How do we care for the vulnerable?
John Horning
Posted inWotr
We need a renewables roadmap
If anybody had any doubt that clean energy has arrived, President Obama’s speech to Congress Feb. 24 should dispel those concerns. Obama told Congress and the nation that clean energy, along with education and health care, are central to our economic revival. Obama recognized that if the United States can “harness the power of clean, […]
Posted inJanuary 20, 2003: A breath of fresh air
THE GREAT RANCHING DEBATE
Two recently released books, Welfare Ranching: The Subsidized Destruction of the American West and Ranching West of the 100th Meridian, offer very different visions of ranching’s place in the West. In a special feature, High Country News’ Ed Marston and Forest Guardians executive director John Horning, review the books and reopen the debate on the […]
Posted inDecember 9, 2002: Life in the wasteland
Ranching advocates lack a rural vision
In the summer of 2000, in the midst of one of the most intense droughts in the Southwest in decades, I was radicalized by fire. During an 11-day backpack across the Gila Wilderness, my companion and I came across one of the rarest events in the cow-burnt landscapes of the West – a gentle fire, […]
Posted inWotr
Ranchers in the West should call it quits
In the summer of 2000, in the midst of one of the most intense droughts in the Southwest in decades, I was radicalized by fire. During an 11-day backpack across the Gila Wilderness, my companion and I came across one of the rarest events in the cow-burnt landscapes of the West — a gentle fire, […]
Posted inMay 29, 1995: Politics 101
Bessie and Smokey are sweethearts
Dear HCN: Your story about the Forest Service’s demonization of fire (HCN, 3/6/95) was a fascinating account but failed to mention the well-documented but little publicized role of domestic livestock in the suppression of fire throughout the West. By removing grasses, especially in ponderosa pine forests, livestock have removed the fine fuels that enable fires. […]