There’s an inside joke in these parts that Yellowstone bison have a thing for French photographers. It’s a weird twist on dwarf tossing, this propensity of theirs to spear and fling men with names like Jacques and Pierre. Now, this is not a hard and fast rule. The most recent casualty was an elderly Australian […]
Of bison, the French and our faux wild
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
The hope of a freshly planted field
Growing up, I often despised the cornfields surrounding my parents’ house outside of Bozeman, Mont. By the end of July, the plants rose to the sky, blocking our view and trapping their own musty sweat. When I pulled on patched jeans and a long-sleeved shirt, my eyes heavy at 6 a.m., the fields meant hard […]
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
Clean fuel, dirty neighbors
We should be a little grateful this time around. The West’s last energy boom threatened the region with mountains of spent oil shale, huge pits from which the rock had been taken, air pollution from coal gasification plants, and large ditches carrying Columbia River water into the Colorado River Basin. This latest energy boom is […]
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
Under pressure, Montana opts for a slower approach
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, “Open for business.” MILES CITY, Mont. – After it drains the Bighorn Mountains in Wyoming, the Tongue River flows north to join the Yellowstone near this eastern Montana city. The Tongue doesn’t carry a lot of water, but it’s a lifeline for […]
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
‘There is a light at the end of the tunnel’
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, “Open for business.” Byron and Marge Oedekoven, who own a ranch 12 miles north of Gillette, Wyo., have had a more positive experience with coalbed methane development on their property. Buteven though the company doing the development, Redstone Resources, worked with the […]
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
‘The industry’s philosophy has been to fragment the community’
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, “Open for business.” Mike Foate, who ranches north of Arvada, Wyo., has developed a Web site – powderriverbasin.org. – for landowners concerned about coalbed methane development in the area. He says he decided to go online to try to get information out […]
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
‘We became Michiwest’s sewer’
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, “Open for business.” Earl and Sue Boardman’s ranch on the banks of the Powder River is dotted with gas wells owned by the Michigan-based company Michiwest. In 1999, Earl Boardman shot a video of the dry water wells, eroded arroyos, and quagmires […]
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
Open for business
Wyoming throws away its water to get out the gas
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
‘The playing field has to be leveled’
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, “Colliding forces.” Charles Micale owns the My Way Ranch in Collbran, Colo. In October 1999, Strachan Exploration Co. drilled a methane well at the ranch’s entranceway; since then, Micale has been fighting for more property rights for landowners who live above methane […]
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
‘It’s hard to keep fighting’
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, “Colliding forces.” Janey Hines runs the Grand Valley Citizens Alliance in Parachute, Colo.: “We have no idea how many wells will be here, or how many roads, because the oil and gas companies are not required to make a plan. Maybe it […]
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
Status quo reigns in New Mexico
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, “Colliding forces.” AZTEC, N.M. – Five miles below the Colorado border in Aztec, N.M., green-painted pumpjacks and oil wells line the highways like sentinels. Many residents of this town of fewer than 6,000 people say they worry about poor air quality, noise […]
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
‘It’s corporate greed’
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, “Colliding forces.” Arnold Mackley, who is fighting to protect his ranch from 20-acre well densities, was a Garfield County Commissioner from 1988 to 1996. He currently is a consultant for a nahcolite mining company, but he and his wife have plans to […]
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
‘We need that gas’
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, “Colliding forces.” Ken Wonstolen of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, in his own words, says that Colorado is an energy-dependent state, and the methane gas it produces is greatly needed. “We live in an energy-dependent state. Unless we’re willing to give […]
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
How well do you know your wells?
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, “Colliding forces.” Understanding methane-gas drilling isn’t easy. Here are some basics about what might be underground in a Western backyard. Conventional wells extract methane gas from sandstone 1,000 to 20,000 feet below the surface. Sitting in zucchini-shaped air pockets in the rock, […]
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
Colliding forces
Has Colorado’s oil and gas industry met its match?
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
A park rediscovers a surprising asset
Springdale, Utah – Though some still question the wisdom of spending $11.8 million on 350 shuttle buses for Zion National Park (HCN, 4/10/00), practically everyone agrees that they allow an unexpected experience to emerge from the surreal canyons of Utah. Quiet strikes tourists when they step off a propane-powered bus at any of the seven […]
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
Looters beware: Tribes are fighting back
Lori Watlamet can’t hold back tears when she talks about the looting of an old Native Indian village site in the Pacific Northwest’s Columbia River Gorge. In May, with a reporter in tow, the law enforcement officer walked over a bluff that protects the site from plain view and her heart sank. Watlamet, a member […]
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
Fires bring on a flood of federal funds
As this summer’s massive wildfires wind down, the West still can’t decide who’s at fault. Yet nearly everyone agrees on one thing: A century of fire suppression has disrupted the cycle of frequent fires in dry conifer forests, replacing old-growth pine stands with thickets of small trees. When the fuel buildup collided with drought and […]
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
Dear Friends
Our Boise get-together The latest meeting of the High Country Foundation board was in Boise Sept. 8-10, and although all of the subscribers who attend the paper’s roving potlucks are good cooks and convivial company, Idaho subscribers have ratcheted that high standard up a notch. The food was wonderful and plentiful, and the turnout was […]
Posted inSeptember 11, 2000: Holy water
Who needs “ersatz consensus’?
Dear HCN, Your article on coal mining in the North Fork of the Gunnison River was interesting in its happy-happy spin on ersatz consensus and collaboration groups (HCN, 7/31/00: Out of the darkness: A Western Colorado community meets a coal boom halfway). As an environmental activist, the main question I had was this: “Was the […]