I just loaned $3,000 to a small business in my western Colorado town of Paonia, and I’m looking forward to getting the first installment on the 6 percent interest. I haven’t decided, though, if I want it in the form of a box of fresh-picked veggies or as a gourmet dinner. In six years, provided […]
Jodi Peterson
Posted inMay 30, 2011: Wolf Whiplash
Chill out with HCN and some chili
We’d like to invite our Colorado Western Slope readers and friends to a potluck chili feast following our late-spring board meeting. Come meet other HCN fans and our staff and board members. The fun starts at 6 p.m. on Friday, June 10, at the Town Park here in Paonia. We’ll provide the chili — hot, […]
Posted inGoat
Uranium cleanup begins on Navajo Nation
On top of Oljato Mesa on the Navajo Nation, these days the sound of wind and birdsong has been replaced by the snarl of heavy machinery. And to many residents the cacophony is welcome – because of what it represents. The Environmental Protection Agency is finally starting to haul away the toxic remnants of decades […]
Posted inGoat
Eminent domain expands
In early May, a business-supported eminent domain measure became law in Montana. It allows privately-held utilities to condemn private property for transmission lines and other “public good” projects if they cannot reach agreement with landowners. That means that two major new transmission lines slated to cross Montana can go forward. The lines were put on […]
Posted inMay 16, 2011: Ripple Effects
Diabetes isn’t destiny
“I want to tell Native kids that they’re not sentenced to get diabetes. They have a choice,” says Notah Begay III, a Native American professional golfer who was interviewed recently on National Public Radio’s Native America Calling. The statistics are alarming. Diabetes has increased in every segment of American society over the past few decades, […]
Posted inMay 16, 2011: Ripple Effects
Viva la independent press!
High Country News was just nominated for two of the 22nd Annual Utne Independent Press awards. Utne, which curates the best of the alternative and independent press in its bimonthly magazine and website, has put us in the running in the General Excellence and Environmental Coverage categories. The awards, notes Utne‘s press release, are “designed […]
Posted inGoat
An endangered species truce
The Jemez Mountains salamander: 28 years. The New Mexico meadow jumping mouse: 26 years. The lesser prairie chicken: 13 years. That’s how long these three species have been awaiting potential listing under the Endangered Species Act; there are 248 other species in the Act’s virtual antechamber too, and half have been languishing there for more […]
Posted inGoat
Mopping up at Los Alamos
Last week, Los Alamos National Labs finally reached a settlement with community groups over their 2008 lawsuit claiming that polluted runoff from the facility violated its federal clean-water permit. But worries over toxic stormwater discharges at the lab go back decades (PDF report) and came to a head 11 years ago this month, when the […]
Posted inMay 2, 2011: The Westerner in D.C
“Shoot locally”
In late March, High Country News was one of the sponsors of our hometown’s inaugural Paonia Film Festival. Twenty-two short films by western Colorado filmmakers were presented at the Paradise Theatre, including HCN Online Editor Stephanie Paige Ogburn‘s stop-motion animation about boots in love. The Audience Choice award for “Most Environmentally Conscious” film — a […]
Posted inGoat
Sucking up gold
Gold has hit $1500 an ounce — and that’s got would-be miners casting a covetous eye at Western streams and rivers. The Gold Rush may have ended more than a century ago, but there’s still gold to be gleaned, if you’ve got a pickup, a wetsuit or waders, and a suction dredge (see our 2006 […]
Posted inGoat
Roadless redux
Been wondering what’s new with the Clinton-era Roadless Area Conservation Rule? Well, being the inveterate wonks we are, we’ve got an update for you on the latest with this 2001 rule that banned most logging and road building (but not off-roading or mining) on 58.5 million acres of national forest. But first, a bit of […]
Posted inApril 18, 2011: Muddy Waters
Welcome, Todd; goodbye, Ellen
HCN welcomes Todd Chamberlin, our new outreach director. Todd will be helping us increase our subscriber and donor base by organizing special fund-raising and marketing campaigns. Todd brings with him a wealth of business and marketing experience; for seven years, he was the director of eCommerce and Internet Development at National Geographic, where he developed […]
Posted inGoat
Bison back-and-forth
A century ago, the federal government took a tribal bison herd and a chunk of tribal land and created the National Bison Range. Roughly 350-500 bison still roam 18,000 acres north of Missoula, Mont., and after years of negotiation, in 2005 the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes finally won back the right to share management […]
Posted inMarch 21, 2011: Big Beef
Spring fever, skipped issue
In mid-March, as the snow melts and the crocus pop up here in Paonia, Colo., the HCN crew will be taking one of our four annual publishing breaks. Look for the next issue to hit your mailbox around April 18. In the meantime, be sure to visit hcn.org for news, blog posts, and other Web-only […]
Posted inMarch 7, 2011: High Tension
Grant received, grant given
The Fund for Investigative Journalism recently awarded a $5,000 grant to HCN Contributing Editor Matt Jenkins, to support a reporting project over the next several months. Since 1969, the Fund has given out more than $1.5 million in grants to freelance reporters, book authors and small publications. They say ’tis better to give than to […]
Posted inGoat
Mustang management gets an overhaul
Roughly 37,000 wild horses and burros roam the West’s public lands — about 40 percent more than the feds think those lands can sustain. But the Bureau of Land Management’s efforts to round them up and adopt them out have been costly, ineffective and unpopular, with critics charging that horses are unnecessarily harmed and even […]
Posted inFebruary 21, 2011: Palin, politics, and predator control
Western wildlife commissions on the chopping block
In Washington and New Mexico, state wildlife commissions could become a thing of the past. As part of their budget-trimming measures, both states’ legislatures are considering bills that would do away with the commissions’ power to set regulations and policy for managing fish and wildlife. In theory, wildlife commissions, found in every Western state, allow […]
Posted inGoat
Ozone in the air
Ah, fresh desert air, scented with sage, heady with …. ozone?? This winter, rural parts of Utah and Wyoming with lots of energy development have sometimes had higher levels of unhealthy ozone than big metropolitan areas like L.A.and Salt Lake City. Back in 2008, the Bureau of Land Management released a plan to manage 1.8 […]
Posted inFebruary 21, 2011: Palin, politics, and predator control
Cy-board meeting
In late January, the High Country News board of directors met via Web and phone. With a headset and a smile, Board President Florence Williams marched more than a dozen board and staff members through an agenda that included finances, editorial direction, marketing capacity and what skills the board would like to add to its […]
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Yet another tar-sands hazard
Ever hear of “DilBit”? It sounds like a new kind of snack pickle, or maybe a little cat owned by Dilbert, the geeky cartoon character. Actually, it’s something far less benign – the raw oil extracted from tar sands development in Canada. Diluted bitumen (also known as “DilBit”) … is significantly more acidic and corrosive […]