Here in western Colorado, most days unfold under azure skies and stubbornly brilliant sunshine. When rains do visit, they’re usually brief — an hour, or maybe two. So when autumn unexpectedly shrouds our valleys under thick gray clouds that dribble for days on end, our world feels utterly transformed — the pillowy, unfamiliar heavens almost […]
Cally Carswell
Posted inGoat
New podcast: Fire & Brimstone
And HCN‘s editorial fellow Neil LaRubbio has a travelogue from his visit to the Gila Wilderness in the wake of the Whitewater-Baldy fire, the largest wildfire in New Mexico history, which burned through the Gila earlier this year. More fires have been allowed to burn in the Gila than in most of our nation’s forests, […]
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West of 100: Fire & Brimstone
In this edition of West of 100, we’ve got a couple of stories about wildfire. First, the backstory to Emily Guerin’s piece, “Fire scientists fight over what Western forests should look like.” We’ll talk with Emily about why the debate over a new study arguing that severe fire may be more normal than we thought […]
Posted inSeptember 17, 2012: Pallids in Purgatory
Grand Canyon floods and native fish
The last time the Colorado River plunged unhindered through the Grand Canyon, swollen by snowmelt to 126,000 cubic-feet per second, was in 1957. Glen Canyon Dam rose soon after, delivering cheap hydropower and reliable water to cities, farms and industry. For native fish, the transformation was debilitating. Most of the river’s sediment — which built […]
Posted inSeptember 17, 2012: Pallids in Purgatory
Salvation for our dam nation?
On Washington’s White Salmon River last October 26th, sirens bleated, a man barked, “Fire in the hole!” and a cavity was blasted in the bottom of the 125-foot high Condit Dam. A few suspenseful seconds passed. Then, the reservoir behind the dam erupted through the hole and became a river again, although the water was […]
Posted inSeptember 3, 2012: Identity Politics, Montana Style
Cracking the ozone code in Utah’s gas fields
Updated 9/4/2012 On a bright February morning, a curiously adorned cargo van crept down a dirt road in northeastern Utah’s Uintah Basin. A steel pole with a jumble of funnels strapped to its tip rose from the roof’s rear, and the vehicle moved so slowly that its speed didn’t even register — a good thing, […]
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Conventioneering
The Democrats didn’t throw environmentalists many bones at their convention this week — at least not any with much meat on them. Yet it was striking how even bland, unspecific statements about the environment drew stark contrasts between the parties. Take a few lines from Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee’s speech, who is not a […]
Posted inSeptember 3, 2012: Identity Politics, Montana Style
Beyond ozone
Wintertime ozone is just one surprising air-quality problem that has appeared as gas fields balloon in size and creep closer to communities. “It’s possible that emissions have been there all along,” since the industry isn’t new, says Ramón Alvarez, an Environmental Defense Fund air-quality expert. But with drilling under increasing scrutiny, he says, “People are […]
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New podcast, all about drought
The latest edition of HCN‘s monthly podcast, West of 100, is now available for your listening pleasure, and it covers something that’s on everyone’s mind this summer: drought. As of August, more than half of the country was experiencing at least moderate drought — and in many places it was worse than that, with drought conditions that are […]
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West of 100: Droughts past, present and future
Of course, drought has always been a fact of Western life. But with the specter of climate change hanging over every extreme weather event these days, this year’s drought, and the dry years that have preceded it, have people wondering: Is this normal? Is this the new normal? So for this edition of West of […]
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Global warming, local politics
“I was a victim of the snow,” former Chicago mayor Michael Bilandic told Chicago Magazine in 2000, referring to his failed 1979 reelection bid. Bilandic replaced the first Mayor Daley, who died in 1976, in the midst of his sixth term, and he was expected to glide back into office. He was the Democratic “machine’s” chosen one post-Daley, […]
Posted inAugust 6, 2012: Of Birds and Men
Not “pristine”, but still wild and unpredictable
“Nature is almost everywhere,” wrote environmental journalist Emma Marris in her buzz-generating 2011 book Rambunctious Garden: Saving Nature in a Post-Wild World. ” But wherever it is, there is one thing that nature is not: pristine.” Humanity’s imprint is unavoidable, even deep in the backcountry. Smog frequently blankets Sequoia National Park, yellowing the needles of […]
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New podcast: The ski industry and climate change
The latest episode of our monthly podcast, West of 100, is ready for listening! It accompanies Greg Hanscom’s recent cover story about Black Diamond CEO Peter Metcalf, and his crusade to turn the outdoor gear industry into a force for nature. As Greg reports, it’s been a process characterized by fits and starts, and the […]
Posted inJuly 23, 2012: The Hardest Climb
The ski industry, climate hawk?
Aspen Skiing Company Sustainability VP Auden Schendler, and professional snowboarder Jeremy Jones on why ski corporations and pro athletes should step up to the climate crisis — and how they can do it. Tune in to West of 100 around the middle of each month. Available via our RSS feed, or subscribe for free through iTunes. Music: “CGI Snake” […]
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New podcast: Sun Tunnels, hitchhiking, the modern hobo
As loyal HCN readers know by now, we recently published our first-ever special travel issue, taking you to Montana’s lonely, overlooked but still spectacular eastern plains, time-traveling with Craig Childs in south-central Oregon, and to dams, nuclear test sites, renewable energy installations, and oil-themed cafes. The podcast is full of great ear candy: Journalist Scott Carrier […]
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Dear monsoon, please materialize
Explaining what’s driving the big, scary fires consuming Colorado to the L.A. Times, Forest Service ecologist Bob Keane didn’t mince words: “The reason Colorado is burning is they’ve had prolonged drought.” That drought can prime forests for fire is well established, and, well, kind of obvious. Parched plants and trees are easier to ignite than […]
Posted inJune 25, 2012: Special travel issue
Three days in southwest New Mexico
Downtown Santa Fe’s uniform aesthetic is no coincidence. It’s protected and propagated by city codes: Windows must be modestly sized, edges rounded, exteriors colored an earthy adobe blush. The resulting faraway mystique charms hordes of tourists. But the electric farolitos and “fauxdobe” make others groan: “Enough already!” with the “Disneyfication,” one architect told a local magazine […]
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The Excursions Episode
Just in time for summer travel season, we’ll spend this episode of West of 100 wandering the West. Journalist Scott Carrier and poet Alex Caldiero visit the Sun Tunnels, a far-flung art installation in the Utah desert. High Country News editorial fellow Neil LaRubbio gives us a peek into the world of modern hoboes. (Neil is producing […]
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Old and foul-mouthed
I’ve done a few stories on air pollution in the last year, and many a source has told me this: When it comes to pollution, all fossil fuel power plants are not created equal. It’s a principle enshrined in the Clean Air Act. Power plants that began generating electricity before 1978 are grandfathered into the […]
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The ideological war against renewable energy
This blog’s headline may sound hyperbolic. But I’m not sure how else to interpret Republicans’ latest congressional hijinks. A couple weeks ago, the House passed a Defense budget that prohibits the department from using or experimenting with alternative fuels that are more costly than oil — which they all are — unless those fuels are […]