In southern Arizona, the Forest Service is debating whether to defy the 1872 Mining Law and stop a controversial copper mine.
Housing keeps getting tighter all the time
Moab resident feels development squeeze
A divine business
Montanan claims uncanny ability to locate water — and just about anything else
Hardrock Mining Showdown
For background on previous coverage and history on the 1872 mining law, read our Editor’s Note Geologist Jeff Cornoyer steers a Ford van over a rocky, rutted, winding dirt road, climbing the foothills of the Santa Rita Mountains on a toasty August morning. The desert here, about 30 miles southeast of Tucson, is dotted with…
Washington eco-saboteurs topple towers
Monkey-wrenching of radio station doesn’t last
Forest Service tackles Idaho bighorn problem
Efforts to protect wild sheep from disease gain momentum
Snapshot of an election
This article is a sidebar that accompanies the news story, Western elections wrap-up Alarm bells rang early this year when the Supreme Court lifted key restrictions on corporate political spending. The decision gave corporations and unions the right to spend unlimited amounts to explicitly campaign for or against candidates, and allowed independent interest groups to…
Sounds suspicious, Senator
I was disappointed with your article regarding Sen. Tom Coburn (HCN, 11/8/10). You allowed the subject to spew a series of incorrect, or irrelevant “statistics” and “facts.” In the future, please do some research, and correct these kinds of errors, rather than let people trot out falsehoods. Jim Evans Dept. of Geology, Utah State UniversityLogan,…
Tribute to a prickly icon
Matter Journal 13: Edward AbbeyVarious contributors432 pages, softcover: $17.Wolverine Farm Publishing, 2010. The problem with dead authors is that no more work will be forthcoming from them. Without new material to sink their teeth into, both fans and critics of Edward Abbey have long resorted to “secondary sources” — interviews with the curmudgeon’s friends, vintage…
Western elections wrap-up
Red states get redder, while key Senate seats stay blue
Dam removal is not for dummies
As a retired engineering geologist and self-styled “dam doctor” who had the honor of breaching a dam before Bruce Babbitt, I would like to add a few cautions to Nick Neely’s story (HCN, 11/8/10). Readers should not think it is simple. The upper-right graphic shows that there were plans developed for the removal of the…
In Tancredo’s corner
The mainstream media routinely distort the position of those opposed to illegal immigration. For example, the Oct. 25, 2010, issue of High Country News called Tom Tancredo, who lost the Colorado Governor’s race, “an anti-immigration rabble-rouser.” Actually Tom Tancredo — as well as the overwhelming majority of Americans — is not “anti-immigration,” but anti-illegal immigration.…
Lone shepherd on a distant promontory
From where I sit, I see a lone shepherd on a distant promontory, two trusty dogs at his side, a storm posting with all speed from the cold north as a rogue wolf works the edges of the band. The guard dogs, Great Pyrenees and Akbash, are not quite enough to beat off those wolves,…
Mining Reform: Deja vu again and again
This Editor’s Note accompanies the HCN feature story: Hardrock Mining Showdown. “Mining Reform May Hit Paydirt in 1993.” That was the headline of a story I wrote for High Country News following the election of President Bill Clinton and his appointment of the reform-minded Bruce Babbitt as Interior secretary to oversee the West’s federal lands.…
Not quite so SAD
Since at least 2004, sudden aspen decline, or SAD for short, has killed trees in five Western states in sweeping fashion. By 2008, in Colorado alone, more than a half million acres were afflicted. But after a few wet, cool years, the fatal phenomenon is finally relenting. “We’re pretty sure that the drought in 2002…
Rocky Mountain noir
The Long Slide Blair Oliver and Peter Soliunas 200 pages, softcover: $20. World Audience, Inc., 2010. The first collaboration from authors Peter Soliunas and Blair Oliver, The Long Slide is at once a pulpy romp across the Rockies and a mash note to the works of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. But where those authors…
Send us a letter, the sooner the better
Lately we’ve noticed that we haven’t been hearing from our readers as often as we used to. One of the best things about HCN is our sense of community, exemplified by your intelligent, thoughtful letters. We know you’ve got lots of opinions, ideas and reactions to stories to share — so please drop us a…