Back in the dark ages of the 1960s, the science of ice forecasting – predicting how much ice will be choking Arctic seas in a given month – was based more on intuition than science. Forecasters relied largely on memory and anecdotal observations, with results about as fallible as you’d expect. Sometimes, the dearth of […]
Krista Langlois
Krista Langlois is a former High Country News fellow and correspondent, and longtime freelance journalist. From her home on British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast, she writes and edits stories about biodiversity and the more-than-human world for bioGraphic magazine. Find her on Bluesky @cestmoiLanglois.
Posted inFebruary 17, 2014: The Gila $olution
Postcard from a livestock sperm bank
Your one-stop shop for bison semen, oyster embryos and testicular turkey tissue.
Posted inGoat
Policies and pollinators: How the feds deepen the precipitous decline of monarchs
The numbers are in from Mexico, and they ain’t pretty. Every fall, monarch butterflies fly thousands of miles from the Great Plains to their winter grounds in central Mexico, where they’re scrupulously counted by the World Wildlife Fund. In 1996, the overwintering monarchs blanketed 45 acres of forest. This year, they cover only about 1.6 […]
Posted inFebruary 3, 2014: The Hanford Whistleblowers
Wilderness therapy redefines itself
But the irresponsible caregivers and tragedies of the past prove hard to shake.
Posted inGoat
Slew of public lands and sportsmen’s bills debated on Capitol Hill this week
It’s been an exciting year for public lands geeks. After nearly five years in which Congress failed to designate a single acre of wilderness (the first Congress since 1966 to earn that dubious distinction), the House this week is taking action on a slew of wilderness, public lands and recreation bills. But while it’s tempting […]
Posted inFebruary 3, 2014: The Hanford Whistleblowers
The Latest: EPA released a final assessment of Pebble Mine impacts
BackstoryThe proposed Pebble Mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region could yield $300 billion in copper, gold and molybdenum, but also harm the world’s largest sockeye salmon runs, a vibrant fishing industry and some of North America’s last salmon-based cultures (“Worst place for a major mine?” HCN, 11/25/13). In 2010, nine Native tribes asked the U.S. […]
Posted inGoat
BLM considers grassroots land use plan that would limit drilling in western Colorado
Mark Waltermire squints in the winter sunlight, craning his neck to take in the view from his vegetable farm in Hotchkiss, Colo. He jabs his finger toward a mesa: “There,” he says. “And up in there.” Palm to the sky, he makes a sweeping gesture, encompassing the flat-bottomed valley, the staggered mesas; the patchwork of […]
Posted inGoat
Final EPA report is the latest in a series of blows to Alaska’s Pebble Mine
Last summer, the excavation of some of the world’s richest mineral deposits – and the degradation of some of the world’s richest salmon habitat – seemed well within the grasp of global mining interests. But with the release of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s long-awaited environmental assessment on Jan. 15, the development of Pebble Mine […]
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Tale of two states: Utah’s a model for reducing homelessness, Wyoming lags behind
What happens when you give a homeless person a subsidized apartment? The answer isn’t as straightforward as you might think. But in Utah, it’s proven a resounding success – out of 17 chronically homeless people who took part in the state’s 2005 pilot program, all were still off the streets two years later, spurring a […]
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As analog film grows obsolete, Western towns struggle to keep theaters afloat
One snowy evening over the holidays, I sat down for a beer with screenwriter Susan Shilliday (“Legends of the Fall”), who moved from Los Angeles to rural western Massachusetts eight years ago to run a used bookstore. We were discussing how difficult it is for independent booksellers to stay in business when Susan brought up […]
Posted inDecember 23, 2013: Beauty or Beast
Vital Signs, a book by Juan Delgado and Thomas McGovern
Vital Signs Juan Delgado and Thomas McGovern, 128 pages, paperback: $18.95.Heyday and the Inlandia Institute, 2013. San Bernardino, Calif., has a reputation for poverty and crime, but poet Juan Delgado and photographer Thomas McGovern offer a vibrant view of the city’s working-class Latino neighborhoods in their new book, Vital Signs. The people of this urban […]
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A report aims to change the way we think about Native justice
In 1881, a Brulé Lakota man in South Dakota who shot and killed another member of his tribe was sentenced to death by federal officials who thought the tribal punishment of eight horses, $600 and a blanket was too lenient. The case set a precedent that certain crimes committed on tribal lands are to be […]
Posted inDecember 9, 2013: The Tree Coroners
The Latest: Interior approves a 990-mile-long transmission line
BackstoryThe proposed Gateway West transmission line through southern Wyoming and Idaho could deliver up to 3,000 megawatts of power, including wind. But such projects require complex permitting and lengthy review processes, even as upgrading the grid becomes increasingly urgent. In 2011, the Obama administration created a “rapid response team” to help expedite clean-energy infrastructure, including […]
Posted inDecember 9, 2013: The Tree Coroners
A review of West Coast: Bering to Baja
West Coast: Bering to Baja Photographs by David Freese, Foreword by Naomi Rosenblum with text by Simon Winchester, 191 pages, hardcover:$60. George F. Thompson Publishing, 2012. “I have always been drawn to transitional places,” writes photographer David Freese in West Coast: Bering to Baja. “For me, there is no more fascinating place on Earth than […]
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Could the fight for Colorado’s Browns Canyon finally be over?
The struggle to protect Browns Canyon, a rugged stretch of the Arkansas River in central Colorado, has been waxing and waning since the area was first studied for wilderness designation in the 1970s. Several attempts to create a new federal wilderness have been floated since then, and though they’ve come tantalizingly close, none have yet […]
Posted inGoat
Wilderness vandalism sparks legislation in Utah, plus a look at what makes a vandal good
Last month, two Utah Boy Scout leaders inadvertently became internet sensations after posting a video of themselves toppling one of the ancient rock formations that gives Goblin Valley State Park its name, then laughing and high-fiving each other. The men, David Hall and Glenn Taylor, said they acted out of concern for public safety, but […]
Posted inNovember 25, 2013: Ecosystems 101
Worst place for a major mine?
Backers of Alaska’s colossal Pebble Mine, including Republican Gov. Sean Parnell, have predicted tremendous economic benefits from developing what would be the continent’s largest open-pit mine (see map at lower left). But the actual economic forecast is not that clear, and recent events might force a recasting, or even the abandonment, of the scheme. An […]
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Emerald ash borers arrive in the West. How far will they go?
Alongside the spotted knapweed and zebra mussels, the non-native species is a new unwelcome visitor.
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Pisaster disaster: When starfish wasting disease strikes, there’s only one man to call
Dr. Chris Mah may be the only man in the world who can correctly identify any species of starfish on sight. Growing up in San Francisco on a steady diet of sushi and Japanese monster movies, it was no wonder he was attracted to the weird, slimy invertebrates he plucked from the shores of the […]
Posted inNovember 11, 2013: Cosmic Prospecting
Failed secession movements litter the West
Will they ever succeed?