Early this year, while the Pacific Northwest endured one of the driest winters on record, 141 countries ratified the Kyoto Protocol, the international agreement to help curb global warming. The United States was not among them. To Mayor Greg Nickels of Seattle, the national no-show provided an opportunity for action on a smaller scale. “Local […]
J.M. McCord
Posted inJune 27, 2005: Reflections on a Divided Land
This mayor sees a different shade of green
NAME Greg Nickels VOCATION Mayor of Seattle, D, elected in 2001 AGE 49 NOTED FOR Starting a mayoral “green team” to combat global warming HE SAYS “If we expect (people in) the community to change their habits, we need to lead by example.” Early this year, while the Pacific Northwest endured one of the […]
Posted inJune 13, 2005: Owning a Piece of Paradise
Uranium miners go back underground
With prices high and support from the president, the yellowcake rush is on
Posted inMay 30, 2005: Write-off on the Range
Learning from Moab’s example
Note: in the print edition of this issue, this article appears as a sidebar to another news article, “Moab: On the horns of a recreation dilemma.” In western Colorado, the Bureau of Land Management has tackled the issue of dueling recreationists head-on, and come up with a plan that gives each user group room to […]
Posted inMay 2, 2005: The Great Energy Divide
On the Colorado, a grand experiment meets Mother Nature
“It’s really hard to kill fish with water,” says Joe Shannon, a professor of aquatic ecology with Northern Arizona University. But a recent experiment intended to help native fish in the Colorado River might have done just that. In November, officials from the Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center released a 90-hour flood from Glen […]
Posted inMay 2, 2005: The Great Energy Divide
Bears and bull trout may block mine
A controversial silver and copper mine that would have tunneled under the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness Area may have just been shafted. U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy ruled on March 28 that construction of the Rock Creek Mine on the edge of the northwestern Montana wilderness area would further jeopardize threatened populations of grizzly bear and […]
Posted inApril 18, 2005: What Happened to Winter?
D-Day for dam decommissioning approaches
Preparations have begun to bring down the dam that has withheld water from 14 miles of Fossil Creek in central Arizona for almost a hundred years. In 1908, laborers built Arizona’s first commercial hydroelectric plant, which diverted more than 95 percent of Fossil Creek’s water. The plant, along with a second facility built nearby in […]
Posted inApril 18, 2005: What Happened to Winter?
‘Sound science’ in doubt at Yucca Mountain
E-mails show federal employees circumvented quality assurance procedures
Posted inApril 4, 2005: Calling It Quits
Who owns Klamath water — farmers or the public?
Note: in the print edition of this issue, this article appears as a sidebar to another news article, “The public pays to keep water in a river.” For four years, farmers on the California-Oregon border have battled the U.S. government in the courts for $100 million in damages, after the Bureau of Reclamation withheld irrigation […]
Posted inMarch 21, 2005: An Empire Built on Sand
Cheese producers just say ‘no’ to Monsanto
Oregon dairy farmers reaffirmed their intention to keep a bovine growth hormone off their cheese plate, much to the chagrin of the drug’s manufacturer, bioengineering giant Monsanto. On Feb. 28, farmers in the Tillamook County Creamery Association, the second-largest producer of natural chunk cheese in the United States, voted 83 to 43 to uphold a […]
Posted inMarch 21, 2005: An Empire Built on Sand
‘Safe dose’ of rocket fuel now larger
Perchlorate, a tasteless, colorless component of solid rocket fuel, has been detected in the drinking water of 26 states. Despite its toxicity, it is not yet regulated. However, the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Water is considering new drinking water standards for the dangerous salt, following a recent National Academy of Sciences report. The EPA […]
Posted inMarch 7, 2005: Anarchy in the Gas Fields
Bees don’t grow on trees
Honeybees are in trouble, and so are the farmers who rely on them to pollinate an estimated one-third of the human diet — everything from almond and fruit trees to cantaloupes and cucumbers. Tom Theobald, who owns Niwot Honey Farm outside Boulder, Colo., says 30 percent of his bees died this year. Other beekeepers say […]
Posted inMarch 7, 2005: Anarchy in the Gas Fields
Dogs could chase big cats again
A bill that would let hunters use dogs to chase down cougars is circulating in the Oregon state Legislature, pitting animal rights activists against hunters. In 1994, Oregon voters passed a ballot measure banning the use of hounds in cougar hunts. Dozens of subsequent efforts to weaken or repeal the measure have all failed. “I […]
Posted inMarch 7, 2005: Anarchy in the Gas Fields
Wastewater goes unwatched
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Drilling Could Wake a Sleeping Giant.” On an average day in Wyoming, energy companies drill nine new wells to pull methane gas out of the state’s coal beds. In 1995, the state had 427 coalbed methane wells. Now, the total is more than 21,000, […]
Posted inFebruary 21, 2005: Have Environmentalists Failed the West?
Snowmaking on sacred slopes stirs controversy
The U.S. Forest Service will soon decide whether to allow the owners of an Arizona ski resort to create artificial snow from the city of Flagstaff’s treated wastewater. Since 1937, recreational refugees from Phoenix and Flagstaff have enjoyed the 777-acre Arizona Snowbowl ski area in the San Francisco Peaks. On average, the resort gets 260 […]
Posted inFebruary 21, 2005: Have Environmentalists Failed the West?
State sues over Sierra forest plan
In early February, the state of California sued the U.S. Forest Service for approving a new management plan that more than triples logging in national forests in the Sierra Nevada. In January 2004, the Forest Service rolled out a major revision of the 2001 Sierra Framework, a comprehensive plan for 11 national forests that was […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 2005: The Asphalt Graveyard
California’s farmers ditch dirty diesel pumps
California’s two biggest utility companies want to help farmers ditch their polluting diesel pumps to comply with air-quality crackdowns. In the process, the companies stand to gain thousands of new customers. In November, Pacific Gas and Electric Company and Southern California Edison submitted a proposal to the California Public Utilities Commission — which authorizes all […]
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 […]