By Heather Hansen, Red Lodge Clearing House Imagine the nerve of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) suggesting that wild bison be managed with the use of wildlife management areas (WMA). That was the message they got last week at a meeting in Shelby, Mont., where local ranchers told an FWP representative that bison were […]
Range
Posted inRange
Enjoying the aspens despite what may come
For weeks I’ve looked forward to a short stay — working vacation, really – at my tiny cabin in southeastern Utah. September is a brutal, blazing hot month in the Phoenix area, made worse by frequent reminders in the news and elsewhere that nearly every other part of the U.S. is experiencing the beginning of […]
Posted inRange
It pays to be walkable
One of the things I like best about living in Salida, Colo., is that this town of 5,500 offers a good pedestrian environment with narrow streets and wide sidewalks though much of town, Although it’s not quite so easy as it used to be, we can still manage most of life’s routine commerce on foot. […]
Posted inRange
Breaching the Elwha dams: A time lapse video
By Alan Durning, Sightline.org My hobby this week has been watching the demolition of the two dams on the Elwha River via webcams. The long awaited dam removal is opening the pristine waters of the Elwha inside Olympic National Park to wild salmon for the first time in a century. I cobbled together video of […]
Posted inRange
Down with the “National Insecurity and Federal Lands Destruction Act”
By Heather Hansen, Red Lodge Clearing House Updated afternoon of 10/5/11 to reflect recent changes to the bill. I was cruising along the shoreline of Upper Waterton Lake a few years back, crossing from Canada to Goat Haunt, Montana. It was around the time of the sixth anniversary of 9/11 and, as we crossed the international […]
Posted inRange
Why rural communities deserve investment
By Chuck Hassebrook, the Daily Yonder We cannot build a strong nation on a foundation of crumbling communities. Even the sound elements are weakened by those not maintained. So it would be a mistake to write off rural communities and suspend federal investment in their future, as advocated by some in the September […]
Posted inRange
Feeling the wasteful weight of the electronics age
A university campus like the one where I work is a fine place to receive constant reminders of one’s age. For years, decades really, I paid no heed to older colleagues who complained that they had little in common with their undergraduate students. Now, however, I fully recognize that although I diligently work at keeping […]
Posted inRange
A tale of two maulings
Two headlines recently caught my eye: in eastern Idaho, a hunter after elk with archery gear was mauled by a grizzly bear. His partner turned the attack around with pepper spray, although the bear still inflicted serious injuries. Details here. Earlier in September, another hunter was mauled in northwestern Montana, by a grizzly he and […]
Posted inRange
Drilling in state parks is more pavement on the road to hell
By Heather Hansen, Red Lodge Clearing House My first year in college I had kitchen cleanup duty with a friend who enthusiastically splashed bleach and ammonia into a bucket while she was mopping the floors. Almost immediately, the toxic vapor had our heads swimming and our eyes burning. As the entire dorm was being evacuated I […]
Posted inRange
A journey through the “Era of Contraction”
I drove across the Northwest this past weekend. A 1,700-mile trip from Idaho to Seattle, returning via rural roads in Washington, and freeways in Idaho and Montana. Along the route I looked at places and wondered, how will life change during the Era of Contraction? The most visible sign of a federal West (the one […]
Posted inRange
Eating ethically: a tree-hugging former vegetarian learns to hunt
Cross-posted from The Last Word on Nothing. I don’t like guns. I’m almost universally opposed to killing things. So why then, did I spend a recent weekend learning how to handle a shotgun and rifle? What possessed me to take the hunter safety exam necessary for obtaining a hunting license? It began with a dead elk. […]
Posted inRange
Oil, gas, and the roadless rule: too complex for newspapers?
Editor’s note: Sharon Friedman blogs on forest policy at “A New Century of Forest Planning” and will be posting occasionally on the Range blog. As you all know, I think it’s really important that the public gets a chance to understand Forest Service (publicland, natural resource) issues so they can make informed choices. The problem […]
Posted inRange
Time to get serious about fun!
Now for some serious talk about fun. The world needs more fun. Lighten up. Grab a kid and a sack lunch and get outside. The backyard or the Brooks Range. It’s your duty, if you care about Mother Earth. Yes, write your Congressman. Yes, make that donation. Shop for organic, fairly traded, locally grown soy-burger […]
Posted inRange
Rants from the Hill: On the construction of a hillbilly cyborg
“Rants from the Hill” are Michael Branch’s monthly musings on life in the high country of Nevada’s western Great Basin desert. I’ve never liked cows one bit. I know they come off looking pretty good in Hollywood glamorizations of life on the trail, and they’re supposed to be cute when they appear in the form […]
Posted inRange
Billion dollar baby: Why the Flaming Gorge pipeline is bad for the West
By Heather Hansen, Red Lodge Clearing House A series of billboards were unveiled in western Colorado yesterday, opposing a proposed water pipeline. Overlaying the image of a desiccated river bed is the phrase, “This’ll only cost you $9 billion.” The placards were funded by some non-profits that are fighting the “Regional Watershed Supply Project,” which would […]
Posted inRange
The other Sept. 11 tragedy
Long before 2001, Sept. 11 marked the anniversary of a date when Americans going about their business were killed in cold blood by religious zealots. It was the Mountain Meadows Massacre of 1857 near Cedar City, Utah. Just about everything except the date and location remain subject to dispute. Mormons had been persecuted in […]
Posted inRange
Environmental privilege
By now most of us have heard of “environmental racism,” which involves actions like putting toxic facilities in minority neighborhoods. The opposite, “environmental privilege” is explored in a book due out this month, The Slums of Aspen, Immigrants vs. the Environment in America’s Eden by David Pellow and Lisa Sun-Hee Park, both professors of sociology […]
Posted inRange
Mega myths of the Keystone XL pipeline
By Heather Hansen, Red Lodge Clearing House Among hundreds of protestors who spent three days in jail in Washington D.C. for publicly opposing the Keystone XL pipeline, a 1,700-mile-long conduit planned to carry crude oil from Canada’s tar sands to Gulf Coast refineries, was Bill McKibben, author and founder of 350.org. When he was released from the […]
Posted inRange
This is your brain on climate change
By Anne Fahey, Sightline.org Remember those old anti-drug television commercials with an egg sizzling in a frying pan? Here’s a new twist: This is your brain. This is your brain on climate change. I’ve written before that with or without multimillion dollar campaigns to discredit climate science (and scientists), our brains don’t seem very well equipped to fathom the scope […]
Posted inRange
Beware of wolves cloaked in “access”
America’s national forests and our fish and wildlife belong to everyone. Americans rightfully demand access to this national birthright. Access is like oxygen for hunters and anglers. But beware. Industry barracudas are trying to hoodwink sportsmen into supporting bad legislation by promising “access.” Take HR 1581, the Wilderness and Roadless Release Act. It’s sponsored by […]