The last frontier of the national parks lies underwater.
Katie Mast
Posted inDecember 23, 2013: Beauty or Beast
The fignificent fig man
Lloyd Kreitzer’s journey as New Mexico’s premier fig grower.
Posted inGoat
States test a new prairie dog plague vaccine
Dressed in long pants, long-sleeve shirts and closed-toed shoes, a team of researchers from Colorado Parks and Wildlife gathered in a sagebrush-grass meadow near Gunnison, Colo. this summer, each with a GPS in hand. Lining up 10 meters apart along the border of a virtual grid, they walked straight lines over a Gunnison’s prairie dog […]
Posted inGoat
Negotiations speed up endangered-species listings
In northern Arizona, a tiny cactus, not more than 3.5 inches tall, lifts a creamy yellow flower above the desert rock each spring. Roughly 1,000 of these rare plants still grow, living 10 to 15 years and rising from the earth to flower each season before sinking back after fruiting. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife […]
Posted inNovember 25, 2013: Ecosystems 101
The Latest: Court strikes down BLM plan in Utah
BackstoryDuring the George W. Bush administration’s final months, the Bureau of Land Management released six massive resource management plans for 11 million acres in southern Utah. The plans, which opened large areas to energy development and designated 17,000 miles of off-road vehicle trails, were released on a short timetable that allowed little opportunity for public […]
Posted inNovember 25, 2013: Ecosystems 101
The Latest: Teton pronghorn migration helped by overpasses
BackstoryFor roughly 6,000 years, Wyoming pronghorn have migrated seasonally between the mountains of Grand Teton National Park and the warmer plains of the Upper Green River Basin. The roughly 100-mile journey is among the longest land migrations of North American mammals. But biologists worry that roadways and new energy and housing development threaten to fragment […]
Posted inGoat
An important win for black-footed ferret reintroduction
Once a thriving predator on prairie landscapes, the black-footed ferret was squeezed out of its range by agriculture and development, and their populations ravaged by diseases like sylvatic plague, which was introduced from Asia at the turn of the 20th century. Ferrets’ main source of food, prairie dogs, have long been considered pests to agriculture […]
Posted inNovember 11, 2013: Cosmic Prospecting
A review of Our Beautiful, Fragile World: The Nature and Environmental Photographs of Peter Essick
Our Beautiful, Fragile World: The Nature and Environmental Photographs of Peter Essick Foreword by Jean-Michel Cousteau, 122 pages, $34.95. Rocky Nook, 2013. “I know that when people see and feel the beauty of the natural world, they understand in a profound way the need to take care of our water planet,” writes Jean-Michel Cousteau, son […]
Posted inNovember 11, 2013: Cosmic Prospecting
A timeline of our fascination with outer space
The Southwest has long been a locus for space-related activities – and cosmic secrets. Its clear, dark skies are ideal for stargazing, while its isolated deserts are perfect for cutting-edge scientific research and for conspiracy and extraterrestrial enthusiasts. From meteorites colliding with Earth millennia ago to the dream of reaching space ourselves, we have an […]
Posted inGoat
Teton pronghorn take to highway crossings the third time around
For 15 days last year, Renee Seidler, a scientist with the Wildlife Conservation Society, sat in a truck near a highway and watched the fall migration of Wyoming’s pronghorn. It was the first time since the construction of Highway 191 that the 300-head Teton herd had an alternative to dodging cars and trucks to get […]
Posted inOctober 28, 2013: Lifeblood of the Delta
The long journey of the Gila trout
Destructive New Mexico fires may have a silver lining for a threatened fish.
Posted inGoat
New satellite technology to detect wildfires an acre in size
What started as a small blaze in the backcountry of central California this summer became the 250,000-acre Yosemite Rim Fire that forced thousands of nearby residents out of their homes. The tab at the end of the fire fighting efforts tallied over $100 million, and that’s not including lost revenue, damaged structures or the tens […]
Posted inOctober 28, 2013: Lifeblood of the Delta
A review of At Home in the West: The Lure of Public Land
At Home in the West: The Lure of Public LandWilliam S. Sutton, with Toby Jurovics and Susan B. Moldenhauer, 200 pages, hardcover: $50. George F. Thompson Publishing, 2013. In the essay that kicks off his beautiful black-and-white photography book, At Home in the West: The Lure of Public Land, William S. Sutton says he began […]
Posted inOctober 28, 2013: Lifeblood of the Delta
The Latest: Montana puts new limits on renewable energy contracts
Updated 10/29/13 BackstoryIdaho is one of the few Western states that doesn’t mandate that some percentage of its electricity come from renewable sources. With little incentive to promote such projects, Idaho Power, the state’s biggest utility, lobbied regulators to effectively lock out new commercial wind farms in 2010. It lowered the maximum size for renewable […]
Posted inGoat
Nitrogen pollution at critical levels in dozens of national parks
We’ve had national parks on the brain a lot lately as we slogged through 16 days of federal shutdown. It’s been an economic burden to gateway communities and a frustration to tourists. But a depressingly dysfunctional government isn’t the only thing plaguing our parks. A new study shows that airborne nitrogen pollution is fundamentally changing the […]
Posted inOctober 14, 2013: The New Geronimo?
The fungus among us
West Nile virus, valley fever, hantavirus: Over the past decade, the West has seen an increase in some rare but scary illnesses. According to a September study in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, the U.S. places 11th globally for incidents of plague. Scientists also recently discovered that a deadly tropical fungus, which […]
Posted inGoat
Disease hits Montana’s Missoula Valley deer – 400 dead in a month
As fall began to settle into Missoula, Mont., and hunters got ready for deer season, a sudden, bizarre rash of deer deaths left carcasses decaying in the area. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks began receiving calls in mid-September reporting the deaths, and in less than two weeks, they confirmed more than 100 cases. All the evidence […]
Posted inGoat
Trickle-down effect of the federal shutdown
Tuesday morning at the High Country News office began with a flurry of Twitter messages from federal agencies as they entered a social media blackout. Until some undetermined future, it will be radio silence from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, EPA, NASA and the National Science Foundation. Websites will not be updated; apparently […]
Posted inGoat
Proposed farm bill cuts food aid programs
If the House has its way with the nearly expired farm bill, $40 billion would be cut from the federal food stamps program over the next ten years. These cuts could mean that the 9 million Westerners who rely on the program will find it harder than ever to put meals on the table. Every […]
Posted inGoat
Wolf update: Montana tries to attract more hunters as feds consider national delisting
Montana’s wolf hunters hung up their bows last Saturday as archery season closed and rifle season began. Five years after the federal government dropped Montana’s wolves from the Endangered Species List and the state took over management, officials are still trying to trim the state’s growing wolf population. This year, each hunter can bag five […]