I have subscribed to HCN on and off since I met my husband 20 years ago (he introduced me to the paper) because of its coverage of environmental news. When I read in the notes on the board meeting a month ago that someone from Washington state thinks HCN should cover news other than environmental […]
Leave sociology coverage to National Geographic
Posted inAugust 22, 2005: A Military Town Fights for its Life
Immigration fuels Western growth
D.J. Waldie writes of something which many of us have tried to warn of, that “smart growth” isn’t necessarily smart (HCN, 8/8/05: In the suburbs of Los Angeles, your future awaits). Portland, hailed as the icon of smart growth, will in a generation or so be as high-density as Los Angeles. It will have, in […]
Posted inAugust 22, 2005: A Military Town Fights for its Life
Overhauled wolf program isn’t ‘collaborative’
I was dismayed to read HCN’s profile of John Morgart, the man at least partially responsible for crafting the proposed one-year moratorium on Mexican gray wolf releases in the Blue Range, and other changes to the reintroduction standard operating procedures — because it did not mention the dubious circumstances leading up to the release of […]
Posted inAugust 22, 2005: A Military Town Fights for its Life
Ferret recovery pioneer moves on
In his 18 years as Wall District ranger in Buffalo Gap National Grassland, Bill Perry led the effort to restore endangered black-footed ferrets. He helped write the plan to bring in captive-bred ferrets, engineered land swaps to consolidate habitat, and helped manage the pens where the animals were acclimated before being released. Perry built the […]
Posted inAugust 22, 2005: A Military Town Fights for its Life
Drilling leases slowed by paper jam
At a Denver gas industry conference Aug. 3, Assistant Secretary of the Interior Rebecca Watson said a “staggering” increase in protests is hobbling gas drilling in the Rocky Mountains. Pre-lease protests — attempts to stop the Bureau of Land Management from auctioning off parcels of land to oil and gas companies — are up 664 […]
Posted inAugust 22, 2005: A Military Town Fights for its Life
Follow-up
The 2003 wilderness settlement between Interior Secretary Gale Norton and then-Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt may be on the ropes (HCN, 4/28/03: Wilderness takes a massive hit). The settlement eliminated protection for 2.6 million acres of potential wilderness in Utah and barred the BLM from proposing any new land for wilderness designation without congressional approval. But […]
Posted inAugust 22, 2005: A Military Town Fights for its Life
Dear Friends
SUMMER VISITORS We’re always a bit surprised (and pleased) that so many of you manage to find us, since Paonia, Colo. — HCN’s hometown — is really not on the way to anywhere. Rick and Susie Graetz from Helena, Mont., came by with two young friends from nearby Crested Butte. The couple founded Montana Magazine […]
Posted inAugust 22, 2005: A Military Town Fights for its Life
Heard around the West
OREGON Joseph, Ore., population 1,100, doesn’t often get rowdy, so local police quickly followed up on a complaint June 9, regarding some noisy teens. A youth group had apparently massed on the sidewalk in front of their church, where they practiced singing. Here’s the sweet denouement, as reported by the town policeman in the Wallowa […]
Posted inAugust 22, 2005: A Military Town Fights for its Life
Cano’s Vision
Just outside the small town of Antonito, in southern Colorado’s sparsely populated San Luis Valley, a highway sign points to the state’s oldest church, a twin-towered sanctuary built of brick and local dark volcanic rock. A bit farther on, the towers of a very different sanctuary rise over a dusty neighborhood on the other side […]
Posted inAugust 22, 2005: A Military Town Fights for its Life
Winnebagos: Don’t fear ’em, cheer ’em
This is America: You can drive just about any kind of gas-guzzling, hydrocarbon-spewing rust-exhibit you want — unless you drive a recreational vehicle, otherwise known as an “RV.” Among the pundits of political correctness, driving an RV puts you one social notch above suspected terrorist. Sure, RVs are big, ugly, get notoriously poor mileage and […]
Posted inAugust 22, 2005: A Military Town Fights for its Life
Military Base Closures in the West
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Leavin’ on a Jet Plane.” BASES ON CURRENT BRAC REALIGNMENT/CLOSURE LIST 1. Cannon Air Force Base, Clovis, NM 2. Naval Base, Coronado, CA 3. Naval Medical Center, San Diego, CA 4. Navy Broadway Complex, San Diego, CA 5. Naval Support Activity, Corona, CA 6. […]
Posted inAugust 22, 2005: A Military Town Fights for its Life
His playground pulls fun hogs off the public lands
NAME: Jeremy Parriott VOCATION: Extreme-sports videographer and promoter AGE: 32 HOME BASE: Moab, Utah CLAIM TO FAME: Helping to create “Area BFE,” a private playground for “extreme” off-roaders, mountain bikers and climbers. HE SAYS: “Public lands around here are getting pretty bombarded with use — why not bring it to a private place?” Standing […]
Posted inAugust 22, 2005: A Military Town Fights for its Life
Island’s pig problem pits animal-rights activists against conservationists
An animal rights group is trying to stop the killing of thousands of feral pigs on Southern California’s Santa Cruz Island. But the National Park Service says the hunt, which started in April, is necessary to put an end to the pigs’ destruction of native plants and animals. Channel Islands National Park occupies the eastern […]
Posted inAugust 22, 2005: A Military Town Fights for its Life
Feds oppose state’s effort to empower landowners
Wyoming’s new “split-estate” law was meant to give property owners more control over energy development on land where the underlying minerals are owned by someone else, usually the federal government. Now, the law has hit a huge obstacle — the Bush administration. Years of lobbying by ranchers and environmentalists persuaded the Legislature to pass the […]
Posted inAugust 22, 2005: A Military Town Fights for its Life
Congress and Indians spar over lost money
McCain proposes a settlement on trust accounts, but Cobell is wary
Posted inAugust 22, 2005: A Military Town Fights for its Life
Bedrock environmental law takes a beating
Pombo’s task force tears into the National Environmental Policy Act
Posted inAugust 22, 2005: A Military Town Fights for its Life
Boom and bust, military style
There’s an economic debate we often have in this western Colorado valley, and it centers around our underground coal mines. How big a hit would our community take if the mines, which have been part of the landscape for a century and directly provide for some 800 people and their families, suddenly closed? The debate […]
Posted inAugust 22, 2005: A Military Town Fights for its Life
Leavin’ on a Jet Plane
As the Air Force prepares to fly away from New Mexico’s Cannon Air Force Base, the town it helped to build won’t let go
Posted inWotr
Our mini-farm is probably someone else’s real thing
Our neighbor spent the past few years living near Seattle, where sprawl has made it impossible to see where the city stops. He feels lucky to have moved next to us, because in his mind, our little place on an acre and a half is a farm, and that adds to the out-in-the-country atmosphere he […]
Posted inWotr
Park ranger presides over the meeting of heaven and earth
In the dog days of this August, the ashes of “gonzo” writer Hunter S. Thompson are to be blasted out of a cannon from the top of a 150-foot tower, over the beauty of his mountain home near Woody Creek, Colo. Just a few weeks ago, while I was working at the Black Canyon of […]