Running a rhinoceros horn smuggling operation is a lucrative affair. Take father-and-son team “Jimmy” and Felix Kha, from Garden Grove in California, for instance. The pair had to surrender $1 million in cash, $1 million worth of bling (gold ingots, precious stones, Rolex watches and other essential “playa” accessories) and two cars to the feds, […]
Brendon Bosworth
Posted inGoat
Home rule
School kids in Colorado have to walk at least 1,000 feet from the playground to reach the nearest medical marijuana dispensary. But if they want to clamber around on the closest oil and gas well instead of trying to scrounge crumbs of THC-laced brownies spilled on the sidewalk, they have to stroll only about a […]
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Promise of the Sea
In the not-too-distant future, when some Oregon residents plug their laptops into an electrical outlet they could be using juice generated by the fierce waves that roll shoreward along the Pacific Northwest coast. An early step toward this possibility is scheduled to happen next month when a barge will carry a 260-ton buoy to a […]
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Chinook salmon come home to Elwha River
Five months ago contractors ripped down the final remnants of the Elwha Dam, which along with its upstream counterpart, Glines Canyon Dam, has for a century been blocking the paths of salmon up the Elwha River, which winds through Washington State’s Olympic National Park and empties into the Pacific at the Strait of Juan de […]
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Label Battle
When it comes to reading food labels I’m something of a pedant. I like my ingredients lists bold and short on complex-sounding chemicals. As a dedicated reader of wrappers, cartons and allergen warnings I’ve been watching California’s Proposition 37 with interest. If passed, the act would require food manufacturers to label genetically engineered food, both […]
Posted inAugust 20, 2012: Troubled Taos
Western states’ transportation spending reveals their priorities
With President Obama authorizing $105 billion for transportation spending this July, you might wonder: Just how does that federal dough get spent? Turns out about 80 percent is funneled into highways. Given the West’s size and far-apart cities, you might also expect this road-centricity to be more pronounced here, with spending on public transit and […]
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A tale of two power plants
For many years, haze has tarnished the views at national parks, including Colorado’s Mesa Verde and the Grand Canyon. On bad days poor air quality in Mesa Verde can cut visibility to just 20 miles. That’s a stark contrast to the clarity of the early 1900s, when visibility was up to 162 miles on a crisp, clear […]
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Pipe conflict
For over 20 years the vision of a nearly 300-mile long pipeline that would pump groundwater from rural valleys in eastern Nevada to the city of Las Vegas has floated, mirage-like, over the arid state. For the Southern Nevada Water Authority and its powerful general manager, Pat Mulroy, the project is a way to moisturize […]
Posted inAugust 6, 2012: Of Birds and Men
High Country News gets new interns
It’s that time of year again — when two fresh-faced interns join us in our Paonia, Colo., offices for six months of “journalism boot camp.” We’re also delighted to announce that the talented and diligent Neil LaRubbio, intern from the last session, will remain with us for another six months as our editorial fellow. It’s […]
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Buzz of the Undead
If you were a honeybee, you might scare your children into obedience with tales of the phorid fly, a creature whose depravity sinks to deep depths. Picture this: you’re going about your business, pollinating flowers and the like, when one of these devils swoops in, clamps down on your abdomen and, using a spiked injector […]
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West Coast trawlers spare the little fish
Last year, fishermen on the West Coast who trawl for groundfish — species like cod and sole that live on or close to the sea floor — started fishing by a new set of rules. The National Marine Fisheries Service introduced a system that, to date has succeeded in reducing the number of discarded fish […]
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Beetle Evolution
The tamarisk leaf beetle is an unlikely citizen of Utah. And until recently it wasn’t found there. The tamarisk-munching bugs that now inhabit Utah, Colorado, and other parts of the West have their roots in Eurasia and hail from northwestern China and Kazakhstan. Scientists brought their ancestors to the U.S. in 2001 and set them […]
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Got rabies: skunks are top carrier in Colorado
Skunks get a bad rap. Of course, not every animal douses targets with rancid juice from their anal glands from 10 feet away, so perhaps it is deserved. In Colorado the striped mammals have recently earned a new form of notoriety that adds to their stinky status: They’ve jumped into the lead as the main […]
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Critical habitat under scrutiny
Endangered leatherback sea turtles can thank the Endangered Species Act for the government’s decision to add a chunk of ocean on the West Coast to their protected habitat earlier this year. In January, the feds expanded the graceful sea dweller’s critical habit to 41,914 salty square miles off California, Oregon and Washington. The leatherback is […]