My neighbor feeds deer. He says he’s actually feeding birds so that his disabled wife and her pre-teen daughter can enjoy watching them. But when he tosses chunks of stale white bread out in his front yard, it’s not just crows, ravens and starlings that come to call. (And why anyone would think it was […]
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A moral issue confronts industrial farmers
Did you know that Nebraska is being invaded by “terrorists” and “conspiracists?” Perhaps the kindest descriptive noun some unnerved Nebraskans are using these days is “extremists.” Brace yourself: The terrorists and extremists in question are various organizations and people who care about the welfare of farm animals, led by the Humane Society of the United […]
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Saying good-bye to the ranch
All my childhood memories take me back to my family’s guest ranch in a remote area of northwest Colorado. Without this place, what would I have to remember? There are the good memories of riding through uncut hay meadows and racing toy boats down our backyard stream, all set beneath the looming peaks of the […]
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On the road, again and again
Last weekend my husband and I drove 300 miles, round-trip, to watch two of our young granddaughters compete in a giant slalom event at the nearest ski area. It was a typical trip. We arose at 5:30 a.m. in order to arrive in time to watch the girls carve down the intimidating run in 49 […]
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A fresh focus on frack attacks
A widely reprinted AP story recently broke the stunning news that the energy industry doesn’t like “fracking.” They like fracking itself — injecting water, chemicals and sand into wells to break hydrocarbons free of tight rock formations. What they hate is the word: Fracking sounds just plain nasty. “It’s Madison Avenue hell,” says Dave McMurdy, […]
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A conversation I look forward to having with the NRA
“Hello, Mr. Wray. This is John from the National Rifle Association. How are you doing tonight?” “Fine, thanks.” “Mr. Wray, as a Life Member of the NRA, I know you are concerned with our right to bear arms. Are you aware of Obama’s under-the-radar effort to destroy our Second Amendment rights?” “You mean President Obama?” […]
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Our nuclear legacy should have taught us something
Here in Moab, Utah, where we can watch railcars carry off the radioactive uranium waste that was stored right next to the Colorado River, many locals are steeling themselves for the return of yet more uranium to their lives. During the Cold War, Moab was called the uranium capital of the world, as the element […]
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Some politicians turn public lands into a political football
As presidential candidates crisscross the country — even dropping in on a few Western states — some have been making revealing comments about the vast public lands that help to define the American West. For instance, former Gov. Mitt Romney said, “I don’t know why the government owns so much of this land.” In the […]
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This is a winter of snowy owls
It took only two hours for me to reach the apparent miracle that was occurring near Flathead Lake in Polson, Mont.: Snowy owls had turned up here after flying all the way from the Arctic, and everybody in the town of about 4,000 seemed to know about it. I’d never seen these spectacular, two-foot-tall birds, […]
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It’s time 23,000 elk got off the dole
In western Wyoming, feeding elk seems as normal as long winters, Grand Teton views and oil and gas wells. But of the 1 million elk that now roam North America, only 3 percent are fed by government employees, and three-fourths of those animals are fed in Wyoming at the National Elk Refuge in Jackson Hole, […]
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West to East, and a world away
A few months ago, after 20 years, I moved from the West to the East, reluctantly, carting a truckload of artifacts and memories, literal stones and actual stories, each one a product of the forests, mountains or deserts of Bend, Ore., Missoula, Mont., Argenta, British Columbia, Canada, and beyond. My little 4-cylinder truck labored under […]
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When an avalanche comes calling
On Jan. 24, an avalanche raced down the slopes of Mount Taylor, a 10,352-foot peak in Wyoming’s Teton Range. You might think this is hardly worth mentioning, since thousands of avalanches scour mountainsides in the West each winter. The Mount Taylor avalanche, however, has launched a flurry of debate in the world of backcountry skiing […]
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Nothing to lose but your leash
On a gorgeous sunny morning at a cross-country ski area on the California-Nevada border, the parking lot was full. So why was I the only one skiing while marveling at the deep blue waters of Lake Tahoe? The hut at the end of the trail sat lonely in the sun, waiting for skiers. Had everyone […]
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The education of an oyster farmer
My brother, Adam, and I grew up working summers on our family’s oyster farm on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. In between a few epic mud fights, we picked oysters, dug clams and learned a lot about the tides, hard work and the proper use of sunscreen. But when we took over managing the farm five years […]
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Your trash is my treasure
It’s garbage day as the new year moves along, and the streets of Crested Butte in western Colorado are lined with black plastic bags filled with kitchen gadgets, coffee pots and designer bedding. Last year’s unwanted items sit abandoned at the curb to make way for this year’s must-haves. You can tell a lot about […]
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Pity the Sacketts? Not much
It’s hard not to feel for Mike and Chantell Sackett, the Idaho couple who saw their plans for a dream home on a remote Idaho lake kiboshed by the EPA in 2007. In early January, when their case against the federal agency went before the U.S. Supreme Court, their lawyer, Damien Schiff, told a story […]
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Feeding the deer
I live in a California mountain town that’s perched on a ridge that ascends toward the higher Sierras. The place was initially called Dogtown, and it boasts the distinction of being the site where California’s biggest-ever gold nugget was found. The town was supposed to be called “Magnolia,” but the poor spelling and/or penmanship of […]
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Let the EPA finish its work in Pavillion, Wyoming
Over the last few weeks, the gas industry and their advocates have gone to great lengths to refute the Environmental Protection Agency’s draft report about the effects on groundwater of hydraulic fracturing – fracking — for gas in Pavillion, Wyo. In case you missed the story, on Dec. 8 the EPA released “confirmation of highly […]
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An Obama-Huntsman ticket would get my vote
Here’s a dramatic way we might break through the partisan gridlock and mutual demonization that dominate our politics these days: President Barack Obama, the top Democrat, should ditch his vice president, Joe Biden, and recruit a reasonable Western Republican — Jon Meade Huntsman Jr. — as a running mate. As unlikely as it sounds, there’s […]
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Getting a ski pass the hard way
With others to the left and right of me, we’re on the job, stamping our feet backward down an icy slope of manmade snow recently sprayed into the air by the Aspen Skiing Company. The slope drops off steeply for about 100 yards before ending in a brush-choked gully, and I’m about to get to […]