The Bureau of Land Management is shortening the amount of time that citizens and environmental groups in Wyoming and Utah will have to protest oil and gas lease sales, and is in the process of formulating a new nationwide policy for such protests. In Wyoming, the BLM posts notices of which parcels will be leased […]
Oil and gas opponents will have to move faster
Posted inMay 2, 2005: The Great Energy Divide
Bears and bull trout may block mine
A controversial silver and copper mine that would have tunneled under the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness Area may have just been shafted. U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy ruled on March 28 that construction of the Rock Creek Mine on the edge of the northwestern Montana wilderness area would further jeopardize threatened populations of grizzly bear and […]
Posted inMay 2, 2005: The Great Energy Divide
On the Colorado, a grand experiment meets Mother Nature
“It’s really hard to kill fish with water,” says Joe Shannon, a professor of aquatic ecology with Northern Arizona University. But a recent experiment intended to help native fish in the Colorado River might have done just that. In November, officials from the Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center released a 90-hour flood from Glen […]
Posted inMay 2, 2005: The Great Energy Divide
Wilderness wallows in rural county
After months of considering whether to support the creation of a Badlands Wilderness about 20 miles east of Bend, Ore., the Deschutes County Board of Commissioners voted 3-0 in late March to do nothing, effectively leaving the proposal in limbo. It could have been worse, says commission chair Tom DeWolf. “They can take solace in […]
Posted inMay 2, 2005: The Great Energy Divide
Follow-up
The Montana Legislature approved a bill requiring the state’s utilities to buy 15 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2015. The green-power initiative was part of the campaign platform of Gov. Brian Schweitzer, D, who took office this January (HCN, 11/22/04: Election Day surprises in the schizophrenic West). Montana is the 19th state […]
Posted inMay 2, 2005: The Great Energy Divide
Heard around the West
WYOMING Cheyenne Frontier Days can get rowdy, but rowdy doesn’t begin to describe what rodeo contestant Neal Daniel did in a bar last July: He got into a fight he still can’t remember and stabbed a rival seven times. But after a judge recently ordered Daniel to pay the victim $32,000 in restitution, Daniel, a […]
Posted inMay 2, 2005: The Great Energy Divide
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. Monument Supervisor Lisa Eckert had suggested adding the name “Bear Lodge” to the site. That came at the request of […]
Posted inMay 2, 2005: The Great Energy Divide
So-called ‘peace treaty’ won’t save the Rio Grande
HCN’s story, “Peace breaks out on the Rio Grande,” suggests that the agreement between environmentalists and Albuquerque marked an end to wrangling over water in the Middle Rio Grande (HCN, 3/21/05: Peace breaks out on the Rio Grande). Don’t we wish. For reasons best understood by the city of Albuquerque, two separate legal proceedings are […]
Posted inMay 2, 2005: The Great Energy Divide
Renewable Energy Standards: How do states match up?
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “The Winds of Change.” Arizona — Adopted in 200. Utilities must generate 1.1 percent of electricity from renewable energy by 2007; 60 percent of the 1.1 percent must be from solar. California — Adopted in 2002. 20 percent by 2017 for investor-owned utilities. Colorado […]
Posted inMay 2, 2005: The Great Energy Divide
Blades, birds and bats: Wind energy and wildlife not a cut-and-dried issue
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “The Winds of Change.” If you think wind energy is a good alternative to fossil fuels, but you also care about wildlife, you’ve probably worried about the possible “lawnmower” effect of spinning wind turbines on birds and bats. At least some of that concern […]
Posted inMay 2, 2005: The Great Energy Divide
For this logger, twisted trees are the future
In a corner of his airy shop near Silver City, N.M., Gordon West is working out the kinks in Southwestern forestry. In a small way, of course: Everything he does is intended to work in a small way. West, a middle-aged logger, woodworker and builder, is testing a long metal machine that resembles an overgrown […]
Posted inMay 2, 2005: The Great Energy Divide
As threats loom, conservation dollars disappear
Feds back away from buying sensitive land
Posted inMay 2, 2005: The Great Energy Divide
Backbreaking work props up ‘sustainable’ crops
Organic farmers lead the fight against new worker protections
Posted inMay 2, 2005: The Great Energy Divide
Colorado River kisses a toxic mess good-bye
A 12 million-ton relic of the Cold War willget hauled away from Moab
Posted inMay 2, 2005: The Great Energy Divide
Dear friends
ANIMAL PLANET Here in Paonia, we’ve been having various critter adventures. JoAnn Kalenak, our production assistant, recently adopted a beagle named Darcy. In mid-March, though, the dog disappeared while chasing rabbits. Three weeks later, a neighbor called to say that Darcy had been vacationing at her farm a few miles away the entire time. Meanwhile, […]
Posted inMay 2, 2005: The Great Energy Divide
The revolution will not be televised
In a speech before the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in April, President George W. Bush told a story about talking to troops in Texas who were concerned about the rising cost of gasoline. Bush explained that he had no “magic wand” to reduce gas prices, but he hinted that his energy plan, which he […]
Posted inWotr
Home on a very small range
In the years that I zealously rode a horse as a teen, the pasture below our house was a pen for my plump little buckskin mare. Conveniently flat, it doubled as an arena, hard-packed and strewn with makeshift jumps. Other than being a nuisance and forcing me to feed hay more often, the thistle and […]
Posted inWotr
Grazing buyouts help land and ranchers
It’s springtime in the Rockies, which means roiling rivers, blooming fruit orchards and lots of baby bovines in the valley-bottom pastures. A month ago, the calves were small, dark lumps deposited on dun-colored fields; today, they are energetic youngsters, chasing each other across green grass in free-for-all games of tag. In a matter of weeks, […]
Posted inApril 18, 2005: What Happened to Winter?
Troubled — and shallow — waters on the West’s largest river
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “What happened to winter?“ Mountains, it is often said, are the West’s water towers. If snowfall fails to fill the towers, or warm temperatures empty them too early in the year, fish, farmers and other water users face a dry summer. That’s especially true […]
Posted inWotr
Spring comes grudgingly to Wyoming’s high desert
Although I expect more heartless wind and freezing nights, I think winter’s tight grip has been loosened. Summer lies ahead.