America’s drug of the moment wreaks havoc in the rural West.
Meth invasion
Posted inJuly 31, 2000: Out of the darkness
Don’t blame cows
Dear HCN, The recent issue on wildfires and exotic weeds continues a disappointing trend in your paper, of peddling panaceas rather than creating dialogue. In the opening page, the “usual suspects’ are rounded up – grazing, farming, roads, mines – and from there it reads like a tabloid account of the Jon-Benet Ramsey murder. One […]
Posted inJuly 31, 2000: Out of the darkness
Expect the big burn
Dear HCN, After the forest fires in New Mexico and Colorado, I had to write. This could be nature getting back at the hobby ranchers and interlopers. On the Front Range in Colorado and New Mexico, you don’t have corporate tree farms, so most of the interface lands from the Plains to the U.S. Forest […]
Posted inJuly 31, 2000: Out of the darkness
Delta water treaty needs amending
Dear HCN, I read with interest Michelle Nijhuis’ fine piece on the Colorado Delta. As HCN so aptly puts it, the issue is really whether or not environmentalists can find the means to change the Law of the River. While I support and applaud the legal efforts of the Delta coalition (Southwest Center for Biological […]
Posted inJuly 31, 2000: Out of the darkness
Don’t ignore role of climate change
Dear HCN, I’ve just read Ed Marston’s column about the Los Alamos fire (HCN, 5/22/00: Yelling fire in a crowded West). I was disappointed to see no discussion of the impact of climate change on fire regimes and the occurrence of catastrophic crown fires in recent decades, despite the severe drought under which the New […]
Posted inJuly 31, 2000: Out of the darkness
Carroll lives on imaginary planet
Dear HCN, In his essay, “Los Alamos is burning” (HCN, 5/22/00: Los Alamos is burning), Frank Carroll, formerly with the Forest Service and now with Potlatch Corp., presented us with two stretches of the imagination. First, he managed to avoid placing any blame for the Los Alamos fire on the Forest Service and other land-management […]
Posted inJuly 31, 2000: Out of the darkness
Heard around the West
Are San Francisco residents rude to tourists? Of course! But just to make it official, the San Francisco Chronicle sent a reporter out with crutches. The hobbling reporter then stood in a crowded bus or train waiting to see if someone would give him a seat. The common response? “I got mine.” One of the […]
Posted inJuly 31, 2000: Out of the darkness
National Land Trust Rally
More than 1,200 open-space advocates will join forces at a National Land Trust Rally, Oct. 19-22 in Portland, Ore., for workshops on everything from fund raising to drawing up a conservation easement. Contact the Land Trust Alliance at 1319 F Street NW, Suite 501, Washington, DC 20004 (202/638-4725), or see the Web at www.lta.org/rally.html. This […]
Posted inJuly 31, 2000: Out of the darkness
Society for Human Ecology
Scientists, educators and urban planners are invited to attend a conference sponsored by the Society for Human Ecology, Oct. 18-22 in Jackson, Wyo. The group looks at how humans interact with their environment – whether the “environment” is a forest or a city. Participants will discuss environmental policy and decision-making as well as urban ecosystems. […]
Posted inJuly 31, 2000: Out of the darkness
Musicians United to Sustain the Environment
Musicians United to Sustain the Environment will give away an environmentally oriented CD in drawings four times a year. To register, visit www.musemusic.org. Michigan-based MUSE is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization raising funds through music for grassroots efforts to protect wilderness and wildlife. This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline […]
Posted inJuly 31, 2000: Out of the darkness
Communities Directory: A Guide to Intentional Communities and Cooperative Living
A new directory features maps, cross-referenced charts and an index of 700 religious, environmentally conscious, agricultural and artistic communities. For information about Communities Directory: A Guide to Intentional Communities and Cooperative Living, which sells for $30, call 800/462-8240 or go to http://store.ic.org/. This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline […]
Posted inJuly 31, 2000: Out of the darkness
Volunteer Stewards
The state of Colorado is looking for “volunteer stewards” to be its eyes and ears in the field. The state’s Natural Areas Program asks stewards to visit areas such as the alpine meadows surrounding Gothic, Colo., and the desert Escalante Canyon, and report back on what they find. You’ll need a good pair of hiking […]
Posted inJuly 31, 2000: Out of the darkness
National Mountain Conference
Hiking and mountaineering clubs will sponsor a National Mountain Conference in Golden, Colo., Sept. 14-16. Land managers and outdoor recreation specialists will discuss human impacts on mountain ecosystems, and a field trip to ski area expansions at Vail Pass and Breckenridge is also available. Call conference coordinator at 603/466-2721, ext. 184, send e-mail to melhov@landmarknet.net, […]
Posted inJuly 31, 2000: Out of the darkness
Riparian Ecology and Management in Multi-Land Use Watersheds
A conference on Riparian Ecology and Management in Multi-Land Use Watersheds Aug. 28-31 in Portland, Ore., includes international speakers who will discuss issues from salmon recovery to the effects of earthquakes on riverside habitat. Contact the American Water Resources Association at 4 West Federal St., P.O. Box 1626, Middleburg, VA 20118-1626 (540/687-8390), www.awra.org. This article […]
Posted inJuly 31, 2000: Out of the darkness
Sacred Buffalo Conference
Seven Pueblo tribes will host the third annual Sacred Buffalo Conference, Aug. 13-15 in Santa Fe, N.M. The theme is “Restoring Healthy Native Nations,” and participants will discuss topics ranging from buffalo herd management to diabetes in Indian people. Contact the InterTribal Bison Cooperative at 1560 Concourse Drive, Rapid City, SD 57703 (605/394-9730), www.intertribalbison.org. This […]
Posted inJuly 31, 2000: Out of the darkness
Raging river, quiet mind
Field Notes from the Grand Canyon: Raging River, Quiet Mind, by Teresa Jordan, Johnson Books, 1880 S. 57th Court, Boulder, CO 80301, 2000. Paperback: $14. “There is a Zen saying that when the student is ready, the teacher is there,” writes Teresa Jordan, who had carried her watercolors on a dozen different trips, never to […]
Posted inJuly 31, 2000: Out of the darkness
Killing Coyote
The human hordes are still at it, roaming the last of the Big Open with their guns and traps and poisons, trying to wipe out yet another of their fellow creatures. This time, the target is the resilient trickster himself, coyote. Doug Hawes-Davis frames his latest documentary film, Killing Coyote, with the Calcutta, a coyote-killing […]
Posted inJuly 31, 2000: Out of the darkness
Vulgar yet valiant
For most of us, a quick glimpse of a plane as it drones overhead on its way to a wildfire is all we’ll ever see of smokejumpers or the work they do, but Murry A. Taylor’s Jumping Fire: A Smokejumper’s Memoir of Fighting Wildfire in the West, offers insight into their hectic lives. Taylor, who […]
Posted inJuly 31, 2000: Out of the darkness
The bees’ needs
Golf courses are becoming a great place to learn about the birds and the bees. A Portland, Ore.-based group says that with a little encouragement, native pollinators such as bees and beetles will easily inhabit golf courses. Only a small percentage of any golf course is used by golfers, and the rest has great potential […]
Posted inJuly 31, 2000: Out of the darkness
Saving some of Utah
In early June, a coalition of environmental groups completed a three-year, $2.5 million fund-raising effort to protect a historic ranch tucked deep in northern Utah’s Wasatch Mountains. The privately owned ranch provides habitat for elk, mule deer, moose and sandhill cranes, and several historic trails traverse the ranch’s 7,300 acres. But the property is only […]