Mark Twain once remarked that in the West, “whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting.” But Delphus E. Carpenter, who spearheaded the 1922 Colorado River Compact among seven states, would have disagreed twice over. Carpenter not only abstained from spirits, but believed water problems could be resolved through diplomacy instead of fisticuffs. His life […]
Nevada
Posted inMarch 21, 2005: An Empire Built on Sand
Nevada desert to be sold for debt relief
Bush wants proceeds from public-land sales sent to Washington, D.C.
Posted inJanuary 24, 2005: Written in the Rings
Follow-up
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has decided not to protect the greater sage grouse under the Endangered Species Act (HCN, 12/20/04: Rulings keep the West open for business). In early January, the agency announced that even though there are only 100,000 to 500,000 of the birds left in 11 Western states and two Canadian […]
Posted inDecember 20, 2004: Stand Your Ground
Follow-up
So much for Homeland Security. In November, voters in Washington state voted by a 2-to-1 margin to prohibit the federal government from sending any more nuclear waste to Hanford Nuclear Reservation (HCN, 11/22/04: Election Day surprises in the schizophrenic West). On Dec. 2, in response to a request from the U.S. Department of Justice, a […]
Posted inAugust 2, 2004: The Greening of the Plains
On a lonely road, time rolls to a stop
Three days after rumbling up out of La Guardia, four days before the summer solstice, I was finally there, as far from New York as I could get. I was driving through the spatial and sensorial opposite of my home city: Route 375 in the Great Basin desert, 30 miles southeast of Warm Springs, Nev. […]
Posted inMay 24, 2004: In Search of Solidarity
At Yucca Mountain, deadlines take precedence over science
Don’t ask questions when you don’t know the answers: That’s the rule of thumb for trial lawyers who don’t want courtroom surprises. The Bush administration has a different rule of thumb when it comes to the science of storing nuclear waste: Ask as few questions as possible, and ignore answers you don’t like. Until January, […]
Posted inMarch 15, 2004: The New Water Czars
Heard Around the West
IDAHO Wilderness areas were not created equal. In order to pacify locals and win votes in Congress, most include more than a few reminders of both the old and developed West. The Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness in central Idaho, for example, grandfathered in outfitters’ cabins and backcountry plane access. Now, the Forest […]
Posted inMarch 1, 2004: The Last Open Range
Heard around the West
NEVADA Better not mess with Nevada: It’s big, and getting bigger. Last year, Nevada gained an average of 6,141 people every month, making it number-one for growth in the nation for the 17th year in a row, reports the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Citing climate and affordability, 70 percent of the newcomers to the state flock […]
Posted inDecember 8, 2003: Riding the middle path
Leaving Las Vegas
I lived in Las Vegas recently for about a year, doing research at a large weapons-testing facility outside of town. Among all the places I’ve lived, from tropical islands to small towns to Western strip-mall communities, Las Vegas seemed uniquely American for its boosterism of get-rich-quick schemes and the sex industry — and for the […]
Posted inNovember 10, 2003: San Diego's Habitat Triage
Activists raise a stink over outhouse
In the latest skirmish over a long-disputed dirt road in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, Elko county-rights activists are fuming over the Forest Service’s decision to clean a remote outhouse. The county and the Forest Service have clashed since 1995, when the agency closed a 1.5-mile stretch of South Canyon Road after most of it was […]
Posted inSeptember 29, 2003: Harvesting Poison
Heard Around the West
NEVADA The satirical newspaper The Onion spoofed the Burning Man celebration in the Black Rock Desert, reporting that everybody was too spaced out to bother going. But in fact, some 30,000 people turned out in late August to “burn the man” — a 77 foot-high neon-colored effigy made of wood. Flames shot 150 feet in […]
Posted inAugust 18, 2003: Where the Antelope (and the Oil Companies) Play
Former employees blow the whistle on Nevada mine
Is the state shirking its duty to enforce mining regulations?
Posted inAugust 4, 2003: Pipe Dreams
Rural ‘Water Warriors’ take on a water wrangler
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Pipe Dreams.” Thirty-five miles southwest of Las Vegas, on the California/Nevada border, Sandy Valley is a desert haven for free-living refugees from the urban rat race. The valley’s institutions range from Dust Devil Pizza to the Sky Ranch Airport — “A Flying Family Community” […]
Posted inAugust 27, 2001: Restoring the range of light
Showdown on the Nevada range
Ranchers trespass on public lands, says the BLM
Posted inOctober 30, 1995: Nevada's ugly tug-of war
Nevada’s ugly tug-of-war
A visit to the heart of the Sagebrush Rebellion
Posted inMay 16, 1994: Babbitt is trying to nationalize the BLM
A one-man Sagebrush Rebellion
A Nevada rancher refuses to pay more than $25,000 in fines to the BLM.