How is a black-backed woodpecker like a spotted owl? Well, if an environmental group has its way, the woodpecker will join the owl as a species whose protection changes forest management on a broad scale. The spotted owl, which depends on old-growth forests, was federally listed as threatened in 1990. Subsequently, logging across the Northwest […]
Jodi Peterson
Posted inSeptember 3, 2010: Migration
On the wing
Eerie, whirring calls fill the air on a chilly April morning. Hundreds of sandhill cranes congregate along the edges of Fruitgrowers Reservoir, on the southern flank of western Colorado’s Grand Mesa. Tucked amid cropland and sage-dotted pastures, the reservoir is a crucial rest stop on the birds’ long spring migration from New Mexico north to […]
Posted inSeptember 3, 2010: Migration
Skipped issue
A heads-up: HCN staffers will be taking a much needed two-week publishing break after this issue to catch up on work and R&R. Look for your next issue on Oct. 11. We’re always flattered by how many folks decide to stop by our Paonia office, but Kim and Mark Schultz of Colorado Springs positively made […]
Posted inSeptember 3, 2010: Migration
Wait until darkness
The WildingBenjamin Percy272 pages, hardcover: $23.Graywolf Press, October. In his debut novel, The Wilding, award-winning writer Benjamin Percy returns to familiar ground — rural Oregon. After publishing two collections of bold, piercing short stories about the mountain towns and mossy woods of his native state, Percy finds space in The Wilding to fully develop his […]
Posted inSeptember 3, 2010: Migration
Fall books, from steampunk to conservation science
Here on Colorado’s Western Slope, the nights have become crisper, the days shorter. As summer wanes, there’s finally less hoeing and mowing and weeding to do, and more time to read. A slew of new books await, by Western authors both famous and less well-known. We’ve listed some recent and upcoming picks below, alphabetically by […]
Posted inAugust 20, 2010: A Hell of an Anniversary
Visitors with flowers and fire extinguishers
We continue to enjoy a steady stream of visitors to our Paonia, Colo., office. We’re always impressed that so many of you find us, since our little town is more than an hour and a half from the nearest interstate highway. In mid-July, subscribers Lucy Meinhardt and Dave Zumwalt left us a note. “It seems […]
Posted inGoat
Uranium pullback
It looks like Colorado won’t have a functioning uranium mill anytime soon – to the relief of anti-nuclear advocates. We reported in July that Cotter Corp. was planning to reopen its Canon City site by 2014. Legislation passed this spring means that Cotter would have to clean up prior contamination before starting to process uranium […]
Posted inAugust 16, 2010: Young, All-American, Illegal
A flood of visitors
Monsoon season struck Paonia with a vengeance in the muggy final days of July. Beyond window-rattling thunder and heart-stopping lightning, the storms have brought deluges of rain, sending irrigation ditches flooding over their banks and washing out roads and driveways. Our flood of summer visitors through HQ has continued unabated, as well. High Country News […]
Posted inAugust 2, 2010: The Fiery Touch
Summer Visitors
Along with cherries and apricots, summer always brings a bountiful crop of visitors to our offices in Paonia, Colo. Author and photographer Dave Showalter came by on a Western Slope trip from his home in Arvada, Colo. He’s working on a conservation book depicting the beauty of the West’s sagebrush ecosystem and the many threats […]
Posted inWotr
We need a solution to too many wild horses
As a kid growing up in Colorado, I was crazy about wild horses. I read books about mustangs and drew pictures of them. In school, I was thrilled to learn about the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act, which was passed in 1971, after “Wild Horse Annie” saw bleeding mustangs being hauled off to slaughter […]
Posted inJune 21, 2010: Immersed in the Wild
Summertime slowdown
We publish 22 times per year, so we’ll be skipping the next issue. Here in western Colorado, we’ll be tending our gardens, celebrating the annual Cherry Days festival and the Fourth of July, and working on great stories for upcoming issues — not necessarily in that order. You’ll see the next edition of HCN in […]
Posted inJune 7, 2010: One Tough Sucker
HCN’s key numbers: 3, 170, 20
To save some money during these tight times, the High Country News Board of Directors held its late spring meeting over the phone and Internet on May 20. Thanks to the marvels of technology, including the tiny cameras in most of our computers, the experience wasn’t half bad. Board president Florence Williams of Boulder, Colo., […]
Posted inGoat
Spray, don’t shoot
The meaning of a recent court case in Wyoming is clear: you can’t kill a grizzly just because you’re frightened. 41-year-old Stephen Westmoreland shot a female grizzly last fall just outside of Grand Teton National Park that showed no sign of aggression. He’d been gutting a deer and was “covered in animal blood,” according to […]
Posted inMay 24, 2010: Accidental Wilderness
HCN wins awards
We’re thrilled to announce that we’ve received the prestigious 2010 Utne Independent Press Award for Environmental Coverage. “High Country News covers this vast (Western) landscape like an experienced backcountry guide, pointing out the threats along with the wonders,” wrote the Utne judges. “Whether its writers are watchdogging resource-intensive industries like ranching, mining, drilling, and logging […]
Posted inMay 10, 2010: The Secret Lives of River Guides
Changing of the editorial guard
A couple of issues back, you may have noticed that High Country News was advertising for a new editor in chief. Jonathan Thompson has decided to leave HCN and Paonia in June and head out on a new adventure with his family, leaving the Four Corners region in which he has spent his first 40 […]
Posted inApril 26, 2010: Nevada's Pot of Gold
From Alaska to Paonia
Paonia, Colo., was a planned rest stop for visitors Helen Pohlig and Marilyn Rudolph, who were driving from Arizona to Helen’s home in St. Paul, Minn. “We purposefully chose a route that would take us through here,” said Helen, a lawyer and longtime subscriber. On their tour of HCN headquarters, she brought her dog Annie, […]
Posted inApril 12, 2010: The Butterfly Sting
Spring visitors
Here in Paonia, Colo., March brought us 60-degree days and 20-degree days, glorious sunshine and freezing sleet — sometimes during the same half-hour. Zac and Lisa Tuthill stopped by on one of the wet, snowy days, on their way home from Moab to Laramie, Wyo., where she’s a psychotherapist and he’s studying civil engineering. A […]
Posted inGoat
Public lands “blackmailer” returns
Loathed by government officials, recreationists and environmentalists alike, Colorado developer Tom Chapman is at it again. His latest deal exemplifies his typical modus operandi: buy inholdings in remote backcountry, threaten to develop them, and get big payouts from federal agencies desperate to protect pristine public lands. Now he’s purchased 103 acres of mining claims in […]
Posted inGoat
Not so CX-y now
A 2008 lawsuit filed to protect Utah petroglyphs from oil and gas drilling has just been resolved — and the settlement has big implications for the West’s public lands. Announced Wednesday, the decision means that the Bureau of Land Management can no longer fast-track energy development in cases where there are “extraordinary circumstances” — environmental, […]
Posted inGoat
If all else fails …
The Forest Service announced this week that it’s taking a bold new tack in forest planning — talking to the public. The agency has been trying for more than a decade to modernize its forest planning process, which is supposed to guide the creation of plans for each national forest that specify areas for logging, […]