The view of the War Memorial Stadium, seen by westbound drivers barreling down Interstate 80 just east of Laramie, Wyo., died of obstruction in August 2007. The view was 57 years old. It had long been lauded by both newcomers and old timers as the thing that could raise goose bumps as travelers whooshed down […]
Wotr
Posted inWotr
Seeing the light in 2008
Two days ago, enlightenment arrived on my doorstep. It came tucked inside a plain little box that looked like it was sized to fit some fancy soaps, and bore a return address for Aspen Ski Co., the Colorado ski-resort giant. For years, a ski-patroller-turned-chef named Bob and I spent our winters skiing Aspen. Each time […]
Posted inWotr
Bigfoot, you’re invited to breakfast
A few years before the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington, I worked on a timber-cruising crew near that mountain. We stayed in a barn-like lodge and ate at a nearby diner. During breakfast one morning, Harry R. Truman, who owned Harmony Falls Lodge on Spirit Lake, came in. He was wearing an […]
Posted inWotr
When you care enough to flush the very best
“Over here,” the salesman said, understanding my wife’s question perfectly, “you can see a top-of-the-line system.” We were in the middle of Remodeling Hell. I had had no idea there were so many decisions that could be made: kitchen cabinets, appliances, countertops, sink, faucets, floors. Wall colors, trim, furniture, accents. Window sizes and trim. Bathroom […]
Posted inWotr
Ranching still has a place on our public lands
I found a recent photograph that shows three people in cowboy gear – I’m the one pouring coffee from a thermos into beat-up cups. We’d all just gotten down from our horses, and the guys are leaning on a pickup truck marked U.S. Forest Service. Here’s the surprise: We’re all laughing. I’m a rancher, and […]
Posted inWotr
Slow down, you drive too fast
Just for grins, let’s talk about lowering the speed limit on our interstate highways – say, to 65 mph on roads where it’s now 75 mph, and where most people drive 80 mph. Go ahead, roll your eyes. We’ve done this before, and I’ll admit it that it wasn’t much fun. That was in 1974, […]
Posted inWotr
In the presence of stones
The stones were assembled in a loose circle of five, each as huge as a beach house, verdant layers of moss covering them like furs draped from kings’ shoulders. I’d come through the forest quickly, following the meandering logic of a deer trail. When I rounded the a sharp corner, rising from the dry gully […]
Posted inWotr
You, too, can overcome cynicism at Christmas
Trolling the Web recently, I found Rick Banyan’s site for “kinder, gentler” cynics. I hoped he’d help me get through this season of jingles and fears that we’re not buying enough stuff to make Christmas profitable for retailers. Banyan says sarcastically that we “emerge from the holidays 10 pounds heavier and several hundred dollars lighter.” […]
Posted inWotr
For sustainability, a city beats the country
In 2006, my husband and I moved to a little town in New Mexico called Socorro where he was starting his Ph.D. program. Socorro means help in Spanish. We should have known we were in trouble, but how hard could it be to find an energy-efficient house and a sensible way to live? I was […]
Posted inWotr
How to feel abundant at Christmas
In recent weeks I repeatedly found myself shopping for gifts and stocking stuffers. More than once I roamed the aisles of discount stores that specialize in out-of-fashion, out-of-date, not-quite top-shelf merchandise. You know, not the Salvation Army, but definitely not Target. I was not alone. The stores were crammed with shoppers looking for bedroom slippers, […]
Posted inWotr
Searching for flour where the wheat grows
There are three of us driving down a long gravel driveway. We are just outside Shedd, Ore., in a town too small for most maps. The farmer is expecting us, though he doesn’t know we’re on a mission to restore part of the West’s agricultural past. My companions are part of a group called the […]
Posted inWotr
When you’re wrong, you’re wrong
Let’s start by reviewing the stereotypes: ATV’ers are rowdy environment-hating backcountry ramblers who blow exhaust in the faces of mountain bikers as they pass them on the trail. Mountain bikers are self-righteous trail users always working to get backcountry access closed off to all-terrain vehicles, right? If only it were that simple. On a recent […]
Posted inWotr
You can’t stop nature
Why does it have to be so complicated? All we ask of nature is to be able to do what we want to do; no more, no less. We like to think of our impact on the world as controlled and businesslike, with only one variable changing at a time. But no matter how hard […]
Posted inWotr
A deadly Western myth rides toward the sunset
I can see it like it was yesterday: Rugged cowboys in dusters on horseback in a downpour, punching cattle panicked into a stampede by lightning. The theme from the movie “The Magnificent Seven” blared from the background. Finally, the herd calmed, and we saw the cowboys sitting around the campfire smoking cigarettes as the sun […]
Posted inWotr
Don’t let stars wink out all over the West
I’m in eastern Nevada at Great Basin National Park, and it’s pitch black except for a startling sky above. Stars as bright as diamonds sparkle across the black cloth of space. The translucent band of the Milky Way arcs across the heavens, and Perseid meteors streak through the darkness, leaving fluorescent yellow tracers in their […]
Posted inWotr
A political fish-kill is in the making
Grayling are artifacts from the Pleistocene, little fish of big country with flanks of pink and silver and sail-like dorsal fins trimmed with orange and splashed with red, white, turquoise, green and neon blue. Fluvial grayling, the race that dwells in rivers, are common in the Arctic and sub-arctic, but in the Rocky Mountain West, […]
Posted inWotr
Trees for two: A mother and son saw together
In old Forest Service photos, a trail crew was always young men with crew cuts, their white t-shirts tight against their lean bodies. What would those men make of us, a mother-son team swaying together over a crosscut saw? My ponytail is going gray and 19-year-old Lee wears a stained shirt with the sleeves ripped […]
Posted inWotr
Wake up, wannabe presidents
The Democratic presidential debate in Nevada this November was promoted as a chance for candidates to engage with the West and its concerns, but it might as well have been held in Anywhere, USA. The moderator, four journalists andmost of the audience ignored every critical issue that?s central to us here. The first issue is […]
Posted inWotr
One small voice against blundering into another war
On television recently, I heard Norman Podhoretz, an advisor to Republican presidential candidate Rudolph Giuliani, advocate the bombing of Iran, and it was clear that a drumbeat of opinion was pushing us toward another war in the Middle East. I mentioned this to a Portland friend who follows politics closely, and he told me to […]
Posted inWotr
Western water is petering out
Gerald Spangler needs no statistics or charts to tell him what he already knows: We are running out of water. Spangler is a semi-retired farmer who has lived in southwest Nebraska, 15 miles east of the Colorado border, since the Dust Bowl days. In 1 979, he drilled his first groundwater well to a depth […]