The Peregrine Fund has mastered the art of breeding aplomado falcons and other endangered birds of prey, but critics say the organization is blind to the importance of wildlife habitat.
Also in this issue: A recent court ruling on the ceremonial killing of eagles by American Indians collides with the Endangered Species Act, possibly sending the issue to the Supreme Court.
Elementary, my dear cowpuncher
In his new historical mystery, Holmes on the Range, Steve Hockensmith slyly tips his hat to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, whose 1887 novella, A Study in Scarlet, introduced Sherlock Holmes to the world. Both books feature a Western theme. In Doyle’s melodramatic tale, a murder in London is linked to the history of Mormon Utah.…
Four decades of the Sierra Club
It is not enough to be outraged at industry’s abuse of our soil, water and air, writes Mike McCloskey in his autobiography, In the Thick of It: My Life in the Sierra Club. We have to harness our rage and wage savvy campaigns in the courtroom and Congress. McCloskey joined the Sierra Club in 1960…
Heard around the West
CALIFORNIA It may sound like a weird thing to have to face at work first thing in the morning, but inside California’s EPA building in Sacramento, squirming worms share space with employees. The live animals, housed in 60-some bins, are such a part of cubicle culture that staffers compete for the prize of “most productive”…
The West is not a zoo
Out here in the wide-open West, it seems like there ought to be plenty of room for everyone, including all the wild creatures that were here first. But we know better: The conversion of wild lands into human habitat — not to mention space for our domesticated plants and animals — has pushed dozens of…
Two weeks in the West
“With no disrespect to the eagle, I’ve always thought that the horse should be our national emblem.” —Singer Willie Nelson, arguing against the slaughter of horses for human consumption Interior’s fuzzy science. If it were up to many U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists, the Endangered Species Act would now protect the Gunnison’s prairie dog,…
Tribal religion trumps eagle protection
Judge’s ruling regarding ceremonial eagle killing could send case to Supreme Court
Trees — A different shade of green
Cities look to urban forests as a natural utility
Spinning coal into gasoline
Questions hang over promise of clean diesel and energy independence
State of Jefferson: A place apart
Name Brian Petersen Age 40 Vocation Entrepreneur: Runs a local car wash, fabricates signs, grinds stumps, manufactures plastic trays for bed-bound laptop users, and silk-screens T-shirts for local soccer teams. He recently bought a $30,000 laser-engraver whose commercial potential, he says, is untapped; he’s still dreaming up ways to use it. Known for Promoting the…
A whole lot of shaking
Simon Winchester’s latest book, A Crack in the Edge of the World, takes a comprehensive look at the country’s worst earthquake: San Francisco, 1906. The quake, he writes, “came thundering in on what looked like huge undulating waves … the whole street and all its great buildings rose and fell, rose and fell, on what…
A Proud Member of PAOBHA
My house is a previous-owner-built oddity with small, random additions, situated on a rural county road along with a line of other houses, most of which are nicely bewildering in their construction and habitation. There are goats in backyards, a donkey that escapes fairly regularly, a mishmash of people who want to live outside of…
Bred for success
The nonprofit Peregrine Fund has mastered the captive breeding of birds of prey. But has its single-minded focus blinded it to the importance of habitat?
Dear friends
CHANGING OF THE GUARD High Country News is bidding goodbye to editor Greg Hanscom and welcoming new editor John Mecklin. Mecklin got his start in journalism in 1978 as a reporter for the twice-a-week Williamson County Sun in rural Texas. Later, as a reporter for the Houston Post, he traveled to Saudi Arabia and Iraq…
Terms of endangerment
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Bred for success.” Species in the Wild Endangered — An animal or plant species in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range. Endangered species such as the Mexican long-nosed bat and the masked bobwhite receive strict protection from harassment,…
A decade of difficult questions
Reflections on a cantankerous, contrarian Western newsmagazine