Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve may soon see a fleet of new oil rigs (HCN, 1/20/03: Refuge back in the crosshairs). The Bureau of Land Management has just released its draft environmental impact statement for drilling in the reserve. Depending on which alternative the agency chooses, anywhere from 4.1 million to 8.8 million acres will be […]
The Latest Bounce
Posted inFebruary 3, 2003: The death of the Super Hopper
Living on the sharp edge of diversity
Blake told us about the killings when we returned from vacation. As we pulled away from Denver International Airport’s glowing tent terminal, he said, “There was a shooting in Rifle. Four people got killed at the City Market. It looks like the guy was going after Mexicans.” I glanced at Anjula, my wife. She stared […]
Posted inFebruary 3, 2003: The death of the Super Hopper
Heard Around the West
“Maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad if he recycled the newspapers,” deadpans the San Jose Mercury News. But Tom Bates, candidate for mayor of Berkeley, Calif., was so angry when the Daily Californian endorsed his opponent that he threw 1,000 copies of the free newspaper into the trash. Almost as embarrassing as being caught […]
Posted inFebruary 3, 2003: The death of the Super Hopper
“But you don’t sound like a republican…”
Martha Marks, president of Republicans for Environmental Protection, has gotten used to funny looks and puzzled questions. Yes, she’s a green elephant — but she objects to being put in the same category as “jumbo shrimp” and “deafening silence.” She is not an oxymoron. What she is, she says, is “the environmental conscience of the […]
Posted inFebruary 3, 2003: The death of the Super Hopper
The son of immigrants has a change of heart
It is an urban legend, but I believe it. A traveling salesman wrote to a hotel, complaining that he’d been bitten by bedbugs. He got a lengthy letter of apology back, saying that bedbugs had never been seen on the premises or even within blocks of the hotel. Inside the envelope, he also found a […]
Posted inFebruary 3, 2003: The death of the Super Hopper
New lands boss takes the reins
Note: in the print edition of this issue, this article appears as a sidebar to another news article, “Project mixes suburbs with nature preserve.” SANTA FE, New Mexico — Last month, Pat Lyons was fighting two-foot snowdrifts and looking for a hired man to replace him on his 15,000-acre ranch near Cuervo, on New Mexico’s […]
Posted inFebruary 3, 2003: The death of the Super Hopper
Project mixes suburbs with nature preserve
Albuquerque’s Mesa del Sol will be the Southwest’s largest ‘green development’
Posted inFebruary 3, 2003: The death of the Super Hopper
Hispanic community takes on polluters
Hodgepodge zoning puts chrome-plating plants next to homes
Posted inFebruary 3, 2003: The death of the Super Hopper
Road warriors back on the offensive
Christmas Eve announcement reignites controversy over roads in wilderness areas, parks and monuments
Posted inFebruary 3, 2003: The death of the Super Hopper
Dear Friends
Survey results are in Living in a small town, it’s easy to make generalizations about your community. It’s a little harder to make sense of a community that’s spread across the million-square-mile West — and all the way to Washington, D.C. — as are the readers of High Country News. Sure, we send out a […]
Posted inFebruary 3, 2003: The death of the Super Hopper
The death of the Super Hopper
How early settlers unwittingly drove their nemesis extinct, and what it means for us today
Posted inWotr
Compromise can take more courage than taking a stand
Sometimes it takes more courage to compromise than to take a stand. That has become true for many of the ranchers, environmentalists and local officials fighting over the last wild places left in the West. The people whose lives are most tied to the scenic landscapes of the region have been asked to take sides […]
Posted inWotr
Lewis and Clark: Their footprints are gone
Not long ago I was assigned a story for an outdoor magazine. The idea was to find a small portion of the Lewis and Clark trail that remains relatively unchanged since their storied journey, to go there and immerse myself for a couple of days, following their footsteps, and report on the experience. No problem, […]
Posted inWotr
The West’s cities should trump agriculture
On New Year’s Eve, the normally placid pumping station of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California at Lake Havasu felt tense. Armed security guards on the scene since 9/11 seemed grim, and tourists seeking bird-watching information were turned away. It recalled those old black-and-white pictures from when Owens Valley farmers blew up the original […]
Posted inJanuary 20, 2003: A breath of fresh air
A mine falls, and a tribe may get the shaft
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “A breath of fresh air.” It was a glorious sight to many in the environmental movement: President Bill Clinton traveled to Yellowstone National Park in August 1996, donned a ranger hat, and announced a deal that would stave off a gold mine in the […]
Posted inWotr
The message of trees marked in blue
In late December, just after the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated protection for all of the roadless national forests we have left in the West, I walked up Deadwood Ridge in southern Idaho to see what we’d saved. The trail climbs through a ponderosa pine forest that continues to evade logging. Back in 1996, […]
Posted inWotr
The origin of names
As a child, I was fascinated by surnames. Was someone named King descended from royalty? How did Carl come to have so many sons? Then I moved to a small town, where the issue is not so theoretical. Among my friends, for example, are Dave and Sue The Writers and Tom The Guy Who Does […]
Posted inWotr
The bedbug letter, as it applies to overpopulation
It is an urban legend, but I believe it. A travelling salesman complained to a hotel that he’d been bitten by bedbugs. He got a lengthy apology back saying that bedbugs had never been seen on the premises or even within blocks of the hotel. Inside the envelope he also found a note: “Send the […]
Posted inJanuary 20, 2003: A breath of fresh air
Land-use planning makes Oregon great
Dear HCN, As a longtime subscriber and supporter of HCN, I was very disturbed by your recent article on Oregon’s land-use planning system (HCN, 11/25/02: Planning’s poster child grows up). The writer took way too much of the opposition to land-use planning at face value. Just about everybody has heard about some land-use bureaucratic nightmare, […]
Posted inJanuary 20, 2003: A breath of fresh air
HCN misses the mark on gated communities
Dear HCN, Florence Williams’ article (HCN, 11/11/02: Behind the gate) on gated ranch communities was probably the least thoughtful article published by HCN in quite a few years. The clear theme of the article was that it is somehow unfair for wealthy outsiders to own land in the West. Contrary to Ms. Williams’ perception, there […]