Land swap would undo a presidential order for land protection
Rock jocks fight a mining company
Posted inApril 4, 2005: Calling It Quits
Ski areas’ ‘green’ image not backed by action
Researchers call ‘Sustainable Slopes’ program ‘greenwashing’
Posted inApril 4, 2005: Calling It Quits
The last happy agency biologist — and other April Foolery
Public servant decides it’s time to put his feet up and relax
Posted inApril 4, 2005: Calling It Quits
Dear friends
TRAGEDY IN PAONIA HCN’s home town, Paonia, Colo., population 1,500, is grieving for three children killed in an explosion at a mountain lodge outside of town. At least 16 others were injured in the March 19 blast, which was probably caused by a propane leak. Delta County Sheriff Fred McKee identified the children as 2-year-old […]
Posted inApril 4, 2005: Calling It Quits
Grazing buyouts help land and ranchers
It’s springtime in the Rockies, which means blizzards, 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, most […]
Posted inApril 4, 2005: Calling It Quits
The Big Buyout
Tough economics, drought and increasing clashes with recreational users have pushed some public-lands ranchers to the edge. Now, check-wielding conservationists want to give them an easy way out.
Posted inWotr
How not to fix conservation easements
One of the most useful, cost-effective methods of conserving land in America is in serious crisis. A series of scandals has revealed major abuses of conservation easements — a legal tool increasingly used to protect private land from development by compensating landowners for development rights. It is true that some landowners who donate easements to […]
Posted inWotr
Death Valley wakes up with a bang
I stood among the multi-colored stones of Death Valley, gazing at the greatest wildflower bloom I’ve ever seen — the greatest bloom of a generation. I had driven from my home in Oregon through the night to see this spectacle, and now that I’d arrived, I found I was unprepared for the power of its […]
Posted inWotr
Montana tells the federal government to butt out
No one knows just when the West decided it had had enough of being run from Washington, D.C. The indications that Montanans have had it with federal mandates became evident in the state Legislature this March. Although the capital routinely ignores the opinions of a state like Montana, which boasts fewer than a million people […]
Posted inWotr
Can the New West rescue an old town?
First came the Thai restaurant, then the jazz nightclub. Pretty heady stuff for a dead railroad town with a population of 1,900 in the far northern reaches of California. There’s a sense of anticipation, of wondering what will happen next. Along with our fancy restaurant and a couple of art galleries, we’re starting to attract […]
Posted inWotr
Requiem for Yucca Mountain
Without a miracle of some sort, it is all over. Yucca Mountain, the federal government’s choice for storing nuclear waste from Cold War-bomb production and power plants, will never open. The project that began with a congressional mandate 22 years ago seems perennially stalled, even though $8 billion has already been spent on everything from […]
Posted inWotr
Do you want fries with that mustang?
I’ve threatened to turn Vinnie Barbarino, my horse, into mustang burgers. After a long day struggling with the stubborn creature, my stomped-upon toes swelling in my boots, I have promised to ship him off to France to be served with a side of pommes frites and a nice red wine. Of course, I would never […]
Posted inMarch 21, 2005: An Empire Built on Sand
This environmentalist fought asbestos
I work as an environmentalist and as a geologist. I worked as a geologist at the Hamilton vermiculite mine mentioned in the Libby, Mont., article, when exploration and permitting was in progress (HCN, 2/21/05: Where were the environmentalists when Libby needed them most?). At a community meeting, I heard the managers tell officials and the […]
Posted inMarch 21, 2005: An Empire Built on Sand
Libby locals should have defended themselves
Let’s see if I have Ray Ring’s point of view right: Powerful resource extraction corporations spend years demonizing environmentalists. Not-very-sophisticated locals join the powerful and spend years speaking ill of “damn environmentalists.” Local enviros move on to other “opportunities.” Is Ray Ring telling us we should feel guilty for not assisting those whose lack of […]
Posted inMarch 21, 2005: An Empire Built on Sand
It’s capitalism, stupid
At a time when the morale of the environmental community is at such a low point, why do Ray Ring and the editor wish to feature a story casting aspersions and fomenting factional bickering? One is led to believe that behind every issue, especially here in Montana where I have lived and worked as an […]
Posted inMarch 21, 2005: An Empire Built on Sand
The environment is about all of us
I’d like to respond to one of your letter-writers, D.D. Sparks, in the Jan. 24, 2005, issue. Sparks hopes “that those who become so passionate about the environment realize there are other people in the world besides themselves.” I would have thought that any reader of High Country News would already know this fact, but […]
Posted inMarch 21, 2005: An Empire Built on Sand
Let’s bury the word ‘environmentalism’
I kept hoping as I read “The Death of Environmentalism” that Shellenberger and Nordhaus meant their title literally, that the repetitive thud of the word across their text would lead them to suggest burying the word. They didn’t. But I will. Let’s stop using “environmentalism.” It’s a lousy word, not least for its harsh embedded […]
Posted inMarch 21, 2005: An Empire Built on Sand
UFOs Over Galisteo and Other Stories of New Mexico’s History
UFOs Over Galisteo and Other Stories of New Mexico’s History Robert J. Tórrez, 160 pages, softcover $16.95. University of New Mexico Press, 2004. A retired state historian, Tórrez creates vivid vignettes of New Mexico’s past. He enlivens his accounts of arranged marriages, water disputes and stagecoaches with historical photos and documents. The book also contains […]
Posted inMarch 21, 2005: An Empire Built on Sand
State of the World 2005: Redefining Global Security
State of the World 2005: Redefining Global Security The Worldwatch Institute, 237 pages, softcover $18.95. W.W. Norton & Company, 2005. The Worldwatch Institute’s latest annual report offers insight into issues from nuclear weapons proliferation to renewable energy. In a chapter on water, researchers provide examples in which locals and religious organizations, as well as water […]
Posted inMarch 21, 2005: An Empire Built on Sand
Seeds of Deception
Seeds of Deception Jeffrey M. Smith, 280 pages, softcover $17.95, hardcover $27.95. Chelsea Green Publishing, 2003. Despite the reassurances of big biotech companies that genetically modified foods are safe and healthy, Jeffrey Smith says that just isn’t so. He investigates the many things that can go wrong with “Frankenstein foods,” explaining how unintended consequences can […]