You may have seen news photos of the massive, shaggy beasts that are a national totem, standing more or less complacently while hunters approach. Easy as one, two, three, the animals come crashing down. It’s an outrageous sight, but strangely acceptable — the first hunting of Yellowstone National Park bison in 15 years. The last […]
Ray Ring
Posted inFebruary 6, 2006: The Killing Fields
Time for a little outrage
Outrage is a risky emotion. It tends to carry people over the cliff of acceptable behavior, sometimes into acts of destructive extremism. Yet some of our best conservation writers, like John Muir and Rachel Carson, have tapped their heartfelt outrage over the abuse of nature and created literature that inspires the rest of us to […]
Posted inFebruary 6, 2006: The Killing Fields
Tiny stream invaders may harm Western trout
Researchers tackle a problem likely to be spread by hatcheries and anglers
Posted inJanuary 23, 2006: Timberlands up for grabs
Forest Service shuts down ‘three old geezers’
Eighty-year-old retiree Stewart Brandborg wouldn’t appear threatening to most people in his hometown, Hamilton. Brandborg’s father, Guy, ran the Bitterroot National Forest, headquartered in the town, from 1935 to 1955. Brandborg’s own career included stints with the Forest Service and national conservation groups. But when Brandborg tried to attend a forest press conference in Hamilton […]
Posted inDecember 26, 2005: A New Green Revolution
Bipartisan uprising sinks public-lands selloff
A proposal to sell public lands landed in the trash can on Dec. 13, thanks to objections from Western senators — both Democrat and Republican. Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., and Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., had tried to overturn an 11-year moratorium on selling federal land to mining companies by attaching a proposal to House budget […]
Posted inNovember 28, 2005: Gold from the Gas Fields
Gold from the Gas Fields
As energy companies reap billions from the region’s energy reserves, some Westerners question whether enough of the wealth is staying home
Posted inNovember 28, 2005: Gold from the Gas Fields
Energy companies plow some profits back into Western ground
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Gold from the Gas Fields.” As he sat in his Houston office on Nov. 10, Raymond Plank, the chairman of Apache Corporation, tracked news reports about the Washington, D.C., hearing, in which members of the U.S. Senate scolded five of his fellow oil-company executives. […]
Posted inOctober 31, 2005: The Public Lands' Big Cash Crop
Oil and gas drilling clouds the West’s air
Energy industry’s air pollution increasing
Posted inOctober 17, 2005: The Ghosts of Yosemite
Handling griz: How much is enough?
At least 5 percent of the West’s grizzly bears should wear radio collars, researchers say
Posted inOctober 3, 2005: Out of the Four Corners
Strange bedfellows make a grazing deal in Idaho
And influential Sen. Larry Craig is odd man out
Posted inAugust 8, 2005: The Gangs of Zion
Horn hunters face hard times
For centuries, Asian men have consumed powdered antlers to try to boost their sexual performance, a tradition that’s helped fuel today’s demand for deer and elk antlers. Recently, though, the rising popularity of Viagra has “just about finished off” the Asian market, says Mike Aldrich, of Pinedale, Wyo., who buys and sells antlers. But more […]
Posted inJuly 25, 2005: The Many Faces of Richard Pombo
As Washington waffles, Western states go green
Legislatures boost wildlife and clean energy, while bucking the nuclear and oil industries
Posted inJune 27, 2005: Reflections on a Divided Land
Dear friends
SUMMER BREAK This will be the last issue of HCN that you’ll receive for a month. The staff is taking an issue off to spend time with family and friends and enjoy the sunny Paonia summer. Look for the next issue to hit your mailbox around July 25th. CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS We’d like to make […]
Posted inMay 30, 2005: Write-off on the Range
Write-off on the Range
Wielding conservation’s most powerful tool, Reid Rosenthal walks a fine line between helping the land and serving his wealthy clients.
Posted inMay 30, 2005: Write-off on the Range
How to Examine Conservation Easements
How to learn more about conservation easements and land trusts in your area
Posted inMay 30, 2005: Write-off on the Range
Congress looks to reform a system with no steering wheel
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Write-off on the Range.” When a congressional think tank proposed overhauling the tax rules surrounding conservation easements in January, it hit private-land conservationists like a thunderbolt. As part of its 435-page report on reforming many aspects of the federal tax system, the Joint Committee […]
Posted inMay 30, 2005: Write-off on the Range
Colorado tax credits make easements work for working people
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Write-off on the Range.” Colorado farmers Dorothy and Norman Kehmeier have raised more than $500,000 in cash, simply by donating conservation easements on about 200 acres of their land. And they’d like other landowners to hear about it. “It’s wonderful,” Dorothy Kehmeier says. She’s […]
Posted inMarch 21, 2005: An Empire Built on Sand
Biohazard lab takes shape
A huge construction crane towers over a corner of the National Institutes of Health’s Rocky Mountain Laboratories campus in Hamilton, a small town south of Missoula. As the crane slings buckets of concrete, a $66.5 million building takes shape. It’s part of the federal government’s ominous-sounding Project BioShield. In locations ranging from Texas to Massachusetts, […]
Posted inMarch 7, 2005: Anarchy in the Gas Fields
Tribe close to sharing federal bison refuge
Unless Congress derails a deal that took years to negotiate, on March 15, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes will take over 10 of the 19 jobs at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Bison Range Complex. And the tribes will begin sharing management of 26,000 federal acres north of Missoula, where hundreds of […]
Posted inMarch 7, 2005: Anarchy in the Gas Fields
Small tribe in Idaho weighs big water deal
Nez Perce will decide whether a $193 million package does enough for salmon