Raise up the vulnerable voices of the elderly, impoverished and the wild earth, too.
Geneen Marie Haugen
Posted inArticles
Two factions face off over Grand Staircase-Escalante
A community in gridlock over the monument’s future.
Posted inNovember 8, 2004: Keepers of the Flame
American — and proud of it
Until I traveled to Holland recently, I didn’t know how irreversibly American I am. Perhaps I’m not precisely a patriot — the word comes from the Latin for father — but I’m certainly one deeply identified with my native land. In Amsterdam, people eyed me with pity, suspicion or loathing as soon as I opened […]
Posted inWotr
American — and proud of it
Until I traveled to Holland recently, I didn’t know how irreversibly American I am, perhaps not precisely a patriot — the word comes from the Latin for father — but certainly one deeply identified with my native land. In Amsterdam, people eyed me with pity, suspicion or loathing as soon as I opened my mouth […]
Posted inWotr
Super-heated Yellowstone and the restoration of awe
In the Yellowstone ecosystem, super-heated water bubbles from fissures and cauldrons, cascades over rock, steams in sub-freezing air, encrusts trees, hair and clothing with frost. It’s a landscape of paradox: enchanting and fierce, suggestive of both eternal stillness and perpetual change, a reminder that — even now — we inhabit a molten world that existed […]
Posted inNovember 10, 2003: San Diego's Habitat Triage
The West loses a conservation elder
Perhaps all showdowns between environmentalists and industry appear to be clashes of mythic proportion, but the unfolding story of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge seems particularly so, a world-class drama whose players include migratory birds, caribou, polar bears, native Alaskans, eco-activists, oil executives and politicians. The outcome of this mythic tale is yet unscripted. But […]
Posted inWotr
A conservation elder celebrates 101
Perhaps all standoffs between so-called environmentalists and industry are clashes of mythic proportion, but the unfolding story of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge seems particularly so, a world-class drama whose players include migratory birds, caribou, polar bears, native Alaskans, eco-activists, oil executives and politicians. The outcome of this mythic tale is yet unscripted. If not […]
Posted inJanuary 21, 2002: Finding the words
A sense of wonder needs no name
Once, I canoed around an Idaho river bend and surprised two enormous, white birds in the shallows. As they lifted off, showing black-tipped wings, I shaped my mouth around the unfamiliar words, “whooping cranes.” Another long-legged bird, farther downstream, joined the whoopers in flight. Yet when I told a knowledgeable birder that I’d seen three […]
Posted inNovember 6, 2000: 'Re-inhabitation' revisited
Outlaws on an upscale road
When I moved to Teton County, Wyo., two decades ago, I lived in a sagging, second-hand pup tent for the summer. The tipi I moved into that winter felt palatial by comparison. Almost everyone I knew then lived in wall tents, tipis, yurts, or cabins with no plumbing. Even when the temperature fell past 30 […]
Posted inAugust 14, 2000: Meth invasion
The next great adventure: Stay home
The cover of a recent issue of National Geographic Adventure proclaims “America’s Best! The Adventure 100.” Topping the “adrenaline trip” list are the Colorado River and the White Rim Trail in Utah’s Canyonlands National Park. In the “Letter from the Editor,” John Rasmus muses: “We need vacations! We all need to decompress from the rigors […]