Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “The One-Party West.” At a time when the United States is deeply — and evenly — divided politically, the Rocky Mountain West is firmly in the grasp of the Republican Party. Thank goodness. I believe Republican leaders are better equipped to meet the challenges […]
Republicans need to claim the environmental middle ground
Posted inApril 12, 2004: The One-Party West
Wrecking homes for open space: Philanthropist Jennifer Speers
MOAB, UTAH — Call her a home-wrecker, and Jennifer Speers just laughs. But the title fits. In February 2003, Speers purchased the “Rio Colorado at Dewey,” a 115-acre commercial development near Moab, that included a new adobe home with spectacular views of the Colorado River. Just a few months later, she leveled the $600,000 house. […]
Posted inApril 12, 2004: The One-Party West
Colorado Senate race steps into national spotlight
Democrats look to regain seat and hold the line in the U.S. Senate
Posted inApril 12, 2004: The One-Party West
Hands-on science education takes a hit
The Bush administration, accused of manipulating science, also has a hand in what’s being taught in school
Posted inApril 12, 2004: The One-Party West
Are mountain lions in danger of disappearing?
The West’s mountain lions are being hunted right out of their habitat
Posted inApril 12, 2004: The One-Party West
Dear friends
Heat wave It’s hard to believe that just over three weeks ago we got a call from nearby Telluride, Colo., saying an avalanche had wiped out the town’s power supply. Kelly Hearn, managing editor of The Telluride Watch, told us that the area’s main power line was buried under 20 feet of ice and snow, […]
Posted inApril 12, 2004: The One-Party West
In search of political dialogue
About a decade ago, I was one of several observers of the Western political scene who latched on to a rather simple theory: With the demise of traditional industries, such as mining and logging, the West — the fastest growing and most beautiful region in the country — would soon attract scads of environmentally and […]
Posted inApril 12, 2004: The One-Party West
The One-Party West
With one foot in the cities and one foot in the country, Western Democrats can put hope back into political life
Posted inWotr
Watch out Mars, we don’t treat frontiers with respect
The same day President Bush announced his plan to “continue the journey” into space by colonizing the moon and heading for Mars, I stood in line at the grocery store and thought about space exploration as just another excuse to head ever Westward, another distraction for troubles at home, another frontier to conquer and leave […]
Posted inWotr
Bush is audacious, but should that be surprising?
Indulge a small fantasy: It is 1993, and Bill Clinton, about to become the first Democratic president in 12 years, meets with the men who control his party’s majorities in Congress. “Mr. President,” say Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell and House Speaker Tom Foley, “you are our leader. You make the final decisions. We have […]
Posted inWotr
Saving ranchlands doesn’t mean saving the rancher
Few environmental issues have stirred up as much dust in the West as the debate over livestock grazing. “Cattle ruin the land,” shouts one side. “Environmentalists commit cultural genocide against ranchers,” shouts the other. In the early 1990s, a small group of conservationists looked beyond the hyperbole and found a third approach: supporting ranchers who […]
Posted inWotr
Motorized recreation belongs in the backcountry
I’ve had motorcycles in some form, on-or-off-road, since I was 11 years old. That’s how I went fishing or just exploring, dodging logging trucks as I gallivanted through the Flathead National Forest in Montana. It was, and still is, great fun; try it sometime. That’s not to say that there aren’t problems with motorized recreation. […]
Posted inWotr
Off-road vehicles are chewing up our public lands
It’s hard to find anybody these days who’d even try to argue that off-road vehicles don’t damage public lands throughout the West. The U.S. Department of Agriculture concluded in 1999 that “with an increase of off-highway vehicle traffic, i.e., motorcycles, four-wheel drive vehicles, all-terrain vehicles, the Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service have observed […]
Posted inWotr
Thank you, Sierra Club
The last time the Sierra Club was shaken into life, it was at the vigorous hands of the late David Brower. He took an insular, elite conservation group and made it grassroots, activist and environmentalist. The Sierra Club was transformed because Brower led it to act. The club first saved Dinosaur National Monument in Utah […]
Posted inMarch 29, 2004: Who Will Take Over the Ranch?
Living with the wild
When houses, driveways and garages colonize once-remote locales, the critters already living there might become muted, but they don’t go away. In The Raccoon Next Door: Getting Along With Urban Wildlife, Gary Bogue, former curator of the Lindsay Wildlife Museum in Walnut Creek, Calif., tells how to co-exist with the wild animals, birds and insects […]
Posted inMarch 29, 2004: Who Will Take Over the Ranch?
Calendar
Want to get to know the Grand Canyon a little better? Then take a class with the Grand Canyon Field Institute, the nonprofit partner of the Grand Canyon National Park. Throughout the year, the Institute offers classes such as “Women’s Rim-to-Rim Backpack,” “Wilderness First Responder Training” and photography and archaeology trips. For more information or […]
Posted inMarch 29, 2004: Who Will Take Over the Ranch?
Asbestos beyond Libby city limits
Since Andrew Schneider and David McCumber broke the story of Libby, Mont., in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, what began as local news about miners and their families dying of asbestosis has mushroomed into a national health disaster. Now, in their new book, An Air That Kills, they expose the asbestos industry’s deadly impact on the lives […]
Posted inMarch 29, 2004: Who Will Take Over the Ranch?
Pesticides are killing frogs
Last July, Dr. Donald F. Anthrop wrote a letter, “Pesticides killing Frogs? Poppycock” (HCN, 7/7/03: Pesticides killing Frogs? Poppycock), criticizing an earlier report by Cosmo Garvin (HCN, 5/26/03) about possible effects of pesticides on frog populations. At the end of Dr. Anthrop’s letter, he stated: “This is a sorry excuse for scientific research.” I think […]
Posted inMarch 29, 2004: Who Will Take Over the Ranch?
My father, the kestrel
Great essay by Andrew Becker, “My great-grandfather the crow killer” (HCN, 3/1/04: My great-grandfather the crow killer). My father — a 40-year employee with the National Park Service — was known far and wide for his passion and skills in “birding” (bird-watching). Since his passing over a decade ago, I have often noticed him watching […]
Posted inMarch 29, 2004: Who Will Take Over the Ranch?
Don’t blame the immigrants
In response to Mr. Lamm: Immigration is NOT the environmental issue (HCN, 2/16/04: Why I’m running: Immigration is the environmental issue). To blame the trashing of our environment on immigrants is not unlike the attempt to link Iraq to 9/11; it rides popular sentiment to further a dark agenda. The real environmental issue is consumption, […]