The Forest Service tries to manage the masses
A crowded Washington wilderness gets ugly
Posted inDecember 17, 2001: Bad moon rising
Protecting Arizona’s underground wonderland
State agency may condemn private land near Kartchner Caverns
Posted inDecember 17, 2001: Bad moon rising
Gold may bury tribe’s path to its past
Bush administration revives mine project in Southern California
Posted inDecember 17, 2001: Bad moon rising
Tommie Bell: Supporter and sustainer
A woman with a vital connection to High Country News died on Nov. 19. Though her name did not often appear in the paper, Muriel “Tommie” Wilcox Bell helped sustain the publication during its formative years. The story began when Tommie bought her husband, Tom, a subscription to a Wyoming-based tabloid called Camping News Weekly. […]
Posted inDecember 17, 2001: Bad moon rising
Dear Friends
Winter break It’s time for our traditional winter break, when we give staffers time to shovel their driveways and readers time to catch up on back issues of HCN.Our next issue should reach your mailboxes around Jan. 21. Covering the bases Writing and editing a cover story can take months, but even with all that […]
Posted inDecember 17, 2001: Bad moon rising
Bad moon rising
How Montana’s once-mighty progressive coalition has waned
Posted inDecember 3, 2001: Closing the wounds
A refreshing view
If there’s anything everyone can agree on about grazing in the West, it’s that livestock’s influence on the land has been ubiquitous. Biologists Carl and Jane Bock have spent much of their lives studying the ecology of one of the few exceptions, an 8,000-acre short-grass prairie in southern Arizona. In their thoughtful new book, The […]
Posted inDecember 3, 2001: Closing the wounds
Trash talk
It would be a blessing if it were possible to study garbage in the abstract, to study garbage without having to handle it physically. But that is not possible. Garbage is not mathematics. To understand garbage you have to touch it, to feel it , to sort it, to smell it. You have to pick […]
Posted inDecember 3, 2001: Closing the wounds
Friendship in the Sagebrush West
When I think “anthology,” I usually think boring compilation or shallow “Best of” CD. But this year, three Western women have pulled together an anthology of writing that reminds me more of my favorite mix tape. In Woven on the Wind, editors Gaydell Collier, Linda Hasselstrom and Nancy Curtis unleash an outpouring of new writing […]
Posted inDecember 3, 2001: Closing the wounds
A water tale to set you on fire
Documentary filmmaker Drury Gunn Carr doesn’t seem to mind a little violence. Past projects with fellow producer Doug Hawes-Davis record coyote extermination (HCN, 7/31/00: Killing Coyote), wild horse harassment (HCN, 8/13/01: On the trail of an “exotic” native) and prairie dog shooting (HCN, 1/18/99: Another dog done gone) with a grim, unflinching eye. Thankfully, Gunn […]
Posted inDecember 3, 2001: Closing the wounds
Critical mass
Radiation workers in Ottawa, Ill., “downwinders” in Utah, unsuspecting veterans of the Gulf War – these are among the populations profiled in Learning to Glow: A Nuclear Reader. In the words of editor John Bradley, the anthology offers a glimpse into stories that “have been largely ignored, dismissed or suppressed.” Certain sections will be familiar […]
Posted inDecember 3, 2001: Closing the wounds
Figuring us out
Dear HCN, As a displaced Montana native and student of Western history, I only began subscribing to HCN last year, although another Yellowstone Park buff had recommended it to me some time before. I’ve enjoyed reading about water, wildlife, ranching and other environmental issues covered in your paper. At the same time, I’ve been trying […]
Posted inDecember 3, 2001: Closing the wounds
Time to take cattle off public land
Dear HCN, I had to chuckle at California BLM official Gail O’Neill’s lamentation that her staff is spending weeks away from normal duties to ensure that cattle stay out of Mojave desert tortoise habitat (HCN, 11/5/01: Cattle make way for tortoises in the Mojave). What possible duties could the BLM, the nation’s largest public-land and […]
Posted inDecember 3, 2001: Closing the wounds
Catch and release no good for wild ones
Dear HCN, After a brief look at a picture of Steve Stuebner (HCN, 9/24/01: Nature hits a home run for salmon), I had to feel a pang of disbelief that an old adversary of mine would do such an unnatural act. All adiposed salmon and steelhead caught in Idaho waters must be immediately released. Smolts […]
Posted inDecember 3, 2001: Closing the wounds
Oryx a predictable disaster
Dear HCN, Even as a wildlife student in the early 1970s, I was appalled when I learned that a 400-pound animal that can survive without free water (the oryx) had been introduced into the White Sands Missile Range (HCN, 10/22/01: A graceful gazelle becomes a pest). The potential for an ecological disaster seemed all too […]
Posted inDecember 3, 2001: Closing the wounds
Oil field essay’s errors and delights
Dear HCN, As someone with a great interest in energy issues I greatly enjoyed Randy Udall’s article, “We Are the Oil Tribe” (HCN, 11/19/01: We are the Oil Tribe). One fact that was presented is definitely incorrect; the number of rigs drilling in the U.S. According to the Baker Hughes monthly rig count (the industry’s […]
Posted inDecember 3, 2001: Closing the wounds
Anti-grazing fallacies
Dear HCN, In his rush to support environmental activists and ignorance of ecological processes, Tony Davis unwittingly reveals two major fallacies of the anti-grazing movement (HCN, 10/22/01: Healing the Gila). The first involves ecological site potential and the misconception that all you have to do is take the cows off and stand back. “It will […]
Posted inDecember 3, 2001: Closing the wounds
Grazing story ignored radical center
Dear HCN, I would like to register a firm objection to the recent cover story, “Healing the Gila” (HCN, 10/22/01: Healing the Gila). I was distressed by its old-fashioned, polemical, “Good Guy vs. Bad Guy” tone, which seems out of character with recent cover stories in HCN. You’ve done a very good job recently covering […]
Posted inDecember 3, 2001: Closing the wounds
Go west, fruit picker
WASHINGTON For years, migrant workers have flocked to eastern Washington to pick apples in the fall (HCN, 12/18/00: Troubled harvest). But with a jump in global competition, apple orchards have streamlined their operations to save costs, eliminating jobs in the process. This season, a late hailstorm wiped out nearly 30 percent of the apple crop […]
Posted inDecember 3, 2001: Closing the wounds
Church aims to purchase public land
WYOMING A national historic site along the Oregon Trail could end up in the hands of private owners. At the request of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, congressional delegates from Wyoming and Utah are drafting legislation permitting the sale of a several-hundred-acre parcel of land in central Wyoming to the […]