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 […]
The grief is real
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 […]
Posted inJune 9, 2003: How we see the West
Mammoth airport expansion on hold
Conservationists recently won a round in their fight to curb expansion at Mammoth Mountain Ski Area. In April, a U.S. District Court judge ruled that the Federal Aviation Administration violated federal law when it chose not to conduct a full-scale environmental impact statement on the proposal to expand Mammoth-Yosemite Airport on the east side of […]
Posted inJune 9, 2003: How we see the West
Park Service guts budget to fight terrorism
The National Park Service plans to cut millions of dollars in trail and building repairs to cover its share of the “war on terror.” Since 2001, the Park Service has moved more of its rangers to parks with international borders and high-profile icon parks such as the Statue of Liberty. As rangers are reassigned, their […]
Posted inJune 9, 2003: How we see the West
The Latest Bounce
The nation will now be safe — from endangered species such as red-legged frogs, southwestern willow flycatchers and manatees. Congress has exempted the military from the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act (HCN, 3/31/03: While the nation goes to war, the Pentagon lobs bombs at environmental laws). Although miffed that environmental rollbacks […]
Posted inJune 9, 2003: How we see the West
Heard Around the West
CALIFORNIA If you protest acts of violence, does that make you a violent person? The answer is yes, according to the California Anti-Terrorism Information Center. The center warned Oakland police that an anti-war protest planned for the city’s port might turn violent, even though there was no evidence that demonstrators intended to do anything but […]
Posted inJune 9, 2003: How we see the West
Why I fight: The coming gas explosion in the West
Here’s what I once believed: that if the president knew about the damage done to our land by the energy industry, the damage would cease. I once believed that if you could show that industry can extract gas without damaging land right near us — as it does on the Southern Ute Indian Reservation, and […]
Posted inJune 9, 2003: How we see the West
Seeing the mysterious in the everyday
Someday, everything is gonna be different / When I paint my masterpiece. — Bob Dylan It’s late at night in the green springtime, and I’m wide awake in the studio, Van Morrison on the CD player and a pastel painting slowly coming to life on the easel before me. Hayfields and a line of cottonwoods, […]
Posted inJune 9, 2003: How we see the West
Love and loathing on the interstate highways
At a conference several years ago, we were given crayons and sheets of white paper and asked to draw our visions of utopia. This was in the West, so of course a great many rustic cabins in meadows far removed from civilization were sketched onto these sheets. Not mine. Yes, of course, I had hills […]
Posted inJune 9, 2003: How we see the West
Running home
It’s been four years since I touched human bone, since I had silt and clay stuck beneath my fingernails and inside the cracked skin of my knuckles — silt and clay that had cradled bones for hundreds of years. I used to work as a contract archaeologist, scanning the landscape for petroglyphs and fire rings, […]
Posted inJune 9, 2003: How we see the West
A ‘nature girl’ remembers a dying lumber town
I never got over Hilt. It is as real to me now, when it no longer exists, as it was when I was 3 years old, or 6, or 12. I see it, sometimes, with an aching intensity that will not go away, so that the little valley beside Cottonwood Creek comes back to me […]
Posted inJune 9, 2003: How we see the West
Tourist tales from the New West
I knew I was in trouble the first morning of our cruise. We were headed up the Columbia and Snake rivers on a Lewis and Clark bicentennial expedition, and this well-dressed widow sat down beside me at breakfast. Her diamond ring was the size of an unshelled peanut, and her hair matched the silver flatware […]
Posted inJune 9, 2003: How we see the West
Giant sequoias could get the ax
In a national monument, the Forest Service wants to cut trees to save them
Posted inJune 9, 2003: How we see the West
How much is wilderness worth?
Utah’s anti-wilderness moves could cost it the outdoor industry’s allegiance
Posted inJune 9, 2003: How we see the West
Dear Friends
A new supporter Once a year, High Country News dedicates almost an entire issue to essays. We hope this issue gets stuffed into the backseat of a few cars for the summer road trip, tucked into backpacks, or packed in dry bags for a little reading on the river. We’ll be back with more news […]
Posted inJune 9, 2003: How we see the West
Essays for thought
For the past 33 years, High Country News has lived up to its name, focusing on the news. Though we’ve concentrated on the environment, we’ve also covered Western culture, politics and economics, because you can’t separate the environmental issues from the arenas in which they play out. Besides, the context is part of what makes […]
Posted inJune 9, 2003: How we see the West
Ground Zero
A near miss in the Craters of the Moon puts the fight for the land into perspective
Posted inWotr
Cheers for Arizona’s governor and a Hopi warrior
The successful effort by Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano to rename a Phoenix mountain after an American Indian woman killed in Iraq needn’t have turned into a nasty fight. Gov. Napolitano wanted to honor an Arizona citizen, Pfc. Lori Piestewa, a member of the Hopi Nation, because she was the first American woman to die in […]