To save room for a raft of imperiled species, one city is making sacrifices to the gods of sprawl. Not everyone thinks it’s going to be a happy ending
San Diego’s Habitat Triage
Posted inWotr
Trying out for the new sport of Extreme Canning
It’s getting harder and harder to be an “extreme” athlete. The ultra-fit among us aren’t just climbing all Western peaks over 14,000 feet; they’re climbing them in less than 10 days and doing it on snowboards, skis, bikes and in-line skates. All this requires thousands of dollars’ worth of gear and years of training. And […]
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To have and have not in Flagstaff, Arizona
I’m still appalled by the subject line of the e-mail I received a month ago. “Great news: we are homeless!” I didn’t know the address on the e-mail. Based on the subject line, I figured it was probably from a Democratic candidate informing me about a Bushite atrocity. I clicked open the e-mail to find […]
Posted inWotr
California’s growth machine fueled these disastrous wildfires
The wildfires that gnawed their way through drought-crisped Southern California are on a pace to establish a record for acreage charred and for the dollar value of structures and belongings destroyed. Perhaps this is no great feat in a state where homes worth $250,000 five years ago are worth twice that today. The monetary disaster […]
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Salmon go swoosh in the Northwest
It was Saturday, and we had shopping to do: groceries, eyeglasses, yard tools, and as we crisscrossed Portland to find deals, we were sucked into malls, lured by displays to purchase jeans and sports paraphernalia. Then, in the middle of the overcast Oregon afternoon, in the heart of Northwest cool known as the Pearl District, […]
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Leaving Las Vegas
I lived in Las Vegas recently for about a year, doing research at a large weapons-testing facility outside of town. Among all the places I’ve lived, from tropical islands to small towns and Western strip-mall communities, Las Vegas seemed uniquely American in its boosterism for get-rich-quick schemes, the sex industry and for the stupendous desert […]
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Ski resorts go for the green
Because ski resorts are beautiful in winter and green in summer, they have usually been considered good environmental citizens. But in the last few years, that perception has begun to erode. In 1997, there was the Earth Liberation Front’s terrorist attack on Vail’s Two Elks Lodge to protest the resort’s expansion into lynx habitat. Later, […]
Posted inOctober 27, 2003: The Gear Biz
Gas drilling blamed for smog
Why would Oklahoma City, a town of 500,000 people, have higher levels of some smog-forming hydrocarbons than famously hazy metropolises like Houston, Chicago and New York? A group of atmospheric scientists from the University of California, Irvine collected hundreds of air samples across a 1,000-mile-wide area to find out. Their conclusions, released in the Oct. […]
Posted inOctober 27, 2003: The Gear Biz
Right and wrong on public lands
With everything from invasive insects to energy developers threatening national forests, wildlife refuges and other public lands, it’s not hard to understand why conservationists are scowling a lot these days. But in From Conquest to Conservation, Michael Dombeck, Christopher Wood and Jack Williams argue that Americans, now more than ever, realize public lands are more […]
Posted inOctober 27, 2003: The Gear Biz
Calendar
The Water Education Foundation will present a one-day program, Climate Change and California Water Resources, in Sacramento, Calif., on Nov. 6. Scientists and government officials will discuss the regional effects of climate change in California and their implications for the state’s water supply. www.watereducation.org/briefings.asp. 916-444-6240 The organizers of Connecting Mountain Islands and Desert Seas have […]
Posted inOctober 27, 2003: The Gear Biz
Snowmaking and drought: a bad combination
Researchers at the University of Colorado, Boulder say that extended drought, coupled with mining pollution, could make for rocky winters at Colorado ski resorts. A recently released study published in the American Geophysical Union’s EOS Journal examines the Snake River Watershed in Summit County, Colo., where hotter weather threatens snow conditions at popular ski resorts […]
Posted inOctober 27, 2003: The Gear Biz
Bring on the anti-gravity backpacks
Gail Binkly’s memories of hiking in the “good old days” (for her, the 1980s) ring a lot of bells (HCN, 8/4/03: When did we become such gear-toting wimps?). But does she really prefer those heavy boots made of solid rock and worn jeans that stayed wet for three days after a downpour? How she got […]
Posted inOctober 27, 2003: The Gear Biz
A modest proposal for nuclear waste
Being in the county adjacent to Nye County, Nev., where Yucca Mountain may actually store nuclear waste one day, I am not at all comfortable knowing a mere 15 miles separates the counties. Even Carlsbad, N.M., seems too close for producing plutonium triggers for new bombs (HCN, 9/1/03: Courting the bomb). I propose an idea: […]
Posted inOctober 27, 2003: The Gear Biz
Carlsbad: A nuclear ghost town?
Is Carlsbad to become another Hanford, Wash., nuclear cleanup project (HCN, 9/1/03: Courting the bomb)? Hanford is now the largest U.S. government Superfund toxic site, requiring more engineers and technicians for cleanup than were ever used in its lifetime of producing plutonium. It took a large flow of water from the Columbia River to cool […]
Posted inOctober 27, 2003: The Gear Biz
New nukes aren’t necessarily evil
A friend brought us her copy of the Sept. 1, 2003, edition of High Country News, knowing that I would be interested in the article on Carlsbad’s bid for the new pit facility. Never have I seen a clearer illustration of the aphorism that where you stand depends upon where you sit. My viewpoint may be […]
Posted inOctober 27, 2003: The Gear Biz
Mining companies slapped with half the bill for Superfund mess
Environmentalists, Coeur d’Alene Tribe members and government attorneys are doing victory jigs over a federal court ruling regarding a north Idaho Superfund site. Even the mining companies seem fairly pleased with the outcome this time. The Coeur d’Alene Tribe and the federal government have wrangled in court with two mining companies for over a decade, […]
Posted inOctober 27, 2003: The Gear Biz
West Coast states tackle global warming
While the Bush administration takes a light-handed approach to curbing global warming, West Coast governors are determined to give the cause some regulatory punch. In September, outgoing California Gov. Gray Davis, in collaboration with Gov. Gary Locke, D-Wash., and Gov. Ted Kulongoski, D-Ore., announced a new, region-wide approach to slowing greenhouse gas emissions. The governors […]
Posted inOctober 27, 2003: The Gear Biz
A bright spot for illegal workers
About a half-million undocumented immigrant farmworkers may earn legal residency under a bill introduced in Congress in September. Unlike a host of similar efforts in the past, this bill appears likely to pass. “This is very historic,” says Will Hart, a spokesman for Idaho Sen. Larry Craig, R, who co-sponsored the Agricultural Jobs, Opportunity, Benefits […]
Posted inOctober 27, 2003: The Gear Biz
National monuments are here to stay
President Clinton’s national monuments have survived a legal assault by two conservative groups that sought to strip the areas of protection. On Oct. 6, the Supreme Court declined to hear arguments against six Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service-managed monuments created in 2000 and 2001. The monuments, including Grand Canyon-Parashant in Arizona and Giant […]
Posted inOctober 27, 2003: The Gear Biz
Follow-up
While the oil and gas industry is rubbing its hands in anticipation of a coalbed methane bonanza, Wall Street is counseling discretion (HCN, 5/26/03: A green light for gas drilling). On Oct. 2, a group of 13 “socially responsible” institutional investors — including the Calvert Group, U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray and Domini Social Investments — […]