Conjure up the lonesome sound of a harmonica in a dusty Western town where gunmen with jingling spurs reach for their six-shooters at high noon. The scene would be incomplete without a few tumbleweeds rolling past. But here’s the truth: Tumbleweed doesn’t belong on the Western plains. An exotic also known as Russian thistle, it […]
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We’re not all Right in Idaho
A March Gallup poll probably surprised no one when it determined that Idaho, Utah and Wyoming rank among the five most conservative states in America. The trio came in second, fourth and fifth, respectively, putting them in the archetypal company of Mississippi, which was first, and Alabama, third. Being a conservative in a blue state […]
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Me and my SUV
I love my purple 4Runner. She’s a 1998 stick-shift with 177,000 miles on the odometer, and her name is Jesse. She’s been all over the West, camping on dirt roads and shuttling for river trips. Once, in the high desert of central Oregon, I hit a patch of ice going fast on a cold, bluebird […]
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Big Sky country, bigger abuse
We seem to have a morbid fascination with news stories and photographs of dead, dying or distressed animals — something Montana has provided plenty of in the past two years. The number of animals involved has been staggering, the evidence of abuse extreme. The first news of abuse on a grand scale came last February, […]
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Three Cups of Tea, the sequel
One of the speakers at last year’s Telluride Mountainfilm Festival in western Colorado was convicted this March of federal felonies. But Tim DeChristopher will be back again this year to talk about his disruption of federal gas leasing at an auction in Utah. Not so Greg Mortenson, the embattled former mountain climber who has been […]
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Disaster traveling is my specialty
People who know me refuse to travel with me. I don’t understand this. I think I am the perfect travel companion — curious, unflappable, knowledgeable, cheerful, seasoned, undemanding, prepared. But friends claim that I don’t go on vacations; I go on disasters. People travel for a lot of reasons — to lounge around and do […]
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When all else fails, go to court
The national environmental movement is spinning its wheels in Congress and accomplishing very little. The big groups lobbied like crazy in 2008 and 2009 on the crucial issue of limiting the fossil fuels that cause climate change, but couldn’t get the Senate to approve even a moderate move to curb carbon emissions with a “cap-and-trade” […]
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Privatization threatens an Arizona national forest
Once upon a time, the Western public lands — places like our national forests and parks — were supported with American tax dollars. In return, we were welcome to use them. Undeveloped areas required no money to enter, and developed facilities were basic but affordable. Land managers were public servants whose mission was stewardship – […]
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Remember the mines before China buys them all
In 1911, Thomas Edison received an odd gift from some Western mining executives: a cubic foot of solid copper. The aging inventor joked that the 486-pound cube might make a nice paperweight. He kept it on display at his New Jersey laboratory, a shiny reminder that the light bulb that made him rich and famous […]
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The West’s dams share a dirty secret
Soon after I moved to Colorado from the humid Midwest 20 years ago, I learned that a reservoir is not a lake. My family and I were eager to test our new canoe on the local reservoir, which I’d driven by a month earlier. Its dark waters lapped against a thick conifer forest. I couldn’t […]
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This Earth Day, it’s all about the air
As we prepare to mark the 41st annual celebration of Earth Day, we can thank Nevada Sen. Harry Reid and other Democrats for beating back the most recent attacks on the Clean Air Act. Perhaps America’s most successful environmental safeguard, this law has protected human health and the environment for four decades. Today, it’s emerging […]
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Journeys we take at home
Every day, I hear the same thing from parents whose children have grown up. “Enjoy it while you can,” they tell me. “It goes so fast.” With a 3-year-old boy, Elias, who consistently wakes up in the middle of the night “needing sumfin” and a 6-year-old girl, Willa, who also wakes up frequently, saying “I […]
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The wall along our southern border is a joke
In the minds of many Americans, the U.S. border with Mexico has become the heart of darkness, a place wracked with violence and beyond the reach of the law. Politicians play up these fears with legislation such as the bill introduced last month by California Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter, which would require hundreds of miles […]
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Just call me a RAC star
I got a note from Ken Salazar the other day. I was glad to hear from him. It had been a while since we had visited. Well, OK … we’ve never visited. The secretary of Interior doesn’t know me from Adam’s cat. But still, it was nice to hear from him. I don’t get all […]
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Don’t blame it all on global climate change
Recently, I was astonished to read a paper published by a prestigious institution that stated — without qualification — that Colorado’s current bark beetle epidemic could be pinned on the donkey of climate change. More amazing yet, this paper said that Vail Resorts now seeds clouds because of the unreliable snow caused by climate change. […]
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The way the West was can be seen again
Back when I was a boy, we used to roll our eyes at tiresome coots who would begin reminiscences with “Back when I was a boy…” Today, as my 50s draw toward a close, I somehow find myself with a lot more sympathy for old-timers. I admit that recollections can be boring. And yet, as […]
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LEDs ought to be leading the way
How many cities does it take for Western utilities to change a light bulb? Federal Department of Energy research shows that light-emitting diode streetlights — called LEDs by just about everybody — can reduce energy use by 12 percent when used in place of conventional high-pressure sodium lighting above high-speed roads. LEDs also can save […]
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The lesson of earthquake and tsunami: never forget
The most important image from the disaster that rocked Japan last month might be one that was never captured by anyone’s camera. It has to be conjured up from words: The mayor of a town on the Sanriku coast north of Sendai races to the top of the three-story city hall to escape the tsunami […]
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Elite club blocked from logging giant redwoods
For now, at least, the chain saws are off-limits at the Bohemian Grove, the woody retreat of America’s rich and powerful. The Bohemian Club, an all-male bastion synonymous with wealth and influence, had big plans for its private enclave on the Russian River, 75 miles north of San Francisco. Too big, as it turns out. […]
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We keep annoying Sheila, our GPS navigator
As a career country gal, I take pride in finding the most efficient — or at least the shortest — route between two points. In our mountain country of Wyoming, that is not always a straight line or even the distance the proverbial crow can fly. And whoever thought that following crows was a good […]