Despite wildfires smoldering across the West in recent weeks (outside of Denver, in Southern California, and near Arizona’s Kitt Peak Observatory), one Colorado town is backing off on wildfire protection. Breckenridge, Colo., a mountain resort town about 80 miles southwest of Denver, this week revoked an ordinance requiring homeowners to thin vegetation and remove trees […]
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The latest buzz
It’s been more than two years since HCN reported on the West’s disappearing honeybees (see “Silence of the Bees”). Since then, parasitic mites and a mysterious syndrome called colony collapse disorder have killed off thousands more hives. Honeybees pollinate 80 percent of the fruits and vegetables we eat, and many wild species essential to ecosystems. […]
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Population: 6.9 billion and counting
Last week New York Times reporter Andrew C. Revkin — one of few U.S. journalists following the population issue — wrote a short blog about China’s recent about-face on population policy. After decades of mandating a one-child limit, China is now urging “eligible” couples (those who are only children themselves) to have a second baby. […]
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Princes and paupers
California state parks learned their fate yesterday when the Governator finally got around to signing the state budget. He didn’t wield quite the large knife he’d (creepily) threatened to, cutting only $14.2 million from the parks’ budget—drastically less than the $143 million he’d earlier proposed. Here’s what Elizabeth Goldstein of the California State Parks Foundations […]
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Social justice hits the road
For three months, Chloe Noble and Jill Hardman have been living out of backpacks and sleeping on the streets of Seattle, Portland and San Francisco. They walk miles every day, and depend on the kindness of strangers. These women aren’t actually homeless — but they very well could be. Noble and Hardman are the creators […]
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Honoring the forgotten
Today the remains of three African-American soldiers will be buried at Santa Fe National Cemetery, more than 130 years after their deaths. Army Pvts. David Ford, Levi Morris and Thomas Smith were among the famous “Buffalo Soldiers,” African-American men who served in the military during the Civil War and later guarded the farthest reaches of […]
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End of an exodus?
As the debate rages on over border fence construction and the environmental and population impacts of immigration, a report released yesterday by the Pew Hispanic Center showed a marked decrease in Mexican migrants entering the U.S. Migration rates into the U.S. from Mexico dropped almost 40 percent between 2006 and 2009, while migration back to […]
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Uranium tangle, two years later
It’s all about the water. More to the point, it’s about Jackie Adolph’s belief that everyone in Colorado has a right to clean water. “Why would we not?” she asked. Since 2007, Adolph and fellow members of Coloradoans Against Resource Destruction, or CARD, have been doggedly defending that right, which they say is endangered by […]
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Twilight bites into Forks
Forks, Wash., just isn’t what it used to be. I have fond memories of the once-sleepy little town. When I was a child, my family would camp out on the Pacific Coast and then make a leisurely stop in Forks to eat and shower. Restaurants like Sully’s Drive-In and the Smokehouse have been around forever. […]
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Navajo Nation passes green jobs legislation, 62-1
Some 50 Navajos — including elders and youth and those in-between — donned green shirts today and filled the chambers of the Navajo Nation Council to promote legislation designed to transform the reservation’s mineral and fossil fuel-based economy into a sustainable, community-based, green system. The show of support paid off: The Council passed the legislation […]
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A dismal future for tourism?
Back in 1997, I ventured to Boulder for a conference about tourism put on by the Center of the American West. Easily the most provocative speaker was the late Hal Rothman, professor of history at the University of Las Vegas. It’s easy to bash Vegas as a greedy place of contrived attractions, he […]
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Fossil Creek fracas
A few hours northeast of the 110-degree concrete jungle of Phoenix, Ariz., a powerful, cool creek courses through a lush oasis, creating blue-green swimming pools and dramatic waterfalls for campers and day-hikers. But lack of funding for a Forest Service management plan has allowed Fossil Creek to become a refuge for drug and alcohol use, […]
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WOPR goes down in flames
In a development applauded by environmental interests and even some Oregon politicians, the US Department of Interior announced on July 16th that it would withdraw the proposed Western Oregon Plan Revisions (WOPR) because it “is legally indefensible.” The WOPR was part of a suite of efforts by the Bush Administration to weaken protections for the […]
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A dam marvel
Hundreds of feet above the Black Canyon’s raging Colorado River, the longest concrete arch in the Western Hemisphere is almost complete. In a month workers will finish construction on the arch support of the Hoover Dam Bypass bridge, open to the public in fall 2010. The new 4-lane bridge, on Highway 93, will replace the […]
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Wild horses gone wild
In 1971, Congress made the iconic status of wild horses a matter of law. That year they declared “that wild free-roaming horses and burros are living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West …” Wild horses “enrich” our lives, they continued, and “are fast disappearing from the American scene.” Today, not so […]
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“Organic mecca” organizes against GMO sugar beets
The Boulder Daily Camera calls them “organic industry heavyweights.” And they’re out to make sure Boulder County Commissioners disallow the request of six area farmers to grow Roundup Ready sugar beets on open space land. Not because of the scientific and economic arguments against GMOs — enumerated later — but because it may besmirch the […]
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Not out of the woods
History is rife with artists who were underappreciated in their time: Vincent van Gogh, Johann Sebastian Bach, Emily Dickinson, etc. Christo and Jeanne-Claude, whose elaborate outdoor art installations include “The Gates” in Central Park and “The Umbrellas” in California and Japan, are not those kind of artists. While their works are usually met with some kind […]
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Numbers for the Birds
My experience with bird-watching is generally limited to trying to answer the question of “What did the cat leave in the yard this time?” And sometimes I’ve pulled over to watch eagles eating roadkill. But I do not recall ever driving out of my way to see a pelican or a ptarmigan. […]
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Food fight
Who knew ordering a steak dinner could be so political? The American food industry is undergoing some major policy changes, challenging ranchers and farmers across the West. Oregon cattle ranchers are struggling to deal with the recession, increasingly health-conscious consumers, and environmental concerns about land use . Fears over food safety have led to a […]
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NW Renewables: Infrastructure needed
By Sharon Fisher, NewWest.Net Guest Writer, 7-14-09 The Northwest—Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana—is arguably the riches region of the United States for renewable energy resources such as geothermal, hydro, wind, and solar, said Paul Manson, president of Seabreeze Power Corp., speaking at the Pacific Northwest Economic Region conference today (with a windmill pin on his […]