Among the top 10 lessons gained from the 2006 midterm elections is that there can be no doubt now of the West’s rising importance as a center of political power.
Also in this issue: A new plan to steer energy development away from cultural sites in New Mexico could streamline energy development, fund archaeological research and preserve ancient sites all at once.
Playing God in the woods
I just read your article about how environmental groups are working with loggers to thin forests in New Mexico. While I am not opposed to thinning trees near communities to increase their defensibility against wildfires, I do think we need to examine the assumptions that underlie thinning programs. There is an implicit assumption that large…
Roadless Rule provided clear direction
Your article “Clinton-era roadless rule is back … for now” overlooks some key facts about recent developments and threats still facing roadless areas in our national forests. While noting that a Wyoming court enjoined the Roadless Rule, the article failed to mention that a higher court — the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals — strongly…
Forestry story lacked context
We were very disturbed by Peter Friederici’s article “Peace Breaks Out in New Mexico’s Forests.” Its misrepresentations and outright lies are a slap in the face to all of us who were involved in trying to revitalize community forestry during the 1990s. Friederici fails to provide any of the historical and cultural context necessary to…
An encyclopedia of rivers
Rivers are the “nerve system” of the continent’s ecology, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reminds us in his foreword to Rivers of North America. As population, industry and agriculture grow, the need for fresh water increases. But meeting that demand often entails the wholesale diverting, damming and draining of rivers. Rivers of North America is the…
Crafting the everyday
Stridently male: That’s how journalist Joseph Kinsey Howard characterized Butte, once the world’s greatest producer of copper. Not only was hardrock mining physically demanding, it was the most dangerous industrial occupation in America. Small wonder that Butte developed a reputation for being a man’s town or that its official history has always been told from…
Somewhere up the crazy river
Robin Carey’s Upstream: Sons, Fathers and Rivers is a riveting story of river ascent, with a family’s troubled history unfolding along the way. Rob and his son, Dev, former “down river” guides, decide to kayak from the mouth of the Klamath River in California 200 miles up to Oregon’s Klamath Lake. They want to learn…
Doing something about ‘anything’
As Democrats rode a multidimensional wave of voter anger to congressional dominance last week, I began to worry. After all, I was the new guy in the editor’s chair; I’d barely had time to find my computer, much less write any of the nuanced election analysis you expect from High Country News. Then I relaxed,…
This dog believes
“Each week we’ll hear from a banker or butcher, a painter or social worker as they discuss the principles that guide their daily lives. We realize what a daunting prospect this is — to summarize a life’s philosophy in just 500 words and share it with a national audience. But that’s exactly what we hope…
Two weeks in the West
“What are you going to do? They dumped millions on my head.” —Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., on election night, as he realized he would get voted out of office. Democrat Jerry McNerney upset Pombo with the help of an infusion of cash from various environmental groups. Indian Country thaw. The Hopi and Navajo tribes this…
Fed up with paying to play
One woman’s dissent could help cripple federal fee program
Conspiring with caddisflies
“He hath ribbons of all the colours i’ the rainbow; inkles, caddisses, cambrics and lawns.” —from The Winter’s Tale, by William Shakespeare Name Ferg (no first name, no last name, just Ferg) Vocation Father of two, a Renaissance man who draws, paints, sculpts, composes poetry, plays music, and makes jewelry from beetle carcasses. Age 40…
The evils of takings
Thank you so much for your terrific story on the evils of the proposed takings initiatives on the November ballot. I believe your story played a great part in the defeat of California’s Proposition 90. Your eye-opening article got me writing letters to newspapers and telling my friends about it, who told their friends. ……
Tender memories
Thank you for Diane Sylvain’s radiant essay, “The Memory of Mountains.” I am weary of wild-wo/man hiker goes solo into wilderness and has a Big Moment. Diane’s tender writing summed up for me the essence of the best of High Country News: the illuminating of the threads that connect us to each other, and to…
RECA needs revision
As the former medical director of the Navajo Area Radiation Exposure Screening & Education Program (Navajo Area Indian Health Service), I would like to add several points to the generally excellent articles by Laura Paskus, “Navajo Windfall” and “Navajos pay for industry’s mistakes.” Having worked for four years examining patients applying for compensation under the…
The West: A New Center of Power
Moderation in the pursuit of office is no vice, and nine other lessons to take away from the midterm elections
Dear friends
HCN Holiday Open House If you’re in the Paonia area on Wednesday, Dec. 6, please join us for our holiday open house. From 5 to 7:30 p.m., you can meet HCN staff and other readers and enjoy refreshments. Our office is located at 119 Grand Ave. ANOTHER HCN WIN HCN Contributing Editor Michelle Nijhuis has…
Heard around the West
COLORADO As the Rocky Mountain News put it, “Naked frivolity heats up the night.” Their heads inside pumpkins and their clothes nowhere in sight, hundreds braved cold weather on Halloween to streak past the costumed pedestrians thronging Boulder’s outdoor mall. “With the pumpkin on the head, it’s anonymous,” said Jazzmin Jenkins, 21. “What could be…
Destruction and discovery walk hand in hand
Energy boom fuels archaeology
Election Roundup
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “The West: A New Center of Power.” ARIZONA After taking office in 2003, Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano vetoed more than 110 bills passed by the Republican Legislature. Voters seem to like her stands. She won re-election by roughly 2-to-1 over archconservative Republican Len Munsil.…