Change in the Air Last month, we bid farewell to Laura Paskus, who has been HCN’s assistant editor for three years. But this isn’t really goodbye: Laura has moved to Albuquerque, N.M., where she will work part-time as our Southwest editor. The move is part of an ongoing effort to put HCN on the ground […]
Greg Hanscom
Greg Hanscom is the publisher and executive director for High Country News. Email him at greg.hanscom@hcn.org or submit a letter to the editor.
Posted inAugust 8, 2005: The Gangs of Zion
Dear friends
SURPRISE! The West, as we like to say around here, is more than just a pretty picture. It is a growing, changing, contentious and often uncomfortable place where society’s decisions, for better or worse, are writ large on the landscape. We pride ourselves on finding the stories behind the scenery and telling them well through […]
Posted inAugust 8, 2005: The Gangs of Zion
The theology of growth
The West has long been shaped by human migrations, and the inevitable melding — and clashing — of cultures. That’s no less true today than it was in the days of tribal warfare or gold panning. In fact, it is probably more so. Americans have flocked to the Interior West in recent years to escape […]
Posted inJuly 25, 2005: The Many Faces of Richard Pombo
D.C. and the West: Worlds apart
Out here in the West, under the blazing blue sky and hulking mountains, Washington, D.C., can seem like a different planet. Taken as a whole, the stories in this issue of High Country News suggest that’s not far from the truth. The cover story is about Richard Pombo, a California Republican who is charging into […]
Posted inJune 13, 2005: Owning a Piece of Paradise
Dear friends
HEADING WEST The High Country News board of directors joined the staff in Paonia in May for the spring business meeting. Some of the more lively — and frank — discussion came when small groups of board and staff members took turns riffing on what they think of the paper, and how it needs to […]
Posted inMay 16, 2005: Unsalvageable
In-house wisdom, or White House meddling?
Forest Service insiders say the President’s Council on Environmental Quality added new corporate rules to the agency’s planning program
Posted inMay 2, 2005: The Great Energy Divide
The revolution will not be televised
In a speech before the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in April, President George W. Bush told a story about talking to troops in Texas who were concerned about the rising cost of gasoline. Bush explained that he had no “magic wand” to reduce gas prices, but he hinted that his energy plan, which he […]
Posted inApril 18, 2005: What Happened to Winter?
On the trail of global warming
Weird weather stole the headlines in Western newspapers this winter. We read about a mudslide in the Grand Canyon, Seattle’s jet stream showing up in southern Utah, and the appearance of shorts in Bozeman, Mont., in February. The weather has been downright bizarre, and the media have been there to report every dramatic detail. But […]
Posted inApril 18, 2005: What Happened to Winter?
Dear friends
KIDS THESE DAYS … Nature, with a capital N, is going to hell — or so we’re told. The venerable wilderness warhorse Dave Foreman recently e-mailed around an essay detailing exactly how it’s doing so, and why. Among other culprits, he blames High Country News (too preoccupied with “happy little resource-extraction communities”), The Nature Conservancy […]
Posted inMarch 21, 2005: An Empire Built on Sand
The best-laid plans
In a meeting I attended last year with a group of editors and reporters at the Arizona Republic, one writer asked an incisive question: “How do we get people to take water issues seriously?” In neighboring New Mexico, drought had dried up rivers and forced water rationing. But Arizona itself seemed flush. The state had […]
Posted inMarch 21, 2005: An Empire Built on Sand
Dear friends
A VISITOR Newspaperman Bob Wick stopped in at High Country News recently. Wick, who lives in Sierra Vista, Ariz., and his brother co-own almost 40 small newspapers across the country, including the nearby Montrose Daily Press. Wick is an environmentalist as well as a publisher, but what seems to consume him most is sculpture: He […]
Posted inMarch 7, 2005: Anarchy in the Gas Fields
Ready… fire… aim!
A decade into a massive energy boom, the West decides it’s time to deal with the impacts on the land, air, water and wildlife
Posted inFebruary 21, 2005: Have Environmentalists Failed the West?
A Lively Exchange with the Interior Department
HCN GOT IT WRONG ON THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION To the Editor: The Dec. 6 feature article, “Taking the West Forward,” contains a thoughtful overview of issues facing the West but it grossly mischaracterizes the Bush Administration’s policies and programs. The article states the administration has “opened the region’s resources to development” when in fact public […]
Posted inFebruary 21, 2005: Have Environmentalists Failed the West?
An identity crisis, a decade or two late
“Environmental ‘bad boys’ predict end of movement,” reads The New York Times headline. The story is one of many in recent months about Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus, rabble-rousing California media consultants who have sent environmentalists into a tizzy with their essay, “The Death of Environmentalism.” The essay argues that environmentalists have become increasingly isolated […]
Posted inFebruary 21, 2005: Have Environmentalists Failed the West?
Dear friends
FIGHTING THE GOOD FIGHT Eric Barlow, the brother of HCN board member Michele Barlow, made it onto Vanity Fair’s list of the “Best Stewards of 2004,” for his work protecting the Barlow family’s Wyoming ranch — and others like it — from oil and gas development. Eric, a veterinarian and former Marine, has been a […]
Posted inJanuary 24, 2005: Written in the Rings
Dear friends
WELCOME, JODI! It takes an adventurous — and dedicated — person to leave behind a bustling urban center and a corporate paycheck to work for nonprofit wages in a small town like Paonia, Colo. But we found just such a person in Jodi Peterson, who started work in January as HCN’s news editor. She comes […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 2005: The Asphalt Graveyard
Dear friends
NEW INTERNS “This is surreal,” says new High Country News intern Julie McCord of HCN’s hometown, the coal miner’s haven of Paonia, Colo., pop. 1,500. Julie was born in Jamaica and has lived in Chicago, Toronto, Panama, Mexico, Japan and Washington, D.C. She comes to us from Manhattan, where she earned her master’s degree in […]
Posted inDecember 20, 2004: Stand Your Ground
Buy them some body armor
During a recent visit with troops in Kuwait, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, in a rare, unchoreographed moment, opened the floor to questions. He got a zinger. Why, asked one serviceman, are troops forced to scrounge through dumps in search of scrap metal, so they can outfit their vehicles with makeshift armor? The question, and Rumsfeld’s […]
Posted inDecember 20, 2004: Stand Your Ground
Dear friends
HAPPY HOLIDAYS This will be the last issue of High Country News that you receive for a month. The staff will take an issue off to spend time with family and friends, and to frolic in the white stuff that’s been falling consistently for a week now. The next issue should hit your mailbox Jan. […]
Posted inDecember 6, 2004: Where Do We Go From Here?
A flurry of visitors
VISITORS A mild late fall/early winter has brought a few snowflakes to Paonia, and a flurry of visitors to the HCN headquarters. John Slone dropped in from Montrose, Colo. Subscribers David and Catie Karplus came through from Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks in California, where David works in utilities and grounds, and Catie studies […]