Amid the national uproar after the Sept. 11 attacks, the California Public Utilities Commission quietly voted to end its experiment in electricity deregulation. In a 3-to-2 vote on Sept. 20, the commission closed down its “direct access” policy, which had allowed consumers to choose their own power providers (HCN, 1/29/01: Power on the loose). Direct […]
The Latest Bounce
Posted inOctober 8, 2001: Whoa! Canada!
Heard around the West
Quick, cover your eyes, that statue is naked! To avoid offending the sensibilities of some 2,500 parents and their home- schooled children last year, the Convention Center of Sacramento, Calif., agreed to dress its 7-foot-tall statue of Poseidon, Greek god of the sea. Usually, the replica of an ancient work attracts no attention; it has […]
Posted inOctober 8, 2001: Whoa! Canada!
The once and future West
It turns out that this new economy of ours may be as subject to boom and bust as the economy based on cattle, oil and lumber. September 11 emptied Las Vegas, caused hunters to cancel trips to Idaho and Montana, and silenced ski areas’ reservation phone lines in Colorado. The West’s environmental movement was also […]
Posted inOctober 8, 2001: Whoa! Canada!
Ranchers sour on Canadian gas plant
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Call the main phone number for the big Shell Canada natural gas processing plant in rural Pincher Creek, and the first thing you hear is an automated greeting that seems to assume you’re calling about an environmental crisis: “Thank you for calling the Shell-Waterton […]
Posted inOctober 8, 2001: Whoa! Canada!
Rebuilding a road to prosperity
Ex-timber town’s plan to resurrect a buried highway worries conservationists
Posted inOctober 8, 2001: Whoa! Canada!
Salt Woman confronts a coal mine
Zuni Pueblo defends its sacred salt lake from a proposed strip mine
Posted inOctober 8, 2001: Whoa! Canada!
Ski resorts pump up ecoterrorism defenses
Hired sentries call the measures ‘kind of a joke’
Posted inOctober 8, 2001: Whoa! Canada!
Terrorist attacks echo in the West
Tourism sags, energy policy debate simmers
Posted inOctober 8, 2001: Whoa! Canada!
Dear Friends
Mountain-grown tomatoes This has been a great summer for tomato plants in Paonia. They grew husky. And the law of the garden jungle was repealed for 2001: The hated, voracious green tomato worms never appeared. Moreover, the plants bore lots of fruit: large, dark-green, rock-hard fruit. In a pre-cholesterol world, that would have been fine. […]
Posted inOctober 8, 2001: Whoa! Canada!
Whoa! Canada!
Activists fight an uphill battle against a gas boom along Canada’s Rocky Mountain Front
Posted inSeptember 24, 2001: River of dreams
Klamath water is finally for the birds
OREGON, CALIFORNIA Amid all the fighting this summer over water in the Klamath Basin of Oregon and California, many forgot about a significant water user that couldn’t protest in the streets or file a lawsuit – the threatened bald eagle. Although a biological opinion issued in April by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service mandated […]
Posted inSeptember 24, 2001: River of dreams
Responsible ranchers obey the law
Dear HCN, Your recent story, “Showdown on the Nevada Range” (HCN, 8/27/01: Showdown on the Nevada range), was timely and objective. Whether from the extreme left or right, I think most Nevadans are getting a bellyful of dissident groups that peddle fear and distortion. More importantly, individuals like Mr. Colvin jeopardize the future of grazing […]
Posted inSeptember 24, 2001: River of dreams
Check for your wallets
Dear HCN, I was surprised at the thoughts reflected in two articles in the Aug. 13 High Country News. In “The man in the rubber boots,” Paul Larmer states that in western Colorado, where he lives, 12 inches of rain falls. He says he lives in a desert. He says he used to use his […]
Posted inSeptember 24, 2001: River of dreams
Klamath story misrepresents the ESA
Dear HCN, Rebecca Clarren’s article on the Klamath River Basin (HCN, 8/13/01: No refuge in the Klamath Basin) gives readers the most in-depth portrait of the real people engaged in the Klamath water conflict – farmers, Native Americans and commercial salmon fishermen – that has appeared to date in the national, regional or local press. […]
Posted inSeptember 24, 2001: River of dreams
Oak killer on the loose
OREGON, CALIFORNIA A new plague threatens thousands of native oak trees in southern Oregon. Sudden oak death, which causes trees to bleed a reddish-black fluid and their leaves to droop and turn brown, has already killed thousands of trees in Northern California. Last month, forestry experts in Oregon learned that the disease had made its […]
Posted inSeptember 24, 2001: River of dreams
Grand Teton rancher gives up grazing lease
WYOMING The largest grazing-lease holder in Grand Teton National Park plans to give up his 2,000-acre lease. Brad Mead, co-owner of the Mead-Hansen Ranch and a fourth-generation Jackson Hole rancher, says his ranch will stop grazing on public land by the end of the year. Mead acknowledged that his ranch needed a “dramatic change in […]
Posted inSeptember 24, 2001: River of dreams
The Latest Bounce
The terrorist attacks on Washington, D.C., and New York City may impact the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah, next February (HCN, 3/16/98: Olympic onslaught: Salt Lake City braces for the winter games). Officials are considering whether to cancel the games for safety reasons; if the games do proceed, security is likely to […]
Posted inSeptember 24, 2001: River of dreams
State proposes mother-lode mine fee
NEW MEXICO If New Mexico has its way, it will slap the state’s biggest mine with an unprecedented tab. In June, state regulatory agencies presented Phelps Dodge with a draft plan to close out the old (1910) and large (fourth largest in the country) Chino Mine near Silver City. It could cost the company $759 […]
Posted inSeptember 24, 2001: River of dreams
In the house of the grizzly
We have begun to think of this place as ours. Every year, we cross the creek, ride up the long slope to the timbered bench, then drop into the meadow, as we have for a decade. It’s a coming home; a flood of memories of previous hunts, good times, hard work; a shared experience of […]
Posted inSeptember 24, 2001: River of dreams
Heard around the West
Firefighters in the West battle extreme heat, unpredictable winds that can send wildfire racing up draws and endless hours on a fire line, but fish falling from the sky? It happened in Libby, Mont., reports Kevin Cardwell, who says the event will enter Forest Service firefighting lore. The incident occurred Aug. 17 as Todd Murray […]