Soaring gold prices are driving a new gold rush, among mining behemoths and small-time prospectors. West of 100 is a monthly podcast of compelling stories and ideas. Recent episodes have explored the lost rivers of Western cities, and what we lose when man-made noise overtakes the natural hum of the wild. New episodes come out […]
Cally Carswell
Posted inArticles
There’s (still) gold in them thar hills
In this episode of West of 100, High Country News contributing editor Jonathan Thompson visits a gold mine and ponders the illusory nature of gold prices, and Hadley Robinson reports from the Klamath River, once a popular destination for small-time gold prospectors that’s now at the center of the controversy over California’s ban on suction-dredge […]
Posted inMay 14, 2012: The sediment dumps of L.A.
Dear HCN: Reader survey responses
Our annual reader surveys have been trickling in, and as always, they’re chock-full of thoughtful criticism, enthusiastic encouragement, and suggestions for widening — or narrowing — our field of view. Here’s a sampling of what’s on your mind. One of the things we appreciated is that HCN is apolitical. I found Tom Zoellner’s “Extreme Arizona” […]
Posted inGoat
Could Arizona go blue?
To gauge how conservative Arizona is, look no further than the national headlines over the last few years: Its state legislature passed one of the most stringent immigration laws in the country, allowing police officers to check the immigration status of people who are dressed suspiciously, or otherwise strike an officer as likely to be paperless. […]
Posted inArticles
Lost and found waterways
How is it that, in a region where we allocate and litigate many rivers down to their last drops, others are entirely forgotten? In this episode of West of 100, we explore waterways in Los Angeles and Tucson that have fallen into obscurity, despite the fact that they’re largely responsible for those cities existing where […]
Posted inGoat
All noisy on the Western front
First, a bit of shameless self promotion: High Country News recently launched two brand new monthly podcasts! Rants from the Hill, the audio version of Michael Branch’s essays on life in Nevada’s high desert, which have appeared on our Range blog for the past year or so, will be available at the beginning of each month. […]
Posted inArticles
The sound of silence
There are few places left in the world where you can experience the sounds of nature uninterrupted by planes, cars, off-road vehicles. Scientists are now working to quantify the impact of all that noise on the natural world, and to monitor how soundscapes — the collection of sounds in a landscape made by critters, wind, […]
Posted inGoat
Money flows through it
Gird yourselves Western folk: Those of you who live in Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico — all coveted 2012 presidential swing states — are in for it. You’ll endure the brunt of the negativity that is sure to flood the airwaves during this year’s advertising campaign … er, election season. And, as you’ve probably heard, […]
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All (climate concerned) eyes on D.C. court
For environmental law wonks, the debate unfolding in a Washington, D.C., federal appeals court this Tuesday and Wednesday is the courtroom equivalent of the Super Bowl: the stakes are high and everyone is watching. Playing offense are a few states, including Texas, Utah and North Dakota, along with Big Coal, Big Oil, Big Ag, the […]
Posted inGoat
Martinez making her mark
updated 2/9/12 “New Mexico Governor Rushes to Undo the Agenda of Her Predecessor“ That headline ran in the New York Times last August, about eight months after Susana Martinez, a republican, took the helm from Bill Richardson, a democrat. Martinez had just sold the gubernatorial jet for a cool $2.5 million, and in one of […]
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Obama’s energy love fest
1: number of times President Obama said the word “environment” in his 2012 State of the Union address 23: number of times he said “energy” 8: number of times he preceded it with “clean” 1: number of times he preceded it with “renewable” 1: number of times he mentioned “climate change” A word cloud of […]
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Groundwater (mis)management
A few years ago, Easterday Ranches, one of the largest feedlot operators in the Northwest, began planning a new 30,000-head facility in eastern Washington’s Franklin County. Easterday purchased some water rights from a nearby farm entitling it to withdraw 282,106 gallons of groundwater per day, 58,921 of which could be used for drinking water for […]
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A tale of two wolf populations
The Minnesota State Fair is the Land of 10,000 Lakes’ great melting pot. Enthusiasm for the “great Minnesota get together” is, to an outsider, strangely universal. Minneapolis hipsters — who can rock skinny jeans and ironic, retro eyewear with the best of Brooklyn — relish the opportunity to gorge on fried food on a stick […]
Posted inDecember 26, 2011: Perilous Passages
Stitching habitat together across public and private lands
In October 1983, ahead of an unusually harsh winter, groups of pronghorn in south-central Wyoming began what should have been a routine journey to their sage-freckled winter range on the Red Rim near Rawlins. But a newly completed, five-foot-tall, 28-mile-long woven wire fence blocked the way. Rancher Taylor Lawrence said he’d erected it around the […]
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A caribou rescue?
About a decade ago, I spent one lucky summer traipsing through the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge with six other young women. Towards the end of our trip, caribou began trickling through the valleys. ” ‘Bou!” we’d point and shout almost every time we glimpsed one. We knew what was coming: Thousands upon thousands would soon […]
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Don’t drink the (benzene) water
In 2005, Louis Meeks’ water well in Pavillion, Wyo., which had reliably supplied his family for decades, suddenly turned brown and filmy, and smelled like gasoline. When he tried to drill a new domestic well, water, steam and natural gas exploded some 200 feet into the air. Meeks and some of his neighbors, whose well water […]
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The (slowly) changing face of energy country
Change often comes quickly to energy country. Take Williston, N.D., at the heart of an oil boom which has more than doubled the state’s oil production since 2008. Williston mayor Ward Koeser recently told NPR that in just a few years’ time, the town’s population has grown from 12,000 to an estimated 20,000. And he […]
Posted inNovember 14, 2011: Possessing the Wild
Clean air regulations protect park views by targeting coal plants
An interpretive plaque at the Park Point overlook in southwest Colorado’s Mesa Verde National Park identifies the landscape’s near and distant features. Sleeping Ute Mountain frames Montezuma Valley to the west. Farther east rise the Carrizo Mountains, then the Chuska Range near the Arizona-New Mexico border. In the foreground, a volcanic relic called Shiprock juts […]