At the 10-year anniversary of William Reilly’s veto of Colorado’s proposed Two Forks dam, the continuing growth of Denver’s sprawling suburbs leads some to worry that the dam might well be brought back to life.
Enough is enough
Dear HCN, Early in the 1990s, I was among a chartered busload of residents who traveled to Denver to attend a Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission meeting. It was an enlightening experience to learn that residents had no standing to speak or participate in any way at this meeting. But the volume of people…
Get your gun right
Dear HCN, The firearm Don Barnett holds in your photo on page 8 in the Oct. 9 issue of HCN, on the Mexican-U.S. border, is not a machine gun. Such an error does us all a disservice by needlessly inflaming the already emotional issues of Second Amendment rights and illegal immigration. The latter you have…
‘Honest markers’ still miss the mark
Dear HCN, I appreciate your essay about the need for historically accurate monuments and markers across the West (HCN, 9/25/00: Truth-telling needs a home in the West). Someone who is very eloquent on this issue is James Loewen, who wrote Lies Across America: What Our Historic Markers and Monuments Get Wrong. Unfortunately, the marker which…
The latest bounce
President Clinton has done it again. On Nov. 10, he created the 293,000-acre Vermilion Cliffs National Monument near the Grand Canyon in Arizona, bringing the tally of new monuments to 10. Clinton also expanded Idaho’s Craters of the Moon National Monument by 661,000 acres. Last-minute politicking by Colorado politicians ensured $5 million from Congress to…
Life was never fair
Dear HCN, I just read the article “The West has a bad hand” by Jon Margolis (HCN, 10/23/00: In presidential politics, the West has a bad hand), where he stated that “Life is not fair …” is generally attributed to John F. Kennedy. Not exactly. No doubt it was said at some earlier time (perhaps…
Anchors away?
NATION Hoping to end a 10-year stalemate over whether permanent climbing anchors should be allowed in wilderness areas, the Forest Service assembled a committee of rock climbers, wilderness advocates, government officials and recreation-industry representatives to advise it on a rule (HCN, 8/17/98: Forest Service pulls anchor ban out of thin air). Thus far, the committee…
On the phone, on the Rez
NEW MEXICO On weekends, thousands of Navajos leave their homes on the reservation and go shopping. Many of them end up at Wal-Mart in Gallup. They buy detergent and paper towels, and increasingly, cellular phones. Wireless phones are selling like hotcakes among residents of the Navajo Nation, which sprawls over parts of Arizona, New Mexico…
We need illegal immigrants
Dear HCN, Your story on the Mexican-American border described in intimate detail the life of an illegal trying to cross, but we are not addressing the root cause of the problem (HCN, 10/9/00: The hunters and the hunted: The Arizona-Mexico border turns into the 21st century frontier). We think the solution to this problem is…
Vigilante and the law profit at the border
Dear HCN, Having lived in a remote area of Cochise County, eight miles from the Mexican border, I found Susan Zakin’s article, “The Hunters and the Hunted,” to be an accurate and well-balanced examination of a very serious problem (HCN, 10/9/00: The hunters and the hunted: The Arizona-Mexico border turns into the 21st century frontier).…
Inflammatory reporting doesn’t help anybody
Dear HCN, I read with some puzzlement your edition of Sept. 25, in which you applaud the use of propane-powered buses in Zion National Park, then promptly deride the natural gas industry, the source of that propane. I’ve always respected the High Country News for what I thought was balanced, in-depth reporting on contentious environmental…
Voters pummel planning, ban new elk farms
In an election full of murky results, at least two decisions were definitive. The region’s twin growth-control initiatives, Colorado’s Amendment 24 and Arizona’s Proposition 202 (HCN, 10/23/00: Colorado’s growth amendment rouses voters) were both defeated by more than 2-1 margins. Proponents of the initiatives blame the loss on relentless – and occasionally inaccurate – media…
Hear that whistle blowin’
A modern-day railroad baron stakes a claim in an ambivalent town
A desert state axes water planning
The Nevada Division of Water Planning meets an untimely demise
From nuclear fuel to nature trails
Oregon wants to turn an ex-nuclear power plant into a state park
‘The world would be different if not for the veto’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Hamlet “Chips” Barry has been head of the Denver Water Department since 1991. Despite his name, he has acted forcefully to change the behavior of the once-autocratic Denver Water Department. Chips Barry: “One of the problems with the approach the Two Forks proponents took…
‘Where is the metro area going to get its water?’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Dick Lamm, governor of Colorado from 1974 to 1986, became well-known nationally for his gloomy forecasts of the future. Dick Lamm: “Ultimately, the metro area is an integral whole when it comes to water. Where is the metro area going to get its water…
‘The suburbs have some bad choices’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Eric Kuhn is head of the Colorado River Water Conservation District, in charge of protecting western Colorado’s water interests in the Colorado River Basin. Eric Kuhn: “I think Reilly did Denver a favor. They can focus on their needs. They have a well-thought-out approach…
Heard around the West
Tired of basting and babysitting that big bird for Thanksgiving? Why not try SPAM, the pressed pink concoction that does not signify, as rumor has it, “something posing as meat.” No, SPAM is smooshed pork shoulder and ham in a can along with sugar, salt, water and sodium nitrate, reports the Santa Fe New Mexican.…
Old West guns down growth initiatives
Well, so much for the great land-use greening of 2000. Colorado and Arizona’s bold citizen initiatives to toughen their states’ growth-management rules both went down in flames. Colorado’s Amendment 24 rode high all summer, but support for the proposed constitutional amendment to require towns to map future growth and obtain voter approval for changes fell…
In Arizona’s growth fight, advertising defined reality
The television ad showed a truck unloading a port-a-potty in the desert, while a family of four stood by with forlorn faces. A voice-over warned that if Arizona’s growth-control initiative passed, a family wouldn’t be able to get water or sewer for a new home outside the boundaries. As a youth walked into the port-a-potty,…
Water pressure
A valiant veto defeated Two Forks Dam; will Denver’s sprawl bring it back?
David Brower: Remembering the Archdruid
I was 20 years old and an undergraduate wildlife biology student when I first heard David R. Brower deliver “The Sermon” at the University of Colorado. I had come to Boulder to hear the famous Archdruid, whom I had only known through Sierra Club books and magazine articles before. I knew him by reputation as…
A ‘most improbable scenerio’ has come to pass
Am I some kind of a smart guy? Loyal readers may recall that I recently pointed out on these pages that even in very close elections one candidate always piled up a pretty hefty majority in the Electoral College, rendering the votes of any one state meaningless in the great scheme of things (HCN, 10/23/00:…