What to read when you’re alone in a tent
Emma Brown
Posted inArticles
Invading the silence
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Posted inApril 13, 2009: The Desert That Breaks Annie Proulx’s Heart
The desert that breaks Annie Proulx’s heart
Wyoming storyteller gives an unvarnished view of the Red Desert
Posted inOctober 13, 2008: Back to the future
The invisible man
Name Ricardo Arriagada Age 30 Occupation Goat herder What herding means, day to day Four hours in the morning and two in the evening, filling water tanks and maintaining and moving the electric fence that keeps the goats corralled. The upside of living alone in a travel trailer on the Bay Area’s exurban fringes “Things […]
Posted inSeptember 9, 2008: Reclaiming the low country
When war came home
The Eleventh ManIvan Doig416 pages, hardcover: $26.Harcourt, 2008. In our collective memory, World War II happened “over there.” But of course it also happened here — to soldiers’ families, to women who went to work for the first time outside their homes, to the planters of victory gardens. The war hit home particularly hard in […]
Posted inMay 28, 2007: Problems In Paradise
Longing for a buried past
If you have heard of the Yaak Valley in northwest Montana, and if you know of the threats to its particular wildness, it’s probably because you’ve read a plea for its protection by Rick Bass. Bass’ fierce love for the Yaak has not always been good for his fiction. “It bleeds just like blood throughout […]
Posted inJanuary 22, 2007: Salmon Justice
Under the radar
In the rural West, the homeless are rarely seen and often ignored
Posted inWotr
Alone with a radio phone
I live alone on the steep slopes of southern Oregon’s Rogue River canyon, which is a place that can’t decide whether to be California or the Pacific Northwest. I’m here for a solo writing residency, and what that means is that the days are mine to use or waste. My only neighbors are the Bureau […]
Posted inNovember 13, 2006: Bred for success
State of Jefferson: A place apart
Name Brian Petersen Age 40 Vocation Entrepreneur: Runs a local car wash, fabricates signs, grinds stumps, manufactures plastic trays for bed-bound laptop users, and silk-screens T-shirts for local soccer teams. He recently bought a $30,000 laser-engraver whose commercial potential, he says, is untapped; he’s still dreaming up ways to use it. Known for Promoting the […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
A tribal renaissance
If, when you think of Indian country, you think first of its particular heartaches — alcoholism, violence, poverty, and hopelessness — then read Blood Struggle, Charles Wilkinson’s inspiring account of Indians’ political and legal victories during the last fifty years. A catalog of Indian achievements rather than problems is rare, welcome, and a little unexpected, […]
Posted inFebruary 20, 2006: High Noon for Habitat
Tribe brings on the tourists
Hualapai Nation plans ambitious development at Grand Canyon
Posted inDecember 12, 2005: The Final Energy Frontier
‘Green’ seal of approval considered for national forests
The Forest Service is considering “green” certification for timber produced on the national forests. And though environmental groups have long touted such certification as a way to improve the management of privately owned forests, they have misgivings about using it for the public lands. Green certification for lumber is something like organic certification for food; […]
Posted inDecember 12, 2005: The Final Energy Frontier
Sheepherders flock to better-paying jobs
Western ranchers have long relied on foreign workers to tend sheep on the open range. But increasingly, sheepherders are literally walking away from their flocks — and their work visas — in pursuit of more lucrative jobs. The work sheepherders do is hard, the lifestyle is austere, and the pay is low — about $800 […]
Posted inDecember 12, 2005: The Final Energy Frontier
BLM boosts winter drilling
The mule deer herd that winters on the mesa east of Pinedale has suffered a 46 percent population decline since 2002, despite a Bureau of Land Management policy that banned most natural gas drilling in the area in wintertime. Now, the BLM wants to allow several more companies to drill throughout the winter — and […]
Posted inNovember 28, 2005: Gold from the Gas Fields
Congress loosens organic standards
Note: in the print edition of this issue, this article appears as a sidebar to another news article, “Agriculture gets a half-step greener.” Large-scale organic food producers have beaten back an effort to strengthen national organic standards. The Organic Trade Association, which represents 1,600 farmers, distributors and grocers, had feared that stricter standards would hinder […]
Posted inNovember 28, 2005: Gold from the Gas Fields
Agriculture gets a half-step greener
Nonprofit promotes new eco-label for crops grown with fewer chemicals
Posted inNovember 14, 2005: Back On Track
Oil drillers get ‘one-stop shopping’ at no extra cost
Western lawmakers exempt energy industry from extra fees
Posted inNovember 14, 2005: Back On Track
Eastern Sierra counties seek sustainable growth
Land trades could help build affordable housing without compromising a beloved landscape
Posted inOctober 31, 2005: The Public Lands' Big Cash Crop
Toothy nuisance moves north
Global warming may be one of the reasons behind the recent appearance of football-sized, orange-toothed aquatic rodents in the Skagit River Valley of northwestern Washington. Nutria, beaver-like creatures native to South America, are notorious for destroying flood-control levees and chewing through wetlands in the Southeastern United States. Fur entrepreneurs brought them to this country in […]
Posted inOctober 31, 2005: The Public Lands' Big Cash Crop
Forest Service greases the skids for oil and gas
U.S. Forest Service officials say they’re overwhelmed by the recent flood of permit applications from energy companies. On the Dakota Prairie National Grassland alone, drilling permit applications have jumped from 20 to 110 during the past year. To ease the workload, the agency wants to stop doing full-scale environmental assessments on smaller energy projects. The […]