What is it, exactly, that makes the West special? There are certainly many answers to that question, but perhaps the one that Westerners would give more than any other is our “wide open spaces.” Despite much development, there is still open space in the West: space to hike, to hunt, to breathe free, to escape […]
Pombo’s plan to privatize the West must be stopped
Posted inWotr
It’s déjà vu all over again in Iraq
The wars in Vietnam and Iraq aren’t the same, of course, but there’s an eerie feeling of sameness to what’s happening now and what happened in the early 1970s. Only this time, it’s a conservative political coalition that’s crumbling. In 1971, when I moved to rural Wallowa County in Oregon, a national liberal coalition held […]
Posted inWotr
It’s not whether you win or lose…
The trouble with running for public office is the very real possibility that you will lose the race publicly. I considered this as I declared my candidacy for my small town’s city council. But there were three seats up for grabs, and I figured there would be a good chance I might run unopposed. When […]
Posted inWotr
Wheelchairs and wilderness can coexist
Sometimes, life can change dramatically in the blink of an eye. The biggest change in my life came seven years ago, when I was backcountry skiing in the Hoover Wilderness near Yosemite. I missed a turn on a steep icy slope and fell into a rocky gully. In that ugly tumble I crushed my spinal […]
Posted inNovember 28, 2005: Gold from the Gas Fields
Hear Him Roar
Hear Him Roar Andrew Wingfield 240 pages, softcover: $19.95 Utah State University Press, 2005. Puma concolor, the mountain lion, meets Homo dingus dongus, the urban dweller who is all for wild nature — as long as it’s predator-free. Set in Sacramento, Calif., this is a tensely told novel about the inevitable conflict between humans and […]
Posted inNovember 28, 2005: Gold from the Gas Fields
The Ardent Birder
The Ardent Birder Todd Newberry and Gene Holtan 214 pages, softcover: $14.95 Ten Speed Press, 2005. Professor Todd Newberry and artist Gene Holtan have produced a whimsical, fun book about the “lovely madness” that possesses bird watchers. Useful tips abound: how to host a birding field trip, what gear to bring, ways to identify a […]
Posted inNovember 28, 2005: Gold from the Gas Fields
Buffalo Calf Road Woman
Buffalo Calf Road Woman Rosemary Agonito and Joseph Agonito 245 pages, softcover: $12.95 Globe Pequot Press, 2005. In Buffalo Calf Road Woman, the Agonitos describe the final, tragic days of Plains Indian culture as it was being ripped apart by settlers and soldiers. This fictionalized account portrays Buffalo Calf Road Woman, who rescued her brother […]
Posted inNovember 28, 2005: Gold from the Gas Fields
Life — and death — in grizzly country
The popular impression of Timothy Treadwell, who died in Alaska just over two years ago, is that he was a delusional crackpot who deserved his fate: to be killed and eaten by a bear. News coverage painted him as a foolish amateur bear biologist — well-intentioned but not very bright — who paid with his […]
Posted inNovember 28, 2005: Gold from the Gas Fields
Yellowstone fires still ignite controversy
On Sept. 7, 1988, author Rocky Barker stood with a fellow journalist near Old Faithful and witnessed this scene: “Coals were pelting his back and I could see fist-sized firebrands by my head. We jumped a small stream and stumbled through the forest toward safety. The entire area turned black as night and the howling […]
Posted inNovember 28, 2005: Gold from the Gas Fields
The bright side of meth
Your article “Methamphetamine fuels the West’s oil and gas boom” presented a very one-sided look at the problem (HCN, 10/3/05: Methamphetamine fuels the West’s oil and gas boom). You acknowledged that meth helped the workers survive long, hard 12-hour days and that the drug can keep a user awake for hours or even days. You […]
Posted inNovember 28, 2005: Gold from the Gas Fields
Legalizing pot is the solution
The war on drugs will only be solved if we legalize marijuana (HCN, 10/31/05: The public lands’ big cash crop). Sadly, and hypocritically, the agencies that are supposed to be solving the drug problem look the other way when push comes to shove. They make token arrests while leaving the cartels intact to rake in […]
Posted inNovember 28, 2005: Gold from the Gas Fields
Las Vegas deserves some credit
Let’s be real. Despite your recent story on Nevada, the world of water has changed of late and the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) gets a good portion of the credit (HCN, 9/19/05: Squeezing water from a stone). SNWA reinvented water in the Southwest, changing a nastily competitive situation from the “whiskey’s for drinkin’, water’s […]
Posted inNovember 28, 2005: Gold from the Gas Fields
The Latest Bounce
Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., is ready to reopen the U.S. coast for offshore drilling (HCN, 7/25/05: Will the real Mr. Pombo please stand up?). New drilling has been prohibited off the coast, except in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico, since the early 1980s, thanks to a congressional moratorium. But in October, Pombo introduced a […]
Posted inNovember 28, 2005: Gold from the Gas Fields
Heard around the West
NEVADA You’ve gotta love Oscar Goodman, the mayor of Las Vegas: He doesn’t hesitate to trumpet what he thinks, no matter how over the top. Appearing on a TV program in Carson City recently, the mayor sounded off on lawbreakers who spraypaint graffiti over freeways. “These punks come along and deface it,” he said, according […]
Posted inNovember 28, 2005: Gold from the Gas Fields
‘Death is stingless indeed and as beautiful as life’
I was over 80 when I found myself in a college classroom with 20-year-olds, wondering how to bridge the age gap and teach them something useful about the conservation movement in America and my role in it. I began by remarking that it must be hard for them to believe that I was once their […]
Posted inNovember 28, 2005: Gold from the Gas Fields
In Washington, the most outrageous sins are legal
On the grand stage of political tragicomedy, the spotlight rarely shines on the Council for Republican Environmental Advocacy, prestigious though its origins may be. The nonprofit CREA was founded by Gale Norton, now secretary of the Interior, shortly after she lost the 1996 Republican U.S. Senate primary in Colorado. Helping finance it was Grover Norquist, […]
Posted inNovember 28, 2005: Gold from the Gas Fields
Energy companies plow some profits back into Western ground
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Gold from the Gas Fields.” As he sat in his Houston office on Nov. 10, Raymond Plank, the chairman of Apache Corporation, tracked news reports about the Washington, D.C., hearing, in which members of the U.S. Senate scolded five of his fellow oil-company executives. […]
Posted inNovember 28, 2005: Gold from the Gas Fields
‘Sticking around’ for an alpine valley
From his kitchen window, Attilio Genasci can see past barns and alfalfa fields to a small knoll jutting up from the flat expanse of Sierra Valley. Angie, his wife of 50 years, is buried there. For Genasci, 96, the vista is a daily reminder of his promise to Angie to protect this spacious valley, 45 […]
Posted inNovember 28, 2005: Gold from the Gas Fields
Agriculture gets a half-step greener
Nonprofit promotes new eco-label for crops grown with fewer chemicals
Posted inNovember 28, 2005: Gold from the Gas Fields
Congress loosens organic standards
Note: in the print edition of this issue, this article appears as a sidebar to another news article, “Agriculture gets a half-step greener.” Large-scale organic food producers have beaten back an effort to strengthen national organic standards. The Organic Trade Association, which represents 1,600 farmers, distributors and grocers, had feared that stricter standards would hinder […]