Climate change threatens food security in parts of Alaska, Colorado’s fracking fight, prickly pears are farmed in California, a coal mine expansion is halted in a surprising climate court case, and more.
Fear the falcon
A man and his raptors take on Washington’s dump scavengers.
Boreal burning
Canada’s Northwest Territory goes up in flames, releasing massive amounts of carbon.
How to publish a newspaper in the midst of wildfire
Rural weekly newspapers remain vital to their communities, and as a publisher-editor, it’s my job to keep readers informed about and connected around the things that are important to them. So how do you respond when nearly every means of doing that job is wiped out in one superheated burst of flame? In mid-July, what…
Hunger pangs
Here in western Colorado, we usually have great food year-round. Local farmers grow squash, peppers, tomatoes and corn, and their orchards produce cherries, apples and peaches. Cattle and sheep fatten in pastures. In the last few years, though, weird weather has affected agriculture more and more often. Hard frosts murder fruit blossoms in May, grape…
Long live backpacking
Christopher Ketcham’s essay is one long misunderstanding of the trends in outdoor recreation (“The death of backpacking?” HCN, 7/21/14). Backpacking is not dead, and it’s not dying. It’s different, yes, thanks to a revolution in lighter and more versatile gear, as well as an ethos of carrying less gear. And while weeklong treks are less…
Metamorphosis in Winnemucca
The Days Of Anna MadrigalArmistead Maupin288 pages, hardcover:$26.99. Harper Collins, 2014. California author Armistead Maupin has returned with the ninth and final volume in his much-loved Tales of the City series. Maupin, who has long refused to be pigeonholed as a “gay writer,” writes about contemporary San Francisco and the love lives of both gays…
A new wildfire protection approach in Colorado
Homeowners take on the costs of fire mitigation — with lots of help.
Reinventing the Sundance Kid
Sundance: A NovelDavid Fuller352 pages, hardcover: $27.95.Riverhead, 2014. What if an Old West legend left the outlaw life behind to embark on a mission to find his lost love? David Fuller’s second novel recasts the fate of Harry Alonzo Longabaugh, better known to history and movie fans as the Sundance Kid, who allegedly perished along…
A Taxonomy of Landscape
A Taxonomy of LandscapeVictoria Sambunaris, essay by Natasha Egan, short story by Barry Lopez. 126 pages with 36 page booklet, hardcover: $60. Radius Books, 2014. To create A Taxonomy of Landscape, Victoria Sambunaris traveled America’s interstates and backroads alone for months with a 5-by-7-inch wooden field camera, driven, she says, by “an unrelenting curiosity to…
The Latest: EPA cuts pollution at the Navajo Generating Station
BackstoryBad air from coal-fired power plants not only causes health problems for the locals; it also ruins the scenery. In 2009, the Environmental Protection Agency began addressing the visual impacts of air pollution from power plants, developing plans to reduce haze around national parks and wilderness areas. (“Clean air regulations protect views by targeting coal…
Alaska’s Uncertain Food Future
Climate change in the Far North puts traditional food sources at risk.
The Latest: Wild Mexican wolf pups born in Sierra Madre
The species still struggles on both sides of the border.
An award, and a whole lot of visitors
“The Tree Coroners,” by HCN contributing editor Cally Carswell, just received one of the Society of Environmental Journalists’ 2013-2014 Awards for Reporting on the Environment. The Dec. 9, 2013, feature story took second place in the category “Kevin Carmody Award for Outstanding In-depth Reporting, Small Market.” Congrats, Cally! VisitorsSo many readers pass through Paonia, Colorado,…
The prickly pear as California crop
Can an overlooked succulent help salvage toxic soils?
Wild ambitions
The environmental movement continues to dispirit me with the way it eats its young (“Wild paradox,” HCN, 7/21/14). Why we in that movement talk down our successes and accept the claims of others whose analysis is uninformed, I do not know. Paul Larmer, in his editor’s note, states that some “no longer see wilderness protection…
Box of poison
I support the protection of sage grouse and other wild birds in order to prevent their extinction. But the recent article “Are we smart enough to solve our raven problem” (HCN, 8/4/14) not only highlights the need for more dialogue on whether poisoning will truly mitigate the issue, but also the need for serious discussion…
Wolf pups, and the return of wild wonder
California’s fall from grace hit me in 2007, at around 9,000 feet in the Sierra Nevada. A friend and I were returning from a backpacking trip, still about a mile-and-a-half deep in the Mokelumne Wilderness, when a stroller rattled around a bend in the trail, its tiny passenger jabbering away as Dad navigated the rocky…
Climate canary
Greenhouse gases are changing the way we talk about coal.
Dirty Snake
Thank you for the tremendous article on the lax rules and pollution of the Snake River in southern Idaho (“Idaho’s Sewer System,” HCN, 8/4/14). I live near the infamous Simplot fertilizer plant in eastern Idaho and have personally witnessed algal blooms in American Falls Reservoir caused by phosphate leaching from the plant and the agricultural…
George Harrison’s tree is killed by beetles, and more
UTAHIf you’re an education blogger in Utah, don’t try to tell your online students that English words that sound the same sometimes mean different things – i.e., “for,” “four” and “fore.” The technical term for this confusing aspect of the language is “homophone” – but when Tim Torkildson tried explaining this to his mostly foreign…
How much water goes into your food?
Growing everyday food items requires a surprising amount of water.
Jared Polis abandons anti-fracking initiatives
A Democratic family feud takes a surprising turn in Colorado.