In 1912, James Bryce, the British ambassador to the United States, proclaimed that the national parks are “America’s best idea.” Others have called the parks “America’s best places.” But if the parks are our “best” places, what about all those other places where we live and work and go about our daily rounds? Don’t they […]
National Park Service
Posted inWotr
Whose Valles Caldera is it?
When people try to describe the Valles Caldera National Preserve in New Mexico, they sometimes compare it to Yellowstone National Park. Both offer stunning landscapes born of volcanic activity, and both are filled with wildlife. Though only 89,000 acres, Valles Caldera contains thousands of elk, vast grasslands, streams and mountains, all within the sunken remnant […]
Posted inWotr
Parks for the people — not profit
The fog that often hangs over Drakes Estero, an estuary in California’s Point Reyes National Seashore, tends to obscure the natural features that make this small body of water one of the treasures of our national park system. This estuary, which has been designated a wetland of international importance, hosts one of the largest breeding […]
Posted inJuly 27, 2009: The Most Cooked-Up Catch
What we got here is a failure to collaborate
Updated Aug. 24, 2009 On July 10, President Obama announced his nomination of Jonathan Jarvis as the next director of the National Park Service. Jarvis has worked for the agency for 30 years and directed its Pacific West region since 2002. Many of his colleagues contend that he not only has scientific training, but is […]
Posted inGoat
No entrance fees
OK, so the Park Service didn’t put out a press release about how they’ll start allowing certain firearms in parks. But thankfully, they put one out about a few fee-free weekends this summer. That’s right, you won’t pay to enter “America’s Best Idea” on these weekends: June 20-21, July 18-19 and August 15-16. U.S. Interior […]
Posted inMay 4, 2009: Salmon Salvation
The West dissected
Oil and gas companies — despite the efforts of “obstructionist” environmentalists — managed to drill at least 117,339 new wells in 12 Western states (including South Dakota) in the last eight years alone. That drilling rush often skirted regulations and caused significant air and water pollution. That’s according to the Environmental Working Group, which recently […]
Posted inApril 27, 2009: Got warriors?
A conflict of values
Yellowstone and the Snowmobile: Locking Horns over National Park UseMichael J. Yochim328 pages, hardcover: $34.95.University Press of Kansas, 2009. Even as another winter recedes, Mike Yochim’s new book on snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park will remain in season. It’s an instant classic — the first comprehensive examination of a notorious nationwide controversy, packed with facts […]
Posted inWotr
Let them eat copper
I am sitting on the sun-blasted South Rim of the Grand Canyon, tracking condors through binoculars and trying to read the numbers on their wing tags as they dip and wobble above and below me. Next to me is Elaine Leslie, the heroic National Park Service biologist who never gave up on condors, even when […]
Posted inGoat
TBD stands for…
…Texas Billionaire Developer. Ray Ring’s January essay told the tale of one Texas billionaire you shouldn’t trust. Well, here’s another to watch out for. His name is Billy Joe “Red” McCombs, and he might try to develop a place that’s near and dear to you! McCombs is the founder of one of the world’s largest […]
Posted inJanuary 19, 2009: Blood Quantum
Of an environmental hero and the need for reform
The Bush administration’s most enduring mark on the American West may well be the tens of millions of acres of public lands it has handed over to the oil and gas industry — and the belated backlash the giveaway has spawned. As if to punctuate this legacy, the Bureau of Land Management — which oversees […]
Posted inWotr
This is the time to make land management make sense
The federal deficit is already gigantic, and it keeps getting bigger in order to stimulate the plummeting economy. But times of crisis are also times of opportunity. This is the perfect chance for the Obama administration to improve the way the federal lands are managed. Consider the big three land agencies: the Forest Service, the […]
Posted inDecember 22, 2008: What a mess
Change we could believe in
The federal deficit is already gigantic, and there’s serious talk of making it even bigger in order to stimulate the plummeting economy. But times of crisis are also times of opportunity. This is the perfect chance for the Obama administration to improve the way the federal lands are managed. At the moment, increased budgets for […]
Posted inDecember 22, 2008: What a mess
Dodged bullets
How the Bush administration shot — and missed — on some Western issues
Posted inJuly 21, 2008: A fractured party
Watch the river flow
In Colorado, a national park wins a water claim
Posted inWotr
Don’t be afraid of the big bad bears
Ah, spring: The bloom of flowers, the song of birds, the paranoia of the National Park Service. I have come to expect it just as I expect muddy boots at the door and crowded pews at Easter: If you live in the same part of the world as Glacier or Yellowstone national parks, you will […]
Posted inWotr
No way to run a national park
Who has the most clout in Glacier National Park in northwestern Montana? Thousands of citizens who took part in an environmental impact study, or a railroad that wants to control avalanches as cheaply as possible? If you guessed the railroad, it seems you’re right. Four years ago, avalanches halted train service for 30 hours, twice […]
Posted inFebruary 4, 2008: Unnatural Preservation
Unnatural Preservation
In the age of global warming, public-land managers face a stark choice: They can let national parks and other wildlands lose their most cherished wildlife. Or they can become gardeners and zookeepers.
Posted inDecember 10, 2007: Rebels with a Lost Cause
Jim Detterline to the rescue
NAME Jim Detterline OCCUPATION Rocky Mountain National Park ranger NUMBER OF TIMES STRUCK BY LIGHTNING Three MOST TURTLES EVER OWNED AT ONE TIME 80 (When Detterline was a kid) DEGREES Master’s in vertebrate zoology, Ph.D. in invertebrate zoology HOBBIES Plays the trumpet Jim Detterline is a man of average size, lean, but not small. Still, […]