Critics say that by trying to please everyone, new rules could fail fish and wildlife
In the Washington woods, managers face a catch-22
Posted inMay 16, 2005: Unsalvageable
On the Colorado River, a tug-of-war on a tight rope
A wet winter could jeopardize Colorado’s drought-protection water stash
Posted inMay 16, 2005: Unsalvageable
Congress touts ‘green energy,’ but bill is black and blue
Lawmakers are even more industry-friendly than the administration
Posted inMay 16, 2005: Unsalvageable
Dear friends
WELCOME, JASON HCN has a new development associate to help with raising money, planning events and board meetings, and producing a newsletter for former interns. Jason Nicholoff, the eldest son of Circulation Manager Gretchen Nicholoff, grew up in Paonia. After graduating from Ohio’s Oberlin College with an English degree, he did environmental work and grant-writing […]
Posted inMay 16, 2005: Unsalvageable
The wisdom of the ground troops
The U.S. Forest Service has come a long way. No longer does the agency view the 190 million acres of national forests it oversees simply in terms of board-feet and dollars, as it did even as recently as 15 years ago. These days, most of its scientists and managers understand that forests are complex living […]
Posted inMay 16, 2005: Unsalvageable
Unsalvageable
With environmentalists fuming, logging companies grousing, and timber rotting, the Bush administration tries to save face — and a sliver of its grand plans to log the Northwest’s forest sanctuaries
Posted inWotr
Trees can be just another sacred cow
Only God can make a tree, but anyone can ruin a prairie. Consider the celebrated 19th century journalist Julius Sterling Morton. On moving to Nebraska from Michigan in 1854, he found he didn’t like the way nature had designed the Great Plains. Accordingly, he summoned forth “a great army of husbandmen… to battle against the […]
Posted inWotr
My kind of river flows fast and gritty brown
My kind of river, the White. Near twilight, we camp at the put-in, a two-track rut into a brush-ringed clearing on the outskirts of Rangely, Colo. No ramp, no parking, no fire grates, no tables, no signs — a wide spot on the river bank just out of town, where we lean our canoes against […]
Posted inWotr
The brief but wonderful return of Cathedral in the Desert
It looked almost exactly like Phil Hyde’s photograph taken in 1964, a year after Glen Canyon Dam began backing up the Colorado River — a seven-year event. Hyde’s photo revealed a stunning waterfall in a giant amphitheater with a narrow, almost slot opening at top, perfectly named “Cathedral in the Desert.” Eventually it disappeared, drowned […]
Posted inWotr
The devil made us do it
A recent proposal to change the name of Devils Tower National Monument has fallen through, but even if it had succeeded, Old Nick would have kept a prominent place in the landscape of the West. In Wyoming, monument supervisor Lisa Eckert had suggested adding the name “Bear Lodge” to the site. That came at the […]
Posted inWotr
Why should the Arctic Refuge matter to the ski industry?
Why would the 19 million acres of wilderness that make up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the potential oil beneath it, plus its resident herd of caribou, matter at all to the ski industry? Sure, the refuge in Alaska is wild and beautiful, it’s pristine, it’s a crown jewel of wilderness. We in the ski […]
Posted inWotr
Ego gates get my goat — and that’s just the beginning
So, my neighbor finally got a ranchette. Whether it’s five acres or 40, the next step is apparently the perfect entrance gate. Rancheteers have made these huge gates the latest symbol of affluence in the West. They boast uprights bigger than my house, flanked by imported decorative boulders. The crossbar seems sometimes to be a […]
Posted inMay 2, 2005: The Great Energy Divide
The Mountains Know Arizona
The Mountains Know Arizona Text by Rose Houk, photographs by Michael Collier 272 pages, hardcover $49.95. Arizona Highways Books, 2003. If you can tear yourself away from the spectacular photos — including some mind-numbing aerial shots (see page 14) — to read the accompanying words, you will be rewarded. In this chunky coffee-table book, Houk […]
Posted inMay 2, 2005: The Great Energy Divide
The River Has Never Divided Us: A Border History of La Junta de los Rios
The River Has Never Divided Us: A Border History of La Junta de los Rios Jefferson Morgenthaler 368 pages, softcover $22.95. University of Texas Press, 2004. The Rio Grande and Rio Conchos meet to form La Junta de los Rios, a basin along the U.S.-Mexico border where the cast of characters includes farmers, shepherds, Border […]
Posted inMay 2, 2005: The Great Energy Divide
Serafina’s Stories
Serafina’s Stories Rudolfo Anaya 202 pages, hardcover $22.95. University of New Mexico Press, 2004. Set in Santa Fe in 1680, this tale from Rudolfo Anaya is a treat. Night after night, Serafina, a 15-year old Pueblo woman, enchants the Spanish Governor with stories to free her fellow prisoners accused of plotting an insurrection. Serafina’s stories […]
Posted inMay 2, 2005: The Great Energy Divide
Getting smarter about energy use
Despite the fact that energy affects every facet of our lives — from the price of fruit to the wars we wage — most Americans give nary a thought to the topic. “People tend not to focus on energy in their lives, workplaces and decisions — they leave it to the experts,” says Howard Geller, […]
Posted inMay 2, 2005: The Great Energy Divide
Down — but far from out — in Drummond
In the early 1950s, the town of Drummond, Mont., boasted busy bus and railroad stations, 11 bars, three grocery stores and 14 gas stations. Now, you can count what’s left on one hand. The ranching families that persist are resilient and dogged, and this book of large-format black-and-white photographs with accompanying interviews grows on you: […]
Posted inMay 2, 2005: The Great Energy Divide
Buyouts doom private lands
Thank you for the recent story and comments on grazing buyouts. We were especially taken by Executive Director Paul Larmer’s evocative description of the seasonality of grazing in the Paonia area, with its blend of low-elevation private lands, where cows have their calves, and its high-elevation public lands, where cows summer. Paul’s delightful soliloquy of […]
Posted inMay 2, 2005: The Great Energy Divide
Wild horses harm ecosystems
Regarding “You want fries with that mustang?” (HCN, 4/4/05: You want fries with that mustang?): I’ve worked in the Mojave Desert of California and in eastern Oregon, and in both areas, one could find “wild” horses, “wild” burros and cattle. What these animals all have in common are the following: 1) They are not native, […]
Posted inMay 2, 2005: The Great Energy Divide
Ski snow won’t be yellow on San Francisco Peaks
I was disappointed to read the advisory that we keep our eyes peeled for yellow snow on the ski slopes because the Coconino National Forest has approved the use of treated wastewater for snowmaking at the Arizona Snowbowl ski area (HCN, 3/21/05: Arizona returns to the desert). Statements like these perpetuate misunderstandings about reclaimed water. […]