By the weekend before the presidential election, I was starting to feel important. People were at my front door. The telephone ran morning, noon and night. The calls came from Ohio, Utah and California. Everybody wanted to know: “Would I vote, and would I vote for Barack Obama?” By Sunday, I had taken to answering […]
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Democrats rise again in the Rockies
Election night was a smashing success for Democrats in the Mountain West. But there’s a big difference between the national results and those that came out of the Rockies: Up until now, the Intermountain West was considered home turf for the Republican party. This election, of course, wasn’t the first time Democrats have had success […]
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Can the Forest Service get back on track?
It’s been a dismal eight years for the U.S. Forest Service. When the Bush administration took office, it immediately suspended a popular measure to protect 58 million acres of backcountry public forests from new roads. Instead, the agency became consumed by firefighting. Since 2001, stopping fire has grown from about 15 percent of the agency’s […]
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The patriotic thing to do
Maybe I’m crazy, but I think that paying taxes is patriotic. And I’m tired of hearing Americans, especially Westerners, whine about their tax burden. I’m no economist. Taxes aren’t a subject I normally pay attention to – except once a year in April – but during the presidential campaign the rhetoric around taxes was impossible […]
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Antelope hunting keeps getting better
Every year, I think hunting for antelope just can’t get any better, and every year it does. The days are warm, the nights are cool, the aspens are golden and so are the memories. Let me explain. In my grandfather’s day in southwestern Wyoming, antelope were few and far between. In his journals for the […]
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Who will be the West’s new boss?
One of the great parlor games of the West is to guess who the next president will choose to be secretary of the Interior Department. The man or woman succeeding Idaho’s Dirk Kempthorne will be the nation’s top wildlife manager and federal landlord of more than 507 million acres of national parks, rangeland and wildlife […]
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It’s time to cowboy up
They’re a lot of fun, those culture wars. City folk get a chuckle over the cretins out in Kansas passing laws against evolution. The Fox News crowd enjoys fulminating about feminazis. Good ratings, good rantings, good times. Dividing the electorate into rural heartland/ignorant rubes vs. civilization/East Coast eggheads is as old as the Republic, starting […]
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Think again before going nuclear
Both major candidates for president are effusive in their praise of alternative ways of producing energy, and their lists of how to go green usually include nuclear power. John McCain’s energy plan calls for 45 new nuclear power plants. Barack Obama is less enthused; he says he’d go forward only if the problems of nuclear […]
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Pushed to the wall, we can power down
We seem to learn hard lessons about energy scarcity only when something big and unexpected happens. That was definitely the case this summer in Juneau, Alaska, when avalanches suddenly destroyed our power supply and threw our community headlong into an experiment in conservation. The avalanches, released 40 miles south of Juneau on April 16, were […]
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Homecoming
On the wall of our cow camp bunkhouse in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming hangs a little board on which somebody scratched the words: “If you’re lucky enough to be in the mountains, you’re lucky enough.” This week, I’m lucky enough to be among the West’s ranchers whose fall calendar includes gathering cattle from high […]
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I want my vote to count, but will it?
Just the other morning, I mailed off my absentee ballot. I’d carefully colored in all the ovals, signed it, smacked on a stamp and tossed that baby into the mailbox. Civic duty done? Maybe not. Last month, for example, New Mexico’s secretary of State had to admit that incorrect information had been mailed to more […]
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Take a hike!
“I thought we’d go for a hike,” I told the boy I’m mentoring. “You know, look at stuff.” “How about we go to a movie?” he parried. “Or we could play electronic poker.” He’s not an unusual kid. There has been a major swing in his generation away from all things outdoors. The National Academy […]
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Another chance emerges for salmon
This fall, the most endangered salmon on earth is giving us another chance to save it from extinction. Snake River sockeye salmon are small as salmon go, with a blue sheen when they leave the Pacific Ocean. That sheen has burnt bright red 850 miles and two months later by the time they reach their […]
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For many Americans, voting this November will be historic
Strange the things that come to you through your kids. A week ago my daughter, Ruby, came home with an eighth-grade social studies assignment on the civil rights movement of the 1960s. “You know,” I told her, “your grandparents were involved with civil rights when I was a kid. Maybe you should talk to them. […]
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Animal pharm is coming our way
On Sept. 18, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration released its “guidance” for allowing the sale of genetically modified animals as food. Guidance is agency-speak for “the law will look something like this.” With the announcement, a 60-day period for public comment opened. Right now, the only genetically modified animal licensed for sale is the […]
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Scoundrels and scandals in the Interior Department
As the last vestiges of laissez-faire capitalism were being lowered into the ground on Wall Street last month, out on the Western edge of the high plains an administrative circus of a similar nature was unraveling. Its center was the Minerals Management Services (MMS) division of the Interior Department, in Lakewood, Colo. On Sept.10, Earl […]
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What I will say to Americans once I am elected president
Jimmy Carter once opened an address to the nation with these words: “Tonight, I have some unpleasant news for you.” His chances of re-election vanished soon after. And so, I dedicate my acceptance speech as your new president to Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States and the last honest politician: My fellow […]
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We’ve heard the “drill now” drumbeat before
Perhaps it is telling that when it comes to energy policy, President George W. Bush has inspired nostalgia for Jimmy Carter. “If we had only followed Carter’s energy plan,” people say, “we wouldn’t be in this fix now.” For Westerners, though, following Carter would have been a big mistake. Granted, there were some sensible aspects […]
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Wyoming should take the lead in using CNG
Wyoming is one of the largest natural-gas producing states, so why isn’t the state leading the nation in powering vehicles with this abundant fuel? If the price of gasoline stays high and a natural gas-powered car can run on $1-to-$1.25 per gallon-equivalent cost, however, I think we’ll see the light: We’ll understand that it makes […]