Michelle Nijhuis’ ode to biodiesel and her American-sized Mercedes is well-intentioned but misinformed (HCN, 8/8/05: The American dream, sans gasoline). Biodiesel aficionados claim that burning vegetable oil drastically reduces overall emissions of globe-warming carbon dioxide because the carbon in plant oils is already part of the natural carbon cycle. But the carbon in vegetable oil […]
Biodiesel is not the answer
Posted inOctober 17, 2005: The Ghosts of Yosemite
Bring back the great little car
Biodiesel is a great idea (HCN, 8/8/05: The American dream, sans gasoline). But how long can we ferment potential food? Yeast exhales carbon dioxide, as do tractors, and those nasty artificial fertilizers are made from oil. Used cooking oil will not be readily available for long, as biodiesel fans burn it up. Some long-term solutions […]
Posted inOctober 17, 2005: The Ghosts of Yosemite
Salvage logging speeds up
The timber industry and environmentalists can agree on one thing: The Forest Service’s Biscuit Fire salvage logging program has been a fiasco. Despite accidentally allowing logging in a botanical reserve, the agency has sold just one-fifth of the timber it promised (HCN, 5/16/05: Unsalvageable). Now, two Oregon Republicans have a plan to prevent similar […]
Posted inOctober 17, 2005: The Ghosts of Yosemite
Restoration-by-poisoning plan shot down
Just hours before the California Department of Fish and Game was to poison a stream in the Sierra Nevada — part of an effort to restore a threatened trout — a federal court halted the project. The plan called for killing all fish in an 11-mile stretch of Silver King Creek and Tamarack Lake, then […]
Posted inOctober 17, 2005: The Ghosts of Yosemite
His photographs trace the passage of time
NAME Mark Klett VOCATION Photographer and regents’ professor of art at Arizona State University AGE 53 KNOWN FOR Documenting our changing relationship with Western landscapes HE SAYS “Photos always seem to exist as sort of stuffy, unnecessary antiques that we put in a drawer — unless we take them out, put them in current dialogue, […]
Posted inOctober 17, 2005: The Ghosts of Yosemite
The Ghosts of Yosemite
Scientists from the past bring us a message about the future
Posted inOctober 17, 2005: The Ghosts of Yosemite
Handling griz: How much is enough?
At least 5 percent of the West’s grizzly bears should wear radio collars, researchers say
Posted inOctober 17, 2005: The Ghosts of Yosemite
Pombo takes on the Endangered Species Act
‘Critical habitat’ is likely a thing of the past
Posted inOctober 17, 2005: The Ghosts of Yosemite
Heard around the West
IDAHO A border collie adept at “child-herding, intense stares and home protection” has applied for a job with the city of Boise: He wants to chase Canada geese off the playing fields. In a letter purported to be from the herd dog, named Atticus in honor of the lawyer in To Kill a Mockingbird, he […]
Posted inOctober 17, 2005: The Ghosts of Yosemite
Inside the fall
Flat on my back under the cottonwood, yellow leaves falling, brilliant blue above, an abandoned rake beside me. My two young children sit at my side, feeding sticks to the dog, who likes to chew them up and understands that every time he gently takes a twig and crashes it in his teeth he is […]
Posted inOctober 17, 2005: The Ghosts of Yosemite
Blood spills over a $14 camping fee
When Chief Ranger Jerry Epperson hired me to be a seasonal ranger at Arches National Park in Utah 25 years ago, I wasn’t sure what my duties were. So it seemed like a good idea to ask. Epperson smiled wryly and said, “A ranger should range.” So even though we had to endure chores like […]
Posted inOctober 17, 2005: The Ghosts of Yosemite
States lead charge against global warming
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “The Ghosts of Yosemite.” From California to Colorado and from Washington to New Mexico, Western states, tired of federal inaction on climate change, are saddling up to tackle the issue on their own. Whether it means deciding that a certain percentage of their electrical […]
Posted inOctober 17, 2005: The Ghosts of Yosemite
In the Great Basin, scientists track global warming
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “The Ghosts of Yosemite.” Eugene Raymond Hall, one of biologist Joseph Grinnell’s first graduate students, was “a robust, pipe-smoking, extroverted individual,” known for his stubbornness and rough edges, writes historian Barbara Stein. In many ways, he was unlike his reserved mentor, but his scientific […]
Posted inOctober 17, 2005: The Ghosts of Yosemite
Overseas drill rigs head for the West
Oil and gas drilling permits have tripled during the last five years, and every available rig has been pressed into service. Now, energy companies are looking overseas, particularly to China, for equipment and qualified crews. But as foreign drill rigs and workers arrive to tap Western lands, political red flags are starting to go up. […]
Posted inOctober 17, 2005: The Ghosts of Yosemite
The Latest Bounce
The Bureau of Land Management recently approved a mining company’s plans to explore for gold near South Pass, Wyo., a major historic point on the Emigrant Trail (HCN, 5/16/05: Gold mining proposed in historic South Pass area). Fremont Gold will dig 200 10-by-20-foot test pits about five miles from the pass. If the company finds […]
Posted inOctober 17, 2005: The Ghosts of Yosemite
Dear friends
HELLOS AND GOODBYES The High Country News board of directors met in Santa Fe in late September, bidding farewell to two longtime members, and inviting five new people to join. Leaving the board are Emily Stonington and Michael Fischer. Emily, a state senator who raises sheep outside Helena, Mont., was one of the main forces […]
Posted inOctober 17, 2005: The Ghosts of Yosemite
Is anyone home at the parks?
Poke around the West for a while, and you’ll discover that the National Park Service does one thing better than any other agency. It’s not managing land. It’s managing people. Nearly 300 million visitors meander through the parks each year in search of that perfect scenic photo, a look at a bear, a little solitude. […]
Posted inWotr
Sacred cows in the public’s paradise
With four hours of freeways and winding mountain roads between me and San Francisco, I was finally hiking slow and easy up the first part of Disaster Creek Trail in California’s Carson-Iceberg Wilderness. I’d been waiting all summer for spring to arrive in the Sierra High Country, in a place called Paradise Valley. I’m a […]
Posted inWotr
Nature works better with us
You’ve seen the ads: Some eco-celebrity urges you to make a donation to save one of the earth’s last special places. Your generous gift will help protect this place so it remains healthy and pristine forever. Few of us bother to think that this pitch contains a huge assumption — that protecting a piece of […]
Posted inWotr
The House takes an ax to the Endangered Species Act
As former Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis put it, the states can serve as “laboratories of democracy” by testing new approaches to see if they might work for the nation as a whole. The idea is that if a new approach falls flat, the rest of the country can learn from the mistake without going […]