Meet Al Larsen, a citizen scientist with decades of meticulous records of the West’s bluebirds.
Crista Worthy
Posted inArticles
The playground of Lake Powell isn’t worth drowned canyons
Before a writer knew the true cost of Glen Canyon Dam, ‘ignorance was bliss.’
Posted inArticles
Don’t trim Grand Staircase. If anything, expand it.
The Utah monument is sustaining small town tourism, a good substitute for extractive industry.
Posted inArticles
Let the floodgates of protest open over Bears Ears
96 percent of public comments defend national monuments.
Posted inArticles
A fall from grace in the wrong place
Just as day turned to dusk May 16, 2015, Dean Potter jumped off Taft Point in Yosemite National Park. Graham Hunt jumped right behind him. Both were well-known BASE jumpers. (“BASE” is an acronym that stands for Buildings, Antennas, Spans, i.e., bridges, and Earth, meaning cliffs.) Both men wore wingsuits to help them steer as […]
Posted inArticles
How to galvanize a classroom
Recently I devoured a short book of nonfiction with a very odd title: The Committee for the Reburial of Liver-Eating Johnston: Memoirs of a Dyslexic Teacher, by Tri Robinson. It’s a memoir, and it revolves around a teacher, his highly motivated seventh-graders, and the remains of a long-dead “Mountain Man.” That man is John “Liver-Eating” […]
Posted inOctober 27, 2014: Defuse the West
An unbent issue
I wanted you to know how much I love the cover of your “Books & Essays” special issue (HCN, 9/15/14), with the Serena Supplee painting. I have her artwork on every wall in my office, the walls of which are painted pink and orange to evoke the Colorado Plateau’s red rock at sunset and sunrise. […]
Posted inWotr
It is not okay for cats to kill all the neighborhood birds.
I’m living next to a killer named Frankie. He’s black-and-white and sweet as cats go; he’s also a menace that nobody talks much about, though feral and free-roaming housecats like Frankie have become a tragic problem all over the world. Every year in America, cats, many of them well-fed pets, kill about 12.3 billion mammals […]
Posted inJune 10, 2013: Paradise at a Price
A proud, flag-waving liberal
It really annoys me that the American flag has become synonymous with right-wing politics (“Right-wing Migration,” HCN, 5/13/13). I am an avowed “liberal,” as right-wingers derisively call me, yet I grew up with a love for flags. When my parents took me to Denmark as a child to visit the country they grew up in, I immediately […]
Posted inAugust 22, 2011: Looking for Balance in Navajoland
Cleaner, shmeaner
First, I commend HCN on the excellent article, “The Global West,” which skillfully presents how energy markets are affecting resource extraction in the West (HCN, 7/25/11). I’m going to get as many of my friends and family members to read it as I can. That said, it drove me nuts to read this in one […]
Posted inDecember 20, 2010: California Dreamin'
A place to park — and live
I completely sympathize with and understand the problems faced by Jen Jackson (HCN, 11/22/10). Many Western tourist towns have become unaffordable for the ordinary people who are, ironically, indispensable, working in hotels, restaurants and recreational businesses. The towns should find some way to accommodate their trailers or RVs. But in “Heard Around the West,” you […]
Posted inApril 12, 2010: The Butterfly Sting
The harsh truths of Bowden
Charles Bowden is a wonderful, as well as provocative, writer (HCN, 3/1/10). He has a way of serving up the truth so it slaps you in the face. I’m not sure any magazine but High Country News would have the guts to print this story as is. Maybe you would be willing to reprint something […]
Posted inMay 26, 2008: On Cancer’s Trail
Art with a conscience
I was shocked and saddened to read Childs’ grim report (HCN, 4/28/08). I looked on eBay under “Anasazi” – sure enough, there was all kinds of stuff for sale. Shocking. There’s a way to enjoy this art without robbing graves. I bought a pot at the Acoma Pueblo. It sits in my living room. The […]
Posted inJuly 23, 2007: Hydrogen Highway Revisited
A new take on ‘shoot, shovel and shut up’
Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife is right — we need to kill the predators so we can have more wildlife. No one can dispute the fact that man is the most ruthless predator to ever stride the earth. I therefore have the perfect solution: The members of SFW should all take their probably-illegally-modified AR-15 assault […]
Posted inJune 11, 2007: Brave New Hay
The ideology of the cancer cell
Thank you for the important article on the Verde River (HCN, 5/14/07). I do not understand Yavapai County Supervisor Carol Springer’s statement, “If we can’t grow at all in the future, because we lose our right to pump groundwater, we will cease to exist. There is no such thing as a static kind of a […]
Posted inJuly 25, 2005: The Many Faces of Richard Pombo
Visiting a desert cathedral
As a lover of Glen Canyon, I persuaded my husband to make a special trip out from Los Angeles to see Cathedral in the Desert before the waters rose again (HCN, 6/13/05: The brief but wonderful return of Cathedral in the Desert). On May 1, our anniversary, we paddled our boat in. Across from the […]