An extensive look at nuclear waste whistleblowers of ages past, what it means that rural communities get the short end of the stick with internet access, changes in the wilderness therapy industry, and more.
Wilderness therapy redefines itself
But the irresponsible caregivers and tragedies of the past prove hard to shake.
The Hanford Whistleblowers
For decades, insiders have reported problems in the cleanup of our worst nuclear mess — but is anyone listening?
An ode to snow
Laura Pritchett on the joy of snow.
The great Flathead fish fiasco
State and tribes disagree over how to tackle an exotic species’ takeover of a Montana lake.
The Latest: EPA released a final assessment of Pebble Mine impacts
BackstoryThe proposed Pebble Mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region could yield $300 billion in copper, gold and molybdenum, but also harm the world’s largest sockeye salmon runs, a vibrant fishing industry and some of North America’s last salmon-based cultures (“Worst place for a major mine?” HCN, 11/25/13). In 2010, nine Native tribes asked the U.S.…
A new cowboy reality show, city dwellers encounter peregrine falcons and a snowboarder harasses a moose
THE WESTWatch out, ranching families, a “docu-reality” television company wants to cast you in a new series, but only if your personalities can be described as “dynamic, engaging and uninhibited.” Tim Marema, whose blog, AgricultureProud, helped spread the word, found much of the producers’ concept laughable, especially the requirement that “All members of the family…
The Latest: Yellowstone bison get no vaccination or additional grazing land
BackstoryYellowstone National Park’s bison have long been prisoners, hazed back to the park or slaughtered whenever they head for lower winter range. That’s because half the herd tests positive for exposure to brucellosis, an abortion-causing disease that ranchers fear will spread to cattle (although outbreaks around Yellowstone have been traced to elk). In 2011, however,…
This is a man’s world
Ballistics: A NovelD.W. Wilson400 pages, hardcover: $26.Bloomsbury, 2013. Nestled in British Columbia’s remote Kootenay Valley, the town of Invermere is a place where “sons take after their dads and teenagers in lift-kit trucks catch air off train tracks … burn shipping flats at the gravel pits and slurp homebrew that swims with wood ether.” Here,…
Drought brings new dust storms to the geographic heart of the Dust Bowl
A dust storm hit, an’ it hit like thunder;It dusted us over, an’ it covered us under;Blocked out the traffic an’ blocked out the sun,Straight for home all the people did run… That’s how folksinger Woody Guthrie described the walls of airborne earth that rolled across the Texas Panhandle during the drought-ravaged 1930s. But he…
What do a biker bar and nuclear waste have in common?
This editor’s note accompanies the HCN magazine cover story headlined: “The Hanford whistleblowers.” — I made one of my first forays into investigative journalism back in 1982, when I was working for the Arizona Daily Star. A police raid on a Tucson biker bar had degenerated into disaster: When the cops burst in to arrest…
HCN welcomes new interns
We’re delighted that stellar intern Krista Langlois is staying for another six months as our latest editorial fellow. And two new interns have arrived for a half-year of journalism boot camp. Christi Turner isn’t just thrilled to be out West – she’s pleased to be back in the United States. A Rhode Island native who…
Public-land users and abusers
I own property that borders several thousand acres of national forest, and with my neighbors control the area’s access road (“Public land, locked up,” HCN, 12/9/13). These public lands are used for grazing and for recreation. We allow public access, but are also aware that the public is basically clueless when it comes to land…
Put your trash bags where your mouth is
As an avid outdoor user, I have contributed many hours to helping the Bureau of Land Management clean up the numerous “poor man” shooting areas on lands near our community (“Guns, politics and saguaros,” HCN, 12/9/13). With a crew of volunteers, we can fill a 20-foot container in a morning, only to return to fresh trash…
Putting blue gums in their place
Your article on the invasive Tasmanian blue gum on the California coast was well-written and carefully researched (“Beauty or Beast?” HCN, 12/23/13). However, it fell into a common journalistic trap: “A says this; on the other hand, B says this.” This journalistic “fairness” doesn’t illuminate the subject. I am smitten by the genus Eucalyptus. I traveled to Australia in…
Review: A Russian American Photographer in Tlingit Country: Vincent Soboleff in Alaska
A Russian American Photographer in Tlingit Country: Vincent Soboleff in AlaskaSergei Kan, 288 pages, hardcover: $39.95, University of Oklahoma Press, 2013 In A Russian American Photographer in Tlingit Country: Vincent Soboleff in Alaska, ethnologist Sergei Kan brings 137 century-old images to light. Taken between 1890 and 1920 by amateur photographer Vincent Soboleff, they portray Tlingit…
Rural Americans have inferior Internet access
Does it matter that broadband quality varies so widely?
Storm and stress on the frontier
Crossing PurgatoryGary Schanbacher292 pages, hardcover: $25.95.Pegasus Books, 2013. Thompson Grey abandons his Indiana farm in 1858 and joins a caravan of pioneers trekking west along the Santa Fe Trail in Gary Schanbacher’s accomplished new novel. Crossing Purgatory is a moral Western that questions what any decent human being owes another amid the harsh conditions of…
Tax carbon, save trees
Thanks for the excellent research and report on “The Tree Coroners” (HCN, 12/9/13). We cannot continue to base our energy policies on fairy tales. It is time to put a carbon tax on oil, coal and natural gas to gradually reduce investment in these dangerous, polluting fuels. With revenue from the tax returned to households,…
Location matters in the war on lake trout
Lake trout aren’t just found in low-elevation lakes with large recreational fisheries, like Montana’s Flathead Lake. For more than two decades, they have thrived in the crystalline, icy waters of Yellowstone Lake, in the heart of Yellowstone National Park. Biologists believe someone introduced lake trout to Yellowstone Lake back in the 1980s. Since then, the…
Touring Hanford
How you can sign up to take a tour of the Hanford Site, one of the most polluted places on the planet.