One of coal’s big messes is transformed
into building blocks
Jonathan Thompson
Jonathan Thompson is a contributing editor at High Country News. He is the author of Sagebrush Empire: How a Remote Utah County Became the Battlefront of American Public Lands. Follow him @LandDesk
Posted inNovember 12, 2007: L.A. Bets on the Farm
Coming to a farm near you: Los Angeles
Each year, my family and I visit my father-in-law at his house in the desert, just over the mountains from Los Angeles. From there, we can’t see the great beast they call L.A., but we can feel it. The San Gabriel Mountains loom black against the city’s nighttime glow. At all hours, a steady stream […]
Posted inWotr
Exploring the shrinking marvel of Lake Powell
I grew up thinking of Lake Powell as sacred in the way that a mass grave is sacred. But I’m also a practical person, and I see the lake as a giant highway offering access to some of the most spectacular country in the West. It was the practical side that agreed when my wife […]
Posted inOctober 15, 2007: Cat Fight on the Border
Two weeks in the West
The price of that guacamole you love to snack on is probably going to climb. California’s farmers, already struggling with drought, are facing even drier times, and some avocado growers are hacking down trees to save water. California has withered under drought for much of the last decade, and this year could end up being […]
Posted inOctober 1, 2007: Sheep v. Sheep
Two weeks in the West
In southern Arizona’s Tumacacori Highlands, the tropics meet the desert. Black bears roam steep canyons and oak-covered hillsides alongside Mexican vine snakes, cuckoos and jaguars. Located just north of the border, the region is one of the most biologically diverse in the country. In September, Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., introduced a bill that would protect […]
Posted inSeptember 17, 2007: Facing the yuck factor
Two weeks in the West
“I’m sucking up to you. But you know, when you’re at 13 percent, you’ve got to do something.” —New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, seeking support for his Democratic presidential campaign at an Aug. 22 forum at the University of Nevada-Reno, where he vowed that if he wins, he’ll fund all kinds of education programs. All […]
Posted inArticles
Red Mountain miracle
In the late 1800s, some 3,000 people lived and worked in the Red Mountain Mining District near the top of Red Mountain Pass between Silverton and Ouray. Just about every acre was clear-cut, built upon or mined. Today, the miners are gone and aspen trees and tundra plants have reclaimed most of the area. The […]
Posted inSeptember 3, 2007: A Climate Change Solution?
Two weeks in the West
Many a mud-spattered pickup truck in Western mining communities sports a bumper sticker that reads, “Behind every light switch is a coal miner.” After the Crandall Canyon mine collapsed in central Utah on Aug. 6, the slogan took on a slightly different meaning for the anxiously watching American public: Behind just about every light switch, […]
Posted inSeptember 3, 2007: A Climate Change Solution?
Gunning with the in-laws
Jim Aldrich, my father-in-law, grins a lot. But today, as we stand on his deck in the desert of Southern California, his smile is especially pronounced, cutting deep creases into his stubbled cheeks. It’s not the blue sky brushed with contrails that makes him happy. It’s the gun. He just popped six rounds from a […]
Posted inSeptember 3, 2007: A Climate Change Solution?
Heard Around the West
NEW MEXICO Just two decades ago, pink coyotes were ubiquitous in downtown Santa Fe. They howled at oil-painted moons, or were sculpted from metal, or were accompanied by acrylic neon landscapes. To some high-minded folks, the fad was much worse than a particularly bad moment in Southwestern-style kitsch; it seemed to signal the imminent demise […]
Posted inSeptember 3, 2007: A Climate Change Solution?
The new land rush
In the West’s mountains, old mining claims are the latest real estate hotspots
Posted inAugust 20, 2007: Bonfire of the Superweeds
Two weeks in the West
“I pray that this power plant won’t be built,” Louise Benally told the crowd in the Burnham Chapter House – a sort of Navajo version of a town hall – on July 24. Benally and more than two dozen others, mostly Navajo men in big cowboy hats and older women in velveteen dresses and turquoise, […]
Posted inAugust 6, 2007: Guns R Us
Two weeks in the West
White-tailed prairie dogs are short, stout rodents that burrow in the plains of Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Montana. Their numbers have declined – some estimates say by as much as 90 percent – over the years, thanks to habitat loss, oil and gas development, grazing, bubonic plague and wholesale eradication efforts that include shooting and […]
Posted inAugust 6, 2007: Guns R Us
Pony up
When it comes to fund raising, Mitt Romney is the West’s presidential candidate
Posted inWotr
Oh, those summer nights at the drive-in!
It’s the kind of summer night when a warm breeze rubs up against you like your date in that strapless dress on prom night so long ago. Not only that, but our kids are restless and we need something to do. It’s the perfect night, in other words, to see a movie at the drive-in. […]
Posted inJuly 23, 2007: Hydrogen Highway Revisited
Two weeks in the West
This summer, the West is as crispy as that chicken you left on the grill for too long during the Fourth of July. Mercury topped the 100-degree mark everywhere from Boise to Tucson in late June and early July. During the first week in July, records fell in every Western state except New Mexico. Although […]
Posted inJune 25, 2007: Predator hunters for the environment
Two weeks in the West
Just call it As Interior Turns, the scintillating soap opera set at the U.S. Department of Interior. The newest star in the revolving cast is James Caswell, who’s been named by President Bush to head up the Bureau of Land Management. Kathleen Clarke stepped down from the post in February. Caswell, a veteran forester, currently […]
Posted inJune 11, 2007: Brave New Hay
Two weeks in the West
Maybe it’s the weather; drought or abnormally dry weather is afflicting 70 percent of the West. Maybe the creeks gushing with unseasonably early snowmelt inspired lawmakers. Or maybe it’s just that last month marked the end of the legislative season. Whatever the reason, May was a big month for states — from Utah to California […]
Posted inMay 28, 2007: Problems In Paradise
Two weeks in the West
Just about every dinky diner in the Northwest’s logging country used to have a supplemental menu. Beside the grease-spattered board offering up fried eggs and bacon was another touting items such as spotted owl stew. It was a joke, of course, a jab at the endangered bird that many loggers blamed for the demise of […]
Posted inMay 28, 2007: Problems In Paradise
Of feral dogs, and feral Westerners
Feral dogs are more common in the rural West than bathtub methamphetamine labs or chainsaw carvers. They roam dumps, harass and attack wildlife and livestock, and, I know from painful experience, they lie in wait on two-lane roads to discipline bicyclists. “Rez” dogs may be famous for scavenging in roadside ditches outside Tuba City, Ariz., […]