WELCOME, SARAH GILMAN She’s baaaa-aaa-ck! We’re pleased to welcome former HCN intern Sarah Gilman as our new assistant editor. A Colorado native, Sarah was born and raised in Boulder. She earned a bachelor’s degree in biology and studio art at Whitman College in Washington state in 2004. The pull of the Rocky Mountains was too […]
Jodi Peterson
Posted inMay 12, 2008: Boom! Boom!
Dear friends
HILLMAN AWARD FOR RAY RING Senior editor Ray Ring has won the prestigious 2008 Sidney Hillman journalism award in the magazine reporting category for his cover story “Disposable Workers of the Oil and Gas Fields,”April 2, 2007. Since 1950, the foundation has recognized “journalists, writers and public figures whose work promotes social and economic justice.”Past […]
Posted inMarch 3, 2008: The People of the Sea
Dear friends
VISITORS The snow may have kept some folks from visiting us here, but Rob and Annie Edward stopped by between storms and gray wolf education presentations. Rob is the director of carnivore restoration for the nonprofit carnivore advocacy group Sinapu, which recently merged with Forest Guardians to create WildEarth Guardians. Annie’s “day job” allows her […]
Posted inArticles
Crying ‘fowl’
Over the past 5 years, one of the West’s emblematic birds, the greater sage grouse, has been batted like a shuttlecock between environmentalists and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. At issue is whether the chicken-sized bird, once found in sagebrush plains from Canada to Arizona, should be listed as threatened or endangered. If the […]
Posted inFebruary 18, 2008: Reluctant Boomtown
Dear friends
TELL US WHAT YOU THINK We’d like to know what topics are important to you, and what you think of the job that High Country News is doing. Please visit www.hcn.org/survey and complete our brief reader survey today. We’ll use your input to improve our understanding of what our readers want and need. NEW BABIES, […]
Posted inFebruary 18, 2008: Reluctant Boomtown
Death of a mine
In Utah, a major new copper producer goes belly-up in just two years
Posted inFebruary 18, 2008: Reluctant Boomtown
The short life of Lisbon Valley
August 1995 After four years of collecting environmental data, Summo USA Corp. applies to the Bureau of Land Management for a permit to mine copper in Lisbon Valley, roughly 40 miles southeast of Moab. March 1997 The Moab BLM office approves the mine, but enviros appeal. June 1998 The Interior Board of Land Appeals rules […]
Posted inFebruary 4, 2008: Unnatural Preservation
Two weeks in the West
Updated 2/4/2008 A groan must have risen from some Western developers at the end of last year, as a flurry of conservation easements yanked hundreds of thousands of acres out of their reach. The rush was at least partly due to a federal tax incentive that expired at the end of 2007. (Congress is considering […]
Posted inJanuary 21, 2008: An energy oasis in the political desert
Two weeks in the West
Wide-open spaces and burly, gas-guzzling automobiles go hand in hand in the West. After all, how else can you get to your favorite climbing crag or hiking trail? Perhaps by driving a burly rig that guzzles a lot less gas. Or so California and a handful of other Western states had hoped. But the U.S. […]
Posted inJanuary 21, 2008: An energy oasis in the political desert
Dear friends
WELCOME, LILY JEAN The latest addition to the HCN family, Lily Jean Massart Isaacson, arrived on Thursday, Dec. 20, to proud parents Denise (our office manager) and her husband, Bob. The 6-pound, 7-ounce girl is doing well; no word on how much sleep mom and dad are getting. GREG HANSCOM SPOTTED … IN MARYLAND? Former […]
Posted inDecember 24, 2007: Last chance for the Lobo
Dear friends
DECKING OUR HALLS AND TAKING A BREAK Dozens of friends attended our open house on Dec. 12; thanks to all of you who came by. For the last two weeks of December, we won’t be putting out a news magazine; instead, we’ll be catching up around the office and enjoying a bit of holiday cheer. […]
Posted inDecember 10, 2007: Rebels with a Lost Cause
Dear friends
COLORADO, CALIFORNIA AND ENGLAND We enjoy each of our visitors but we’re a bit behind in writing about them; we’re still catching up on the folks who came to see us in late September and early October. Nancy and Dennis Johnson dropped into the office while on a Western Slope leaf-peeping trip. Since moving to […]
Posted inNovember 26, 2007: Beetle Warfare
Dear friends
HCN HAPPENINGS The staff of High Country News cordially invites all readers and friends to a holiday open house at our Paonia, Colo., office (119 Grand Ave.) on Wednesday, Dec. 12, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. We’ll provide refreshments. Some fresh faces now grace the office, including Ryan Foster, our director of digital media. A […]
Posted inNovember 12, 2007: L.A. Bets on the Farm
Dear friends
THE CHANGING EDITORIAL GUARD With this issue, we bid a fond farewell to Editor John Mecklin, who is headed to California and the challenge of starting up a new, policy-focused magazine. Since coming to HCN a year ago, John has implemented a long-needed revamp of our editorial and copy-flow processes, significantly broadened the scope of […]
Posted inOctober 29, 2007: Which Way West
No frigate like a book
This issue of High Country News departs from our usual fare – it’s still devoted to news and to truth, but of a different variety. News, not of mining and drilling and public policy, but of thought-provoking books and of authors well worth getting to know. Truth, not as found in facts and statistics, but […]
Posted inOctober 29, 2007: Which Way West
Fall reading
We’ve pored over the latest from publishers and picked out a selection of books – by Western authors and/or on Western subjects – that we’d like to curl up with this fall. All have recently been released, or will be in the next few months; we’ve listed them here alphabetically by categories, according to the […]
Posted inOctober 15, 2007: Cat Fight on the Border
Dear friends
A FORESTER, A FARMER, AND A FAMILY REUNION Sara Mattes, a selectman from Lincoln, Mass. (“where Paul Revere was caught”), came in while visiting the Western Slope. She noted that a lot of HCN’s reporting filters down to her advocacy work – including opposing anything that was supported by former Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif. Penny […]
Posted inOctober 1, 2007: Sheep v. Sheep
Underground movement
In northern Colorado, newcomers to the area lead the charge against planned uranium mining
Posted inOctober 1, 2007: Sheep v. Sheep
Dear friends
WELCOME, MARTY AND LISA HCN’s new online editor, Marty Durlin, is glad to be back home in Delta County. She grew up in the nearby town of Delta, where her father was a state representative and her mother taught school. Marty holds a B.A. in humanities from Colorado Women’s College, and studied music and creative […]
Posted inSeptember 3, 2007: A Climate Change Solution?
Dear friends
MEET US IN SALT LAKE HCN invites Salt Lake City area readers to join us for a dialogue on Thursday, Sept. 13. We’ll help the Utah Science Center kick off a series of discussions on “Choices.” Several panelists, including David Nimkin, National Parks Conservation Association chair; Dianne Nielson, energy advisor to Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman; […]