COLORADO Avalanches were so frequent this winter in the San Juan Mountains of western Colorado that for days the town of Silverton and its winter population of 400 were cut off. In early January, two miles of the highway leading to the town became “entombed” by snow, reports the Denver Post, as 62 avalanches pummeled […]
Heard around the West
Posted inFebruary 21, 2005: Have Environmentalists Failed the West?
Evolution of a timber family
My family owns a timber company in Washington state, and for us, money grows on trees. Every time we buy something, we see the physical signs of our consumption in our backyard. Paying for my recent college education, for example, took about 300 truckloads of second-growth Douglas fir, cedar and hemlock trees. A $60 pair […]
Posted inFebruary 21, 2005: Have Environmentalists Failed the West?
Let’s not ram more boats through the Grand Canyon
Each year, nearly 5 million people visit the Grand Canyon, most of them traveling to the South Rim, where they spend as much time looking for a parking place as they do looking at the canyon. Only a small fraction venture below the rim on a trail. Another 22,000 people a year see the canyon […]
Posted inFebruary 21, 2005: Have Environmentalists Failed the West?
Buildup to disaster: A Libby timeline
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Where were the environmentalists when Libby needed them most?“ ASBESTOS 1916 — In an old mine shaft about seven miles from Libby, prospector Edgar Alley notices his candle causing a strange rock to expand; he’s discovered veins of vermiculite, which contains tremolite asbestos. 1939 […]
Posted inFebruary 21, 2005: Have Environmentalists Failed the West?
Nun calls the faithful to an ‘ecological ministry’
NAME Joan Brown VOCATION Head of the Ecological Ministry of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, Order of St. Francis AGE 51 HOME BASE Albuquerque, New Mexico MOST NOTED FOR Taking on social and environmental issues with a Catholic sensibility INSPIRED BY Catholic priest and philosopher Thomas Berry, who said, “If we lose the grandeur of […]
Posted inFebruary 21, 2005: Have Environmentalists Failed the West?
Rancher wins big in libel suit against enviros
Calling itself “nature’s legal eagles,” the Center for Biological Diversity has earned a national reputation by suing the federal government. Largely through its lawsuits, the center has forced the listing of fully one-quarter of the 1,264 plants and animals now protected under the Endangered Species Act. So it was no surprise to find the Tucson-based […]
Posted inFebruary 21, 2005: Have Environmentalists Failed the West?
Resort homes threaten scenic Mono Lake
Developers around California watch to see if a county can trump federal preservation rules
Posted inFebruary 21, 2005: Have Environmentalists Failed the West?
Texas water case is ‘takings’ on steroids
Farmers want $500 million in damages from Mexico, but critics say the water wasn’t theirs in the first place
Posted inFebruary 21, 2005: Have Environmentalists Failed the West?
A bold, if impractical, new plan for Yellowstone bison
A new governor sparks debate with a controversial solution
Posted inFebruary 21, 2005: Have Environmentalists Failed the West?
Dear friends
FIGHTING THE GOOD FIGHT Eric Barlow, the brother of HCN board member Michele Barlow, made it onto Vanity Fair’s list of the “Best Stewards of 2004,” for his work protecting the Barlow family’s Wyoming ranch — and others like it — from oil and gas development. Eric, a veterinarian and former Marine, has been a […]
Posted inFebruary 21, 2005: Have Environmentalists Failed the West?
An identity crisis, a decade or two late
“Environmental ‘bad boys’ predict end of movement,” reads The New York Times headline. The story is one of many in recent months about Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus, rabble-rousing California media consultants who have sent environmentalists into a tizzy with their essay, “The Death of Environmentalism.” The essay argues that environmentalists have become increasingly isolated […]
Posted inWotr
Bring on those ‘redneck hippies’
There’s a lot of buzz these days about a “creative class,” the discovery of Richard Florida, a professor of economic development at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Florida’s ideas are laid out in one of those books more discussed than read: The Rise of the Creative Class and How It’s Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and […]
Posted inWotr
The Great White Father comes up with a new scam
On long winter nights beside the Knife and Little Big Horn rivers, tribal elders still sit around fires and tell their grandchildren stories to help them make sense of the world. It’s a custom as old as silence. Here’s a story: A black man, a white man and an Indian arrive at the Pearly Gates, […]
Posted inWotr
Environmentalists do a great job of preaching to the choir
This is an open letter to Yoga Lady: Nothing personal, but you’re making it hard to sell the green lifestyle. I first beheld you a few months ago, gracing the invitations that a local environmental group gave us when we agreed to host an “eat local” party at our house. They were professionally designed invitations […]
Posted inWotr
A rotten environmental legacy is in the making
Though consumed by the day-to-day duties of office, deep in the mind of every American president must be questions about how his decisions will be dissected by historians in the decades and even centuries after he leaves office. Presidents, especially those in their second term, usually turn a watchful eye to their so-called legacies. The […]
Posted inWotr
Property rights have become the new sacred cow
These are wild and radical times in parts of the “conservative” West. It’s not big news that property rights are a powerful issue, or that plenty of Westerners would like to expand them. But the current discourse leaves you wondering if there’s room left for any balancing values. That’s especially true in my state after […]
Posted inWotr
Kerry blue and snow white: Ski counties vote Democratic
The recent Snowdown festival in my town of Durango, Colo., celebrated with silly costumes, a parade, risque humor and even some events centered on snow. People threw themselves down the slopes on everything from skis and snowboards to kayaks, bicycles and even unicycles. The enthusiastic diversity shows how ski areas have evolved, and it also […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 2005: The Asphalt Graveyard
California Poem
California Poem Eleni Sikelianos 200 pages, paperback, $16. Coffee House Press, 2004. “The dental imprint of California / is gravelly, epileptic, spasm / of a sea-born bungled broken Coastal Range of ridges & spurs with localized names …” writes California native Eleni Sikelianos in her new book full of poems, funky photos and collages, and […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 2005: The Asphalt Graveyard
Mountain Harmonies
Mountain Harmonies Howard L. Smith 192 pages, hardcover, $23.95. University of New Mexico Press, 2004. In Mountain Harmonies, Howard Smith offers more than musings on environmental philosophy: He crafts a useful guidebook of sorts that takes readers from Glacier National Park to New Mexico’s Gila Wilderness. Whether you travel a thousand miles or two blocks […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 2005: The Asphalt Graveyard
The Pine Island Paradox
The Pine Island Paradox Kathleen Dean Moore 251 pages, hardcover, $20. Milkweed Editions, 2004. Philosopher Kathleen Dean Moore’s latest book is like a basket of seashells and pinecones: Each essay is a precise, self-contained bit of truth. Her central theme, that the well-being of humans cannot be separated from that of the rest of the […]