It’s hard not to feel for Mike and Chantell Sackett, the Idaho couple who in 2007 saw their plans for a dream home on a remote Idaho lake kiboshed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Last week, when their case against the agency became the first case of 2012 to go before the U.S. Supreme […]
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Genetically modified or no, farmed salmon a risky proposition
Get ready, folks: A genetically modified salmon, AquAdvantage, may soon be approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in U.S. commercial fish farming. That is, assuming that an opposition bill that made it halfway through Congress last session doesn’t derail the 15-year permitting process, and fierce opposition from environmental groups doesn’t convince the […]
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Amid scandal, a top Alaska wildlife official quits
Alaska’s politically-charged system of wildlife management — detailed in a 2011 HCN cover story — is looking disgraceful now. Corey Rossi — the controversial director of wildlife conservation, within the Alaska Department of Fish and Game — has been charged with 12 counts of violating hunting regulations. Rossi, 51, has resigned — and many of […]
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Friday news roundup: Mining ban and river otters
At the beginning of this week, I was ignorantly enjoying the warmth of “Juneuary”. By the end of the week, my revelry was repaid with a 6-degree morning that froze me to my bicycle. As the world turned and cooled, the poli-enviro reality show continued to unfold. So with due diligence from this frozen biker’s […]
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Renewables forecast: rainy with patchy sunshine
A few headlines last week celebrated the news that in the U.S. renewable energy production now surpasses nuclear energy production. The increase, however, is hardly coming from the solar panels adorning your roof. Conventional hydroelectric power still makes up the majority of renewable energy, as it has for decades. And, according to the National Hydropower […]
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Groundwater (mis)management
A few years ago, Easterday Ranches, one of the largest feedlot operators in the Northwest, began planning a new 30,000-head facility in eastern Washington’s Franklin County. Easterday purchased some water rights from a nearby farm entitling it to withdraw 282,106 gallons of groundwater per day, 58,921 of which could be used for drinking water for […]
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Ungulate roundup
As 2012 begins, the various native ungulate species of the West are getting transplanted to new turf – and thinned out by diseases on their home ranges. Here’s a roundup of recent news about bighorns, pronghorns, deer, elk and bison. In southern Colorado, recently-transplanted desert bighorn have joined forces with an existing bighorn band. In […]
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Waking up from the holiday food coma
If you were watching TV news over Christmas weekend, you likely saw weather forecasts mapping Santa’s position over the U.S., a few feel-good stories about hard-case animals finding happy homes, and a report or two about how on Dec. 26, gift-recipients thunder back into the malls to return what they got for what they REALLLY […]
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A tale of two wolf populations
The Minnesota State Fair is the Land of 10,000 Lakes’ great melting pot. Enthusiasm for the “great Minnesota get together” is, to an outsider, strangely universal. Minneapolis hipsters — who can rock skinny jeans and ironic, retro eyewear with the best of Brooklyn — relish the opportunity to gorge on fried food on a stick […]
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Insects — the neglected 99 percent
This December, the Xerces Society celebrated its 40th anniversary. Not bad for a group that champions the spineless. No, the Xerces Society isn’t a fraternity of bank executives or mortgage lenders. It’s a Portland, Oregon-based non-profit dedicated to the protection of invertebrates, animals that lack a physical (rather than metaphorical) backbone. Animals like earthworms, bumblebees, […]
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Coal: curbed but not crushed
updated Dec. 29, 2011 For many Christmases to come, we Westerners are likely to have coal in our stockings. Or at least in our power plants. About 45 percent of our electricity is produced by burning coal. And even if our own demand dropped drastically, China is an emerging market for Western coal. Nonetheless, several […]
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The circular logic of energy independence
“From its beginning 200 years ago, throughout its history, America has made great sacrifices of blood and also of treasure to achieve and maintain its independence. In the last third of this century, our independence will depend on maintaining and achieving self-sufficiency in energy.” President Richard Nixon said this back in 1973, after oil producers […]
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What Joe Arapaio’s legacy means
The Arizona sheriff’s shocking legacy should force change in the immigration debate.
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Friday news roundup: Prosperous and in Congress
Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo, is one of the wealthiest members of Congress. And she’s by far the wealthiest congressperson in her state, according to a recent report by WyoFile, the Wyoming-based investigative reporting network. Her net worth–between $5.5 million and $24 million–cast her as the 29th richest member of the U.S. House of Representatives, according […]
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The year in environmental news
There are only a few weeks till 2012, which means you are probably trying to shovel your way through the flurries of “year-in-review” summaries that tend to accumulate around this time. One that stands out is Vermont Law School’s Top 10 Environmental Watch List, the venerated law school’s yearly synthesis of the country’s most pressing […]
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A caribou rescue?
About a decade ago, I spent one lucky summer traipsing through the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge with six other young women. Towards the end of our trip, caribou began trickling through the valleys. ” ‘Bou!” we’d point and shout almost every time we glimpsed one. We knew what was coming: Thousands upon thousands would soon […]
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Autopsy of an Aspen
Cross-posted from The Last Word on Nothing. In the rural Rocky Mountains where I live, we disagree about a lot of things — politics, religion, water, Tim Tebow — but we all agree on aspen. We love them, especially when they turn blaze-yellow in the fall, and we’d like them to stick around. So in […]
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Oregon natural gas export terminal gets first approval
For onlookers watching the ongoing development of a proposed natural gas terminal in Coos Bay, Ore., it seemed a puzzling business strategy. Why would energy companies want to spend billions of dollars building a natural gas terminal and pipeline to import foreign gas when the domestic market was about to blow up? This September, the […]
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Friday News Roundup: Nuclear uncertainty
The American nuclear industry had some serious shade thrown its way in the wake of Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi power plant disaster. Almost a year later, U.S. nuclear still can’t seem to catch a break. On Wednesday, Gregory Jaczko, the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, announced that the agency will likely face delays in renewing […]
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Renting a riverbed
A land ownership case is in deep water, bringing property rights, public domain and commerce into question. The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in PPL Montana vs. Montana yesterday, in a fight over who owns title to riverbeds in the state. In 2010, the Montana Supreme Court ruled the state held title to land beneath […]