More than 25 years ago, a group of wildlife-film enthusiasts started the International Wildlife Film Festival in Missoula, Mont. This year, organizers for the event have reopened the historic Roxy Theater in downtown Missoula as a media center that will provide year-round screening of the festival’s films. To celebrate the purchase and renovation of the […]
Lolly Merrell
Posted inDecember 9, 2002: Life in the wasteland
Life in the wasteland
A small Utah town unearths a toxic legacy just as its only hope for rescue, the federal Superfund cleanup program, blows away
Posted inNovember 25, 2002: Planning's poster child grows up
A briny time capsule
In 1970, when artist Robert Smithson constructed his 1,500-ft-long spiral-shaped sculpture in the Great Salt Lake, he planned for the natural rise and fall of the water to deposit salt crystals on its black stone base. But “The Spiral Jetty,” which used more than 6,650 tons of basalt, disappeared entirely in 1972, submerged in the […]
Posted inOctober 28, 2002: Shadow Creatures
Revisiting Alcatraz
In November 1969, a small group of Native American students and “urban Indians” landed on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay and occupied the former prison for more than 19 months. The “invasion” was a protest of the U.S. government’s Indian policies and programs, and some say it kicked off the fiery “Red Power” movement […]
Posted inOctober 28, 2002: Shadow Creatures
Does dam breaching make cents?
For years, the Hells Canyon dams in Idaho have been the subject of intense debate: Should we breach them and restore the Snake River, or keep the dams and save the local economy? Now, two reports have come out, representing both sides of the issue. After more than 10 years of research, Idaho Power, which […]
Posted inSeptember 30, 2002: Delta Blues
A dry old time
The Dry Cimarron River is called “dry” because it has a tendency to sink, then rise again, as it flows from Johnson Mesa in northeastern New Mexico, through a deep canyon, across a corner of Oklahoma and into the Arkansas River near Dodge City, Kan. Along the way, the Dry Cimarron nourishes rangeland that has […]
Posted inSeptember 30, 2002: Delta Blues
Magical, mystical and down-to-earth
They’ve been coined “boineers” – for biological pioneers – and they look to nature for models of sustainability and ecological and social restoration. This translates into topics as varied as transforming toxins using natural shamanic rituals to exploring the role of marine ecosystems. Now, you can see what these cutting-edge scientists, artists and activists have […]
Posted inSeptember 16, 2002: The Royal Squeeze
Traveling dunes
It is the largest dune complex in North America, spreading across 1,000 square miles, from Southern California to Mexico. It’s also the locale of the 32,240-acre North Algodones Dunes Wilderness area, where rare species of plants and animals thrive in the basins and flats of the dunescape (HCN, 12/18/00:Feds fight chaos in a desert playground). […]
Posted inSeptember 16, 2002: The Royal Squeeze
A legend of the land
A legend of the land He’s been described by writer John McPhee as the “grand old man of Rocky Mountain geology,” and by longtime friend and HCN founder Tom Bell as a man you meet “once in a lifetime.” Born in Riverton, Wyo., in 1913, and raised in the rich landscape that became his life’s […]
Posted inSeptember 2, 2002: Backlash
River’s end
The numbers are impressive: 25 million people depend on the Colorado River, which falls 14,000 feet in its 1,700-mile journey, and is home to 20 power plants, 10 major dams and 80 diversion channels. Over the past year, the humanities councils of seven Western states have worked together on Moving Waters: The Colorado River and […]
Posted inSeptember 2, 2002: Backlash
Telling it on the mountain
The mountains, for many of us, are a source of inspiration, adventure, work and play. But for a lot of the world, mountain life means extreme poverty and a rapidly declining quality of life. A disproportionately high number of the world’s hungry and chronically malnourished people live in mountain regions. The United Nations has declared […]
Posted inAugust 19, 2002: The Great Western Apocalypse
The Great Western Apocalypse
The drought of 2002 has left the West blistered and burnt, and scientists predict worse to come. Have we learned anything yet?
Posted inJune 10, 2002: Hatching reform
No magic bullet for wasting disease
Critics assail slaughter of elk, deer as strategy against CWD
Posted inMay 27, 2002: Wolf at the door
The garden of good and evil
Follow the simple steps listed on the back of any of the popular wildflower seed mixes for sale, and voila! A thick carpet of kaleidoscopic blooms will grace your garden. Problem is, you probably just broke the law. At least, that’s what researchers with the University of Washington’s Center for Urban Horticulture discovered when they […]