With bats in the attic, skunks and marmots under the floor, deer mice in the corners and cluster flies throughout the house, Kathleen Meyer may want to sleep on the deck, but at least she no longer has to shit in the woods. In Barefoot Hearted: A Wild Life Among Wildlife, Meyer, author of the […]
No shoes, no problem
Posted inSeptember 2, 2002: Backlash
Telling it on the mountain
The mountains, for many of us, are a source of inspiration, adventure, work and play. But for a lot of the world, mountain life means extreme poverty and a rapidly declining quality of life. A disproportionately high number of the world’s hungry and chronically malnourished people live in mountain regions. The United Nations has declared […]
Posted inSeptember 2, 2002: Backlash
River’s end
The numbers are impressive: 25 million people depend on the Colorado River, which falls 14,000 feet in its 1,700-mile journey, and is home to 20 power plants, 10 major dams and 80 diversion channels. Over the past year, the humanities councils of seven Western states have worked together on Moving Waters: The Colorado River and […]
Posted inSeptember 2, 2002: Backlash
An inspiring, devastating story
The Navajo grassroots environmental group Dine CARE has worked to protect forests, water and human health on the Navajo reservation for more than a decade (HCN, 10/31/94:’People of the Earth’ stress “natural laws’). When group founders Leroy Jackson and Adella Begaye first started fighting irresponsible logging on the reservation, they thought the battle would take […]
Posted inSeptember 2, 2002: Backlash
The Latest Bounce
The Colorado Wildlife Commission has approved plans to release up to 180 more lynx in the state beginning this winter, but there’s a catch. A state spokesman says the Department of Natural Resources is negotiating with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to give the threatened cats less-protective “experimental, nonessential” status, citing concern “that putting […]
Posted inSeptember 2, 2002: Backlash
When nature calls, don’t follow your instincts
GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. (11,600′) – With the Middle Teton Glacier glistening on one side, the jagged West Face of the Grand Teton looming above on the other, and most of eastern Idaho spread out like a tablecloth far below, the Lower Saddle is a breathtaking place. But something else is taking my breath […]
Posted inSeptember 2, 2002: Backlash
Heard Around the West
Ten people now have what you might consider a mini-me ranch in Wyoming, thanks to eBay, the on-line auction house. They each bid $25 on July 15 to crowd onto one square foot of land on the Gauthier Ranch near Rawlins. The toehold on what the owner calls a “micro-acre” includes hunting privileges. Thousands of […]
Posted inSeptember 2, 2002: Backlash
Bush’s energy push meets unintended consequences
WASHINGTON, D.C. – As substances go, natural gas doesn’t have much substance. Oh, it’s real enough. Mishandled, it can explode. Properly handled, it can heat homes, power vehicles and generate electricity. But being a gas, it lacks solidity. Unless it is liquefied, you cannot see it, much less grasp it. Natural gas, then, is sort […]
Posted inSeptember 2, 2002: Backlash
One Colorado county takes a stand
Note: This is a sidebar to a main story headlined “Backlash.” HOTCHKISS, Colo. – “Not a drop of water runs off of this place,” says Steve Ela, looking out over his 112-acre orchard, where tiny sprinklers mist beneath a canopy of apple trees. The irrigation system that diverts ditch water to soak half the orchard […]
Posted inSeptember 2, 2002: Backlash
A NIMBY and proud of it
At a recent hearing on natural gas drilling in my county, a rancher stood before our planning commission and said, “I support President Bush’s policies to make America energy independent, and I don’t want to be a NIMBY, but … ” He then went on to outline the catastrophic impacts gas drilling could have on […]
Posted inSeptember 2, 2002: Backlash
The other firefighters
DURANGO, Colo. – “One neighbor’s house and one cabin were destroyed near here,” says Todd Swanson, surveying the blackened area behind his house outside this bustling college town. “But the thinning kept the fire back from my place until the slurry bombers were able to come and put it out.” In April, as a prologue […]
Posted inSeptember 2, 2002: Backlash
Closing the loop
The West’s fire problem helps Navajos return to their roots
Posted inSeptember 2, 2002: Backlash
EPA puts cleanup in local hands
COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho – It’s hard to imagine that an issue as sprawling and contentious as the effort to clean up a century of mining waste in the Coeur d’Alene River Basin could fit into a glass of water (HCN, 3/4/02: EPA wants to supersize Idaho Superfund site). But that’s the image that came walking […]
Posted inSeptember 2, 2002: Backlash
Farewell to a great mountain photographer
You’ve probably seen his work in National Geographic or Audubon – or in High Country News – as well as in his photography books. Famed for a transcendental approach to capturing the natural world, Galen Rowell was also an accomplished mountaineer, who inspired and awed his audience with breathtaking, seemingly impossible photographs. Rowell and his […]
Posted inSeptember 2, 2002: Backlash
Breaking all the rules
Breaking all the rules Here at High Country News, we have a loose rule that we avoid stories that happen too close to home. We figure we can be more objective about things that don’t fall – literally – into our backyard. And besides, the West is a big region. With this issue, we’re breaking […]
Posted inAugust 19, 2002: The Great Western Apocalypse
Smokey is rolling in his grave
Smokey is rolling in his grave Dear HCN, There are no benefits to prescribed burns that cannot be duplicated by judicious logging practices, replanting and application of a little fertilizer. The air and water pollution, destruction of resources, property and loss of wildlife (and human life!) are not worth the “perceived” benefits of wildfires. Still, […]
Posted inAugust 19, 2002: The Great Western Apocalypse
Remember Rocky Flats
Remember Rocky Flats Dear HCN, Several weeks ago, the White House asked Congress and the Senate to exempt the Defense Department from the environmental laws of our country in the interest of national security. Currently, Congress is evaluating this request to make the Defense Department exempt from both the Clean Air and Clean Water acts […]
Posted inAugust 19, 2002: The Great Western Apocalypse
Why not put forests to good use?
Why not put forests to good use? Dear HCN, With the big summer fires in full flame, and all the talk of need for “treatment” of the forests to make them less fire-prone, the question comes to mind, “Why not use all the extra trees in the forests to fuel biomass power plants?” Has anyone […]
Posted inAugust 19, 2002: The Great Western Apocalypse
The author responds
The author responds Thank you, Chuck Hunt and Tom Theobald, for help on clarifying some facts. Bees cannot hear, but killer bees react to vibrations such as lawnmowers, sudden movements and exhalations of breath, so I would not recommend that anyone accompany Mr. Hunt if he shouts in the face of killer bees. The word […]
Posted inAugust 19, 2002: The Great Western Apocalypse
Bee story belongs in a tabloid
Bee story belongs in a tabloid Dear HCN, I can’t let the cover story “The BUZZ business” (HCN, 6/24/02) pass without comment. While I wouldn’t dispute the fact that Africanized bees can react to disturbances with ferocity, the author chooses to take an unnecessarily hysterical approach to the subject. For example, while it may be […]