Human beings are the greatest threat — and the only hope — for the Colorado River’s razorback sucker.
Net losses
Four endangered fish species currently live in the mainstem of the Colorado River. Several other endangered native fishes — including the woundfin, desert pupfish and Gila topminnow — used to live there but now survive only in the river’s tributaries or in man-made habitats. This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with…
New world, new canvas
Ex-priest reconstructs a working-class history from Basque arborglyphs
Nature illiteracy
Pine grosbeak? How about just seeing a bird as a bird.
One Tough Sucker
The razorback sucker evolved in a wild Colorado River. Now, humans are its biggest problem — and its only hope.
Pika positives
Molly Samuel’s article “Pika politics” highlights the difficulties and nuances in determining whether species should be listed under the Endangered Species Act (HCN, 4/26/10). It’s very apparent that species in peril will have difficulty getting listed in the current fiscal and political climate around the ESA. While some lament the pika not being listed for…
A boring diagram
Lake Mead — Las Vegas’ primary water supply — has been drawing down like a leaky tub over the past decade, thanks to prolonged drought in the Colorado River Basin. The reservoir’s now at 43 percent of capacity and about 100 feet below full — just 45 feet above one of two main water intakes.…
Stories from the shadow sides
Boys and Girls Like You and MeAryn Kyle225 pages, hardcover: $24.Scribner, 2010. Writer Aryn Kyle, who was raised in Grand Junction, Colo., examines the frontier between childhood and adulthood in 11 stories threaded by themes of solitude and unrest. The characters — precocious girls, a middle-school boy, women caught in adulterous or unstable relationships –…
Did you get your cow?
Your article on wolf hunting in Montana was certainly written from a hunter’s perspective (given that the writer is a Field & Stream contributing editor), and I respected his take on the issue, complete with those hunter magazine close-ups of people “bagging” a wolf (HCN, 5/10/10). I did find the article wanting from two other…
Dust in the wind and the water
One morning last week, I woke up and couldn’t see the mountains. Was it snowing? No, it was dusting … again. The wind, which had howled all day and night, had finally died down, but the dry and loose soils it had borrowed from Arizona and Utah were still precipitating all over our Colorado cars,…
Everyone benefits from Indian education
When Lenna Little Plume started second grade at Lewis and Clark Elementary in Missoula, Mont., in 2006, statistics suggested that she might have a bleak future. Montana’s American Indian families earn 25 percent less than the average family — an economic reality that can put Indian children at a disadvantage from their very first day…
HCN’s key numbers: 3, 170, 20
To save some money during these tight times, the High Country News Board of Directors held its late spring meeting over the phone and Internet on May 20. Thanks to the marvels of technology, including the tiny cameras in most of our computers, the experience wasn’t half bad. Board president Florence Williams of Boulder, Colo.,…
It’s a thin line between law and hate
My May 10 issue arrived with two references to the recent Arizona bill signed into law regarding enforcement of federal immigration laws. Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon’s quote about the authors of the bill not representing Arizona is simply not true. Fact: Over 70 percent of Arizonans supported the bill. Apparently both Phil Gordon and the…
Making mining pay
Kudos to Judith Lewis for her insightful and balanced report on Nevada’s bondage to the mining industry (HCN, 4/26/10). As one who lives within 20 miles of a Barrick behemoth, I am deeply distressed at how megacorporations like Kinross-Barrick ravage Nevada’s unspoilt wilderness areas to satisfy their quest for profit. As the leach pads pile…
Notes from a Wyoming sheepwagon
Claiming GroundLaura Bell256 pages, hardcover: $24.95.Alfred A. Knopf, 2010. A pretty minister’s daughter from Kentucky might not be the kind of person you’d expect to find herding sheep in the lonesome expanse of Wyoming’s Big Horn Basin. But when Laura Bell graduated from college in 1977, she felt drawn to the nomadic life she’d glimpsed…
Limbo land: Brownfields for green energy
Renewable energy projects planned for contaminated lands
Bracing for white nose syndrome
Western scientists take precautions against a deadly bat disorder
Yellowstone bison: Hazed and confused
Park’s buffalo herd caught in gridlock