. Now, the BLM wants to allow several more companies to drill throughout the winter — and […]
Posted inDecember 12, 2005: The Final Energy Frontier
Sheepherders flock to better-paying jobs
Western ranchers have long relied on foreign workers to tend sheep on the open range. But increasingly, sheepherders are literally walking away from their flocks — and their work visas — in pursuit of more lucrative jobs. The work sheepherders do is hard, the lifestyle is austere, and the pay is low — about $800 […]
Posted inDecember 12, 2005: The Final Energy Frontier
The Latest Bounce
“House Republican Caucus seeks fun-loving individuals to share warm winter evening.” That invitation appeared in a recent e-mail that Utah House Majority Leader Jeff Alexander sent to legislators and lobbyists. House Republican leaders endorsed the “speed dating” idea as a fund-raiser. On Jan. 5, lobbyists who’ve donated to political action committees will each get a […]
Posted inDecember 12, 2005: The Final Energy Frontier
Heard around the West
COLORADO A deliciously funny film called The Lost People of Mountain Village wowed audiences at Telluride’s Mountainfilm festival and other venues around western Colorado. In deadpan style, the 15-minute pseudo-documentary explores what happened to the overlords who once lived above high-altitude Telluride. The joke for locals: The “town” of Mountain Village always feels abandoned by […]