Essays

“Perfect skipping stones” sold in the Early Winters catalogue provide the strongest single piece of evidence yet that Western civilization is collapsing on itself like a dwarf star. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/18.23/download-entire-issue

If your car is as hot as an oven, use it for one. Give a whirl to the newest summer craze — car cookery. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/18.16/download-entire-issue

I’ve come to identify coyotes by the moods they’re in when I see them or by the “lifestyles” they seem to have. First is the hair-trigger-what-the-hell-was-that coyote. Next is the don’t-bother-me-I’m-busy    coyote and last is the “sellout,” or as I prefer, the let’s-make-the-best-of-a-good-thing coyote. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/18.15/download-entire-issue

Back in 1986, as environmentalists rallied to push ranchers off public land, nobody could have predicted how the issue would finally be resolved. A new movement was born: the most powerful and sweeping ever seen in natural resource management. It was born with the battle cry: “Get the public off public lands.” Download entire issue […]

An enterprising reporter has uncovered the secret of low air fares out of Stapleton Airport. Airlines are indeed losing money on each ticket sold. But they are simultaneously raking in enormous commissions from parking lots, news stands, food dispensers and bars. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/18.7/download-entire-issue

There are no mysteries in the story of the demise of the desert tortoise. They are the same factors that have led to the demise of the Southwest itself. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/18.4/download-entire-issue

Considering the educational priorities of most forestry schools, it is not surprising that our national forests are badly mismanaged as ecosystems. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/17.18/download-entire-issue

If dogs were totally incompatible with wilderness living, our ancestors wouldn’t have bothered having them around back in the days before concrete and the Gross National Product. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/17.4/download-entire-issue

Don Snow recounts a day fishing in Montana’s Bitterroot Mountains. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/13.18/download-entire-issue

Horace Greeley, best know for saying ‘Go West, young man,” also said “Nature offers us good bargains, but she does not trust and will not be cheated.” Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/13.7/download-entire-issue

Nowhere in human history has fiction so outdistanced fact as in the lore of the wolf. Along with spiders, snakes and sharks, Carl Jung lists the wolf as generating almost universal fear in the human psyche. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/11.24/download-entire-issue

The quiet sounds of the sage grouse cannot be heard in places where men talk of energy crises, tradeoffs, balance of payments or national commitment. The burden of all this is too much for public servants to bear alone; now you share it. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/7.21/download-entire-issue

Entering a blue heron rookery is like stepping back into prehistoric times with great, reptilian birds. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/7.15/download-entire-issue

The Gila Wilderness — the world’s oldest formally protected wilderness area — is an area of startling contrasts. In the canyons, brilliant red-flowered cacti bloom from crevices in the walls and purple violets flower in the damp maple, alder and oak streamside forests. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/7.7/download-entire-issue

The author recalls a day spent amid the clean air, silence, and wildlife of Colorado’s Piceance Basin — an area slated for oil shale development. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/5.22/download-entire-issue

We cannot forever live off the land. We must begin now to live with the land. We have gained much that is valuable, but we have lost much that is irreplaceable. Only recently have we begun to realize the cost of what has been gained. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/5.3/download-entire-issue

I always wanted to do one of those new-fangled  scientific studies on something. So, the adventurous side of my psyche asked, “why not do the grizzly bear?” Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/4.19/download-entire-issue

With its beginning on the western slope of the Continental Divide and draining the Teton, Salt River and Wind River Ranges, the Snake River is unique–not so much in its geography, which is spectacular, but in its fishing. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/4.15/download-entire-issue

The author floats Idaho’s Salmon River — also called the River of No Return. Part four in a multi-article series about floating the West’s rivers. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/3.14/download-entire-issue

The popularity of backpacking has much to do with the desire for fresh miles of mountains, uncluttered by automobile roads … An overview of backpacks and other equipment, backcountry cooking, and more. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/3.13/download-entire-issue