Lessons from the fossil fuel boom and bust in New Mexico, rock snot stream ecology, water delivery in rural Navajo communities and more.
Like water for traffic
I found an interesting parallel in the March 2, 2015, issue of High Country News between our use of roads and our use of water. In “Big dig, big disgrace,” the trials and tribulations of Bertha’s attempt to dig a highway tunnel under the Seattle waterfront point to a counterintuitive reality, that more roads might…
No empathy for traumatized men
Review of “The Brightwood Stillness” by Mark Pomeroy.
Ownership?
There is so much talk about who should own public lands and how they should be managed (“This Land Is Their Land,” HCN, 2/2/15). I recommend a great book, The Big Burn, by Timothy Egan. In it, Egan outlines how Teddy Roosevelt was farsighted enough to see that all Americans deserve access to certain lands.…
Photographs and writing on Yellowstone wildlife
Review of “Yellowstone Wildlife: Ecology and Natural History of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.”
Please, Lord, send us another boom
I’m always inspired by the stories of the little old lady or gentleman who spends 50 years in a blue-collar job and somehow squirrels away millions of dollars. Like Robert Read, the Vermont mechanic and part-time J.C. Penney janitor, who was found, upon his death, to possess a deposit box crammed with stock certificates worth…
A giant resort overshadows a tiny Colorado town
A teacher’s perspective of big changes to a small town.
Rural communities in the West need a fair shake
The failure to include the Secure Rural Schools program in this year’s budget puts a spotlight on a public-lands identity crisis that has been simmering, and sometimes boiling over, for decades. President Theodore Roosevelt got it right in 1908. Roosevelt understood that his big vision of creating a national forest system would have enormous financial…
Cosmologies of stewardship
Scott Carrier’s article “Chainsaw Diplomacy” (HCN, 2/16/15) missed an excellent opportunity to educate his readers on important restoration efforts currently underway in the Escalante River Basin of Utah. Instead of focusing on what these efforts are accomplishing in restoring native habitat to a critical region, he seemed intent on pushing an agenda –– creating a…
See you in April!
HCN takes a printing break, and welcomes DC correspondent Elizabeth Shogren.
Governor Kitzhaber’s fall from grace
The peculiar and spectacular undoing of Oregon’s top official.
The case of the snotty streams
A mysterious algae known as “rock snot” is smothering wild rivers — and may hold clues to their future.
Health impacts of wood smoke
A look at which stoves and furnaces emit the most particles damaging to your health, plus which states burn the most wood.
The quietest and noisiest spots in the West
Some places are 20 decibels or less, similar to levels in pre-Colonial times.
Hollywood horse havoc
Review of “Falling from Horses” by Molly Gloss.
The woman who brings drinking water to remote Navajo homes
In the parched countryside, delivery means community.
Garden gnomes stolen; shipping container homes for sale
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
Wilderness vets
In May of 1966, I returned from a combat tour in Southeast Asia. It was a return full of challenges (“Wilderness as therapist,” HCN, 2/16/15). For two years, I had been surrounded by the noise and smell of war and had been trying to survive day to day. How was I going to cope? I…
Latest: A Washington county puts the brakes on a new oil-train facility
In the wake of recent oil-train derailments, Skagit County wants Shell to do a full environmental review.
Latest: Oregon chub is no longer endangered
The species became the first fish to recover enough to be delisted.
Lessons from boom and bust in New Mexico
What we can learn from the oil and gas roller coaster ride in Farmington and beyond.
An oil well, by the numbers
A deep dive into drilling, operating and producing.
