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 […]
Pesticides are killing frogs
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, […]
Posted inMarch 29, 2004: Who Will Take Over the Ranch?
Overpopulation affects everything
I have just rejoined the Sierra Club so that I might support Richard D. Lamm’s bid for a seat on its board of directors. His position on the immigration/population issues is unassailable (HCN, 2/16/04: Why I’m running: Immigration is the environmental issue). The fact that overpopulation’s looming threat to environmental health is worldwide should not […]
Posted inMarch 29, 2004: Who Will Take Over the Ranch?
Follow-up
Republican hounds are already after the Democratic fox. When presidential hopeful John Kerry told an online environmental news service, “That black stuff is hurting us,” he went on to say that America’s dependence on oil is “hurting our health … cost(ing) us unbelievable security disadvantages … and contributing to global warming.” Within hours, Reps. Richard […]
Posted inMarch 29, 2004: Who Will Take Over the Ranch?
Heard around the West
CALIFORNIA Sea lions don’t usually venture inland — particularly 65 miles from the Pacific Ocean — but that’s what a hefty 300-pounder did recently in California. It was first spotted crawling in the middle of the road in the San Joaquin Valley, reports The Associated Press. One theory is that somebody “dropped it” there. A […]
Posted inMarch 29, 2004: Who Will Take Over the Ranch?
Bush is a man of his word: He’s 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 both Houses of Congress. “Mr. President,” say Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell and House Speaker Tom Foley, in unison, “you are our leader. We hope […]
Posted inMarch 29, 2004: Who Will Take Over the Ranch?
One national park could tell the truth about the West
The Black Canyon in western Colorado is one of the world’s most splendid examples of the depths to which erosion and uplift can go. A steep gash in ancient granite, nearly 3,000 feet deep — only 40 feet wide at its narrowest, and not a whole lot wider at its rim — the Black Canyon […]
Posted inMarch 29, 2004: Who Will Take Over the Ranch?
Biology: The missing science
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Who will take over the ranch?“ The Gunnison Ranchland Conservation Legacy and other groups around the West are spending millions of dollars on conservation easements to ensure that ranches are not subdivided. But beyond the ranches themselves, what are the easements protecting? Do ranch […]
Posted inMarch 29, 2004: Who Will Take Over the Ranch?
Not just a ranch: Bucks and acres
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Who will take over the ranch?“ If most people looked at the Adobe Ranch, they’d see a meadow with a creek and willows running through it and sagebrush grasslands rising to pine forests. But Carl Palmer sees a distressed asset that he and his […]
Posted inMarch 29, 2004: Who Will Take Over the Ranch?
Connecting Indian Country: Talk-show host Harlan McKosato
ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO — Up on the third floor of Oñate Hall, the broadcast center for radio station KUNM-FM at the University of New Mexico, a pungent, distinctive aroma hangs in the midday air. It seems out of place in the halls of what looks like a nondescript college office building. “Did you smell the […]
Posted inMarch 29, 2004: Who Will Take Over the Ranch?
New Mexicans take a stand against oil and gas
The fight to keep drillers off Otero Mesacould set the tone for the November election
Posted inMarch 29, 2004: Who Will Take Over the Ranch?
California scores a goal for perchlorate cleanup
But will the public or the defense industry come out ahead?
Posted inMarch 29, 2004: Who Will Take Over the Ranch?
Dear friends
An important anniversary On Sept. 3, the Wilderness Act will turn 40 years old — an anniversary that comes as the Bush administration’s shift away from wildlands protection has highlighted just how political wilderness can be. And that’s exactly what the Wallace Stegner Center’s Ninth Annual Symposium is all about. “Wilderness: Preserving Nature in a […]
Posted inMarch 29, 2004: Who Will Take Over the Ranch?
The great ranch lands sell-off
Few issues over the years have stirred up as much dust in the pages of High Country News as the debate over ranching and livestock grazing. “Cattle ruin the land,” shouts one side. “Anti-grazing environmentalists commit cultural genocide against ranchers,” shouts the other. Former HCN publisher Ed Marston decided to look beyond the tiresome hyperbole […]
Posted inMarch 29, 2004: Who Will Take Over the Ranch?
Who will take over the ranch?
As a real estate frenzy grips the West, conservationists scramble to save a disappearing landscape
Posted inWotr
Era of the sage grouse is coming to an end
Sage grouse were an important part of this Wyoming ranch kid’s early life. My dad’s place included a range of sage-covered hills, and on those hills and many more between the ranch and foothills of the Wind River Mountain Range, there were thousands of sage grouse we sometimes called sage hens, or sage chickens. The […]
Posted inWotr
Confessions of a wolf addict
Hi, my name is Amy, and I’m a wolfaholic. I know others like me are out there. They’re driving cars with bumper stickers crying “Little Red Riding Hood Lied.” Their walls display dreamy paintings of wolves that look gentler than Gandhi. My wolfaholism manifests itself in a different way: I’m addicted to watching wolves. It […]
Posted inWotr
Judges tie themselves in knots when it comes to the West
Liberals have had their runs at dominating the federal court system, now it’s the Republicans’ turn. It’s not a sport, but it has some spectacular gyrations: Call it judicial flip-flopping. Most recently, it’s played by federal judges in Wyoming and Washington, D.C. — one ordering the National Park Service to ban snowmobiles in Yellowstone Park, […]
Posted inWotr
You can’t hurry love in the rural West
An intriguing piece of mail showed up in my post office box. It was a newsletter from the alumni association of my graduate school inviting me to a Denver-area event called “speed dating.” For 30 bucks, “singles get to meet several age-matched counterparts for timed (and discreetly chaperoned) encounters” among graduates from a select group […]