In the West’s argument over fracking, it matters less what’s said than who says it. Plus, a dry future for Central Valley farming and new research into the past comes from packrat middens.
Scientists dig up the past in packrat middens
The animals’ sturdy nests can preserve clues about the climate for 50,000 years or more.
Something to chew on
Perhaps the only coherent message to come out of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge debacle in eastern Oregon has been this: Local people, rather than the federal government, should control the land around their own communities. Just “give back” the refuge and other public land in Harney County to those who believe they should rightfully…
Talk about overreach
Your article on Wildlife Services (“The Forever War,” HCN, 1/25/16) was informative, but much too complimentary of that rogue federal agency, which simply needs to go away. Its use of public funds to kill public resources (native birds and mammals) on public lands at the behest of private industry (livestock producers with federal grazing permits)…
Bishop’s ‘Grand Bargain’ in Utah is no deal, say enviros
The much-anticipated land-use plan has ramped up the tensions it promised to defuse.
The fractured terrain of oil and gas opposition
In one of the West’s biggest arguments, the battle lines are complicated and opaque.
A dry future weighs heavy on California agriculture
Something’s got to give in Central Valley farming. The only question is what.
Colorado activists set their sights on a ballot measure to limit drilling
Previous attempts have been blocked and current regulations disappoint.
A wolf in elk’s clothing?
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
Far from home, the West’s foreign sheepherders get a pay raise
Since the ’50s, Western states have brought in international workers but offer them few of the benefits given other workers.
Fed workers are good neighbors
Some were hoping that the Malheur occupation would fizzle out on its own, but the continuing rhetoric from the criminals made it seem they did not intend to leave peacefully (“Inside the Sagebrush Insurgency,” HCN, 2/2/16). I know a little about national wildlife refuges. I worked for the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service for…
Gandhi, King and Phil Lyman
Has HCN stepped into the role of moderator of civil disobedience, declaring what qualifies and what does not? Despite the HCN spin, the Recapture Protest was exactly as it purported to be — a legal, peaceful protest against the collusion between the Bureau of Land Management and special interest groups (“The Sagebrush Sheriffs,” HCN, 2/2/16).…
How the wild Northern Rockies were saved — and who led the way
A new book looks at the ordinary citizens who fought for wilderness designations.
Interns take up crampons on icy sidewalks
It’s been an icy month so far, but not so frigid as to stop the presses or freeze the computers. We’ve been forging ahead, hard at work on our annual Travel Issue as well as on other timely Western stories. The chill just makes our masochistic staff work harder, so everyone is pitching in to…
It’s been a deadly winter for backcountry fun
What would it take to keep snowmobilers and others safe in avalanche terrain?
Latest: Klamath dams to come down
A deal that would have supplied water to irrigators and tribes fell apart.
Latest: New Mexico land deal opens wilderness access
The Sabinoso Wilderness Area was impossible to access for years, thanks to private landowners.
The time of painful impossibilities
A reading by U.S. poet laureate Juan Felipe Herrera.
The ‘poisoned landscapes’ we leave behind
Q&A with photographer David T. Hanson about his new book, ‘Wilderness to Wasteland,’ which shows a dystopian side of progress.