Just before sunlight hits New Mexico’s Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in November, visitors can hear the squawking of ducks, geese and cranes. In a roar of wings, thousands of these birds take flight at dawn – an event most viewers consider a highlight of the annual Festival of the Cranes. “Then, during the […]
A whir of wings
Posted inSeptember 11, 2000: Holy water
New developer thinks big
UTAH An unlikely company is proposing to build what most developers can’t – a dense community in an area where large homes and large lots are the norm. Kennecott Utah Copper Corp., which has mined copper in the Salt Lake Valley for almost 100 years, plans to build 12,000 homes, apartments and condominiums and 4 […]
Posted inSeptember 11, 2000: Holy water
A massacre is not forgotten
In 1864 in southeastern Colorado, more than 150 Cheyenne and Arapaho tribe members, mostly women, children and elderly people, were killed in an unprovoked attack led by Colonel John Chivington. Although the U.S. government quickly denounced Chivington’s actions as a national disgrace, no memorial distinguishes the site from its surroundings. More than a century later, […]
Posted inSeptember 11, 2000: Holy water
The Latest Bounce
The Army Corps of Engineers has suffered a setback: The National Marine Fisheries Service revoked approval Aug. 25 for the Corps to deepen 103 miles of the Columbia River’s shipping lane. New studies show dredging will hurt endangered salmon (HCN, 1/17/00: A dredging dilemma). Meanwhile, a preliminary report by independent scientists in Portland, Ore., estimates […]
Posted inSeptember 11, 2000: Holy water
Remembering an establishment revolutionary
John Sawhill wasn’t planning to stick around as president of The Nature Conservancy for much longer. As he told some associates, 10 years is a long time for one of those high-powered jobs, and as a 63-year-old diabetic, Sawhill was starting to think about a life with fewer plane trips and less tension. Maybe he […]
Posted inSeptember 11, 2000: Holy water
Heard around the West
Two Wyomingites are trying to set the record straight about “real” cowboy attire. Studying old photos, mail-order catalogs and interviewing relatives of early range-riders, Tom Lindmier and Steve Mount conclude that the big-hatted denim look popularized by Hollywood is all wet. Their book, I See By Your Outfit, says that 19th century cowboys were more […]
Posted inSeptember 11, 2000: Holy water
What’s best for a crumbling treasure?
Plans to rescue Glacier’s hotels could be a sweetheart deal for big business in a national park
Posted inSeptember 11, 2000: Holy water
Ski town workers find homes in the hills
Squatters say camping on public land is the only affordable option
Posted inSeptember 11, 2000: Holy water
Coalition ushers a mine off sacred ground
Agreement will fill a hole dug for the fashion industry
Posted inSeptember 11, 2000: Holy water
Dear Friends
A sad goodbye When you live in a small town, you have to wear a lot of different hats. Here in Paonia, pop. 1,600, for example, the mayor runs a laundromat and carpet-cleaning business and drives a school bus. Many people work several jobs and volunteer at the schools, the public radio station, the ambulance […]
Posted inSeptember 11, 2000: Holy water
On the path to a greener church
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. An organization with as much heft as the Catholic Church, and with 2,000 years of history, does not move quickly or simply. The Columbia River Basin pastoral letter, scheduled for release in November, has been five years in the making. But even five years […]
Posted inSeptember 11, 2000: Holy water
Excerpts from the pastoral letter draft
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. We offer here a pastoral reflection, derived from Christian teachings about creation and ecology developed over the ages from their biblical origins. We speak with the voices of faith and compassion, and ask those with greater scientific and social expertise to enter into dialogue […]
Posted inSeptember 11, 2000: Holy water
Holy water
The Catholic Church seeks to restore the Columbia River and the church’s relevance to the natural world
Posted inAugust 28, 2000: The mine that turned the Red River blue
Heard around the West
Every tourist with a camera makes the same joke at scenic turnouts where the drop is precipitous: “Back up just another step – no, just kidding!” It’s part of tourist myth – that someone actually asked a spouse to back up near a canyon, and then it was “Goodbyeeeeee.” Here’s a variation, and it’s all […]
Posted inAugust 28, 2000: The mine that turned the Red River blue
Wilderness needs strong advocates
Dear HCN, I would like to respond on behalf of the Great Old Broads for Wilderness to the Steve Hinchman interview Ed Marston did for the July 31 edition. I know Steve and respect and admire the work he has done on the West Slope. Recently, as executive director of the Colorado Environmental Coalition, I […]
Posted inAugust 28, 2000: The mine that turned the Red River blue
‘A gentle giant’
Dear HCN, Thanks for the tribute to our late friend Lynn Dickey (HCN, 6/19/00: Dear Friends). She was a gentle giant, for sure. It always amazed me that she was in the world of rough and tumble politics but not of that world. She was always a calming influence. I remember the United Mine Workers […]
Posted inAugust 28, 2000: The mine that turned the Red River blue
Learning from the old-timers
Dear HCN, I appreciated the interview with Steve Hinchman in the July 31 issue. It’s encouraging to know that there are other people who understand the problems that “recreation-based environmentalism” is causing in the rural West. Although I considered myself an environmentalist back when the movement was still the grassroots underdog, I’m terrified now at […]
Posted inAugust 28, 2000: The mine that turned the Red River blue
Not in the family
Dear HCN, Sure have been enjoying my HCNs lately, but as roving critic laureate, I must insist that Lou “White Dork” Bendrick be informed that WEASELS ARE NOT RODENTS (HCN, 8/14/00: Native American Wannabes: Beware the Weasel Spirit). They are not only not in the same FAMILY, they are not even in the same order. […]
Posted inAugust 28, 2000: The mine that turned the Red River blue
Doug Hawes-Davis replies
In his criticism of our new feature film, Killing Coyote, Russ Mason is only defending his life’s work, which is understandable. Mason states that “film shot by NBC was used by Hawes-Davis to portray “….tightly bound coyotes being injected with the latest birth control potion,” after being “… dragged from its pen.” ” The first […]
Posted inAugust 28, 2000: The mine that turned the Red River blue
An outrageous review
Dear HCN, I read Hal Herring’s review of the documentary, Killing Coyote, in the July 31 issue of High Country News with great interest. So much so, in fact, that I bought a copy of the video. Mr. Herring describes a visit by Doug Hawes-Davis to the Logan Field Station of the National Wildlife Research […]