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 […]
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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 […]
Posted inJanuary 20, 2003: A breath of fresh air
Corporate colonizers in the ‘last, best place’
Dear HCN, As a longtime resident of the Bitterroot Valley I found the article concerning the Stock Farm development particularly poignant (HCN, 11/11/02: Behind the gate). Copper baron Marcus Daly used his Bitterroot estate, now the Stock Farm, as a retreat from the poisoned air, land and water of Butte and the Clark Fork Valley, […]
Posted inJanuary 20, 2003: A breath of fresh air
Stock Farm does help nonprofits
Dear HCN, This past September, I was contacted by one of your reporters who was doing a story on the Stock Farm, a gated community in Hamilton, Mont. (HCN, 11/11/02: Behind the gate). The reporter contacted me because I am the director of a local nonprofit organization and she wanted to know if, in my […]
Posted inJanuary 20, 2003: A breath of fresh air
THE GREAT RANCHING DEBATE
Two recently released books, Welfare Ranching: The Subsidized Destruction of the American West and Ranching West of the 100th Meridian, offer very different visions of ranching’s place in the West. In a special feature, High Country News’ Ed Marston and Forest Guardians executive director John Horning, review the books and reopen the debate on the […]
Posted inJanuary 20, 2003: A breath of fresh air
Wilderness proposal or political ploy?
Rep. Scott McInnis, R-Colo., surprised Congress and environmentalists in November when he introduced legislation to designate 49,800 acres of land in northwestern Colorado as the Red Table Mountain Wilderness. The bill included provisions for motorized recreation trails, helicopter training by the Colorado National Guard, and guaranteed water rights for the nearby town of Gypsum. Richard […]
Posted inJanuary 20, 2003: A breath of fresh air
Wild Sky Wilderness could be downsized
The Wild Sky Wilderness may become a little less wild if the timber industry has its way. Had Congress approved the Wild Sky Wilderness Act during the fall legislative session, it would have designated 106,000 acres of wilderness in the valleys of the Cascades north of Seattle (HCN, 6/24/02: A wide-angled wilderness). Although U.S. Sen. […]
Posted inJanuary 20, 2003: A breath of fresh air
Virus attacks in the Grand Canyon
The outbreak of Norwalk virus on cruise ships grabbed national headlines last fall, but few have heard of the virus’s untimely arrival on rubber rafts in the depths of the Grand Canyon. Last summer, Norwalk infected at least 130 Grand Canyon recreationists, who spent their river trips vomiting and running for the groover (that’s river-speak […]
Posted inJanuary 20, 2003: A breath of fresh air
84-year-old bird law no match for the military
The United States has once again declared itself to be above international law — this time, a law aimed at protecting birds. Last April, a federal judge ordered all branches of the military to comply with the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act, a law that protects 850 species of birds through agreements with Mexico, Canada, […]
Posted inJanuary 20, 2003: A breath of fresh air
Refuge back in the crosshairs
Republican victories in the midterm elections could mean it’s open season on Alaska’s energy reserves. President Bush targeted the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska for oil and gas development in his 2001 national energy plan. But legislation authorizing exploration and development in ANWR failed to pass the divided […]
Posted inJanuary 20, 2003: A breath of fresh air
The Latest Bounce
On New Year’s Eve, U.S. District Judge Christina Armijo ruled in favor of the Santa Fe, N.M.-based Forest Guardians and concluded that the Forest Service violated federal environmental laws when it neglected to study the long-term effects of grazing on the 25,000-acre Copper Creek allotment in the Gila National Forest. Though the cattle can stay […]