Colorado citizens voted last November to increase their state’s reliance on power from the wind and sun, but King Coal still rules the state, and the White House seems determined to keep it on the throne.
Also in this issue: Utah has finally convinced the Department of Energy to move the Atlas uranium mine tailings pile from its site just north of Moab, where the tailings are leaking into the Colorado River.
Advocates aren’t citizens, says Watson
I was surprised to learn in Assistant Interior Secretary Rebecca Watson’s response to High Country News that I am not a citizen because I am involved in environmental advocacy groups (HCN, 2/21/05: HCN has it wrong on Bush). Watson writes, “Furthermore, the term, ‘citizen-proposed wilderness’ belies the very kind of truth to which you attach…
A little leg-pulling
The April Fool’s page was delicious (HCN: 4/4/05: The last happy agency biologist — and other April Foolery). Just sneaky enough that it took a couple of minutes to feel my leg being pulled. Bill Kent Moab, Utah This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline A little leg-pulling.
Climbers not just ‘rock jocks’
Thank you for covering the recent controversy over the potential devastation of Oak Flats, a popular bouldering and camping area just outside of Phoenix (HCN, 4/4/05: Rock jocks fight a mining company). But I am increasingly frustrated with High Country News and its staff for portraying climbers in a condescending manner. This is the third…
Ski snow won’t be yellow on San Francisco Peaks
I was disappointed to read the advisory that we keep our eyes peeled for yellow snow on the ski slopes because the Coconino National Forest has approved the use of treated wastewater for snowmaking at the Arizona Snowbowl ski area (HCN, 3/21/05: Arizona returns to the desert). Statements like these perpetuate misunderstandings about reclaimed water.…
Wild horses harm ecosystems
Regarding “You want fries with that mustang?” (HCN, 4/4/05: You want fries with that mustang?): I’ve worked in the Mojave Desert of California and in eastern Oregon, and in both areas, one could find “wild” horses, “wild” burros and cattle. What these animals all have in common are the following: 1) They are not native,…
Buyouts doom private lands
Thank you for the recent story and comments on grazing buyouts. We were especially taken by Executive Director Paul Larmer’s evocative description of the seasonality of grazing in the Paonia area, with its blend of low-elevation private lands, where cows have their calves, and its high-elevation public lands, where cows summer. Paul’s delightful soliloquy of…
Follow-up
The Montana Legislature approved a bill requiring the state’s utilities to buy 15 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2015. The green-power initiative was part of the campaign platform of Gov. Brian Schweitzer, D, who took office this January (HCN, 11/22/04: Election Day surprises in the schizophrenic West). Montana is the 19th state…
Down — but far from out — in Drummond
In the early 1950s, the town of Drummond, Mont., boasted busy bus and railroad stations, 11 bars, three grocery stores and 14 gas stations. Now, you can count what’s left on one hand. The ranching families that persist are resilient and dogged, and this book of large-format black-and-white photographs with accompanying interviews grows on you:…
Getting smarter about energy use
Despite the fact that energy affects every facet of our lives — from the price of fruit to the wars we wage — most Americans give nary a thought to the topic. “People tend not to focus on energy in their lives, workplaces and decisions — they leave it to the experts,” says Howard Geller,…
Wilderness wallows in rural county
After months of considering whether to support the creation of a Badlands Wilderness about 20 miles east of Bend, Ore., the Deschutes County Board of Commissioners voted 3-0 in late March to do nothing, effectively leaving the proposal in limbo. It could have been worse, says commission chair Tom DeWolf. “They can take solace in…
Serafina’s Stories
Serafina’s Stories Rudolfo Anaya 202 pages, hardcover $22.95. University of New Mexico Press, 2004. Set in Santa Fe in 1680, this tale from Rudolfo Anaya is a treat. Night after night, Serafina, a 15-year old Pueblo woman, enchants the Spanish Governor with stories to free her fellow prisoners accused of plotting an insurrection. Serafina’s stories…
On the Colorado, a grand experiment meets Mother Nature
“It’s really hard to kill fish with water,” says Joe Shannon, a professor of aquatic ecology with Northern Arizona University. But a recent experiment intended to help native fish in the Colorado River might have done just that. In November, officials from the Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center released a 90-hour flood from Glen…
The River Has Never Divided Us: A Border History of La Junta de los Rios
The River Has Never Divided Us: A Border History of La Junta de los Rios Jefferson Morgenthaler 368 pages, softcover $22.95. University of Texas Press, 2004. The Rio Grande and Rio Conchos meet to form La Junta de los Rios, a basin along the U.S.-Mexico border where the cast of characters includes farmers, shepherds, Border…
Bears and bull trout may block mine
A controversial silver and copper mine that would have tunneled under the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness Area may have just been shafted. U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy ruled on March 28 that construction of the Rock Creek Mine on the edge of the northwestern Montana wilderness area would further jeopardize threatened populations of grizzly bear and…
The Mountains Know Arizona
The Mountains Know Arizona Text by Rose Houk, photographs by Michael Collier 272 pages, hardcover $49.95. Arizona Highways Books, 2003. If you can tear yourself away from the spectacular photos — including some mind-numbing aerial shots (see page 14) — to read the accompanying words, you will be rewarded. In this chunky coffee-table book, Houk…
Oil and gas opponents will have to move faster
The Bureau of Land Management is shortening the amount of time that citizens and environmental groups in Wyoming and Utah will have to protest oil and gas lease sales, and is in the process of formulating a new nationwide policy for such protests. In Wyoming, the BLM posts notices of which parcels will be leased…
For this logger, twisted trees are the future
In a corner of his airy shop near Silver City, N.M., Gordon West is working out the kinks in Southwestern forestry. In a small way, of course: Everything he does is intended to work in a small way. West, a middle-aged logger, woodworker and builder, is testing a long metal machine that resembles an overgrown…
Heard around the West
WYOMING Cheyenne Frontier Days can get rowdy, but rowdy doesn’t begin to describe what rodeo contestant Neal Daniel did in a bar last July: He got into a fight he still can’t remember and stabbed a rival seven times. But after a judge recently ordered Daniel to pay the victim $32,000 in restitution, Daniel, a…
Blades, birds and bats: Wind energy and wildlife not a cut-and-dried issue
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “The Winds of Change.” If you think wind energy is a good alternative to fossil fuels, but you also care about wildlife, you’ve probably worried about the possible “lawnmower” effect of spinning wind turbines on birds and bats. At least some of that concern…
Renewable Energy Standards: How do states match up?
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “The Winds of Change.” Arizona — Adopted in 200. Utilities must generate 1.1 percent of electricity from renewable energy by 2007; 60 percent of the 1.1 percent must be from solar. California — Adopted in 2002. 20 percent by 2017 for investor-owned utilities. Colorado…
The revolution will not be televised
In a speech before the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in April, President George W. Bush told a story about talking to troops in Texas who were concerned about the rising cost of gasoline. Bush explained that he had no “magic wand” to reduce gas prices, but he hinted that his energy plan, which he…
Dear friends
ANIMAL PLANET Here in Paonia, we’ve been having various critter adventures. JoAnn Kalenak, our production assistant, recently adopted a beagle named Darcy. In mid-March, though, the dog disappeared while chasing rabbits. Three weeks later, a neighbor called to say that Darcy had been vacationing at her farm a few miles away the entire time. Meanwhile,…
Colorado River kisses a toxic mess good-bye
A 12 million-ton relic of the Cold War willget hauled away from Moab
So-called ‘peace treaty’ won’t save the Rio Grande
HCN’s story, “Peace breaks out on the Rio Grande,” suggests that the agreement between environmentalists and Albuquerque marked an end to wrangling over water in the Middle Rio Grande (HCN, 3/21/05: Peace breaks out on the Rio Grande). Don’t we wish. For reasons best understood by the city of Albuquerque, two separate legal proceedings are…
Backbreaking work props up ‘sustainable’ crops
Organic farmers lead the fight against new worker protections
As threats loom, conservation dollars disappear
Feds back away from buying sensitive land
The devil made us do it
A recent proposal to change the name of Devils Tower National Monument has fallen through. But even if it had succeeded, Old Nick would have kept a prominent place in the landscape of the West. Monument Supervisor Lisa Eckert had suggested adding the name “Bear Lodge” to the site. That came at the request of…
The Winds of Change
With the White House seeking to more than double the number of power plants, the best hope for a clean energy future lies in local communities