In his determination to cling, however hopelessly, to Utah’s past, Canyon Country Zephyr founder Jim Stiles has taken on miners, ranchers, developers, mountain bikers and – most recently – some of his fellow environmentalists.
Also in this issue: “Divine Strake” — a proposed weapons detonation at the Nevada Test Site — has stirred up fears of radioactive contamination and the possibility of a new nuclear arms race.
Good Samaritan bill could clean up old mines
The Clean Water Act inadvertently hampers efforts to clean up thousands of orphaned hardrock mines across the West. Legislation introduced in April by Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., may help solve the problem. Under the act, anyone who attempts to clean up acid drainage from a mine becomes liable for continuing or future pollution from the…
Lion plan draws heat from scientists, enviros
Lion plan draws heat from scientists, enviros
Celebrate differences
The ongoing discussions about Brokeback Mountain prompt me to write (HCN, 4/3/06: Keep the closet closed, please). During my 55-year marriage, I have lived in much of the West. I’ve even had the rare opportunity to actually live on a working cattle ranch. In short, I’ve known a lot of real cowboys! Seeing Brokeback Mountain was a…
They’re idealistic kids, not terrorists
A “terrorist” intentionally targets innocent people in order to promote a political agenda. Members of the Earth Liberation Front target only property, which invariably belongs to Earth-rapers with nothing innocent about them (HCN, 4/17/06: Eco-terrorism and the trial of the century). ELF has never killed or injured anyone. They are idealistic kids who claim that the…
We need sensible ESA reform
I am a member of the Sierra Club, The Nature Conservancy, the National Wildlife Federation and other environmental organizations. However, I believe that blind opposition to any reasonable reform of the Endangered Species Act is eventually going to lead to unreasonable reform. Indeed, I believe that is why we are looking at reform legislation right…
Give biologists more credit
I have to disagree with Leigh Bernacchi’s argument for some sort of “Ecosystem Protection Act” (HCN, 5/1/06: Is Pombo the kick we need?). True, ecosystem management is becoming the norm for land management policy, but it’s a lot easier to find a single species’ place in an ecosystem than it is to find all the connections…
California’s not that different
California is no better off environmentally than the Rocky Mountain West (HCN, 5/1/06: California, here we come). (Of course, there are several Californias, and the environment is valued in different ways in, say, the central coastal region than in most of the Central Valley. Remember, please, that Richard Pombo hails from California, and he’s not…
It’s the population, stupid
“California, here we come,” is replete with contradictions (HCN, 5/1/06: California, here we come). It praises California for “showing the rest of the West how to use water more efficiently through conservation” by “pioneering the transfer of water rights from rural areas to rapidly growing urban centers.” But rural areas, with their ability to grow…
Dinosaur bones and dastardly deeds
It’s a sad, sick world, as the daily papers, broadcast news and even High Country News report, what with droughts, drying aquifers and global warming. Sometimes one yearns for a bit of escapist fun. Douglas Preston offers up a delicious dose in his latest novel, Tyrannosaur Canyon. A page-turner set in the desert Southwest, it’s…
Saving water from the sky
Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands should come with a warning: Read it only at home, with tools handy, because what’s inside inspires action. Tucson author Brad Lancaster explores strategies to “plant” rainwater where it falls. He should know: Lancaster harvests more than 100,000 gallons of rainwater a year, transforming his one-eighth acre of urban desert into…
The life of an enigmatic seabird
One of the great North American ornithological mysteries in recent history was solved not by a scientist or a birder, but by a tree-trimmer. Working in an ancient Douglas fir in California’s Big Basin Redwoods State Park, Hoyt Foster began to lop off a limb 148 feet above ground when suddenly he was confronted by…
The Latest Bounce
The Navajo Nation has opened its doors to a new power plant — and waived its sovereign right to protect itself from future disputes over the project. In mid-May, the Navajo Tribal Council voted 66 to 7, granting a 50-year lease to Houston-based Sithe Global Power to build the Desert Rock coal-fired power plant near…
Montana court acknowledges water linkage
An April decision by Montana’s Supreme Court legally established something that the scientific community has long agreed upon: that groundwater is connected to surface water. In 1993, Montana state legislators ordered a moratorium on new water-rights applications for surface water in the over-allocated Upper Missouri River Basin — along with all groundwater “immediately or directly…
Craig’s excellent adaptive adventures
Name Craig Kennedy Age 33 Vocation Adaptive adventure-travel writer and accessibility consultant Home Base Steamboat Springs, Colorado Noted for Writing adventure-travel guides for disabled hikers, bikers, boaters, campers, paragliders … He says “(Accessibility) could always be happening faster. I’m just happy it’s happening at all. There are a lot of places we can go. “…
‘Clinging hopelessly to the past’
The cantankerous gospel of Jim Stiles and The Canyon Country Zephyr
Science vs. science fiction — get it straight
Science and scientists are taking quite a beating in the public opinion department these days. Sometimes there’s a good reason for it. Consider the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. Every year, the geologists’ association honors someone “for notable journalistic achievement in communications contributing to public understanding of geology.” The oil geologists gave Michael Crichton their…
Nostalgia is a moving target
I recently realized that my kids have become old enough to be nostalgic. It was a strange feeling. We were driving past the old brick house we lived in five years ago, when my 16-year-old daughter said: “Remember when we used to swing under the old maple tree and see how far we could jump…
Dear friends
WELCOME, NEW INTERNS Having worked as a bicycle messenger, Wall Street broker, jeweler, car detailer and welder, Allison Gerfin is ready to try her hand at something new: an internship at High Country News. Allison wandered between the Atlantic and the Pacific coasts for a number of years, from New York City to Portland, Ore.,…
Bomb test stirs up fear in Nevada desert
Proposed blast raises alarm over lingering radioactivity and talk of bombing Iran
Between the body and the world
I had to see it. I mean, how often are human bodies impregnated with resin and polyester, contorted into odd postures, and displayed for the public’s edification? It wasn’t appealing; it was irresistible. So one evening this spring, I plunked down $15 and joined the line for Body Worlds 2 at the Denver Museum of…
Dust and Snow
High in the snowy San Juan Mountains, tiny particles have big implications
Heard around the West
CALIFORNIA Governing magazine calls Vernon, Calif., “the strangest town in America.” Although 44,000 people work there, only 93 people actually live in the tiny Los Angeles suburb; when election time rolls around, 60 people show up to vote. The Los Angeles Times wrote an exposé of the unusual town, which behaves more like a private…