High Country News’ founder, Tom Bell, marks our 40th anniversary with a grim prediction: The West — and the world — are doomed.
Doomster chorus
Note: This is a sidebar to a profile of the founder of High Country News and his increasingly pessimistic view of the future, headlined, “A Hell of an Anniversary.” — “… A simple look at the upward path of global greenhouse-gas emissions (indicates) we will continue to squeeze the trigger on the gun we have…
Conservation calculus
Are trade-offs in Wyoming’s Jonah natural gas field a boon for wildlife?
‘Clean and healthful environment’
Montana’s constitution could stop a huge mine
Our founder, the man and the myth
Tom Bell still inspires a young Westerner
A Hell of an Anniversary
HCN’s founder, Tom Bell, marks our 40th year with a prediction: We’re all doomed
Kind words for a much-maligned mammal
The Wolverine WayDouglas Chadwick278 pages, hardcover: $25.95.Patagonia Books, 2010. Wolverines do not have a romantic history. Early trappers and pioneers loathed these carnivores for their elusive, gnarly behavior. Tall tales were told about vicious, crotchety beasts hunting humans in the woods, and by the early part of the 20th century, traps and poisons had ravaged…
Righteous gluttony
In the produce section of the grocery store the other day, I saw apricots on sale for 99 cents a pound. They sat in a bin between grapes from Chile and cherries from the Flathead Valley of Montana. I don’t know where the apricots came from. I selected six and put them in the shopping…
Up fur debate
Steel-jaws, conibears, snares: Endangered species and pets in the West have been injured and killed by these “body-gripping” traps, triggering a wave of recent public concern. After six Mexican wolves were hurt in New Mexico, leaving two with leg amputations (including AM871, alpha male of the Middle Fork Pack, captured by a trail cam at…
A brush with cowboy culture
On a gray, blustery, spring evening, my family and I drive into the Sky Ute Fairgrounds in Ignacio, Colo., eager to get to the rodeo. My 2-year-old son can’t wait to make his debut in “mutton busting,” an event in which young children cling to the backs of sheep loosed from bucking chutes. As we…
Visitors with flowers and fire extinguishers
We continue to enjoy a steady stream of visitors to our Paonia, Colo., office. We’re always impressed that so many of you find us, since our little town is more than an hour and a half from the nearest interstate highway. In mid-July, subscribers Lucy Meinhardt and Dave Zumwalt left us a note. “It seems…
Breath by breath
Drowning TucsonAaron Michael Morales330 pages, softcover: $15.95.Coffee House Press, 2010. “He’d felt safer in the desert than he ever had in his life, as if some outside force were protecting him. But now, in the bowels of the city, he was a stationary target.” That’s Tucson in the 1980s, a city of snowbirds, developers and…
Parting the Redwood Curtain
A one-mile highway project could change an entire region
How green is Judge Molloy?
Latest wolf ruling triggers more complaints of judicial activism
Coming soon: HCN on glossy toilet paper
As I read Ray Ring’s words on what is the right format for HCN, I began to ponder that the correct mix is the mix that keeps you and your staff energized (HCN, 7/19/10). Without an engaged editor and staff, the publication will wilt. The rest is just packaging that can be adjusted. Sources of…
Mute on Utes
Like writer Jonathan Thompson, I have deep roots on and near Ute lands in southwestern Colorado. While I realize he faced a daunting task — even without Ute secrecy — “The Ute Paradox” seemed way too couched in political correctness and an unwillingness to hold minority leaders to the same standards we demand of others…
Wildfires and who’s to blame
I read John Maclean’s excellent article “The Fiery Touch” with mounting concern, for two reasons (HCN, 8/02/10). The first is the charge of murder. Several of my friends and colleagues are or have been wildland firefighters. My heart goes out to the families of all those killed in wildfires. Raymond Oyler is clearly a very…
Capturing hearts and minds
Your story “Young, All-American, Illegal” is riveting and heartbreaking (HCN, 8/16/10). It should be required reading and viewing by anyone involved in immigration issues, regardless of political stripe. And that means all of us. I confess: The brouhaha surrounding the Arizona “show me your papers” debate didn’t matter to me, other than to rouse my…
Surprises flow from Ruby Pipeline
A conservation compromise fails to stave off lawsuits