California has agreed to buy the site of one of the most controversial housing projects ever proposed in the state — and to preserve the land as open space. Since 1986, a series of home builders has tried to develop the 3,000-acre Ahmanson Ranch, north of Los Angeles on the Ventura County line. But the […]
Big development gets bought out
Posted inDecember 22, 2003: Being Green in the Land of the Saints
Follow-up
During his introductory address, the new Environmental Protection Agency administrator, Mike Leavitt, told of a visit to President Bush’s Crawford ranch: “I’m from the West, and I know love of the land when I see it,” he said. Leavitt then announced plans to implement Bush’s Clear Skies Initiative, which, among other things, allows coal-fired power […]
Posted inDecember 22, 2003: Being Green in the Land of the Saints
Heard Around the West
CALIFORNIA Remember that New Yorker cartoon, the one where a plump pussycat looks at its behind in a mirror and asks: “Does this collar make my butt look too big?” Well, humans are passing on their overeating habits to pets. Medical researchers warn we’re also bad influences on wildlife: Bears in the Lake Tahoe area […]
Posted inDecember 22, 2003: Being Green in the Land of the Saints
A gift of supreme excellence
It is good to be writing again. The mountains have snow, the air is cold, the sun is shining. It is a good November day, and I have been thinking of this idea of sovereignty, an almost foreign word here in Antonito, Colo., where there is so much poverty, and where most of us, to […]
Posted inDecember 22, 2003: Being Green in the Land of the Saints
Planning for the new rural Idaho
Recently, an acclaimed young writer and a world-renowned opera singer charmed a packed house in Driggs, Idaho. What were they doing there instead of in a place a hundred times larger? The answer tells us something about the future of rural Idaho. The writer was Ann Patchett, whose most recent novel, Bel Canto, draws its […]
Posted inDecember 22, 2003: Being Green in the Land of the Saints
Biologist busted for moving endangered cacti
A darling of developers, consultant gets five years’ probation and $5,000 fine
Posted inDecember 22, 2003: Being Green in the Land of the Saints
King coal is back
With natural gas supplies stretched thin, and the Bush administration loosening environmental regulations, energy companies are turning their attention back to coal
Posted inDecember 22, 2003: Being Green in the Land of the Saints
Fires take toll on San Diego’s wildlife
Rare butterfly is likely extinct, while imperiled gnatcatcher loses a chunk of habitat
Posted inDecember 22, 2003: Being Green in the Land of the Saints
National preserve is in hot water
Some say proposal to build a geothermal power plant in the Valles Caldera is a ploy to extort money from the Forest Service
Posted inDecember 22, 2003: Being Green in the Land of the Saints
West Nile isn’t just for people
Coalbed methane development may be helping spread disease to wild birds
Posted inDecember 22, 2003: Being Green in the Land of the Saints
Massive logging plan shakes Northwest
One of the largest timber sales in history uncovers old animosity, and undermines the Roadless Rule
Posted inDecember 22, 2003: Being Green in the Land of the Saints
Toppling monoliths in Mormon Country
It’s all too easy to stereotype Mormons as conservative, anti-environment and unquestioning of their leaders. Kudos to those within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who are breaking out of that stereotype — those who are proving that there is room within the faith for diversity and debate. As Rosemary Winters writes in […]
Posted inDecember 22, 2003: Being Green in the Land of the Saints
Being Green in the Land of the Saints
In the heartland of the Mormon Church, a new movement is taking root
Posted inWotr
The flu comes to visit
Why do people come over, fling themselves on my couch and croak and quack about how sick they are? Really. There is a bad cold here making its rounds through the houses carried by messengers like these I hand them cans of chicken soup with rice and urge them to GO AND TAKE CARE OF […]
Posted inWotr
Succumbing to globalism, one cup at a time
Not long ago and with little fanfare, Montana lost one of its distinctions. It ceased to be one of the last few states without a Starbucks Coffee Shop. Last year, only six states didn’t have a stand-alone store. The offending shop arrived in August in Helena on Prospect Avenue. The greenish copper rotunda of the […]
Posted inWotr
Why I love one of Utah’s most remote places
I’ve always been attracted to parts of Utah that others describe as being a whole lot of nothing, godforsaken or not-the-end-of-the-earth-but-you-can-see-it-from-there. I think our preference for landscapes can be just as trite as our preference for beautiful people hawking products in magazines or delivering the mundane news on television. We like pretty. Not me. So-called […]
Posted inWotr
You can’t stuff a stocking with chainsaw fuel, or can you?
It’s in my genes, like birds heeding the instinct to fly south for the winter; a mysterious force possesses me every December, luring me to, where else? The mall. But reject these instincts I must, for no Christmas gift would disgust my environmental extremist husband more than something from J.C. Penney. I love my husband […]
Posted inWotr
The most vulnerable farmworkers are the least protected
Jose and Luis are only 10-and 11-years old, but they are already expert cherry pickers. After three summers working in the orchards with their father, they know how to pluck cherries without harming the tree bud. They know how to avoid the tractors that speed through the slender rows of trees. They know that long […]
Posted inWotr
Colorado needs to break its cigarette habit
To stanch the state’s financial bleeding, Colorado Gov. Bill Owens wants to get a quick hit of $800 million owed by Big Tobacco instead of stretching out annual payments for a total of $2.1 billion. Meanwhile, money for anti-smoking programs remains in limbo. This is, at the least, a curious moral dilemma. Colorado is getting […]