The most unfortunate legacy of the development over the last 50-plus years of “paradise resorts” for the wealthy like Aspen, Vail, Telluride and Jackson is primarily that the middle-class and working-class folks who perform the day-to-day work that keeps those resorts running have been shut out of affordable housing by the wealthy and by conservationists […]
Growth & Sustainability
Posted inJune 10, 2013: Paradise at a Price
Conservation goals in Jackson Hole collide with a need for worker housing
Jackson, Wyoming As I roam around this resort town in April to meet conservationists who battle affordable housing projects, I’m struck by a tongue-in-cheek take on the argument in the Jackson Hole Daily. Smack on the front page is a photo of a pair of geese facing off against two ospreys over possession of a […]
Posted inGoat
A swim through housing data
Home prices climbed again this spring, even in Las Vegas, where the crash hit so hard that entire neighborhoods of brand new, foreclosed-upon houses were virtually abandoned. We’re supposed to greet the news with glee. It is, after all, an indicator of the strength of the economy. If folks can afford to pay more for […]
Posted inGoat
Help the economy: Start a fire.
Now that wildfire season is (already) upon us, some old-timer will surely start reminiscing about the days when “work fires” were common; when, on hot summer days, locals set forest fires in the hope that they and their buddies would get jobs on the federally-funded fire crews. A few dozen acres of brush gone up […]
Posted inWotr
Mammoth Hot Springs and the question of density
Most Americans know about the geothermal extravaganza called Mammoth Hot Springs, nestled in a spectacular landscape in Yellowstone National Park. It is also a place that must serve visitors as they enjoy this exceptional place and its amazing sights: A male bison weighing well over half a ton, with a toss of his head and […]
Posted inFebruary 4, 2013: Making Good on the Badlands
Will the Badlands become the first tribal national park?
Oglala Lakota leaders hope to transform their bombed-out Badlands and help lift the tribe out of poverty, but it won’t be easy.
Posted inRange
A tale of two rivers
By Heather Hansen, Red Lodge Clearinghouse Recently I came across a spectacular video on YouTube, posted by the National Park Service (NPS), called “One Day in Yosemite.” It’s the work of 30 filmmakers who fanned out across the park on one day last June. From dawn to sundown and beyond they captured day-in-the-life details of […]
Posted inGoat
Designing for behavior change
Dual flush toilets are, in my opinion, a great water-saving invention. Yet one of my biggest pet peeves is a type of dual flush toilet that I often see in public bathrooms. In this particular design, to use less water, you push the flush handle up; to use more water, you push it down. Yet […]
Posted inJanuary 21, 2013: Special issue: Natural resources education
A review of Utah’s Wasatch Range: Four Season Refuge
Utah’s Wasatch Range: Four Season Refuge Howie Garber 211 pages, softcover: $39.95. Peter E. Randall, 2012. Most people in Utah live within 20 miles of the Wasatch Range, whose peaks and canyons provide water for the valley while offering a welcome retreat for those seeking solitude. In Utah’s Wasatch Range: Four Season Refuge, nature photographer […]
Posted inWotr
When road hogs get really, really big
I love living in rural Montana, where every census confirms out-migration. But much as I enjoy it, there are a few disadvantages, such as spotty cell phone service, access to only two free television stations, wilted produce at the grocery store, and lately, incredibly huge loads of equipment that clog our narrow, two-lane highways. Recently, […]
Posted inGoat
West is best?
A post-Thanksgiving hike should not be too strenuous. It needs to be vigorous enough to help awaken from a food coma but not so tough as to ruin the long weekend. This year, a light stroll through nearby Dominguez Canyon, with a close group of friends, fit the bill. After just a short drive and […]
Posted inGoat
Gas guzzlers
If you’ve been feeling the pinch at the gas pumps, and wondering how drivers in other states are faring, you might be interested in a new report from the Natural Resources Defense Council. It looks at what portion of their wallets drivers across the nation empty at the pumps, as well as how states are […]
Posted inNovember 26, 2012: Casting for Common Ground
Extra! Extra! Beer in Utah!
Congratulations on the excellent article, “Red State Rising” (HCN, 10/29/12). It was great to see a positive story about Utah. The Air Force moved me here 36 years ago, and for many of those years the state received more than its share of negative stories, usually focused on the failure of business and government leadership to […]
Posted inNovember 26, 2012: Casting for Common Ground
Keep the political stories coming
I was disappointed in the Nov. 12 letter, “Enough (political stories) already,” which berated HCN for covering “electoral politics.” All politics are “electoral politics.” This year, it has been unusually disgusting, and, yes, divisive, thanks to ideologues and Big Money. The answer is to fix the system, not to encourage ignorance. If HCN is to […]
Posted inNovember 26, 2012: Casting for Common Ground
Political paradox
Jonathan Thompson’s brilliant article, “Red State Rising,” shines some much-needed light on the paradox of politics in Utah, where government officials routinely manage economic growth and funnel subsidies to businesses — even while professing to hate big government and love free markets (HCN, 10/29/12). In putting a human face on this story, though, Thompson went […]
Posted inWotr
Point Reyes National Seashore, embattled at 50
We’re supposed to be celebrating here at Point Reyes, a foggy enclave along the Northern California coast about an hour’s drive and a world away from San Francisco. Fifty years ago, President Kennedy signed the Point Reyes National Seashore into existence. For years, a national seashore had been little more than a pipe dream until […]
Posted inNovember 12, 2012: Nowhere to run
Enough (political stories) already
I was disappointed with what appears to be a new political stance on the part of HCN (“Red State Rising,” HCN, 10/29/12). First came an article devoted to electoral politics in Montana and Denny Rehberg. Now comes the most recent edition on the politics of Utah. While I recognize the essential nature of politics as […]
Posted inNovember 12, 2012: Nowhere to run
Utah’s utopia, unfulfilled
I found Jonathan Thompson’s article on Utah’s split personality between its politics and economic policies interesting and informative (“Red State Rising,” HCN, 10/29/12). Especially insightful is his observation about the economic disparity between the Wasatch Front and the rest of the state’s communities. If one checks the most recent annual data published by the U.S. Commerce Department, you […]
Posted inOctober 29, 2012: Red State Rising
How the Mormon GOP runs Utah with a collectivist touch
“Our object is to labor for the benefit of the whole …” –Brigham Young, 1873 A throng of cars floats down Interstate 15 on an end-of-summer morning, the rising sun wreathed in the orange gauze of distant wildfire smoke. In Lehi, a suburb sandwiched between Salt Lake City and Provo, a massive steel-and-glass shape juts […]