Last winter in southwestern Colorado, on the kind of bluebird day when a ski-toting fellow endowed with more bravado than avalanche acumen could be seduced into believing the whole world was a benign winter playground, I found myself in good company in tricky terrain. The day began on a sub-zero morning before dawn in the […]
Of avalanche forecasting and snow haiku
Posted inApril 14, 2003: Change comes slowly to Escalante county
Heard Around the West
Watch out, Satan, your number may be up. Route 666 in northwest New Mexico has been called the Devil’s Highway, Satan’s Highway and the highway to Hell — because 666 is “the number of the beast,” in the biblical book of Revelation. It’s also been called downright dangerous, reports the Albuquerque Journal: At least 15 […]
Posted inApril 14, 2003: Change comes slowly to Escalante county
Monument presents a management morass
In Arizona’s Ironwood Forest, recreationists, ranchers and illegal immigrants vie for space
Posted inApril 14, 2003: Change comes slowly to Escalante county
The Northwest’s diehard diplomat
Former Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber fought to bring a divided state together
Posted inApril 14, 2003: Change comes slowly to Escalante county
Republicans wave guns, but where’s the butter?
Western Colorado Congressman Scott McInnis occupies a congressional seat that until 1972 was the most powerful one in the West. It was owned by the late Wayne Aspinall, a Democrat who chaired the House Interior Committee in the 1960s and early 1970s, when the federal government was continuing the development of the Interior West. Federal […]
Posted inApril 14, 2003: Change comes slowly to Escalante county
Grass roots prevail in ANWR and Wyoming
Conservationists chalk up two big victories — but they’re bracing for a long war
Posted inApril 14, 2003: Change comes slowly to Escalante county
Debate rages over ‘de-listing’ wolves
Wolves may not be ‘endangered’ anymore, but have they recovered?
Posted inApril 14, 2003: Change comes slowly to Escalante county
Reopening the wounds in southern Utah
I visited the spectacular Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in 1996, when it was still a raw wound in the body politic of southern Utah. As I talked to people in the scattered, dusty towns around the almost 1.9 million-acre-monument, I found deep-seated anger. There was the rancher who predicted he would never again be allowed […]
Posted inApril 14, 2003: Change comes slowly to Escalante county
Dear Friends
Your chance to weigh in Spring is springing in Western Colorado, and work continues on the redesign of High Country News. We’re getting a stream of good advice from readers. “HCN has made its mark by doing the kind of in-depth reporting that dailies now do less and less, and at the same time has […]
Posted inApril 14, 2003: Change comes slowly to Escalante county
Change comes slowly to Escalante country
In the BLM’s showcase monument, local grudges and national politics create a nasty quagmire.
Posted inWotr
A California treasure shouldn’t hide itself
Four years ago, it seemed that one of the fiercest battles over West Coast timber had ended with the public’s purchase of the 7,000-acre Headwaters redwood forest in Northern California. But those trees continue to fuel controversy, this time over whether people should be allowed into the cathedral-like ancient groves located some 200 miles north […]
Posted inWotr
The West’s negligent landlord
Western Colorado Congressman Scott McInnis occupies a congressional seat that until 1972 was the most powerful in the West. It was owned by the late Wayne Aspinall, a Democrat, who chaired the House Interior Committee in the 1960s and early 1970s, when the federal government was pouring billions into the the Interior West. Federal agencies […]
Posted inWotr
New Urbanism is just growth by another name
It’s hard to tell whether New Urbanism best fits the definition of a cult or a conspiracy. It has elements of both. Either way, my advice is not to drink the Kool-Aid. Embracing a politically correct excuse for growth is suicide for the West’s small towns. New Urbanism is the name given to a collection […]
Posted inMarch 31, 2003: Tinkering with Nature
Motorheads sue over park’s seasons
Proposal would keep snowmobiles humming year-round
Posted inWotr
A national park in Utah should not allow laissez-faire climbing
In 1927, a gathering of huge sandstone windows in Utah was set aside by presidential proclamation and named Arches National Monument. Now a national park, its 75,000 acres welcome almost 800,000 tourists a year, who come from all over the world to look with awe. This marvelous place must be well protected by federal laws […]
Posted inWotr
Looking at sprawl in familiar faces
Soon, it will be goodbye to the Colorado Front Range. The moving van is reserved, and Heather and our 4-year-old son, Josiah, will soon aim north and west from Boulder to the Missoula area in western Montana. It will be an adventure. We don’t know where we will live, maybe in a condo or a […]
Posted inWotr
A message from women, witnesses in black
Today, in the short space of one hour, I was cursed, yelled at and repeatedly shown the finger. One man pulled down his pants and stuck his rear out of a car window. Why? Simply because, together with seven other women, I donned all black clothing and a veil and stood silently on a sidewalk […]
Posted inMarch 31, 2003: Tinkering with Nature
Americans have a right to recreate
Dear HCN, From my perspective, your article “Feds bail on snowmobile ban” (HCN, 11/25/02: Feds bail on snowmobile ban), is a little one-sided. I think that the snowmobile riders are just being Americans, and enjoying themselves. Now, I myself do not ride snowmobiles, but I do still believe in why this country was formed. These […]
Posted inMarch 31, 2003: Tinkering with Nature
Snowmobile ban should stand
Dear HCN, I am writing in response to an article written by Ray Ring (HCN, 11/25/02: Feds bail on snowmobile ban), regarding the National Park Service bailing out on the proposed snowmobile ban in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. I think this measure is totally wrong, considering that the Park Service has vehemently pushed […]
Posted inMarch 31, 2003: Tinkering with Nature
A ‘green development’ next to a toxic dump
Dear HCN, I read with great interest the article about Mesa del Sol, “Project mixes suburbs with nature preserve” (HCN, 2/3/03: Project mixes suburbs with nature preserve). The article failed to elaborate one aspect of this “community of 100,000 people, living amid open space and restored rangeland”: It’s also located next to a Cold War […]