LIND, Washington — In New Mexico, people tend to sort themselves by red and green, based on the kind of chile they prefer to eat. On the wheat farms of eastern Washington, folks divide into red and green camps, too. But here, they do it according to the kinds of combines — the giant machines […]
Matt Jenkins
Posted inJuly 24, 2006: Taking Liberties
A world built on groundwater
The entire West is headed for a much drier future. Ogallala Blue provides a good sense of the bleak realities of a life of scarcity. Author William Ashworth focuses on the Great Plains states, which have for decades thwarted a notorious lack of rain by reaching into the massive Ogallala Aquifer. Today, those states grow […]
Posted inJune 12, 2006: The Perpetual Growth Machine
Making room for wolves
What do you get when you ask 50 people — only a handful of whom have actually ever seen a wolf — to write about new ways to “think about (wolves), imagine them, and welcome them home”? There are the inevitable odes to friendly wolf-dogs, and some wild stuff about kids suckled by volcanoes. But […]
Posted inJune 12, 2006: The Perpetual Growth Machine
The Perpetual Growth Machine
Arizona sets out to disprove the notion that someday the West will run out of water
Posted inApril 17, 2006: The War on Wildfire
Norton eases road claims
In a parting gesture last month, outgoing Interior Secretary Gale Norton opened the door for counties and states to claim control of roads crossing federal lands managed by her department. Revised Statute 2477, enacted in 1866, allowed states and counties to construct highways across public land (HCN, 12/20/04: The road to nowhere). Although the act was […]
Posted inApril 3, 2006: Land of Disenchantment
Pipeline and dam dreams
A new dam for Utah’s urban Wasatch Front and a pipeline for the fast-growing city of St. George got a boost in February, when the state Legislature approved a bill directing about $8 million a year to “preconstruction” work on the projects. The money, from state sales and use tax, will fund environmental studies and […]
Posted inApril 3, 2006: Land of Disenchantment
The Latest Bounce
A week after U.S. Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton announced her resignation, Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner John Keys announced that he will resign on April 15. The 34-year veteran of the Bureau says he’s ready to spend more time with his family in Moab, Utah. Both resignations come at a critical time, as the […]
Posted inApril 3, 2006: Land of Disenchantment
Columbia River dams revived
Tribes get shut out of new plan touted as good for fish
Posted inMarch 20, 2006: Town Shopping
The Latest Bounce
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has abandoned an internal investigation into its decision not to regulate hydraulic fracturing (HCN, 12/20/04: Conscientious Objectors). In 2004, the EPA said “frac’ing fluid,” an often-toxic mix of chemicals used in natural gas drilling that can contaminate underground drinking-water supplies, should be exempt from the Clean Water Act. But an […]
Posted inMarch 6, 2006: Save Our Snow
The Latest Bounce
Rural Nevadans may ask for a little federal help in an epic water fight. Las Vegas is moving forward with a controversial plan to pump groundwater from beneath the Great Basin (HCN, 9/19/05: Squeezing Water from a Stone). Now, some citizens in rural White Pine County are looking to curtail that plan by asking their […]
Posted inMarch 6, 2006: Save Our Snow
Wilderness: The new anti-nuclear weapon
On Jan. 6, President Bush signed into law the first new Utah wilderness area since 1984 — and made it a little harder for nuclear power plant operators to ship radioactive waste to a nearby Indian reservation. The new Cedar Mountain Wilderness protects some 100,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management land about 45 miles […]
Posted inMarch 6, 2006: Save Our Snow
Taking the law into their own hands
Citizens are wielding an obscure legal weapon to fight energy company profiteering
Posted inFebruary 20, 2006: High Noon for Habitat
Colorado River states reach landmark agreement
In severe drought, farms could become cities’ life support systems
Posted inFebruary 6, 2006: The Killing Fields
The Latest Bounce
Pete McCloskey, the 78-year-old former Republican Congressman who helped write the 1974 Endangered Species Act, does not take kindly to having his handiwork messed with. So he’s rented a house in the district of Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., and is planning to run — as a Republican — against the anti-environmental crusader this November (HCN, […]
Posted inFebruary 6, 2006: The Killing Fields
Trouble in the Delta
A water peace effort in California falls apart at the worst possible moment
Posted inJanuary 23, 2006: Timberlands up for grabs
The Latest Bounce
In late December, crews moved five boulders with numerous prehistoric petroglyphs out of the path of a controversial road being built on the edge of Albuquerque (HCN, 6/27/05: Suburbia blasts through a national monument). The road, which cuts through Petroglyph National Monument, was touted as a way to alleviate traffic congestion on the city’s fast-growing […]
Posted inDecember 26, 2005: A New Green Revolution
Roadless forest plans draw crowds — and lawsuits
As a crucial deadline approaches, Coloradans turn out to speak their minds
Posted inDecember 26, 2005: A New Green Revolution
Energy companies score massive refund checks
If forced to retract wilderness leases, the BLM could owe billions
Posted inDecember 12, 2005: The Final Energy Frontier
The Final Energy Frontier
The end of the oil and gas age is in sight. But a rough and wild ride still lies ahead.
Posted inDecember 12, 2005: The Final Energy Frontier
Tapping into energy’s fringe
As companies drill for ‘unconventional’ natural gas, environmental impacts mount