In the 1870s, a Salish Indian brave named Walking Coyote led a handful of bison calves from the Great Plains westward to the home of his people in Montana’s Mission Valley. Some traditions say he did so because he saw that Europeans were hunting the beast to extinction. Bison proliferated in the lush valley, which […]
Giving back the bison
Posted inWotr
Protecting fake wilderness goes against the law
Environmental groups are going “wild” over the Interior Department’s recent decisions to recognize Western road claims and chuck out the Clinton administration’s wilderness study policy. Before getting into the angry rhetoric, however, a bit of history is in order. This entire flapdoodle hinges on interpretation of two laws, Revised Statute 2477 — RS 2477 for […]
Posted inWotr
There’s a way to end the RS 2477 road mess
The West’s public lands face many 21st century problems, including pressure from population growth and energy development. But they also face an old problem — the legacy of the Mining Law of 1866, which granted rights-of-way “for the construction of highways” on federal lands not set aside for other uses. That grant became section 2477 […]
Posted inWotr
Who needs Superfund when we’ve got reality TV?
By the end of the year, only $28 million will be left in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund account. Superfund pays for the reclamation of abandoned toxic waste sites, and $28 million barely affords a study just to figure out how to clean up one of the 1,200 deserted dumps wasting away in American […]
Posted inJune 9, 2003: How we see the West
Ray Ring’s Wrong
So Ray Ring wants us to stand back and let the forests burn (HCN, 5/26/03: A losing battle)? Get real, dude. Even if fires of the past were truly catastrophic, huge, epic or whatever, and are therefore ecologically desirable today (I disagree), the fact remains that there is a modern civilization now in place in […]
Posted inJune 9, 2003: How we see the West
Inside HCN
New from Writers on the Range “The jacket of a popular author’s book says that she lives on a ‘40-acre ranch.’ No real rancher would care to make that statement. Similarly, only uninformed journalists could write, ‘Sen. Jones lives on his 10-acre emu ranch.’ The correct way to write that sentence would be, ‘Mr. Jones […]
Posted inJune 9, 2003: How we see the West
Look before you eat
Surely, we would feel better if we knew that food companies were doing everything possible to minimize food hazards, and that the government was looking out for our interests and making sure food companies were doing what they were supposed to. In the absence of such reassurance, we lose trust. — Marion Nestle, Safe Food […]
Posted inJune 9, 2003: How we see the West
Women take the wheel
In the 1990s, the bumper sticker “Thelma and Louise Live!” sprouted on mini-vans driven by mothers in suburbs across America, proclaiming a craving for a journey beyond the kids’ soccer fields. The 19 women writers who contributed to A Road of Her Own: Women’s Journeys in the West have peeled out of the daily commute, […]
Posted inJune 9, 2003: How we see the West
Glen Canyon Voices
Glen Canyon is such a compelling intellectual topic because it is full of contradictions: It has been destroyed, and yet a movement is afoot to bring it back … it was a place perhaps equal in grandeur to Grand Canyon, and yet it was dammed and inundated with only the faintest puff of dissent; it […]
Posted inJune 9, 2003: How we see the West
Calendar
Western Writers of America and Western State College are hosting the 3rd Annual Writers Workshop in Gunnison, Colo., on July 10-14. To register for Writing the West, go to www.writingthewest.com or call Larry at 970-943-3035. Head to John Day, Ore., for the fifth annual SolWest Renewable Energy Fair on July 25-27. The fair will feature […]
Posted inJune 9, 2003: How we see the West
Tribes recognized at Little Bighorn
This summer, the National Park Service will finally acknowledge a missing chapter of history at the Little Bighorn National Monument. On June 25, the 127th anniversary of Custer’s Last Stand, the Park Service will unveil “Peace Through Unity” — a memorial to the American Indians who defeated General George Custer in battle in eastern Montana. […]
Posted inJune 9, 2003: How we see the West
Barren, wild and worthless? Anything but
For naturalist Susan Tweit, moving to New Mexico meant learning to love the harsh beauty of a landscape that one haggard 19th century surveyor dismissed as “barren, wild, and worthless.” That bitter phrase became the title of Tweit’s eloquent 1995 memoir on life in the Chihuahuan Desert. Taken in by her masterful prose, readers, too, […]
Posted inJune 9, 2003: How we see the West
Gulf of California Dreamin’
No river in the United States has been as aggressively seized for human use as the Colorado — and shelves of books have been written to tell the story. But what becomes of the river once it flows out of the U.S. and into Mexico has received considerably less print. Now, Defenders of Wildlife has […]
Posted inJune 9, 2003: How we see the West
Happy Sounds in Arizona
Yee ha. I picked up the new HCN and began making little inarticulate whimpers of sheer pleasure. The new design is wonderful, classy, befitting the amazing writers who grace its pages. Mary Sojourner Flagstaff, Arizona This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Happy Sounds in Arizona.
Posted inJune 9, 2003: How we see the West
A better read
Just received my May 26th issue. The “New Look.” Awesome, dude! Well done. Kudos. Your farsighted reporting is much easier to read for this nearsighted person who now wears reading glasses! Keep up the great work. I have always looked forward to each issue … now, more than ever. Karole Lee Clancy, Montana This article appeared in […]
Posted inJune 9, 2003: How we see the West
Go Natives!
Thanks so much for the recent cover article on native vs. exotic plant species (HCN, 5/12/03: Planting time). The author effectively described ways that invasive grasses damage ecosystems — very well explained for the lay reader. And I love the positive side that the article focused on. I didn’t realize how many of the exotics […]
Posted inJune 9, 2003: How we see the West
The grief is real
I realize that it’s slightly odd to respond to another letter, but Wayne A. Gilbert’s observations in the April 28 edition moved me. He said, “I realized my weariness was really sorrow and loss and longing. My loss of faith in public acts wasn’t some moral failing; it was a symptom of my grief.” I […]
Posted inJune 9, 2003: How we see the West
The best memorial
Responding to fellow soldier Martin Murie’ s proposal to restore the natural (wilderness) balance of the World War II Camp Hale military site (HCN, 3/31/03: A citizen soldier looks beyond war), I can clearly remember two years of great mountain military training there prior to our commitment to the Italian theatre in 1944. I certainly […]
Posted inJune 9, 2003: How we see the West
A dirty use for Clean Water Act money?
Watershed managers in northern New Mexico are mounting a pre-emptive strike this spring with a forest-thinning project that aims to reduce wildfire risk. In February, the Forest Service began a thinning project in the Santa Fe National Forest, which surrounds the city’s municipal water supply. The Santa Fe Watershed Association, a local grassroots group, secured […]
Posted inJune 9, 2003: How we see the West
County commission stands down on gas wells
Last summer, Colorado’s Delta County Commission made history when it denied state-approved drilling permits for four out of five coalbed methane wells (HCN, 9/2/02: One Colorado County Takes a Stand). The commissioners cited concerns about drilling’s impacts on water quality. But in May, they backed down. County Attorney Brad Kolman says they didn’t have much […]