Deregulation sparks an energy revolution
Power on the loose
Posted inJanuary 21, 2002: Finding the words
Heard around the West
Perhaps the Washington Post Magazine’s editors chuckled in anticipation as they assigned reporter Gene Weingarten the important task of finding a town that measured down as the “armpit of America.” Of course, it would not be the District of Columbia, home base of the daily, where more people are murdered in a year than anywhere […]
Posted inJanuary 15, 2001: Plains sense
Hecho a mano
Hecho a Mano, by James S. Griffith. University of Arizona Press, Tucson. Paperback: $17.95. 104 pages. Driving through Tucson, Ariz., a visitor might not register the ornate front-yard fences and low-rider cars along the city’s palm-lined streets. Yet in the book Hecho a Mano, by folklorist Jim Griffith, what’s everyday comes vividly alive. Griffith takes […]
Posted inJanuary 15, 2001: Plains sense
Straw bales relieve housing crunch
For six years, Red Feather Development Group has been pushing a low-cost solution to the housing crunch on Indian reservations, where extended families often squeeze into tiny government-issue homes. One answer, according to the Bellevue, Wash.-based nonprofit, lies in building houses with bales of straw. The bales are a product of the wheat harvest on […]
Posted inJanuary 15, 2001: Plains sense
Get artsy in the parks
Over the years, the work of numerous artists has focused the eye of the public on national parks. Thomas Moran’s paintings helped swing the debate for protecting Yellowstone National Park. Ansel Adams’ photographs continue to introduce new generations of Americans to the beauty of Yosemite and Sequoia national parks. And Ann Zwinger’s writings and sketches […]
Posted inJanuary 15, 2001: Plains sense
Lifting the veil of secrecy
Making a Real Killing: Rocky Flats and the Nuclear West, by Len Ackland, The University of New Mexico press. Hardback: $34.95. 308 pages. Most people know that the Cold War spawned a number of nuclear bomb manufacturing facilities in the spacious American West – places like Hanford in eastern Washington state and Rocky Flats just […]
Posted inJanuary 15, 2001: Plains sense
Republicans rebuff snowmobile plan
WYOMING Just days after a Dec. 12 U.S. Supreme Court ruling handed the presidency to George W. Bush, Republicans were trying to undo a piece of President Clinton’s land protection legacy. Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., attached a last-minute rider to an omnibus appropriations bill prohibiting the National Park Service from spending any money to enforce […]
Posted inJanuary 15, 2001: Plains sense
Salmon plan grows a few teeth
NORTHWEST The Clinton administration’s final rendition of a Northwest salmon plan is tougher than the last one, but it still doesn’t call for the dismantling of four federal dams on the Snake River in eastern Washington. Instead, the federal government will try other measures, including restoring rivers and streams where salmon spawn, and giving added […]
Posted inJanuary 15, 2001: Plains sense
The latest bounce
The preliminary results of the 2000 census confirm that the West’s population is booming. Nevada topped the national list with a 66 percent increase in population since 1990. Rounding out the five fastest-growing states in the nation were Arizona, Colorado, Utah and Idaho. The results translate into political power: Nevada and Colorado will each gain […]
Posted inJanuary 15, 2001: Plains sense
Plains sense
Frank and Deborah Popper’s ‘Buffalo Commons’ is creeping toward reality
Posted inJanuary 15, 2001: Plains sense
Bush administration faces a reborn Interior
Now that the former attorney general of Colorado, Gale Norton, has been nominated as secretary of Interior (see story page 3), the cast of main characters is complete, and the four-year run of what is certain to be an interesting play can begin. The details of the script will be written on the fly, but […]
Posted inJanuary 15, 2001: Plains sense
Heard around the West
Cattle have always enjoyed right of way in the West. If the road is suddenly filled with mooing and manuring animals, it’s up to a motorist to slow down and enjoy the passing herd. If you’re unlucky enough to crest a hill and crash into a 2,000-pound cow, the animal is legally innocent; it’s the […]
Posted inJanuary 15, 2001: Plains sense
A Buffalo Commons bibliography
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Bergman, Roger, “Theocentric or Anthropocentric? Catholic Teaching on the Environment: A View from the Great Plains,” pp. 204-228 in Practical Theology: Perspectives from the Plains, Omaha: Creighton University Press, 2000, edited by Michael G. Lawler and Gail S. Risch. Callenbach, Ernest, Bring Back the […]
Posted inJanuary 15, 2001: Plains sense
Making buffalo pay
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Anyone looking at the buffalo ranching industry over the past decade would see signs of both promise and disappointment. In the early to mid ’90s, so many ranchers wanted in that the price of “herd stock” – or a starter herd – quadrupled. Ranchers […]
Posted inJanuary 15, 2001: Plains sense
Hot Property: A former nuclear bomb factory gets caught in suburban turf wars
ROCKY FLATS, Colo. – When Charlie McKay’s uncle, Marcus Church, was forced to sell 1,250 acres of ranchland to the U.S. government for a top-secret military facility, the deal was sweetened only by the promise of a development boom. The year was 1951, and Denver, which sat 17 miles away, had a population of a […]
Posted inJanuary 15, 2001: Plains sense
Coalition finds harmony in the backcountry
Skiers, snowmobilers agree to give each other elbow room in Idaho
Posted inJanuary 15, 2001: Plains sense
Land trade threatens trails and trees
Oregon plans to trade away an intact ecosystem
Posted inJanuary 15, 2001: Plains sense
Coloradan tapped for Interior
Gale Norton is conservative, bright andrelativelyunknown
Posted inJanuary 15, 2001: Plains sense
Dear Friends
Calling all party animals The year’s first meeting of the board of the nonprofit High Country Foundation, which governs High Country News, will be held in Phoenix, Ariz., Feb. 2-4. As is the custom with board meetings, we’ll be hosting a potluck dinner for readers from the Phoenix area. These events, held around the West […]
Posted inDecember 22, 2003: Being Green in the Land of the Saints
Mormonism 101: A primer for gentiles
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Being Green in the Land of the Saints.” The Mormon faith began in 1820, when Joseph Smith, then 14 years old, had a vision of God and Jesus Christ in a grove of trees near his home in Palmyra, N.Y. Three years later, the […]