In Montana’s dying farm country, “vanguard agriculture” is putting people back to work on the land.
Also in this issue: Concerned citizens overflow a meeting in Delta, Colo., as a crucial deadline for protecting roadless areas in national forests nears.
Bipartisan uprising sinks public-lands selloff
A proposal to sell public lands landed in the trash can on Dec. 13, thanks to objections from Western senators — both Democrat and Republican. Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., and Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., had tried to overturn an 11-year moratorium on selling federal land to mining companies by attaching a proposal to House budget…
The Pictograph Murders
The Pictograph Murders P.G. Karamesines 352 pages, softcover: $21.95 Signature Books, 2004. P.G. Karamesines combines pot hunting, witchcraft, and murder in a chilling first novel set on an archaeological dig in southern Utah. A sinister stranger appears in the field camp; he models himself on Coyote, the legendary Indian trickster. When Alex McKelvey, an archaeology…
The Pombo petting zoo
I propose we designate the “Rich Pombo Memorial Arctic Petting Zoo.” Rep. Pombo should be given a sealskin coat and “invited” to dedicate the facility by hand-feeding the polar bears. Pombo has single-handedly voiced more schemes to eradicate what America truly stands for than any other person ever to sit in Congress (HCN, 10/17/05: Pombo…
Celebrating Denver’s future
Thank you for the superb article “Back on Track” by Allen Best (HCN, 11/14/05: Back on Track). I reluctantly moved from Denver two and a half years ago, at a time when we could be cautiously optimistic about Denver’s mass transit future. I have since followed developments in Denver, which, as Allen writes, are indeed…
Belief versus science
HCN’s recent cover story on the fate of the Anasazi was both mystical and informative — mystical because it was peppered with references to the imagination (HCN, 10/3/05: Out of the Four Corners). The article attributed archaeologist Susan Ryan with gaining a knowledge that “was too intimate and instinctual” to fit within the confines of…
Putting God in the equation
Your recent essay by Pepper Trail expresses great concern over the current evolution debate (HCN, 10/3/05: What’s at stake in the evolution debate). I agree that this is an extremely important issue, but for exactly opposite reasons. Trail lumps intelligent design theory together with creationism, which is misleading. Creationism is based on a literal interpretation…
Waiting for Santa Claus in Wyoming
A Republican lawmaker in Wyoming wants to give each resident a $2,000 rebate from our mineral wealth (HCN, 11/28/05: Gold from the Gas Fields). A good idea, but it will never happen because most politicians don’t give a rat’s ass about the people who need such a rebate. Wyoming coal production and delivery will be…
The Klamath’s true story
Your article on the Klamath Basin (HCN, 10/17/05: ‘Water bank’ drags river basin deeper into debt), leaves out the beginning of the story. Tule Lake once covered 100,000 acres in Northern California and southern Oregon. This natural body of water provided the tule reed that the Modoc people used for shelter, clothing, and boats for…
Wilderness access for all
Regarding your recent article on wheelchair access to wilderness, my mantra of inclusion is: Everyone is included, all people, all places, all ways (HCN, 12/12/05: Wheelchairs and wilderness can coexist). Wheelchair user access to the wilderness certainly fits. I hope Congressman Simpson is successful. Ed Rosenberg Cape May Court House, New Jersey This article appeared…
The Latest Bounce
So just who was it that helped the National Park Service rewrite its management policies? The agency has repeatedly said that “more than 100 key (Park Service) career professional staff” contributed to a controversial rewording of park guidelines in October to emphasize recreation over preservation (HCN, 11/14/05: Business booster still guides national park rules). But…
Politics, prejudice and predators
In his new book, Predatory Bureaucracy, conservationist Michael J. Robinson leads readers through the 120-year-history of the U.S. Biological Survey. When it began in the late 1800s, it was run by biologists mostly interested in studying stuffed birds. However, political pressure from cattle- and sheep-growers transformed the benign agency into a powerhouse dedicated to predator…
A natural and cultural history of the Rocky Mountains
The backbone of the West, the Great Divide, stretches some 1,100 rugged miles from Montana to New Mexico. It’s been the home of Native Americans, artists, miners, mountain men, preachers and charlatans, back-to-the-landers and trust funders. Each group has defined the landscape for its own purpose, leading author Gary Ferguson to conclude, “Hardly a story…
The Sum of our Past: Revisiting Pioneer Women
The Sum of our Past: Revisiting Pioneer Women Judy Busk 224 pages, hardcover: $32.95 Signature Books, 2004. Pioneer women are often portrayed as strong, brazen heroines or meek, conforming housewives. Author Judy Busk looks beyond the stereotypes to find the truth of these women’s lives in a book that’s part personal memoir, part historical research.…
Energy companies score massive refund checks
If forced to retract wilderness leases, the BLM could owe billions
Backcountry Ranger
Backcountry Ranger A Photo Essay (click through photos on slider above). This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Backcountry Ranger.
The ranch wife, reinvented
At the end of a long dusty road that bumps through Wyoming sage country, Twin Creek Ranch looks like a typical ranch. Outside a hand-hewn log building, turkeys and chickens peck at the ground; cattle graze on a nearby hillside, and ranch dogs guard a pack of goats. But it takes only one conversation with…
Heard around the West
UTAH Wasatch Brewery’s new Evolution Amber Ale packs humor on every label. Complete with a “Darwin Approved” seal, it shows a hunched-over ape at the dawn of mankind, then two other simian incarnations leading to the current version of Modern Naked Guy: He’s slugging down a bottle of beer with one hand and toting a…
Universities lag on organics
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “A New Green Revolution.” David Oien of Timeless Seeds has an immediate reaction when asked if the soils and agriculture departments at state universities have been helpful to organic farmers: “No!” “But then again, the average (conventional) wheat farmer would say the same thing,”…
Organics and biofuels bring independence
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “A New Green Revolution.” For years, conventional farmers and other naysayers could dismiss organic farming with a wave of the hand: too many man-hours, too much tilling to control weeds, too few markets. But because organic farming uses no petroleum-based fertilizers or pesticides, it…
A New Green Revolution
In Montana’s dying farm country, ‘vanguard agriculture’ puts people back on the land
Thanks to the farmers
At our Thanksgiving dinner table, we don’t thank God for the food. We thank the farmers. It started as a statement by my wife, Tara — a not-so-subtle hint to her parents that she puts her faith in a different place than they do theirs. But now it’s an important part of our holiday ritual,…
Dear friends
HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM HCN Thanks to all our friends and subscribers for attending HCN’s annual holiday open house on Dec. 7. Thanks also to those who brought a holiday treat. The HCN staff is taking a much-needed break for two weeks, to bake fruitcake, guzzle eggnog, and celebrate with family and friends. The next issue…
Roadless forest plans draw crowds — and lawsuits
As a crucial deadline approaches, Coloradans turn out to speak their minds
Scandal and war fracture conservative coalition
The wars in Vietnam and Iraq aren’t the same, of course, but there’s an eerie feeling of similarity between what happened in the early 1970s and what is happening now. Only this time, a conservative political coalition is crumbling, instead of a liberal one. In 1971, when I moved to rural Wallowa County in Oregon,…
A desperate move to protect cattle ranchers
Wyoming’s plan to kill suspect elk could become a ‘political disaster’
Where have all the rangers gone?
Forest Service tries to crack down on rogue off-roaders, but lacks staff to enforce rules