The long history behind the Animas River spill. Plus, a moss mystery in Portland and environmental upset at California agencies.
No Bikes in Wilderness. Period.
Dear High Country News: You can’t read the Wilderness Act of 1964 and think that it would ever allow mountain bikers into wilderness. The language is unambiguous: Section 4 (c) states that there shall be…no use of motor vehicles, motorized equipment”…and “no other form of mechanical transport…” The mention of those prohibitions in the same…
Silverton’s Gold King reckoning
How the Animas River disaster forced Silverton to face its pollution problem — and its destiny.
A Gold King Mine Timeline
A tangled history of profit, tragedy and unfulfilled dreams.
Sometimes, the strangest ties bind tightest
In April, Colorado lawmakers approved a bill to fund emergency cleanups at legacy mine sites. The legislation was in response to the August 2015 wastewater spill from the Gold King Mine above Silverton, in the San Juan Mountains, which sent a 3-million-gallon slug of psychedelic-orange toxic fluid down the Animas and Colorado rivers and into…
The absurdist Western
It’s worth following the twists and turns of Robert Garner McBrearty’s The Western Lonesome Society.
Will the ouster of California green leaders imperil clean air?
High-profile turnover at state agencies reflect a culture split between grassroots demands and developer interests.
The life of a fire lookout is one of the senses
A former lookout finds the woman who used to guard her tower.
Field of choices
“And even environmentalists who oppose both projects agree that with annual park visitation expected to double to 10 million by mid-century, more beds and infrastructure are needed.” This next-to-last sentence in the informative “State of the Grand” (HCN, 5/4/16) fades into a disturbing whimper without challenge. It implies and allows no imagined alternative to the…
Tribal lands, tribal self-governance
Sierra Crane-Murdoch’s beautifully illustrated feature exposes several inherent tensions in federal efforts to purchase and return lands that were stolen from tribes a century ago and given to individuals (“A Land Divided,” HCN, 4/4/16). But the tone of the article is hostile toward a program that is successfully addressing a serious historical injustice and a…
Gnome sharpshooting, satanic texts in schools, and coal bonuses
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
White-nose comes West, readers respond to Grand Canyon harassment, and the election out West
HCN.org news in brief.
Want to build the second century of American conservation? Look to César Chávez.
On the eve of the National Parks centennial, Chávez’s son praises a monument to his father.
In a dead-end prison town, a fraught journey home
A first-time novelist follows a quiet Montana man in the wake of grief.
Inside the moss mystery: How the organisms helped reveal Portland’s pollution
Surveys of tree moss uncovered contamination that may have led to higher cancer rates.
Keeping busy during publication break
April’s publication break allowed us to hunker down for a bit and get the garden started, but the work never stops at High Country News. On the business side, we’ve been hard at work organizing an event with Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman, who appeared here in Paonia, Colorado, on April 23. And over in the…
Latest: Court orders reconsideration of whether to list wolverines
Some say state opposition stymied efforts to provide the species federal protection.
Latest: Peer-reviewed study undermines fracking’s claims of safety
Researchers in Pavillion, Wyoming, traced the chemical footprint of the drilling.
Meet one of the great forgotten Western painters
Frank Mechau, who died in 1946 at age 42, saw the West through an unusual lens.
National Park Service centennial shares limelight with scandals
Chief Jon Jarvis faces ethical challenges and questions about the agency’s approach to sexual harassment.