“Rants from the Hill” are Michael Branch’s monthly musings on life in the high country of Nevada’s western Great Basin desert. The hill from which I rant is good for many things: to hold our house up high into the teeth of the desert wind and generate an updraft on which harriers kite; to give […]
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Saving Montana’s trees, one ranch at a time
By Heather Hansen, Red Lodge Clearing House When forestry experts in Montana concluded last week that December’s cold snap did little to kill beetle larvae nestled under lodgepole and ponderosa pine bark, it was harsh news for those watching the ever-growing bands of reddish-brown beetle-killed forests across the West. It would take at least a […]
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New hope for old mines
By Heather Hansen, Red Lodge Clearing House For all their knowledge of the land, miners, whose legacy lives long in Colorado, had little thought of the long-term environmental consequences of their work. For over 150 years, coal, gold, silver, uranium, gypsum and limestone, among other resources, have been drilled, blasted and hauled from their hiding […]
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A Moment of Opportunity for Counties with Public Lands
By Mark Haggerty, 1-11-11 U.S. Agricultural Secretary Tom Vilsack just announced that this year’s “transition” payments to counties from the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act (SRS) will again “contribute to rural communities becoming self-sustaining and prosperous.” The Secretary stressed that these payments ($389 million) fund local roads and schools—important for communities still feeling […]
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Arizona shooting poses another threat to democracy
There’s already been ample commentary about the Jan. 8 horror in Tucson, Ariz. Six people, ranging from a 9-year-old girl to a federal judge, were killed, and 14 were wounded, among them Gabrielle Giffords, who represents that part of Arizona in the U.S. Congress. The suspect, 22-year-old Jared Loughner, was captured at the scene. Responses have […]
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Public transportation systems come at a high price
Last weekend the New York Times reported on efforts to develop a fast train from Los Angeles to San Francisco. Being a rider myself—I am writing this on the Cascades run south—and knowing how appealing European trains are and how outdated, inefficient, and unreliable North American trains are, I read the article with a sinking […]
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Klamath River clean-up takes a step forward
On January 4th the EPA announced that it had adopted a clean-up plan for the California portion of the Klamath River Basin. Known officially as a TMDL (an acronym for total maximum daily load, or the total amount of pollution a water body can handle in one day without exceeding legal limits), the clean-up plan […]
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Taking storms in stride
The Germans have a word for it: Schadenfreude. It means something like “joy in the sorrow of others.” And I confess that it sometimes strikes me. But that’s not quite how I felt after watching accounts of the big blizzard at the end of 2010 in the Northeast that paralyzed cities, disrupted transportation and stranded […]
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HCN reader photo – goats!
This week’s reader photo of foraging goats in Alpine, Wyoming, must have been a fun early Christmas present for photographer Daryl L. Hunter, who took it on Christmas Eve. Submit your photos to our Flickr pool; we post one a week.
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National Geographic and water lobbyists release advertorial
Editor’s note: David Zetland, a Western water economist, offers an insider’s perspective into water politics and economics. We will be cross-posting occasional posts and content from his blog, Aguanomics, here on the Range. A few weeks ago, water blogger aquadoc mentioned that the Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) was co-publishing a magazine with the […]
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Colorado ski industry wary of wolverine
By David Frey, 12-28-10 In October 1998, the Two Elk ski lodge atop the Vail ski area erupted in flames so big witnesses said it looked like a volcano. In the highly-publicized eco-terrorist attack, the secretive Earth Liberation Front struck against Vail Associates for its plan to expand the ski area into what was considered […]
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Tribal recognition
When President Obama recently announced that the U.S. would finally endorse the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UN DRIP), he was immediately heaped with effusive praise from tribal and human rights groups alike. There have been unrelenting references to the Crow Nation giving Obama the Indian name, “One Who Helps People […]
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When tumbleweeds quit tumbling
I’ve written before about the access issues of one of my favorite dog-walking routes before, and lately there’s been something new in the way: tumbleweeds. They’re three or four feet deep along about a hundred yards of the path. They arrived about a month ago, seemingly overnight. I’ve been walking the dog down there for […]
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Climate change’s threat to the wolverine
The word “imminent” conjures images of an onrushing tidal wave, something unstoppable and certain, an action or event on the verge of bursting into reality. The Dec. 13 decision that the wolverine was warranted but precluded for protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) hinged on a different definition of this word: to the US […]
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The start of the sesquicentennial
Dec. 20 marks the 150th anniversary of the adoption of the South Carolina Ordinance of Secession, which ignited the Civil War — and so this year, Dec. 20 starts the sesquicentennial observance. There were a few Civil War battles in the West — most notably at Glorietta Pass east of Santa Fe, where an invading […]
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Rants from the Hill: Walking to California
“Rants from the Hill” are Michael Branch’s monthly musings on life in the high country of Nevada’s western Great Basin desert. If you’ve ever driven I-5 through northern California and up into southern Oregon, you may have seen the memorable bumper sticker that Oregonians use to welcome their California neighbors over the state line: “Welcome […]
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Oh give us a home…
Sixty-three bison sit in limbo just outside Yellowstone National Park, waiting for a new place to call home. The Yellowstone bison are some of the only genetically pure bison remaining in the United States, a small remnant of the historic herds that thundered across the Great Plains by the millions just a few centuries ago. […]
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A loss to our heritage
As a history buff, I enjoyed reading the HCN article about the preservation of old missions in Arizona — until I got to the end, where I read that Don Garate had died on Sept. 21. I knew Don, though not well, thanks to our shared interest in Juan Bautista de Anza, a Spanish soldier […]
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Rediscovering the known
This may seem a “Shaggy Dog” story, and for that I apologize, but there’s no way to make my scholarly point without digressing into my past. The proximate reason is an announcement this week by the British Columbia Supreme Court requiring an investigative committee to release all information on sea lice infestations and disease outbreaks […]
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HCN reader photo – New Mexico moon
This week’s reader photo is simple, still, and lovely. It comes from HCN Flickr community contributor Justin Morris. Add your photo to our Flickr group too!