The latest episode of our monthly podcast, West of 100, is ready for listening! It accompanies Greg Hanscom’s recent cover story about Black Diamond CEO Peter Metcalf, and his crusade to turn the outdoor gear industry into a force for nature. As Greg reports, it’s been a process characterized by fits and starts, and the […]
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Posted inGoat
The view from above
This weekend, I sweated up to the top of Oh-Be-Joyful pass, a charmingly named ridge in Raggeds Wilderness near the town of Paonia, where I live. From there, my comrades and I could see mountains upon mountains — and way down below, the green slash of the valley where we live. Forty years ago, the […]
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Republican hypocrisy on gun control … and other musings
You didn’t ask, but if you had, I would’ve told you: … The head of ExxonMobil should step down or be fired, because he’s revealed himself to be a caveman ill-equipped to lead the biggest U.S. oil company in the 21st century. All we need to do is “spend more policy effort on adaptation … […]
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A look inside a clean water regulator’s mind
One of the biggest water polluters in our country is the factory farm. In 2008, a Government Accountability Office report panned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for failing to know where most of these farms were located, let alone if they were releasing their manure into rivers, lakes and streams. So in early 2011, the […]
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Mutualism on the Colorado River
Cross posted from the Last Word on Nothing. This story, I promise, will end with giant deep-sea tubeworms like the beauties above. Please bear with me while I get there via the Colorado River. I’m one of the nearly 40 million people who depend on the Colorado for water, and for most of my adult […]
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On droughts and fires past
At first glance, nothing about the photo seems awry. It shows a truck spraying water on the dirt streets of Silverton, Colo., elevation 9,318 feet, to keep the dust down, a regular occurrence in May or June. This photograph, however, was taken on New Year’s Day. In the background, mountain slopes that regularly see some […]
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Beetle Evolution
The tamarisk leaf beetle is an unlikely citizen of Utah. And until recently it wasn’t found there. The tamarisk-munching bugs that now inhabit Utah, Colorado, and other parts of the West have their roots in Eurasia and hail from northwestern China and Kazakhstan. Scientists brought their ancestors to the U.S. in 2001 and set them […]
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Documenting drought from the ground up
While her neighbors in Nebraska water their lawns, Denise Gutzmer pages through thousands of online articles about crop loss, wild fires and water shortages. As a climate scientist specializing in drought impacts, the waste bugs her. “I have a different sense of the importance of water than my neighbors do,” she said. But aside from […]
Posted inRange
Wheels of change
By Heather Hansen, Red Lodge Clearing House Many people who’ve hiked or run on mixed-use trails have experienced that moment when, lost in your mind, a mountain biker comes tearing down the slope from behind, scaring the spit out of you. I’m not fond of that particular sensation but, while I’ve been on umpteen trails […]
Posted inRange
Disney’s Unlikely Heroine: The Huntress
For decades, Disney cartoons have reliably produced two stereotypes: brutish, cruel hunters and dizzy, passive princesses. But, holy daughters of Diana, times have changed. Maybe Disney’s anti-hunter bias is just the natural result of having a cast full of talking animals. But think about it: there’s Clayton, the evil hunter who nets Tarzan’s family of […]
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Got rabies: skunks are top carrier in Colorado
Skunks get a bad rap. Of course, not every animal douses targets with rancid juice from their anal glands from 10 feet away, so perhaps it is deserved. In Colorado the striped mammals have recently earned a new form of notoriety that adds to their stinky status: They’ve jumped into the lead as the main […]
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What’s up with conservation and the farm bill
On Thursday, the House Agriculture Committee released its version of the new farm bill, a ginormous piece of legislation passed every five years or so that doles out money not only to farmers, but to food stamp recipients, school lunch programs, and conservation efforts. The Senate passed its version in May. The House Ag Committee released […]
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Critical habitat under scrutiny
Endangered leatherback sea turtles can thank the Endangered Species Act for the government’s decision to add a chunk of ocean on the West Coast to their protected habitat earlier this year. In January, the feds expanded the graceful sea dweller’s critical habit to 41,914 salty square miles off California, Oregon and Washington. The leatherback is […]
Posted inRange
Seeing the (overcrowded) forest for the trees
By Heather Hansen, Red Lodge Clearing House I was wandering around Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) last week, absorbing the cooling sight of snowfields and the 30-degree temperature drop earned by more than doubling my elevation from Boulder. On my way along Trail Ridge Road, I stopped at the Farview Curve overlook on the west […]
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Grand Cacophony National Park?
Peace and quiet can be hard to come by at the Grand Canyon. When I camped among the ponderosa pines just outside the park gates last summer, my nightly soundtrack was a chorus of Jeep-towing RVs, the baritone rumble of Harleys and Guns N’ Roses wafting from a nearby campsite. These sounds could be the […]
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A revision to our energy future
Last week, environmentalists settled an agreement with federal agencies over a Bush-era energy management plan, and a U.S. District Court in San Francisco is set to sign off on the agreement. Plaintiffs, including the Center for Biological Diversity, had sued federal agencies over a proposed energy pipeline and power network, part of the Energy Policy […]
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New podcast: Sun Tunnels, hitchhiking, the modern hobo
As loyal HCN readers know by now, we recently published our first-ever special travel issue, taking you to Montana’s lonely, overlooked but still spectacular eastern plains, time-traveling with Craig Childs in south-central Oregon, and to dams, nuclear test sites, renewable energy installations, and oil-themed cafes. The podcast is full of great ear candy: Journalist Scott Carrier […]
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Getting serious about fresh water with Jay Famiglietti
Editor’s note: High Country News will occasionally cross post items from Chance of Rain, a blog by Emily Green, who writes frequently on water in California and the West. Her latest story for High Country News covered Los Angeles County Flood Control District’s bulldozing of old-growth oak forests. Unfortunately, Jay Famiglietti isn’t running for office, unfortunate because […]
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Dear monsoon, please materialize
Explaining what’s driving the big, scary fires consuming Colorado to the L.A. Times, Forest Service ecologist Bob Keane didn’t mince words: “The reason Colorado is burning is they’ve had prolonged drought.” That drought can prime forests for fire is well established, and, well, kind of obvious. Parched plants and trees are easier to ignite than […]
Posted inRange
Rants from the Hill: I brake for Rants
“Rants from the Hill” are Michael Branch’s monthly musings on life in the high country of Nevada’s western Great Basin desert. Rants from the Hill is now a podcast! Listen to an audio performance of this essay, here. You can also subscribe to the podcast in iTunes or through Feedburner for use in another podcast reader. I’ve […]