Writers on the Range


Writers on the Range is opinion from the ground up.


Blowing the whistle while covering your ass
Some survival tips for whistleblowers: Copy everything, take notes, know who your friends are, test the system but don't trust your boss. And always tell your family before you fight the good fight.
David Hackett Opinion April 20, 1992 From the print edition
Yucca Mountain is an assault on Nevada
Jon Christensen's article, "Nevada Speaks with Fissioned Tongue" (HCN, 1/10/92), seriously misrepresents the issues surrounding the debate about the proposed high-level nuclear waste site at Yucca Mountain in southern Nevada.
Robert R. Loux Opinion April 6, 1992 From the print edition
Are bison getting killed in Montana for no reason?
The outcome of a legal battle between a cattle company and the federal government over transmission of brucellosis from wild bison could impose dramatic changes in the use of public land in the West.
Michael Milstein Opinion March 9, 1992 From the print edition
In search of sustainability
The foresters, economists, sociologists, public land managers and foundation executives at the Defining Sustainable Forestry Workshop came surprisingly close to describing what sustainable forestry might look like.
Ed Marston Opinion Feb. 24, 1992 From the print edition
Nevada speaks with fissioned tongue
The state's political leaders are talking in ever more militant tones in their battle to keep the nation's high-level nuclear waste out of Yucca Mountain. Yet these same politicians are the first to cry foul when anyone suggests even a temporary halt to testing nuclear weapons in the same southern Nevada desert.
Jon Chistensen Opinion Feb. 10, 1992 From the print edition
Is it cruel to fool a fish?
Although we think we are being conscientious and thoughtful in releasing that rainbow, in the eyes of some we are cruelly torturing an innocent fish for our own perverse pleasure.
Kenneth Arnold Opinion Dec. 30, 1991 From the print edition
Water fight sinks wilderness bill
How water rights language killed Colorado's wilderness bill (S-1029).
Larry Mosher Opinion Dec. 2, 1991 From the print edition
The angrier they get you, the more they make you think
We are about 150 years into this experiment to see whether it is possible to live year-round in the Rocky Mountains.
Ed Quillen Opinion Nov. 4, 1991 From the print edition
Is Babbitt just funny, or is he also shrewd?
Today, Babbitt said, the main threat to the West is not aridity, but dam builders. Each new water development destroys another chunk of the West, said the man who fought for the Central Arizona Project while Arizona's governor.
Ed Marston Opinion Oct. 7, 1991 From the print edition
Rancher says fee increase is needed, overdue
Most reports I've seen concerning the present feverish discussion of raising the grazing leases on public simply do not reflect a true picture.
Thomas Taylor Opinion Sept. 9, 1991 From the print edition
Why subsidize the recovery of the wolf?
Defenders of Wildlife should work to limit, not enhance, the power of the livestock interests, and push for more equitable solutions such as a mandatory insurance policy for ranchers to compensate them for depredation.
Tom Skeele Opinion April 8, 1991 From the print edition
An inside view of the Rocky Flats plant
When I went for the interview at Rocky Flats, after the first screening by the temporary agency, it was a bleak, gray, snowy day ...
Carol Jakubauskas Opinion March 25, 1991 From the print edition
Nevada Test Site protesters hear it in Kazakh
When 2,500 anti-nuclear protesters came here to vex the Nevada Test Site early in January, probably the last thing they expected was a lecture on democracy from their Soviet counterparts in the peace movement.
Jon Christensen Opinion Jan. 28, 1991 From the print edition
Gold and grizzlies: a bad combination
In the mountains north of Cooke City and in other national forests surrounding Montana's Absaroka- Beartooth Wilderness, important grizzly hear habitat is being threatened by a "neo-gold rush" -- the recent explosion of hard rock mining on public lands.
Diana F. Tomback Opinion Dec. 3, 1990 From the print edition
Games (non-Native) journalists play
Every day we meet with cultural problems, and the mark of the Indian journalist is that he or she must actively confront these problems.
Kevin Lee Lopez Opinion Oct. 8, 1990 From the print edition
Montana's wilderness imbroglio: Two views on how to end it
Ken Knudson represented the Montana Wildlands Coalition in the Kootenai and Lolo Accords negotiation; Bryan Erhart represented over 800 mill workers.
Ken Knudson and Bryan Erhart Opinion Sept. 24, 1990 From the print edition
Present policy burns trees and money
An array of changes are urgently needed to ensure that the Forest Service is better prepared, that it is more adaptable to variable and unusual conditions, and that large sums of money are not squandered when fighting wildfire.
Nick Sundt Opinion July 16, 1990 From the print edition
North Dakota: a Garrison junkie
The Garrison project may be a greater disaster than the Dust Bowl.
Gary L. Pearson Opinion May 21, 1990 From the print edition
The decayed core at the center of rural life
A rural electrification convention symbolizes the forces that vigorous, progressive elements must overcome if the countryside is to move forward again.
Ed Marston Opinion March 26, 1990 From the print edition
The politics of Western water have changed forever
Given their dubious benefits, few dams are likely to stand up well in contests played on level fields. Both the environment and the economy will be better for the struggle.
Dan Luecke Opinion Feb. 26, 1990 From the print edition
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