It takes a long time to find a curved-tusk mammoth, especially if it’s been obscured beneath tamarisk, oak brush and tenacious Russian olive bushes. I’d heard stories about mammoths once roaming the land that’s now San Juan County in southeastern Utah, but a beast from the Pleistocene is hard to locate on rock cliffs and […]
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A big win for democracy in Big Sky country – for now
Toward the end of the robber-baron era of the 19th century, the U.S. Senate took the extraordinary action of denying a seat to mining titan W. A. Clark. The senators had determined that Clark bribed Montana’s state legislators to get the Senate appointment. Outrage over the incident contributed to passage of the 17th Amendment, which […]
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Fixing what ain’t broken in Foggy Bottom
There may be many distinguishing features of the current U.S. House of Representatives, but one that sticks out recently is the tendency to do things that don’t need to be done. First, keep in mind that Lisa Jackson, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, has made it clear on several occasions that the EPA has […]
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Resolutions for living smarter in 2012
I can’t say that if you try to do everything on this list you’ll win a gold star, but you will definitely save money, feel virtuous and lose weight. It’s a tough-love list of resolutions that work: Cook: Preservative-laden fast food costs more and makes you fatter. Bake bread: Simple, cheap and cheering. Eat local: […]
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Go take it off the mountain
When they emerge from the trees while cruising down a popular run at Montana’s Whitefish Mountain Resort, skiers suddenly encounter the back of a life-size statue of Jesus Christ. Clad in a flowing blue robe, the statue’s arms stretch toward the Flathead Valley below. It has been here for over half a century — a […]
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Las Vegas needs to let the market decide where the water goes
The famous slogan, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas,” once assured visitors that they were exempt from the wages of sins committed in the city of lights. It was the inspired product of the Las Vegas convention and tourism bureau. Not to be outdone, the local water authority is still promising cheap water in […]
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A novel solution to the drug problem
A cop friend told me not long ago that he had changed his mind completely on the idea of legalizing drugs. His current take: “Legalize everything but meth and hang the meth-pushers” — or something close to that. We were talking about a kid we both had known back in the day, a kid who […]
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Survival tips for 2012
In this New Year, we can’t take anything for granted when the global financial system of speculative swindles, leveraged frauds and doomed debts keeps circumnavigating the bowl. Another bailout might extend this game of charades; another scantily clad stimulus package might temporarily succeed in goosing our economy — but only at the cost of rendering […]
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Some things deserve to stay the same
More so than any other landscape in Big Sky Country, Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front derives its wonder from a violent juxtaposition of geological forms. The Front is the convergence of two mega-ecosystems that together cover roughly a quarter of our country — the Northern Plains and the Northern Rockies. This is where each seemingly limitless […]
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A do-it-yourself Christmas tradition
Last Christmas Eve, I found a new Christmas tradition. To shake off the crankiness of cookies gone wrong, of shopping and shipping and wrapping and frenzy, I took a long walk last December. And that’s when I got a wonderful, non-Grinchly idea. What if, as Dr. Seuss said, Christmas does not come from a store? […]
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Greens need to occupy the Occupy movement
I recently drove to nearby Anchorage, Alaska, to join a crowd of 200 Occupy Wall Street protesters. Many held signs denouncing economic disparity, certainly a good reason to take to the streets. But my sign was about environmental disparity, the result of wealthy corporations despoiling our shared forests, air and even the world’s climate to […]
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Tips for a bright – and efficient – Christmas
Last year, I loaded up the Christmas stockings of relatives and friends with 60-watt Philips LEDs — light-emitting diode — light bulbs, and this holiday I’ll do it again. Why give a present few people even know they want? Because LEDs are the gift that keeps on giving, saving money every month on electric bills. […]
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The Forest Service discriminates against poor kids
The summer before last, I took a four-day hike through the backcountry of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness in the Washington Cascades. I’m accustomed to rugged terrain and steep slopes, so I was impressed when, after miles of travel off the trail, I heard the voices of teenagers wafting toward me. I met the intrepid boys […]
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Home on the range
This year, I was lucky enough to spend Thanksgiving back home with my parents in central Montana. Holidays at home usually include the traditional trappings of board games, gravy boats and hungry dogs making cute under the table, followed by food-induced snooze fests in the living room. But what I most look forward to when […]
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The end is near — the end of 2011
To claim that the ancient Mayan culture of Mexico and Central America developed a nuanced conception of time is like saying the modern stock market is a complicated financial instrument. The Mayan calendars cover a multi-faceted collection of linear and cyclical measurements that go back almost 3,000 years as well as forward in time — […]
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A ski town contributes mightily to paleontology
One morning last July, as Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper looked on, scientists supervised the hoisting of a 10,000-pound cast of a Columbia mammoth skeleton — rocks included — onto a flatbed truck for shipment to the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. After 60 days of intense digging, the scientists and scores of volunteers attracted […]
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A frantic lion meets the border wall
I recently moved from Sasabe, Ariz., a tiny town located next to the border wall dividing the United States from Mexico. The wall was built of bars 15 feet tall and looked like a long prison cell. It ran four miles east until it hit an arroyo on the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, and […]
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How Christo’s opponents can change your mind
Early in November, the Bureau of Land Management approved plans for an immense art installation called “Over the River,” which involves suspending translucent fabric panels across 5.9 miles of the Arkansas River in central Colorado. The artist behind Over the River’s two-week existence in 2014 is Christo and his late wife Jeanne-Claude. They specialize in […]
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Thanks to Obama, cattlemen lose out
When four companies control 80 percent of the supply in a marketplace, even the most conservative economists would admit there’s a high potential for market manipulation. This is the case in the world of meatpacking today, where four giant packers — Tyson, Cargill, JBS and National Beef — rule the market. And that is why, […]
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Breathing clean air comes in second in Congress
Even in these politically polarized times, one might think that breathing clean air could muster some bipartisan support in Congress. A quick look at the bills the House of Representatives has been passing lately should dispel that naïve notion. Three bills aimed at delaying new air pollution rules on coal-fired power plants, cement kilns and […]