Switches will be flipped today on the Elwha River, as generators at two notorious hydroelectric dams — the Elwha and the Glines Canyon — are turned off. It’s a significant first-step in a process that will continue this summer, prepping the dams for their impending destruction. Now, the pieces have finally fallen into place. This […]
Cally Carswell
Posted inMay 16, 2011: Ripple Effects
The year in water
La Niña ruled the West’s weather this winter, and states now sitting on lavish snowpacks couldn’t be happier. Cooler surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific are responsible for the high precipitation rates in California, the Northwest and Intermountain West. Those snowpacks are expected to melt at a leisurely rate, buoying streamflows throughout the summer. The […]
Posted inGoat
Fun with (census) numbers
I was over in Colorado’s Roaring Fork Valley this weekend, drinking a beer and soaking up the spring sunshine, when I noticed a headline — front page, above the fold — blaring from a newspaper box on the sidewalk: HISPANIC POPULATION GROWS. Oh c’mon, I thought, is this really news? No, it isn’t. But then […]
Posted inGoat
A new day dawning?
At times, it seemed that peace would never break out in southern Utah. At least not when it came to wilderness. As Jim Stiles, a long-time chronicler of Utah wilderness battles, wrote in an HCN opinion piece last year, “Bullheadedness is what defines both environmentalists and those locals who’d rather see coal mining or oil […]
Posted inApril 18, 2011: Muddy Waters
Explorer’s notebook: Craig Childs on the Lower San Juan
Craig Childs reads from his journal and narrates his paddle down the Lower San Juan River, with photos and video he took on the trip. Additional photography courtesy of andrew davidoff, Alaskan Dude, and kla4067. Licensed under Creative Commons. Canyon treefrog recording copyright Jeff Rice and the Western Soundscape Archive.
Posted inGoat
Environmental bargaining chips
In the fall of 2009, billionaire Ed Roski Jr. went to the California Legislature looking for a deal. Roski wanted to build a football stadium in the Los Angeles suburb City of Industry, but the California Environmental Quality Act was getting in his way, and Roski thought lawmakers should exempt his project from the act. […]
Posted inGoat
Coal still king
When the BLM schedules the sale of coal leases, which give companies the right to mine federal coal, it rarely does so with great fanfare. But this time was different. This time, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar traveled all the way to a high school in Cheyenne, Wyo., and with Gov. Matt Mead by his side, […]
Posted inGoat
Rare earth, indeed
In 2009, Backpacker magazine’s risk meter — rating the status of threatened wild places along a spectrum of “saved” to “doomed” — placed Otero Mesa in southern New Mexico about three-quarters of the way to “doomed.” Nudging it to the edge of the proverbial cliff, according to Backpacker, was a singular threat: oil and gas […]
Posted inFebruary 21, 2011: Palin, politics, and predator control
Jeff Rice on documenting the West in sound
Hear the sounds Jeff Rice collects around the West and learn about why he does it. You can catch High Country Views approximately every other week. Available via our RSS feed, and for download now through iTunes.
Posted inFebruary 21, 2011: Palin, politics, and predator control
Craig Medred on predator-prey science
Both proponents and opponents of predator control claim to have science on their side. But as Alaskan journalist Craig Medred tells us in this episode of High Country Views, the actual science — and all of its complexities — is often lost in the debate. You can catch High Country Views approximately every other week. […]
Posted inGoat
Coal in the courts
When environmentalists began taking the climate change fight to the courts, their focus was strategically narrow. In the early part of this decade, most climate-related lawsuits focused on taking out the most immediate threat: new coal-fired power plants. It was a logical approach; had a slew of new plants come online, “they would’ve overwhelmed any […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 2011: Obama and the West
Western court scraps intervention restrictions for enviro lawsuits
In mid-January, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals published a 13-page opinion with a simple message: mea culpa. A panel of judges tossed the little-known but long-standing “federal defendant rule,” which had limited or prevented private groups, local and state governments from joining environmental lawsuits. The 9th Circuit, which oversees hundreds of millions of acres […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 2011: Obama and the West
Judith Lewis Mernit on Obama’s enviro record
HCN contributing editor Judith Lewis Mernit talks with Cally Carswell about how the Obama administration’s environmental policies are impacting the West. You can catch High Country Views approximately every other week. Available via our RSS feed, and for download now through iTunes.
Posted inGoat
Sittin’ pretty in energy country
There’s a whole lot of oil coming out of North Dakota these days — so much that pipelines can’t handle it all. This August, production in the Bakken Shale was 83 percent above 2008 levels, and the boom times aren’t expected to ebb anytime soon. One oil executive recently crowed that the Bakken’s recoverable reserves […]
Posted inJanuary 24, 2011: Serendipity in the Desert
Decades of drilling
Western states’ energy extraction compared to others
Posted inArticles
High Country Views, A conversation with Michael Berman
In this episode of High Country Views, writer Pat Toomay sits down with acclaimed landscape photographer Michael Berman to talk about his craft and the draw of the desert. This podcast accompanies the story, “My walkabout with Michael,” and the slideshow, “Wilderness photographer.” Listen here! You can catch High Country Views approximately every […]
Posted inGoat
2010: The year that was
Back when I was a High Country News intern, one of our contributing editors gave me and my comrades this bit of wisdom about our profession: Environmental news doesn’t break, it oozes. Looking back at HCN‘s year-in-stories, this truism resonates. The intractable issues that have defined our region for years — whether people and wolves can peacefully coexist in the […]
Posted inArticles
High Country Views, Big solar marches on
This fall, the federal government began putting serious muscle behind solar energy development on public land in the Southwest. In the past few months alone, the Interior Department has given the nod to nine large-scale solar farms in California and Nevada. The feds have had good intentions to kick-start renewable energy development on public land […]
Posted inDecember 20, 2010: California Dreamin'
Anatomy of a medusahead invasion
Medusahead, an invasive annual grass, is poised to become a major rangeland menace. “It’s just starting its major advancement,” says Roger Sheley, an Agricultural Research Service ecologist in Oregon. Sheley believes most Western rangelands are vulnerable, especially those already plagued by invasives. “Medusahead represents another step in the decline of these systems.” Devilish and useless: […]
Posted inGoat
New Mexico caps again
A New Mexico regulatory board took another stand against climate change last week, approving its second set of greenhouse gas rules in just over a month. The first round, OK’d by the state’s Environmental Improvement Board in November, laid the groundwork for New Mexico’s participation in the Western Climate Initiative, a regional cap-and-trade program, and […]