WELCOME, LUTHER! HCN welcomes new board member Luther Propst, the executive director of the Sonoran Institute. The nonprofit institute works with Western communities to promote stewardship, conservation and local economies. VISITORS University of Denver associate geography professor Don Sullivan dropped in with a pack of students after being snowed off nearby Grand Mesa, where the […]
Colorado
Posted inOctober 17, 2005: The Ghosts of Yosemite
Dear friends
HELLOS AND GOODBYES The High Country News board of directors met in Santa Fe in late September, bidding farewell to two longtime members, and inviting five new people to join. Leaving the board are Emily Stonington and Michael Fischer. Emily, a state senator who raises sheep outside Helena, Mont., was one of the main forces […]
Posted inOctober 17, 2005: The Ghosts of Yosemite
Heard around the West
IDAHO A border collie adept at “child-herding, intense stares and home protection” has applied for a job with the city of Boise: He wants to chase Canada geese off the playing fields. In a letter purported to be from the herd dog, named Atticus in honor of the lawyer in To Kill a Mockingbird, he […]
Posted inOctober 3, 2005: Out of the Four Corners
Boulder gets the gas-drilling blues
Energy companies are drilling holes straight through efforts to preserve open space on Colorado’s Front Range. Boulder County has saved about 76,000 acres from development by buying property and creating conservation easements. However, the county doesn’t always control the mineral rights underneath that land — which leaves the surface property open to drilling. Previous landowners […]
Posted inOctober 3, 2005: Out of the Four Corners
Out of the Four Corners
A young archaeologist searches for clues to what drove a mass exodus from southwestern Colorado more than 700 years ago
Posted inOctober 3, 2005: Out of the Four Corners
Dear friends
HELP! SEND BOOKS! Our hearts go out to all those suffering from the effects of Hurricane Katrina. We’ve recently learned about an unusual — and imaginative — way to assist the hard-hit region: Former New Orleans resident and author Janis Owens has created Books for Folks to send books to relief centers, libraries and schools […]
Posted inSeptember 19, 2005: Squeezing Water from a Stone
Judge leaves Front Range cities mile-high and dry
For more than 20 years, a private company has wanted to move water from Colorado’s Western Slope to sprawling Front Range cities hundreds of miles to the east. Now, a judge has put a kink in those transmountain water diversion plans. In 1984, a state water court granted Natural Energy Resources Company conditional rights to […]
Posted inSeptember 19, 2005: Squeezing Water from a Stone
Dear friends
High Country News recently helped host Forest Service whistleblower and sustainability advocate Gloria Flora, who spoke at the Paonia Town Hall on Aug. 26 during a tour through the West. Flora is best known for banning oil and gas leasing on Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front in 1997, when she was a forest supervisor (HCN, 10/13/97: […]
Posted inSeptember 5, 2005: Rangeland Revival
Dear friends
Change in the Air Last month, we bid farewell to Laura Paskus, who has been HCN’s assistant editor for three years. But this isn’t really goodbye: Laura has moved to Albuquerque, N.M., where she will work part-time as our Southwest editor. The move is part of an ongoing effort to put HCN on the ground […]
Posted inWotr
Dear friends
SUMMER VISITORS We’re always a bit surprised (and pleased) that so many of you manage to find us, since Paonia, Colo. — HCN’s hometown — is really not on the way to anywhere. Rick and Susie Graetz from Helena, Mont., came by with two young friends from nearby Crested Butte. The couple founded Montana Magazine […]
Posted inAugust 22, 2005: A Military Town Fights for its Life
Cano’s Vision
Just outside the small town of Antonito, in southern Colorado’s sparsely populated San Luis Valley, a highway sign points to the state’s oldest church, a twin-towered sanctuary built of brick and local dark volcanic rock. A bit farther on, the towers of a very different sanctuary rise over a dusty neighborhood on the other side […]
Posted inAugust 8, 2005: The Gangs of Zion
Dear friends
SURPRISE! The West, as we like to say around here, is more than just a pretty picture. It is a growing, changing, contentious and often uncomfortable place where society’s decisions, for better or worse, are writ large on the landscape. We pride ourselves on finding the stories behind the scenery and telling them well through […]
Posted inAugust 8, 2005: The Gangs of Zion
Heard around the West
WESTERN COLORADO The Gladstone Kibosh, a lively newspaper published 114 years ago in the then-booming mining town of Silverton, Colo., was surely edited by a Western wag. Here’s an excerpt from 1891, reprinted in the modern weekly, the Silverton Standard, which itself celebrated its 130th year of publication this summer: “Advertise in the Kibosh. It […]
Posted inJuly 25, 2005: The Many Faces of Richard Pombo
Tales of Colorado’s high-elevation tailings
In 1983, an anonymous caller warned Doc Smith that “his river would turn red.” Sure enough, the next day, the rancher and veterinarian watched toxic mining metals surge through the Arkansas River as it crossed his property. This wasn’t the first time: His grandfather had fought the effects of mining on his ranchlands and livestock […]
Posted inJuly 25, 2005: The Many Faces of Richard Pombo
Dear friends
VISITORS We’ve had a steady stream of summer visitors. Christopher Peterson, executive director of the Glen Canyon Institute, stopped in while stumping for the effort to drain Lake Powell. Dan Stonington, nephew of HCN board member Emily Stonington, came by on a trip to check out the sights that have recently emerged from the drought-stricken […]
Posted inJuly 25, 2005: The Many Faces of Richard Pombo
Heard around the West
IDAHO “It’s the ultimate in recycling,” says Victor Bruha. He and a friend, Daniel Hidalgo, have begun turning large mounds of bison poop into high-quality art paper. The idea isn’t really new: An Australian company sells kangaroo-dung paper, and in Thailand, elephants supply the needed material in super-sized quantities. But it took months for Hidalgo […]
Posted inJune 27, 2005: Reflections on a Divided Land
Dear friends
SUMMER BREAK This will be the last issue of HCN that you’ll receive for a month. The staff is taking an issue off to spend time with family and friends and enjoy the sunny Paonia summer. Look for the next issue to hit your mailbox around July 25th. CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS We’d like to make […]
Posted inJune 27, 2005: Reflections on a Divided Land
Fury
When Fury finally dies, he picks a back pasture on my parents’ Colorado ranch to rest his old horse body. The neighbor across the fence calls to tell my mother this, that he can see a dead horse from his kitchen window. This neighbor is not well liked. He is new. His house is new. […]
Posted inJune 13, 2005: Owning a Piece of Paradise
Pueblo happily hangs on to mustard gas
While most states are eager to see hazardous materials head for the nearest border, Colorado has decided to cling to the aging chemical weapons stored at the Army’s Pueblo Chemical Depot. Federal legislation passed May 12 will keep Pueblo’s 780,000 Cold War-era mustard gas shells on site for destruction, after a tense period when the […]
Posted inJune 13, 2005: Owning a Piece of Paradise
Dear friends
HEADING WEST The High Country News board of directors joined the staff in Paonia in May for the spring business meeting. Some of the more lively — and frank — discussion came when small groups of board and staff members took turns riffing on what they think of the paper, and how it needs to […]