It would be a blessing if it were possible to study garbage in the abstract, to study garbage without having to handle it physically. But that is not possible. Garbage is not mathematics. To understand garbage you have to touch it, to feel it , to sort it, to smell it. You have to pick […]
Michelle Nijhuis
Michelle Nijhuis is a contributing editor of HCN and the author of Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction. Follow @nijhuism.
Posted inOctober 8, 2001: Whoa! Canada!
The Latest Bounce
Amid the national uproar after the Sept. 11 attacks, the California Public Utilities Commission quietly voted to end its experiment in electricity deregulation. In a 3-to-2 vote on Sept. 20, the commission closed down its “direct access” policy, which had allowed consumers to choose their own power providers (HCN, 1/29/01: Power on the loose). Direct […]
Posted inOctober 8, 2001: Whoa! Canada!
Tony and the Cows
There is little doubt that conflict over environmental issues will intensify under the twin pressures of population and aspiration. It also seems likely that much of this conflict will involve public lands – those lonely, semi-arid basins and ranges where the cattle roam. From Tony and the Cowsby Will Baker In 1995, journalist and former […]
Posted inSeptember 10, 2001: The rise and fall of a desert stream
The Latest Bounce
The Bureau of Land Management may soon have a new boss. President Bush has nominated Kathleen Clarke, the director of the Utah Department of Natural Resources, to oversee management of the 264 million acres of BLM land. Though Clarke has maintained a low profile in her current job, local environmentalists criticize her handling of the […]
Posted inAugust 27, 2001: Restoring the range of light
The Latest Bounce
Cara might yet become the girl she used to be (HCN, 11/6/00: CARA’s not quite the girl she used to be). Last year, Congress whittled the $3 billion Conservation and Reinvestment Act, or CARA, down to a $1.6 billion appropriation in the Interior budget. Now, a resuscitated CARA has been approved by the House Resources […]
Posted inAugust 27, 2001: Restoring the range of light
Fire plan gets a scolding
NATION The $1.6 billion National Fire Plan, approved by Congress last September, promised a cooperative, interagency approach to fire management (HCN, 9/25/00: Fires bring on a flood of federal funds). But the government’s in-house watchdog says that promise is far from fulfilled. In his testimony before a House subcommittee on July 31, General Accounting Office […]
Posted inAugust 13, 2001: No refuge in the Klamath Basin
The Latest Bounce
The Forest Service’s fire czar has big plans. On July 23, National Fire Plan Coordinator Lyle Laverty told the Missoulian that his agency cannot “let nature take its course.” Though the National Fire Plan was initially touted as an effort to thin overgrown forests near towns and homes, Laverty said the Forest Service needs to […]
Posted inJuly 30, 2001: Not in our back yard
Bush fails to defend roadless rule
The roadless rule for national forest lands is still alive – but it’s caught in a legal and bureaucratic labyrinth. On July 9, the Bush administration missed the deadline to appeal a decision by U.S. District Court Judge Edward Lodge. The Idaho judge had blocked the roadless rule with a preliminary injunction in May, citing […]
Posted inJuly 30, 2001: Not in our back yard
This land might be your land
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. State trust land may have a single purpose, but each state has a different way of doing business. Most Western states lease trust land for logging and grazing, and many states have huge subsurface holdings that earn millions from mineral development. A few states […]
Posted inJuly 30, 2001: Not in our back yard
Not in our backyard
Arizona activists find common ground on state lands
Posted inJune 4, 2001: Tribal links
The Latest Bounce
Vermont Sen. James Jeffords’ defection from the Republican Party was costly for Western Republicans. Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah lost his chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee; Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico stepped down as budget chairman; and Sen. John McCain of Arizona lost his top seat on the Commerce Committee. Western Democrats now […]
Posted inJune 4, 2001: Tribal links
A sand-brown world
… and the tourists in the curio shop not knowing what to say for once in their lives, but feeling the ground rolling beneath them, experience something most of them won’t see in a lifetime, up on the shelf the kachina dolls, those little gods of beneficence who’ve stood there so long they’re mad about […]
Posted inJune 4, 2001: Tribal links
Energy plan eyes the Rockies
Land managers and environmentalists wait for the details
Posted inMay 21, 2001: Quenching the big thirst
Finding home
We were all outside watching the sunset from the casita, which had a high view of the city. From there, the “big picture” was not abstract. It was real, tangible, visible – we could just make out the Burger King sign towering beyond the border fence. The sun was blood red, and then the whole […]
Posted inApril 23, 2001: The Big Blowup
Roadless rule hits the skids
The mood was unusually agreeable at a recent federal court hearing on the Clinton administration’s roadless area conservation rule for national forest lands. In Boise, Idaho, on March 30, Judge Edward Lodge heard arguments against the rule from the State of Idaho, timber company Boise Cascade, and other plaintiffs. Then he turned to the government […]
Posted inApril 9, 2001: The water empress of Vegas
The latest bounce
Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck resigned on March 27, citing differences with the Bush administration’s environmental policies. In a letter to new Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, he urged her to “withstand political pressure” and uphold the roadless initiative (HCN, 1/29/01: Roadless plan slides to safety). He also called for stronger protection of old-growth forests, increased […]
Posted inMarch 12, 2001: Divided Waters
The latest bounce
Many Western cities and states spent last year’s election season fighting about growth (HCN, 10/23/00: Colorado’s growth amendment rouses voters). Now, a recent study has assessed the damage. The Brookings Institution report says that citizens in 38 states and hundreds of cities, towns and counties voted on 553 growth-related measures, and close to three-quarters of […]
Posted inMarch 12, 2001: Divided Waters
The other Mexico
Certainly the press, other governments and tourists are most aware of the official, elite, corrupt Mexico; the Mexico that won’t allow a poor man a chance; the Mexico behind the sunglasses. I’ve even been told by people, including Mexicans, that this is Mexican culture. But I know that’s not true. There is another Mexico. — […]
Posted inMarch 12, 2001: Divided Waters
Keeping ranchers’ options open
Among his fellow New Mexico ranchers, Sid Goodloe is known as a contrarian (HCN, 4/15/96: Raising a ranch from the dead). His newest project, the Southern Rockies Agricultural Land Trust, is keeping that reputation intact. Goodloe hopes to convince his neighbors that conservation easements – voluntary legal agreements that prohibit development of private land – […]
Posted inMarch 12, 2001: Divided Waters
Dear Friends
Divided waters Our lead story on the lower Rio Grande started out as a class project. Writer Megan Lardner, a graduate student in journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, traveled to El Paso and Ciudad Juarez as part of her class with freelance writer and radio producer Sandy Tolan. During his semester as a […]