Updated March 24, 2008 Stephen Gordon lost more cattle to grizzly and wolves than any other rancher in his neck of the woods. In the 20 years that he ran his Diamond G Ranch herd on the Dunoir federal grazing allotment just east of Grand Teton National Park, predators killed between 200 and 250 calves. […]
Growth & Sustainability
Posted inFebruary 4, 2008: Unnatural Preservation
Two weeks in the West
Updated 2/4/2008 A groan must have risen from some Western developers at the end of last year, as a flurry of conservation easements yanked hundreds of thousands of acres out of their reach. The rush was at least partly due to a federal tax incentive that expired at the end of 2007. (Congress is considering […]
Posted inWotr
Whatever we do about illegal immigration, somebody suffers
It’s 6:30, and I’m eating breakfast at a café north of Denver with a man I’ll call Bob. Born and raised in Denver, Bob sprays custom finishes on drywall and has owned his own company for 18 years: “At one point we had 12 people running three trucks.” Now, the business is just his wife […]
Posted inWotr
A bad idea hits the gas pumps
A quiet invasion is under way near my home in Colorado. Inconspicuous black stickers are appearing on gas pumps announcing the arrival of a new molecule looking to occupy gas tanks. It goes by the name of C2H5OH — ethanol. Typically, my consumption of ethanol is strictly oral, in the form of alcoholic beverages. But […]
Posted inJanuary 21, 2008: An energy oasis in the political desert
Two weeks in the West
Wide-open spaces and burly, gas-guzzling automobiles go hand in hand in the West. After all, how else can you get to your favorite climbing crag or hiking trail? Perhaps by driving a burly rig that guzzles a lot less gas. Or so California and a handful of other Western states had hoped. But the U.S. […]
Posted inDecember 24, 2007: Last chance for the Lobo
The Promised Land?
Churches use a federal law to trample local land-use rules
Posted inWotr
Ranching still has a place on our public lands
I found a recent photograph that shows three people in cowboy gear – I’m the one pouring coffee from a thermos into beat-up cups. We’d all just gotten down from our horses, and the guys are leaning on a pickup truck marked U.S. Forest Service. Here’s the surprise: We’re all laughing. I’m a rancher, and […]
Posted inDecember 10, 2007: Rebels with a Lost Cause
Rebels with a lost cause
A movement of property-rights lawyers emerged from the sagebrush in the 1970s to fight a wave of environmental regulations. They are still fighting in courtrooms across the West, but their role remains ambiguous.
Posted inArticles
Red Desert rarity
Wyoming moves to protect Adobe Town –
but will the feds follow suit?
Posted inNovember 26, 2007: Beetle Warfare
Betting on the house
In Las Vegas, the BLM puts cheap land on the table for affordable housing
Posted inNovember 26, 2007: Beetle Warfare
Growth unfettered
When 29-year-old Jon Regner bought a small house in Flagstaff’s oldest neighborhood last year, he already had plans for the property. He’d replace the 700 square-foot carriage house in the backyard with a two-story duplex. Then he’d live on one floor and rent out the other while he renovated the main house. He’d use the […]
Posted inArticles
Highlighting Western heritage
The cottonwoods, willows, mesquites, and palo verde trees that once towered over the banks of the Colorado River near Yuma, Ariz., have returned. These native trees once again shade hikers and shelter wildlife, thanks to a massive wetlands restoration effort in the Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area. Since the area was officially designated in 2000, […]
Posted inArticles
Public lands precedent?
Recently, the Utah Bureau of Land Management cancelled an oil and gas lease sale, citing the need to further study the impact of drilling on wildlife habitat. Conservationists think the cancellation – the first in over 25 years – sets a national precedent for protecting wildlife habitat from energy leasing. But the BLM disagrees and […]
Posted inArticles
The road more traveled
Trevor Leach remembers riding horses on Bald Knoll Road as a child in the 1920s. During the ’60s, Arlene Goulding and her kids used the route for hunting trips. The testimony of these Kane County residents helped the Bureau of Land Management piece together the history of Bald Knoll Road, which laces across public lands […]
Posted inArticles
Red Mountain miracle
In the late 1800s, some 3,000 people lived and worked in the Red Mountain Mining District near the top of Red Mountain Pass between Silverton and Ouray. Just about every acre was clear-cut, built upon or mined. Today, the miners are gone and aspen trees and tundra plants have reclaimed most of the area. The […]
Posted inArticles
Free range
Livestock foraging on 160 million acres of public lands could roam more freely than ever, thanks to a recent policy change at the Bureau of Land Management. On Aug. 14, the BLM granted eight new “categorical exclusions,” designed to speed up the approval process for a slew of activities on public lands, including grazing, logging, […]
Posted inSeptember 3, 2007: A Climate Change Solution?
A dustup over weed control
The BLM’s plans to spray nearly a million acres with herbicides have some environmentalists fuming, but many biologists and land managers welcome the policy
Posted inAugust 20, 2007: Bonfire of the Superweeds
Scientists and the city
Urban ecology studies in Phoenix teach lessons for the West’s arid metropolises
Posted inWotr
Why bad people do good things for our public lands
There I was out on the high prairie that angles up to the mountains of the Front Range of Colorado, digging out Mediterranean sage with a tool of torture called the pick-mattock. I couldn’t have been paid to do this. Not only was I there, but over 100 other people were there, too. The weather […]
Posted inArticles
From weapons to wildlife
The Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant was once known for making plutonium triggers for the much-feared nuclear bomb. Today, Rocky Flats is seeking a new reputation – that of a wildlife refuge, where deer, elk, mountain lions and even bald eagles can roam in peace. Recently, the Environmental Protection Agency certified the completion of the […]