Modern-day scientists, retracing the path of Joseph Grinnell in Yosemite National Park, document conspicuous changes in the natural world and find a culprit unimagined by biologists 100 years ago: global warming.
Also in this issue: On his 12th attempt, Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., succeeds in pushing a bill through the U.S. House designed to reform the Endangered Species Act and end critical habitat protection.
Glen Canyon Dam will stand
Glen Canyon Dam isn’t coming down. That’s the final word from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation on calls to dismantle the dam, drain Lake Powell and release the waters of the Colorado (HCN, 12/22/03: Being green in the land of the saints). Under orders from Interior Secretary Gale Norton, the agency must develop a drought-management…
‘Water bank’ drags river basin deeper into debt
‘Win-win’ water solution only worsens tension over scarce resource
Spirits in the stream
This letter is regarding Paul Zaenger’s essay about ashes (HCN, 9/5/05: The meeting of heaven and earth). My mother and grandmother were both strong advocates of women’s rights and the Democratic Party in Utah. It was fitting that we broadcast their ashes into the stream up Emigration Canyon in Salt Lake City, allowing their liberal…
Fighting the Las Vegas ‘water grab’
Matt Jenkins’ excellent article on what we here in Snake Valley refer to as “the water grab” explains the long-range scientific concerns that we share (HCN, 9/18/05: Squeezing water from a stone). But as Jenkins points out, the “money and power” reside in Las Vegas. Indeed, the Southern Nevada Water Authority is paying the costs…
Bring back the great little car
Biodiesel is a great idea (HCN, 8/8/05: The American dream, sans gasoline). But how long can we ferment potential food? Yeast exhales carbon dioxide, as do tractors, and those nasty artificial fertilizers are made from oil. Used cooking oil will not be readily available for long, as biodiesel fans burn it up. Some long-term solutions…
Biodiesel is not the answer
Michelle Nijhuis’ ode to biodiesel and her American-sized Mercedes is well-intentioned but misinformed (HCN, 8/8/05: The American dream, sans gasoline). Biodiesel aficionados claim that burning vegetable oil drastically reduces overall emissions of globe-warming carbon dioxide because the carbon in plant oils is already part of the natural carbon cycle. But the carbon in vegetable oil…
Quivira Coalition needs science-based grazing
I was pleased to see in your recent article about Courtney White and his Quivira Coalition that there are serious questions about the scientific soundness of the livestock-grazing strategy he promotes (HCN, 9/5/05: Rangeland Revival). I fear, however, that your reporter’s use of the term “rest-rotation” to describe this grazing scheme will produce more confusion.…
Let ranchers restore the land
With regards to the Quivira Coalition and the New Ranch movement, the question is not whether ranchers managing land and livestock under such principles can actually restore landscapes (HCN, 9/5/05: Rangeland Revival). Dedicated individuals such as Sid Goodloe of Capitan, N.M., working with the freedom and flexibility afforded to private land, have already demonstrated an…
Grasses to grasses, dust to dust
My husband and I apply Allan Savory’s range management principles to our small acreage west of Boulder, grazing horses in early summer (HCN, 9/5/05: Rangland Revival). We move fences constantly, but the results, after about four years of doing this, are obvious to us, even in drought conditions. Our grasses are thicker and healthier than…
Salvage logging speeds up
The timber industry and environmentalists can agree on one thing: The Forest Service’s Biscuit Fire salvage logging program has been a fiasco. Despite accidentally allowing logging in a botanical reserve, the agency has sold just one-fifth of the timber it promised (HCN, 5/16/05: Unsalvageable). Now, two Oregon Republicans have a plan to prevent similar…
Restoration-by-poisoning plan shot down
Just hours before the California Department of Fish and Game was to poison a stream in the Sierra Nevada — part of an effort to restore a threatened trout — a federal court halted the project. The plan called for killing all fish in an 11-mile stretch of Silver King Creek and Tamarack Lake, then…
His photographs trace the passage of time
NAME Mark Klett VOCATION Photographer and regents’ professor of art at Arizona State University AGE 53 KNOWN FOR Documenting our changing relationship with Western landscapes HE SAYS “Photos always seem to exist as sort of stuffy, unnecessary antiques that we put in a drawer — unless we take them out, put them in current dialogue,…
The Ghosts of Yosemite
Scientists from the past bring us a message about the future
Pombo takes on the Endangered Species Act
‘Critical habitat’ is likely a thing of the past
Handling griz: How much is enough?
At least 5 percent of the West’s grizzly bears should wear radio collars, researchers say
The Latest Bounce
The Bureau of Land Management recently approved a mining company’s plans to explore for gold near South Pass, Wyo., a major historic point on the Emigrant Trail (HCN, 5/16/05: Gold mining proposed in historic South Pass area). Fremont Gold will dig 200 10-by-20-foot test pits about five miles from the pass. If the company finds…
Blood spills over a $14 camping fee
When Chief Ranger Jerry Epperson hired me to be a seasonal ranger at Arches National Park in Utah 25 years ago, I wasn’t sure what my duties were. So it seemed like a good idea to ask. Epperson smiled wryly and said, “A ranger should range.” So even though we had to endure chores like…
Inside the fall
Flat on my back under the cottonwood, yellow leaves falling, brilliant blue above, an abandoned rake beside me. My two young children sit at my side, feeding sticks to the dog, who likes to chew them up and understands that every time he gently takes a twig and crashes it in his teeth he is…
Heard around the West
IDAHO A border collie adept at “child-herding, intense stares and home protection” has applied for a job with the city of Boise: He wants to chase Canada geese off the playing fields. In a letter purported to be from the herd dog, named Atticus in honor of the lawyer in To Kill a Mockingbird, he…
Overseas drill rigs head for the West
Oil and gas drilling permits have tripled during the last five years, and every available rig has been pressed into service. Now, energy companies are looking overseas, particularly to China, for equipment and qualified crews. But as foreign drill rigs and workers arrive to tap Western lands, political red flags are starting to go up.…
In the Great Basin, scientists track global warming
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “The Ghosts of Yosemite.” Eugene Raymond Hall, one of biologist Joseph Grinnell’s first graduate students, was “a robust, pipe-smoking, extroverted individual,” known for his stubbornness and rough edges, writes historian Barbara Stein. In many ways, he was unlike his reserved mentor, but his scientific…
States lead charge against global warming
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “The Ghosts of Yosemite.” From California to Colorado and from Washington to New Mexico, Western states, tired of federal inaction on climate change, are saddling up to tackle the issue on their own. Whether it means deciding that a certain percentage of their electrical…
Is anyone home at the parks?
Poke around the West for a while, and you’ll discover that the National Park Service does one thing better than any other agency. It’s not managing land. It’s managing people. Nearly 300 million visitors meander through the parks each year in search of that perfect scenic photo, a look at a bear, a little solitude.…
Dear friends
HELLOS AND GOODBYES The High Country News board of directors met in Santa Fe in late September, bidding farewell to two longtime members, and inviting five new people to join. Leaving the board are Emily Stonington and Michael Fischer. Emily, a state senator who raises sheep outside Helena, Mont., was one of the main forces…