Coalition’s thinning-and-burning plan starts this spring
Collaboration may prevent conflagration in Santa Fe
Posted inMarch 18, 2002: How I lost my town
Can ‘charter forests’ remake an agency?
Experimental program seeks a cure for Forest Service analysis paralysis
Posted inMarch 18, 2002: How I lost my town
Dear Friends
March madness Winter finally arrived in Paonia, March 1. The thermometer at the bank dipped to 5 below zero following a blustery eight-inch snowfall. The moisture was appreciated. Snowpack is well below average in almost every drainage of the state, and ranchers are already wondering how early in the summer their irrigation water will dry […]
Posted inMarch 18, 2002: How I lost my town
How I lost my town
The land was ours before we were the land’s …Something we were withholding made us weakUntil we found out that it was ourselvesWe were withholding from our land of living,And forthwith found salvation in surrender. – Robert Frost, “The Gift Outright” I know I’m starting to lose it. My sense of place. It really hit […]
Posted inMay 13, 2002: Beyond ecology: Restoring a cultural landscape
History’s Lesson: Build another Noah’s Ark
Michael Soule, a pioneer in the field of conservation biology, is a cofounder and current board member of The Wildlands Project, a group dedicated to maintaining and enhancing biological diversity in North America. HCN editor Paul Larmer interviewed Soule recently to explore North America’s ecological history and what it can teach us about conservation in […]
Posted inMay 13, 2002: Beyond ecology: Restoring a cultural landscape
The Natural West
Dan Flores, the A.B. Hammond Professor of History at the University of Montana, in Missoula, lives on a 25-acre ranchette some miles outside that small city, in the foothills of the Sapphire Mountains. To walk from those foothills to the nearby Forest Service wilderness areas, which he does often with Wily, a canine hybrid that […]
Posted inMay 13, 2002: Beyond ecology: Restoring a cultural landscape
Landmark timber deal stops Seattle sprawl
Some question logging as a tool to stop development
Posted inMay 13, 2002: Beyond ecology: Restoring a cultural landscape
Land board says, ‘Look before you lease’
Activists say they have discovered development’s Achilles’ heel
Posted inMay 13, 2002: Beyond ecology: Restoring a cultural landscape
Energy boom’s forward guard stalls out in Utah … for now
Despite setback, drive to explore the West continues
Posted inMarch 4, 2002: Seed in the ground
Montanans still for environment
Dear HCN, I liked Ray Ring’s recent article, “Bad moon rising,” about environmental organizations in Montana (HCN, 12/17/01: Bad moon rising). It gave some of the history of how progressive coalitions achieved significant legislative results on issues important to Montanans. It should be noted that during those years, Montana’s Legislature passed socially responsible statutes in […]
Posted inMarch 4, 2002: Seed in the ground
‘It’s (Montana’s) economy, stupid!’
Dear HCN, I read with interest Ray Ring’s article on environmentalism in Montana (HCN, 12/17/01: Bad moon rising) and have followed the comments others have made. Mr. Ring and all the writers make good points, but they all miss one reason environmental concerns have lost local support. To use Clinton’s campaign motto – “It’s the […]
Posted inMarch 4, 2002: Seed in the ground
The Marlboro Man and the Sage Grouse
Dear HCN, When one reads the article by Hal Clifford in High Country News regarding cattlemen and sage grouse (HCN, 2/4/02: Last dance for the sage grouse?), it is very obvious that the ranchers in the realm of the sage grouse are in severe denial concerning their impacts on sage grouse. I would put the […]
Posted inMarch 4, 2002: Seed in the ground
More on Mormons’ bad rap
Dear HCN, Barbara Schuster’s confusion about the Mormons’ bad rap is not shared by many “Gentiles” who grew up in the Beehive state. Obviously she didn’t spend her childhood in a neighborhood where most kids are forbidden to play with non-Mormons. She was never dropped off at Primary (Mormon catechism) by a public school bus. […]
Posted inMarch 4, 2002: Seed in the ground
Allen Best flunks the snow test
Dear HCN, Allen Best (HCN, 2/18/02: How does snow melt?) suggests that we can identify “real” Westerners using the test question, “How does snow melt?” It’s an appropriate test. Unfortunately, Mr. Best flunks his own test. Quoting from the last paragraph: “For the record: It melts from the ground up. Not knowing such things does […]
Posted inMarch 4, 2002: Seed in the ground
Who is a Westerner?
Dear HCN, I take exception to HCN’s definition of who is and who is not a Westerner. I was born and raised in Arizona and, except for a short exile in the South, I’ve lived in what I thought was the West all my life. I love the West and have devoted a substantial part […]
Posted inMarch 4, 2002: Seed in the ground
One thin thread of hope
Dear HCN, Your review of the new Power and Barrett book left me feeling that Mr. Power had left behind some previously articulated wisdom (HCN, 12/17/01: Economics with a heart, but no soul). My memory of an earlier Power book – The Economic Pursuit of Quality – and Ms. Debra Ellers’ letter in the same […]
Posted inMarch 4, 2002: Seed in the ground
Bush administration wall hanging
Many environmental organizations send their supporters calendars of desert cacti in bloom, lynx lunging through powder snow or fly fishers casting into roaring mountain streams. Not Earthjustice. This year, the environmental law firm’s 2002 calendar profiles 12 Bush administration appointees in Technicolor rhetoric. Each month features a not always flattering color photograph of a different […]
Posted inMarch 4, 2002: Seed in the ground
BLM’s coalbed methane plan disappoints enviros
The federal government wants to allow gas companies to drill nearly 40,000 new coalbed methane wells in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin over the next 10 years. That many wells would quadruple the number currently in Wyoming and increase the nationwide tally by almost 70 percent. The plan is outlined in the draft Powder River Basin […]
Posted inMarch 4, 2002: Seed in the ground
Who’s bringing home the bacon?
Imagine discovering your salary and assets posted on the Internet. Farmers throughout the nation are finding their names listed on the Web, along with the amount of federal subsidies they’ve received since the passage of the 1996 Farm Bill. The Environmental Working Group retrieved and compiled the data under the Freedom of Information Act. “I […]
Posted inMarch 4, 2002: Seed in the ground
A wing and a genius grant
After 11 years of quietly helping researchers and environmental activists carry out their projects from the air, Tucson pilot Sandy Lanham was awarded a $500,000 “genius grant” from the MacArthur Foundation on Oct. 23. Other pilots bill $300 an hour for similar services. But Lanham’s Environmental Flying Services, with the help of charitable foundations, only […]