When the aspens reached their peak color last fall, my friend Diane and I drove from our tiny, western Colorado town into the nearby mountains. We sat at the side of the road to enjoy the snow-dusted peaks, tumbling scree fields and golden-and-peach aspen forests. Soon enough, a truck pulling a camper with Washington state […]
Wanted: queer eye for the rural guy
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Here’s to an honest man
Chances are you’ve never heard of Jim Alderson, and I’m willing to wager that no toy company is going to model an action figure after him. He’s more than a little balding on top and he’s working on a middle-aged paunch. You won’t find charisma to match that of California’s movie-actor Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. But […]
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Have another pig-brain/beef-blood/chicken-spine hamburger
I ate my final burger the other day. It’s not that I don’t like burgers (my last one was juicy pure delight) and I don’t want to become a vegetarian (the tofu diet isn’t for me), but thanks to some recent discoveries, I no longer believe that my last burger, was, in fact, a burger. […]
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Bark beetles are gnawing their way through our ponderosa-pine forests
When Mike Wagner took Northern Arizona University students to the site where he was trapping bark beetles near Flagstaff, he expected to show them a simple lesson: Once freed from a funnel-trap, the insects would find a juniper tree and burrow into it. But as the entomologist tipped the trap, thousands of beetles poured out, […]
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No-growthers gain strength in Albuquerque
Albuquerque residents on Oct. 28 voted down a $52 million bond issue — the only bond issue to fail out of 10 on the ballot, and the first one to fail since 1985. The vote grabbed headlines because it meant the temporary defeat of plans to extend roads through a national monument dedicated to petroglyphs […]
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The ego has landed on the California coast
If you ever want to see the epitome of what we in the West call a “starter castle,” I recommend you visit close to the real thing, the Hearst estate on the California coast. This once-upon-a-time bastion of privilege conquered by the California State Park system sits on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Close […]
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The salting of the West – who cares?
If a Colorado mine were to dump a hundred thousand tons of chemical salts onto the ground, chances are good that residents nearby would be upset and local and state agencies would get on the mine operator’s case. Yet, the state of Colorado dumps 125,000 tons of chemical salts on its roads each year, and […]
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Idaho grows out of its cowboy boots
Idaho politicians love to conduct the nation’s business dressed in cowboy boots. Their boots aren’t just for walkin.’ On the capital’s marble floors they ring out an attitude of cowboy values and ornery independence, of things being different way out West. Loafers they are not. Daandy as they may be, cowboy boots reflect life in […]
Posted inDecember 22, 2003: Being Green in the Land of the Saints
Log onto Democracy!
Want to keep a closer eye on your state and federal lawmakers? Looking to find out more information about a bill before Congress? Eager to browse the hot topics debated in your state legislature? Look no further than www.statedemocracy.com. Run by the nonprofit State Democracy Foundation, the Web site allows users to compare how different […]
Posted inDecember 22, 2003: Being Green in the Land of the Saints
More than just a city on a river
In New Mexico, history is never an abstraction. Whether you are seeking shelter in a thick-walled adobe home, listening to the lilt of a native New Mexican’s words, tracing the path of acequias or tasting posole, you can sense history there. And there are few writers better able to tell that history than Marc Simmons. […]
Posted inDecember 22, 2003: Being Green in the Land of the Saints
Calendar
The annual Colorado Agricultural Forum for 2004, “Profits Outside the Box: Agri-Energy and Beyond,” will be held in Denver on Feb. 19. Speakers and breakout groups will discuss how Colorado agriculture can harness renewable energy and other innovations to stay profitable. www.coloradoagforum.com 303-477-0076 ext. 210 Where will you be when the sun rises? If it’s […]
Posted inDecember 22, 2003: Being Green in the Land of the Saints
Whose thousand words?
Print the Legend: Photography and the American West, is not another coffee-table gallery of black-and-white mountain vistas or solemn American Indian portraits. Rather, Martha Sandweiss’ book looks at how the new art of photography shaped the nation’s view of the West in the 19th century. Photos are not the accurate historical records they appear to […]
Posted inDecember 22, 2003: Being Green in the Land of the Saints
A disappointing story on Los Alamos
I write in response to your cover story on Los Alamos National Laboratory’s waste-cleanup practices (HCN, 11/24/03: New Mexico goes head-to-head with a nuclear juggernaut). I was most interested in how you would approach the subject, being a subscriber to HCN and a great fan for roughly a decade, a conservation activist in northern New […]
Posted inDecember 22, 2003: Being Green in the Land of the Saints
Story was biased against Los Alamos
Laura Paskus’ one-sided article, “New Mexico goes head-to-head with a nuclear juggernaut,” has largely parroted the viewpoint of the local anti-LANL (Los Alamos National Laboratory) organizations (HCN, 11/24/03: New Mexico goes head-to-head with a nuclear juggernaut). I am a LANL employee, although the opinions expressed here are my own. The problems with this article begin […]
Posted inDecember 22, 2003: Being Green in the Land of the Saints
Story gave San Diego plan short shrift
The article on the San Diego Multiple Species Conservation Program (MSCP) paints an overly negative picture of the effort (HCN, 11/10/03: San Diego’s Habitat Triage). The MSCP took a fragmented ecosystem within a major metropolitan area — otherwise on the road to oblivion — and created an interconnected reserve system. Indeed, the most developable large […]
Posted inDecember 22, 2003: Being Green in the Land of the Saints
Cattalo could get the boot
The verdict is in — genetically speaking — on a troublesome bison herd in the Grand Canyon. The state-owned bison herd has been straying from its range north of the canyon and venturing into Grand Canyon National Park (HCN, 4/28/03: Bison arrive in Grand Canyon uninvited). The state wants to leave the herd on the […]
Posted inDecember 22, 2003: Being Green in the Land of the Saints
Wildlife win one in Yellowstone
As part of a program to reduce conflicts between cattle and wildlife, the National Wildlife Federation has negotiated two important land deals with ranchers in the Yellowstone National Park region. In Wyoming in August, the federation raised $250,000 from other conservation groups, foundations and donors to buy out 77,000 acres of the Blackrock-Spread Creek grazing […]
Posted inDecember 22, 2003: Being Green in the Land of the Saints
A near-miss for California’s clean-air rules
California’s newest clean-air law narrowly escaped an attempt to shoot it down in the U.S. Congress. Faced with the worst air pollution in the nation, the state has led the way in enacting tough air-quality regulations. But although California has made progress in combating auto emissions, pollution from small engines like lawnmowers and weed whackers […]
Posted inDecember 22, 2003: Being Green in the Land of the Saints
Mormons win Martin’s Cove
Culminating a five-year effort, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has gained control of Martin’s Cove — 940 acres of federal land — where several dozen Mormon immigrants died in a blizzard in 1856. The church considers the site, southwest of Casper, Wyo., sacred and sought to buy it (HCN, 9/30/02: This land […]
Posted inDecember 22, 2003: Being Green in the Land of the Saints
Clean water changes could sully Western streambeds
Western rivers might be left high and dry — and polluted — if Bush administration officials push through a rule change to the Clean Water Act. In November, a senior government official leaked a draft of the proposed change to the Los Angeles Times. Under the new rule, the Clean Water Act would apply only […]