Federal scientists are facing increasing pressure from bureaucrats and politicians, and some are blowing the whistle on what is happening in their agencies – among them biologist Michael Kelly of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Also in this issue: Three Colorado towns have won water rights for kayaking courses, making the state one of the few that recognize in-stream water rights for recreation, and worrying traditional water users.
Defending your own home
Regarding your fire article (HCN, 5/26/03: A losing battle): To ask taxpayers to compensate homeowners for losses incurred from living in fire-prone areas is irresponsible, and to ask firefighters to put their lives on the line to defend these homes is just plain wrong. I live in Seattle, an earthquake-prone area. To protect ourselves from…
We must cleanse forests
Your informative article on fire in forests (HCN, 5/26/03: A losing battle) downplayed one perspective that is crucial for future environmental planning. As a result of fire suppression over the past century, standing fuel loads in many Western forests are unprecedented. Preindustrial inhabitants lacked the technology to fight lightning fires successfully, and recent research by…
Let the fires burn
Ray Ring’s HCN article on fire is one of the best pieces on the topic I’ve read anywhere (HCN, 5/26/03: A losing battle). By promoting an understanding that today’s superfires result from a combination of human insults to the environment and natural climate cycles enhanced by global warming, we can begin to look at the…
Give us the full story
There’s an active debate among fire ecologists over whether wildfire intensities have indeed increased to “unnatural” levels following a century of fire suppression, as many are now claiming, and if so what should be done about it. This debate and the complex evidence surrounding it were shortchanged in Ray Ring’s article “A Losing Battle,” which…
Spicy HCN to go
At last! I can finally read High Country News when traveling (often the only time I have available) without incurring the wrath of everyone sitting near me. The “old” format was so hard to manage — noisy folding, bashing people in the face or having a loose section fall under the seat in front, etc.…
Do not abandon your roots
The timeworn “A Paper for People who Care About the West” apparently has been sent to the T-shirt. Alas. I care about the West. I am not alone. That is why I read you. Do not abandon your roots. At least take the new moniker “Independent Journalism for the American West” and put it somewhere…
Follow-up
Colorado wants to follow Utah’s lead on wilderness rollbacks. In a May 15 letter, Greg Walcher, head of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, told Interior Secretary Gale Norton that his state would like to settle counties’ claims to roads across federal lands (HCN, 5/12/03: Backcountry road deal runs over wilderness). Walcher made it clear…
Will offshore be off-limits?
The ability of oil companies to tap black gold off the coast of California is up in the air, following a lengthy fight between the state and federal governments. Most of the water near California is off-limits to drilling, thanks to a 1982 congressional ban on new federal offshore oil leases that was extended until…
Have no doubts, go higher
To have lived in the highlands has rendered the lowlands incomplete. My intellect rebels at such thoughts, but in my heart I feel it to be true. I am inflated by the mountain. Tendrils of perfection reach out from my past, usurping the present. Randy LaChapelle When In Doubt, Go Higher I opened When In…
Inside HCN
“If the EPA is going to dive into prime time, why not do it Hollywood-style? Take the leftover $28 million from the dregs of the Superfund account and put on a reality show!” In “Who needs Superfund when we have reality TV,” Joshua Zaffos considers the EPA’s plan to clean up pollution through a television…
‘Jeopardy’ opinions go the way of the dodo
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Sound science goes sour.” In the 1990s, a small greenish-gray bird with a yellow belly became the mascot for conservationists who were trying to keep cattle out of Southwestern rivers and streams (HCN, 9/15/97: Feds take on a sneaky species). When the U.S. Fish…
Off-roaders smash science
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Sound science goes sour.” Three years ago, a federal court settled a disagreement between the Bureau of Land Management, conservationists and off-road vehicle groups over the fate of a short-lived perennial plant in the pea family (HCN, 12/18/00: Feds fight chaos in a desert…
State gets its way on a national refuge
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Sound science goes sour.” Endangered species management isn’t the only hot-point issue for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Political pressure is also affecting how the agency manages 540 national wildlife refuges across the country. In 1998, the state of Wyoming sued the Fish…
Sound science goes sour
As federal scientists come under the gun from bureaucrats and politicians, some are becoming fed up, and one high-profile biologist has spoken out.
Hear that whistle blow
Last year, Republican strategist Frank Luntz wrote a report, coaching Republicans on how to talk about the environment. Straight Talk is a fascinating, albeit nauseating, read — particularly the section about science. “Americans unanimously believe all environmental rules and regulations should be based on sound science and common sense,” it says. Then, Luntz does a…
Dear Friends
HCN in the spotlight Thanks go out to all the readers who have written e-mails, postcards and letters in recent weeks to comment on the paper’s new look. So far, the reviews have been mostly positive: “GREAT,” “easier to read,” “handsome and easy to handle,” “a job well done,” “I LOVE LOVE LOVE the new…
Colorado Supreme Court turns tide in favor of kayakers
Boaters get to keep water in the rivers while farmers watch in dismay
There’s a better way to clean up the RS 2477 road mess
The West’s public lands face many 21st century problems, including pressure from population growth and energy development. But they also face an old problem — the legacy of the Mining Law of 1866, which granted rights-of-way “for the construction of highways” on federal lands not set aside for other uses. That grant became section 2477…
An inside look at the hardscrabble plains
An image comes to mind at the mention of the High Plains: an empty but picturesque farmhouse, roof sagging like the back of an old horse, porch falling off the foundation, and screen door swaying in the wind. There’s a wide, exposing sky, and an old windmill tilting toward the West. But what happens when…
Genetic engineering turns salmon into fast food
Transgenic superfish may be the next thing to hit supermarket shelves
Is it a farm – or is it a pharmacy?
Western farmers consider the risks and benefits of ‘biopharming’
Put another tank on the fire
While last year’s fires were torching Western lives, homes and trees, their accompanying fire bans were torching something else: the West’s camping plans. “I don’t want to camp without a campfire,” my wife informed me last season, while smoke from the Hayman Fire settled over Denver. Her feelings echoed those of thousands of Western campers…
The Bush administration – Sinister motives, or just ‘veracity-challenged’?
One problem with environmentalists is that they tend to be reformers. They revere Good Government as much as clean air and wild land. This is a mistake, and not only because clean air and wild land can be protected by making deals — often behind those “closed doors” reformers hate — but also because the…
Heard Around the West
COLORADO Isn’t spell-check wonderful? Voilà! The computer makes everything make sense — except when it doesn’t. The city of Thornton, Colo., is probably abashed at the changes apparently wrought by spell-check on its detailed Drought Management Plan. “While thoughts do not occur at regular, predictable intervals, they are inevitable, and in Colorado, thoughts are frequent…
Who needs critical habitat?
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Sound science goes sour.” At the end of May, the Interior Department announced that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was running out of money. Officials blamed the budget shortfall on the agency’s need to comply with court orders brought on by environmentalists’ lawsuits.…
Are minnow scientists still under the gun?
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Sound science goes sour.” The silvery minnow, a two-inch-long fish that’s caused a big splash in the Rio Grande in recent years, used to swim the entire length of the 1,850-mile-long river. Now, its habitat is limited to a 157-mile stretch of river in…