It’s the kind of summer night when a warm breeze rubs up against you like your date in that strapless dress on prom night so long ago. Not only that, but our kids are restless and we need something to do. It’s the perfect night, in other words, to see a movie at the drive-in. […]
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Wyoming manners? Forget about it!
Wyoming may be the rudest state in America. I grew up in upstate New York, where it was rude not to introduce strangers to each other. If you neglected to do this, you found yourself apologizing to the accidentally slighted person. Nothing in the preceding paragraph applies to daily life in Wyoming. Even New York […]
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America needs clean water – and mining law reform
Back in the early 1870s, Gen. George Armstrong Custer was among those excited by the rumor of gold and glory in the Black Hills of South Dakota, my home state. A lot has changed since then, but the same law that presided over gold mining in Custer’s day — the Mining Law of 1872 — […]
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Reckless at 50
I celebrated my 50th birthday a few years back by just about killing myself on a desert hike. I lived atop a 3,000-foot plateau called Grapevine Mesa, an extraordinary place that towered over the far eastern end of Lake Mead, a huge man-made body of water that sprawled through desert canyons 80 miles distant. My […]
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Our public lands should reflect white, black and brown
As a black park ranger, I’m often asked why more minorities don’t visit national parks or participate more in outdoor activities. That’s a short question with a long answer, and one part of it involves the perpetuation of historical inaccuracy, since the victors get to write what passes for history as portrayed in movies and […]
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Yes, we are all tourons
“How far is it to Harts Pass?” a tourist couple once asked me. I told them it was about 20 miles. “How far is it back?” they asked. That natural selection has not rendered tourists extinct seems a mystery that defies evolution. And if you believe God created tourists, you’ve probably wondered, “What was He […]
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The memory of a mountain
A long time ago, I climbed a mountain with my mother. It was back in the early ’80s, when she was only slightly older than I am now — hard for me to believe, even though I’ve done the math and know it’s true. The mountain was Pikes Peak in Colorado. We climbed it from […]
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Who will pick up the pieces when this boom ends?
Sometime in the 1950s, an oil and gas boom hit Big Piney, Wyo. I was 12, and I remember the excitement of seeing new kids in school, big trucks on the dusty roads and lots of people in the cafés and on the streets. I remember summer evenings when my dad loaded us into the […]
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An EPA staffer fights to the end
Six years into this grand experiment called the Bush-Cheney administration, it’s easy to be blasé about how drastically morale has fallen within the offices of federal agencies. It’s with respect, then, and not flippancy, that I write these words: The political system that destroys the careers and lives of environmentally minded civil servants is about […]
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The backyard cat whisperer
I am on all fours in a gravel path in my yard, tapping the ground with one hand, holding a leash with the other.I am whispering insistently.The summer sun burns my neck.Seen from the road, through stalks of dead cheatgrass, my butt would appear to hover, a blue-jeans moon at noon. “Shack-le-ton.Shack-le-ton!SHACK-le-ton.” Is anyone watching? […]
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Under Las Vegas
The catacombs of ancient Rome served as houses of worship for Jews and Christians. In the early 1800s, the sewers of Paris yielded gold, jewels and relics of the revolution. Closer to home, thousands of people lived in the subway and train tunnels of New York City in the 1980s and ‘90s. Beneath the neon, […]
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A Navajo journalist makes it the hard way
On May 11, after much struggle and sacrifice, I received a master’s degree in English. What that tells me is that if I could run a startup magazine on a zero budget, graduate with distinction and win some journalism awards from a national journalism association along the way, then others can do it, too. But […]
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Water does move uphill toward money
Now that I’m out of college, I thought it was time to ask my elders for advice about investing in the stock market. They must have seen how confused I looked, because a week later, an investment letter arrived that promised to answer all my questions, and, incidentally, make me rich, fast. The letter featured […]
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When is a barred owl a red herring?
The draft recovery plan identifies competition from the barred owl, which is not native to the Pacific Northwest, as the primary threat facing the northern spotted owl. – U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, April 26, 2007. That’s right, I’m a barred owl. My wife tells me to keep quiet, keep my beak clean, try to […]
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A cowboy girl still has the power to shock
When Caroline Lockhart wrote a novel about a notorious rustler in 1911, it ended with him thrown into a pit of rattlesnakes. Decades later, she encountered a rustler in real life and decided to have a hit man bump him off. Her contract on the life of the rustler is proving the most controversial part […]
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Who gets to produce electricity is galvanizing the West
Plans are on the drawing table for another wave of coal-fired power plants across the West. But unlike 25 to 30 years ago, during the last binge in building power plants, this time there is opposition from a critical source — local ratepayers. This opposition should not be over-stated. In most areas, the electrical co-ops […]
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When mud-boggers rip up the land, penalize them
Flashing red and blue lights sent me a strong message: I was busted. I’d just passed a truck as I drove into a small, southwestern Oregon town and neglected to slow down to 30 mph. I got a ticket. Deterrents work, yet there are places where deterrents don’t reach, and drivers of all-terrain vehicles know […]
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Open minds and free expression – what a rare treat!
I was nervous. Students don’t understand that teachers are often as anxious as they are the first time a class meets. It had been more than 20 years since I’d taught in a college classroom. I felt rusty and insecure. My biggest fear? That I’d face a group of freshmen with their arms crossed and […]
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Don’t book my adventure, please
Not long ago, I Googled my old hometown, Moab, along with the word “adventure,” and found over 500,000 links. Apparently there are adventures enough to be found in Moab to keep tourists entertained and spending their money until the next millennium. Just to mention a handful, I found the Moab Adventure Center, Moab Adventure Xstream, […]
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A hope for Father’s Day from a divorced father
I will celebrate this Father’s Day by cashing in what’s left of my retirement account so that I can — once again — go to court to request more time with my kids. My almost 10-year status as a non-custodial parent has helped me become accustomed to the almost insurmountable odds and legal fees that […]