Since 2009, an area the size of Kansas has been converted to crops.
Peter Carrels
Posted inArticles
How the West nurtured eco-minded agriculture
The ranchers of the Western Plains’ shortgrass prairie started a movement to find a less destructive way to farm.
Posted inArticles
Big Ag stands on shifting ground
Between 2006 and 2011, farmers on the western edge of the Midwest’s farm belt in Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota and the Dakotas converted more than 1.3 million acres of grasslands to corn and soybean fields. Some people were seriously alarmed. Wildlife habitat was destroyed, and water, soil and the air itself suffered. But that conversion of […]
Posted inWotr
How long do we wait for clean coal?
When Joe the Plumber donned a baseball cap displaying the words “Clean Coal” last fall, he may not have known it, but he was participating in a public relations effort sponsored by the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity. So far, that campaign has been a smashing success. The phrase “Clean Coal” was chanted over […]
Posted inOctober 13, 2008: Back to the future
Readers weigh in on HCN’s redesign
Bravo. The latest issue looks terrific. HCN is always a great read, and your efforts to improve its look over the years are applauded. Peter CarrelsAberdeen, South Dakota *** I really appreciate the changes you have made to the “magazine.” As a former publisher myself, I know it is always a balance between cost and […]
Posted inWotr
Going backwards: building an oil refinery in South Dakota
In South Dakota, politicians and business leaders are cheering a massive oil refinery planned for the state’s southeast corner. If built, it will be the first oil refinery constructed in the United States in more than 30 years. There are, of course, good reasons why oil refineries aren’t being built anymore. In South Dakota, however […]
Posted inNovember 8, 1999: A new road for the public lands
On the Missouri, the middle grounds gets soggy
Only a decade ago, animosity between states in the Missouri River’s upper and lower basins was out of control. If the states weren’t suing each other over Missouri River flows, they were attacking the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for that agency’s management of the river system. South Dakota Gov. William Janklow grumbled that the […]
Posted inOctober 16, 1995: In the heart of the New West, the sheep win one
South Dakota pulls plug on Missouri River meetings
Blaming a bureaucratic process that has dragged on for too long without progress, South Dakota officials have withdrawn their state from the Missouri River Basin Association. Nettie Myers, secretary of the state’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources, said, “It seems like we have the same meetings over and over, and nothing is accomplished.” The […]
Posted inMarch 12, 1991: Missouri: a river basin at war
Missouri: a river basin at war
A four-year drought has humbled the Missouri River and plunged its 10 basin states into a sour quarrel with one another and the Army Corps of Engineers, the river’s federal boss. Download entire issue to view this article: http://country-survey-collabs.info/issues/23.4/download-entire-issue%3C/p%3E
Posted inSeptember 10, 1990: Dumps 'R' Us
Railroad plans garbage express
When a persistent real estate agent arranged for Alonzo and Robert Rogers to sell 1,200 acres of the southwestern South Dakota ranch, the bachelor brothers had no idea their land was part of a plan to build a massive garbage dump serving faraway cities. Download entire issue to view this article: http://country-survey-collabs.info/issues/22.17/download-entire-issue%3C/p%3E
Posted inJune 5, 1989: Forester challenges his agency to a discussion
Fighting over the Missouri’s big buckets
The drought of 1987 and 1988 has sent water levels on Missouri River reservoirs plummeting toward record lows, intensifying conflicts between upper and lower basin states over river and reservoir management and water allocations. Download entire issue to view this article: http://country-survey-collabs.info/issues/21.11/download-entire-issue%3C/p%3E
Posted inMay 22, 1989: The charring of Wyoming
Biff! Pow! Bang! Three initiatives lose to big money
Last November, environmental activists waging underfinanced ballon initiative campaigns in South Dakota, Montana and Nebraska took beatings from well-funded experts. Download entire issue to view this article: http://country-survey-collabs.info/issues/21.10/download-entire-issue%3C/p%3E
Posted inMarch 13, 1989: Synthetic Fuels Revisited, Part II
Syngas plant survives the ’80s
With contracts that insulate it from low energy prices, the Great Plains coal gasification plant in Beulah, N.D., endures as a relic of the federal government’s 1970s syn-fuels fascination. Download entire issue to view this article: http://country-survey-collabs.info/issues/21.5/download-entire-issue%3C/p%3E
Posted inAugust 1, 1988: City slickers strike it rich in South Dakota
City slickers strike it rich in South Dakota
A plan to invigorate the state’s economy by taking sewage ash from the Twin Cities backfires. Download entire issue to view this article: http://country-survey-collabs.info/issues/20.14/download-entire-issue%3C/p%3E
Posted inApril 25, 1988: Ecotage versus infiltrage: A tale of two environmental strategies
Court tells Bureau of Reclamation to stick to irrigation
The Interior Department has suffered a setback to its plans for a greater role in marketing Missouri River reservoir water. Download entire issue to view this article: http://country-survey-collabs.info/issues/20.8/download-entire-issue%3C/p%3E
Posted inFebruary 15, 1988: South Dakota Sioux demand the Black Hills
South Dakota Sioux demand the Black Hills
Their hope for the future rests on the fact that the U.S. government took their land by imposing a fraudulent treaty on them in 1877 — the same year that Crazy Horse was killed by a bayonet-wielding soldier. Download entire issue to view this article: http://country-survey-collabs.info/issues/20.3/download-entire-issue%3C/p%3E
Posted inAugust 31, 1987: Range war in South Dakota
Range war in South Dakota
Ranchers and the Forest Service butt heads over management of South Dakota’s national grasslands. Download entire issue to view this article: http://country-survey-collabs.info/issues/19.16/download-entire-issue%3C/p%3E
Posted inApril 13, 1987: Heap leach mining comes to South Dakota
Heap leach mining comes to South Dakota
Wharf Resources’s open pits, roads, parking lots, heap leach piles, holding ponds and refinery are a vast, complex earth-moving enterprise in the Black Hills. Download entire issue to view this article: http://country-survey-collabs.info/issues/19.7/download-entire-issue%3C/p%3E
Posted inNovember 24, 1986: The two-party system is back
South Dakota: Reagan’s farm policy leads to a defeat
In a U.S. Senate contest, Democrat Tom Daschle wins after hammering on his opponent’s support of Reagan’s farm policies. Download entire issue to view this article: http://country-survey-collabs.info/issues/18.22/download-entire-issue%3C/p%3E
Posted inOctober 27, 1986: The Missouri River: In Search of Destiny
‘The most useless river there is’
Today, the Missouri River has been transformed, but residents of the northern plains still struggle with the question of how to use its water. Download entire issue to view this article: http://country-survey-collabs.info/issues/18.20/download-entire-issue%3C/p%3E