A personal obsession leads the author into a world of scientists, wildlife rehabilitators and eccentric artists who are fascinated by the West’s road-killed wildlife.
Also in this issue: Some of the less-publicized political appointments of George W. Bush’s second term will have a huge effect on the West – particularly the people who will direct the EPA, and the departments of Energy, Agriculture and the Interior.
Enough is enough!
Opening up wilderness areas, even “de facto” wilderness areas, to mountain bike use will set a bad precedent for the future of wilderness management in this country (HCN, 11/22/04: Racetrack). Allowing mountain bike use defies the basic principles of the 1964 Wilderness Act. The comment made by Gary Sprung that “cycling in the backcountry is…
Not so proud to be an American
The essay “American — and proud of it” by Geneen Haugen suggested that “the stunning fact that Americans have preserved habitat at all is evidence of an emerging ecological vision” (HCN, 11/8/04: American — and proud of it). The optimist in me would like to agree. However, setting aside large areas of natural environment means…
Hispanic support for Prop 200 wasn’t a surprise
Your small mention of Proposition 200 in Arizona was misleading (HCN, 11/22/04: Racetrack). Just to set the record straight, the proposition only covers state welfare benefits under our Title 46 and does not apply to federally mandated public benefits such as schooling or emergency health care. And since 4,000 illegal immigrants a day cross just…
Enviros are not responsible for Nevada wilderness deal
Felice Pace’s and Janine Blaeloch’s letters give an entirely false impression of the conservation movement in Nevada (HCN, 12/20/04). The Lincoln County Bill was a public-lands bill that had the support of the five legislators from Nevada. It would have passed, whether or not any wilderness was included in the bill. The bill was not…
Ranchers and enviros unite!
A comment on Suzanne Stone’s thought that “wolves are a drop in the bucket” as far as impact on livestock (HCN, 12/6/04: Dear friends): The Soulen Ranch of western Idaho lost 322 sheep to wolves during the summer of 2004. The ranching and environmental community should not be at odds with each other. Ranchers do…
Cleanup effort is no ‘flop’
HCN reported that “the first major test of the stricter mining trust fund standards established during the Clinton administration has been a flop” (HCN, 12/20/04: Followup). This is in reference to a recent BLM decision relating to the Phoenix Mine project near Battle Mountain, Nev. In fact, Newmont is being held to the highest standard…
Follow-up
Employees at New Mexico’s nuclear weapons lab may soon have new bosses. After Los Alamos National Laboratory suffered repeated financial and security scandals, outgoing U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham announced that the lab’s contract, held by the University of California since 1943, was up for grabs (HCN, 11/24/03: New Mexico goes head-to-head with…
Everyday objects and extraordinary journeys
The word “relic” conjures up a host of connotations, from human remains to a historic souvenir. It can denote a custom from the past, the remnants of an ancient language, or a fragment of a whole. It can represent the last of a dying species, or an indefatigable survivor. > —Jack Nisbet Northwestern writer Jack…
Klamath farmers face a new threat
In 2001, farmers in the Klamath Basin marched against the federal government when it withheld irrigation water to protect endangered salmon and suckers (HCN, 8/13/01: No refuge in the Klamath Basin). But ultimately the fish may not be to blame if the crops in this arid landscape dry up. In January, the power company PacifiCorp…
Forcing nomads to farm — the Utes’ sad story
In “The Utes Must Go!” Peter R. Decker explores how fear-mongering politicians and settlers suppressed the Ute bands in the 1800s
California’s farmers ditch dirty diesel pumps
California’s two biggest utility companies want to help farmers ditch their polluting diesel pumps to comply with air-quality crackdowns. In the process, the companies stand to gain thousands of new customers. In November, Pacific Gas and Electric Company and Southern California Edison submitted a proposal to the California Public Utilities Commission — which authorizes all…
The Pine Island Paradox
The Pine Island Paradox Kathleen Dean Moore 251 pages, hardcover, $20. Milkweed Editions, 2004. Philosopher Kathleen Dean Moore’s latest book is like a basket of seashells and pinecones: Each essay is a precise, self-contained bit of truth. Her central theme, that the well-being of humans cannot be separated from that of the rest of the…
Wildlife refuge may still be radioactive
Scientists may have discovered a radioactive “hot spot” at a future wildlife refuge surrounding the former Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant. The plant, northwest of Denver, produced plutonium triggers for nuclear weapons for more than 30 years. The U.S. Department of Energy and Kaiser-Hill, the company contracted to clean up the site, plan to dispose…
Mountain Harmonies
Mountain Harmonies Howard L. Smith 192 pages, hardcover, $23.95. University of New Mexico Press, 2004. In Mountain Harmonies, Howard Smith offers more than musings on environmental philosophy: He crafts a useful guidebook of sorts that takes readers from Glacier National Park to New Mexico’s Gila Wilderness. Whether you travel a thousand miles or two blocks…
Locals flush proposed kitty litter mine
A recent court ruling could give local communities more control over mining projects on federal land. On Dec. 30, a Nevada district court judge ruled that Washoe County has the authority to deny a company’s proposal to mine clay for cat litter near the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony. In 1999, the Chicago-based Oil-Dri Corporation announced plans…
California Poem
California Poem Eleni Sikelianos 200 pages, paperback, $16. Coffee House Press, 2004. “The dental imprint of California / is gravelly, epileptic, spasm / of a sea-born bungled broken Coastal Range of ridges & spurs with localized names …” writes California native Eleni Sikelianos in her new book full of poems, funky photos and collages, and…
Los Angeles dumps coal deal
Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn has directed the city’s Department of Water and Power to pull out of a deal to expand a coal-fired power plant in Delta, Utah. The funds earmarked for the project — which would have provided 2 percent of the city’s power — will instead be used to meet the mayor’s…
Developers push ahead with mammoth ski village
Feds say they’re largely powerless to regulate impacts of ‘The Village at Wolf Creek’
Heard around the West
THE WEST Hunting is coming to the Internet. A Texas entrepreneur plans to offer online hunting that isn’t virtual — it will have real impact. John Underwood, an auto body estimator, wants to import exotic animals, including wild pigs, Barbary sheep and Indian blackbuck antelopes, to his 330-acre ranch. There, he’ll set up Web cams…
‘Redneck liberal’ defends a hard-to-love landscape
“I want to see people enjoy this country the way it was meant to be enjoyed, the way God created it,” says Tim Faber, speaking about Montana’s arid, rough-hewn Missouri River Breaks. “It’s a place like no other place in the world.” Faber grew up on a cattle ranch in the Bear’s Paw Mountains east…
Roadkill statistics
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Caught in the Headlights.” 4 million Miles of roads in the United States. 226 million Number of vehicles registered in the United States. 23 trillion Vehicle miles traveled in the United States in 2002 6.3 million Number of automobile accidents annually in the United…
Caught in the Headlights
A personal obsession leads one woman into a world of scientists, wildlife rehabilitators and eccentrics who are mesmerized by the often bloody relationship between wildlife and roads
Reawakening our wild humanity
I stepped onto the front porch to the bugling of an elk early one morning this week. As the eerie fluting carried over the gray, frozen hayfield, something fired briefly in my brain — perhaps some ancient instinct dulled by the years I’ve spent inside buildings, staring at computers, or behind the wheel of a…
Bush’s second-term shake-ups
The political appointments you don’t hear about — and how they affect the West
The BLM wields fork and spatula over the West’s wildlands
To my jaundiced and hungry eye, the federal Bureau of Land Management, which manages oil and gas development on public lands in the West, is looking more and more like a McDonald’s franchise. I first noticed it last January during a trip to Denver. At the McDonald’s in Glenwood Springs, Colo., the sign under the…
Split-estate rebellion: Ranchers take on energy developers
By threatening to bring the fight to voters, landowners may force the Legislature to regulate drilling
Prowling the back spaces of the West
The drive from Salt Lake City to the Nevada border feels like a ride in a not-too-seaworthy sailboat. Long-haul rigs blast past me, leaving my rickety little four-door swaying in their wakes. The flat, briny waters of the Great Salt Lake reach south toward the highway, threatening to rise up and reclaim their ancient territory.…
Dear friends
NEW INTERNS “This is surreal,” says new High Country News intern Julie McCord of HCN’s hometown, the coal miner’s haven of Paonia, Colo., pop. 1,500. Julie was born in Jamaica and has lived in Chicago, Toronto, Panama, Mexico, Japan and Washington, D.C. She comes to us from Manhattan, where she earned her master’s degree in…