Utah and Arizona fail to crack down on abusive polygamous sects which persist even after Warren Jeffs’ conviction; abalone poachers versus wildlife officials; nuclear regulator Gregory Jaczko’s sharp eye will be missed; scientists enlist help for spider surveys and more.
Hidden in plain sight: A review of The American Wall
The American Wall: From the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of MexicoMaurice Sherif 224 + 160 pages, two volumes, hardcover: $150.University of Texas Press, 2011 In its ungainly proportions, Maurice Sherif’s The American Wall mimics its massive subject, the U.S.-Mexico border fence. The “book” is actually two giant volumes enclosed in a slipcase. Heft one…
FLDS continues abusive polygamist practices in Utah and Arizona
Rumors swirled around the courthouse in San Angelo, Texas, last summer. Prosecutors had charged Warren Jeffs — leader of the nation’s most notorious polygamous sect, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints — with sexually assaulting two underage girls in the group’s Texas compound. For weeks, spectators whispered that the prosecutors possessed a…
Surveying the oft-snubbed (and very cool) spider with citizen scientists
It’s Saturday morning in early May at the Bluff Lake Nature Center, a modest suburban oasis in northeast Denver. An eager posse of spider hunters clusters around its intrepid leader, Paula Cushing, a petite woman with a dark braid, deep-set eyes and a fearless affection for eight-legged creatures. “Without spiders, we’d be up to our…
Gregory Jaczko’s resignation weakens federal nuclear regulation
Two weeks before he resigned as chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on May 21, Gregory Jaczko publicly wrist-slapped Southern California Edison, whose two-gigawatt nuclear plant now sits idle on the Southern California coast. Utility spokesman Stephen Pickett had just announced that the troubled facility could be back online before midsummer. Jaczko swiftly dashed…
Let gravity do its thing
This round of the sediment management plan won’t provide a sustainable solution to the problem (HCN, 5/14/12, “Los Angeles Against the Mountains”). But now is a good time to make the case for long-term solutions. For that, we’re going to have to rethink the flood control system, or rather, remember it as a functioning riparian…
On the hunt for abalone poachers in Northern California
Last spring, Don Powers steered his government-issue pickup down Highway 1, the thin ribbon of blacktop that hugs California’s North Coast. The sun shone bright, the scent of salt hung on the wind, and the world felt rapturous. In fact, a crackpot preacher Harold Camping had prophesied that the Rapture would actually take place then…
Three cheers for Emily Green
You have done us all a great service by publishing a very important story about the oak woodland and the sediment dump (HCN, 5/14/12, “Los Angeles Against the Mountains”). I consider myself a member of the “environmental” community in Southern California, and I am an avid HCN reader. It is good to see a piece…
Calling for a crackdown on polygamous crime
Once, on a rural Western highway, my wife and I came upon a small settlement we’d never noticed before. Curious, we turned off and discovered an unusual place. Many of the houses were huge — almost like dormitories. The women wore bonnets, long braids and pioneer-style dresses over homemade-looking pants; even their ankles were covered.…
Fantasy politics
“Over the last 30 years,” says (Arizona state Sen. Al) Melvin, “mining, lumbering and grazing have come to a screeching halt, snuffed out by the so-called environmental practices of the Forest Service and BLM” (HCN, 5/14/12, “Sagebrush skirmish”). Is there any chance that reality could enter into this debate? The first 10 of those 30…
Helping hikers before they get hurt
“Search and rescue” conjures up adrenaline-pumping images: rescuers rappelling down cliffs, stretchers dangling from helicopters. But it rarely evokes rangers simply offering advice, e.g., “That 12-ounce water bottle may not get you through an 18-mile hike in 110-degree heat. But there’s another great trail. …” About 20 national parks however, have added such preventative search…
High Country News gets visitors and a new employee
Angela Caldwell started as HCN’s new circulation assistant in May. She’ll help us keep track of new subscriptions and renewals here at our home office in Paonia, Colo. A resident of the North Fork Valley for 14 years, Angela says she doesn’t miss the hustle of her hometown, Aurora, on the state’s busy Front Range. In…
Keep what’s public public
One of the very best things about the West is the availability of public land for all kinds of outdoor recreation (HCN, 5/14/12, “Sagebrush skirmish”). Conversely, a major shortcoming of the East is the lack of the same. Unfortunately, some of the very best public land has been misused and abused for decades by grazing, drilling,…
L.A.’s wild underbelly
By publishing such an indispensable, comprehensive account of an issue that has been all but forgotten by local news organizations, HCN has filled a critical role in keeping an accurate narrative of the sediment management issue in Los Angeles alive and well (HCN, 5/14/12, “Los Angeles Against the Mountains”). As Emily Green so eloquently explained,…
Learning a landscape by tracking its rivers
I follow a blue thread on my atlas. The line labeled “Clark Fork” appears to end at Lake Pend Oreille. To confirm it, I turn from my atlas to my computer and consult Google, Wikipedia, the Clark Fork Coalition’s website. I feel guilty; it seems like cheating to use a computer screen to learn about…