Here are my three picks for the best in summer reading: 1. Walter Echo-Hawk’s In the Courts of the Conquerors: The Ten Worst Indian Law Cases Ever Decided. 2. Roberta Ulrich’s American Indian Nations from Termination to Restoration, 1953-2006. 3. Alison Owings’ Indian Voices: Listening to Native Americans. Echo-Hawk’s book ought to retire the entire […]
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Judge halts Montana megaload shipments
By New West Editor In what appears to be a major victory for those fighting the transport of oversized oil refinery equipment through Idaho and Montana to the Kearl Oil Sands in Canada, a judge has ruled that the Montana Department of Transportation is in violation of the law and issued a preliminary injunction. The […]
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The climate impact of coal exports
By Eric de Place, Sightline.org This post is part of the research project: The Dirt on Coal One of the nation’s most respected resource economists, Dr. Thomas M. Power, just released a new white paper showing that coal exports to China will increase that country’s coal burning and pollution, and decrease investments in energy efficiency. […]
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Rants from the Hill: The Hills are Alive
“Rants from the Hill” are Michael Branch’s monthly musings on life in the high country of Nevada’s western Great Basin desert. From a very early age I’ve held the deep and unwavering conviction that musicals–especially movie musicals–represent the most intolerable and misguided aesthetic form in the checkered history of human civilization. In addition to being […]
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If polluting was a criminal offense, would it happen as much?
By Heather Hansen, Red Lodge Clearing House Whenever I hear the term oil “spill” — which seems too often lately — I cringe. Not just because the environment has taken another one on the chin, but because it makes the incident sounds like a tipped glass of milk that can be mopped up with a napkin. […]
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You don’t live in the Twitterverse
Cross-posted from The Last Word on Nothing. He surely didn’t know it, but journalist David Dobbs recently put his finger on a problem that’s been bugging me for some time. Writing in his Wired blog, Dobbs made the observation that, In my own life, many if not most of my most vital social connections — […]
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Clean coal still mostly a dream
By Paige Huntoon, Guest Writer at NewWest.net ABOUT THIS SERIES: Students from The University of Montana School of Journalism, with the help of American Public Media’s Public Insight Network, reported and wrote stories for New West on the energy economy of the Rocky Mountain region. The project originated as part of the Green Thread initiative […]
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It’s getting hot out here
By Heather Hansen, Red Lodge Clearing House The numbers are in and—it’s official—our new “normal” is warmer. Starting this month, when a day is declared colder, snowier or hotter than usual, it won’t mean what it used to. Up to this point, the U.S. Climate Normals have encompassed a three-decade period from 1971 to 2000. A […]
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Rural counties dying off
By Kenneth Johnson, the Daily Yonder Editor’s Note: Kenneth Johnson, a demographer at The Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire, has published a study of natural decreases in U.S. communities. The full study can be found here. Below are excerpts from Johnson’s report. Carsey Institute. Data from Census Bureau and National Center for […]
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An idea of Eden
I’ve been lucky enough to spend the past several days in paradise, which for me is the rough, unforgiving backcountry to southeastern Utah. Everyone has their own idea of Eden, shaped by individual as well as cultural ideals. These can shift and evolve due to circumstance, inclination, and, sometimes, tragedy. I haven’t always appreciated pinyon/juniper/sagebrush […]
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Out of their mines
By Heather Hansen, Red Lodge Clearing House In a narrow canyon, not far above where I live in Boulder, is the old, abandoned Captain Jack Mill. In its heyday in the late 19th century, gold and silver were processed there, after being blasted from their hiding places in several area mines. Nowadays, contaminants from those efforts, including […]
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SEC Loosening of Rule Let Natural Gas Firms Recalculate Reserves, Potential Profits
Marian Wang, ProPublica Editor’s note: This blog post was originally published at ProPublica, an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest. Natural gas has been widely promoted across the political spectrum as a key to solving U.S. energy problems. “The potential for natural gas is enormous,” President Obama said recently, referencing […]
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With Heavy Government Help, Solar Continues Expansion in West
By Michael Beall, Guest Writer at NewWest.net ABOUT THIS SERIES: Students from The University of Montana School of Journalism, with the help of American Public Media’s Public Insight Network, reported and wrote stories for New West on the energy economy of the Rocky Mountain region. The project originated as part of the Green Thread initiative […]
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Throw away the old playbook
Idaho’s Bannock County is considering an ordinance that would create an “overlay” zoning district on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation. The idea is that the county would “serve” non-Indians who live on the reservation, while the tribes would then be limited to zoning its own members. This is a script from an old playbook. Basically, […]
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To Drill or Not to Drill is Not the Only Question
By Anne Fahey, Sightline.org This post is part of the research project: Word on the Street A while back I wrote about how public opinion data are informed in great part by how survey questions are framed. Nothing shocking there. I used the American public’s increasing support for offshore drilling as an example. It turned out […]
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Portland’s water managers need to grow up
Editor’s note: David Zetland, is a senior water economist at Wageningen University in the Netherlands who trained in California. We cross-post occasional content from his blog, Aguanomics, here on the Range. “Apparently the “End of Abundance” hasn’t hit Portland yet,” says HG in the email that brought me this story: For the administrator of the […]
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How Bark-Beetle Infestations Could Intensify Spring Runoff
By Matthew H. Davis As the spring runoff leaves behind a trail of destruction in parts of the the northern Rockies, a new University of Colorado study points to how beetle-infested trees—which have affected more than 4 million acres in Colorado and southern Wyoming alone—could lead to deeper snowpack and speed up snowmelt in the […]
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Montana has West’s least-populated counties
Recently I had occasion to write about a proposed 65th county for Colorado, and observed that California, with seven times as many people and half again as much area, manages with a mere 58 counties. I also speculated that Iowa might be America’s leader in “counties per capita,” since it had 99 counties for about […]
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Rants from the Hill: Lucy the Desert Cat
Among my most sulfurous and vitriolic Rants–those far too profane to grace this page–are those inspired by my family’s housecat, Lucy. Those of you who follow these Rants know that I live in wild country, at high elevation, with terrible weather, and surrounded by a spate of voracious predators of every stripe. This is hardly […]
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Peak and Ecological Flows in Oregon
As western states face proposals to divert and allocate the last available surface water – winter and wet season water – a debate is raging over how much of that water must be left instream to keep our rivers and their tributaries ecologically dynamic and alive. The recognition that rivers need “peak flows” is a […]