The Yakama Nation calls for additional remediation of the Willamette River.
Blog Post
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Insects v. orange juice lovers
In the battle of man (and his morning glass of Tropicana) versus a 3-millimeter long, mottled-brown insect, the insect has mostly been winning. Asian citrus psyllid, and the disease it transmits, the uncurable-and-deadly huanglongbing, also known as citrus greening disease, has been cutting through citrus orchards in the major U.S. orange-producing states since 2005, when […]
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Friday news roundup: climate action and water wars
Not all environmentalists have recognized their starvation for fiction depicting climate doom, but when they do, Paolo Bacigalupi has a book for them, “The Drowned Cities.” Bacigalupi told his friend and former High Country News editor in chief Greg Hanscom, in a recent Q&A, about his befuddlement regarding the lack of “ecocollapse” parables in popular […]
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Biofuel crops invade gas tanks, habitat
From bindweed to tamarisk, invasive weeds are a scourge of many Western communities; certainly not something anyone wants more of. Yet a clause in newly proposed bill to promote biofuels energy may open up a loophole that would send federal dollars to pay farmers for planting and growing certain highly invasive plants as bioenergy feedstocks. […]
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Calling all citizen scientists
By Heather Hansen, Red Lodge Clearing House When I was a kid, my three sisters and I were compelled to go on what we called “forced marches” all over the country, from Death Valley (which we dubbed near-to-Death Valley) to Cape Cod National Seashore, where the August sand was so hot that our Jellies—you remember, […]
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Let’s Put a Bounty on Stupid
What is more stupid than bailing the ocean? Paying someone to bail the ocean. Yet it seems the Utah Legislature thinks that’s a good idea. Worse yet, Utah lawmakers are co-opting the state’s sportsmen to pay for this folly. If you are a sportsman anywhere between Alaska and Arizona, watch your wallet. This trend ain’t […]
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All noisy on the Western front
First, a bit of shameless self promotion: High Country News recently launched two brand new monthly podcasts! Rants from the Hill, the audio version of Michael Branch’s essays on life in Nevada’s high desert, which have appeared on our Range blog for the past year or so, will be available at the beginning of each month. […]
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Lessons From the Musselshell: small steps toward recovery
Editor’s note: This is the fifth blog in a series by contributor Wendy Beye, chronicling a restoration effort on Montana’s Musselshell River. While the Musselshell River’s rampaging waters were still receding and ranchers were just beginning to assess the extent of the damage thus revealed, Musselshell Watershed Coalition (MWC) members met to address immediate needs […]
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The burning begins
It’s the beginning of April, and fire season in the West has started early, thanks to a warm, dry winter. The Lower North Fork fire south of Denver, Colo. is now about 90 percent contained; so far it’s burned more than 4,000 acres and killed three residents. The state’s Front Range is suffering through one […]
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Snakes on a plain
Ever heard of The Orianne Society? I hadn’t either until I stumbled across their website recently while searching for “rattlesnakes” and “oil and gas development”. Founded in 2008, The Orianne Society is a relative newcomer to the wildlife conservation scene. Its mission: to conserve the world’s rare and imperiled reptiles and amphibians.
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Rants from the Hill: The leprechaun trap
“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 too! Check out our first episode, an audio performance of this essay, here. Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes or through Feedburner for use in another podcast […]
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Friday news roundup: Dwindling elk herds and the end of new coal plants?
With beautiful, unseasonably warm weather this week, the West’s normally hungry news watchers had trouble keeping our eyes on the computer screens and away from the fruit trees blooming outside. Rallying our strengths, we found birds and elk did not fare well in Western news this week. Our cheer at the climate-conscious news coming from Environmental Protection […]
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Exchanging for public good
A 20-acre parcel of Forest Service land has been managed with special use permits at the base of Mammoth Mountain since 1954. It’s more a forest of development than a forest of conifers and aspen. There are two ski lifts, a snowmobile and snowcat rental service, parking lots, the Mammoth Mountain Inn and a hokey […]
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Should a Washington utility prop up a polluting Montana power plant?
By Jennifer Langston, Sightline.org Attention Puget Sound Energy customers: Don’t feel bad if you missed the connection between your electricity bills and today’s headlines about reducing air pollution in scenic Montana. It’s not obvious. But news that the federal government wants owners of the Colstrip coal plant to invest in expensive new equipment to reduce […]
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Swiss, salt flats and the sublime
Crown Burgers’ parking lot, in downtown Salt Lake City, is filled at lunchtime with the smoky aroma of burgers and grease and exhaust pouring out of the long line of cars waiting for some grub. It was not my choice for dining, but it seemed like the appropriate place to go given the company: A […]
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Is that MRSA in your porkchop?
I’ve not written much about antibiotic use (or overuse) in livestock facilities. It always seemed like one of those perennial important-yet-not-going-anywhere topics where a group of concerned scientists write research-based, impassioned letters to the federal Food and Drug Administration listing all the potential consequences, but the agency never takes action. Which is not to say […]
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Being “green” doesn’t make you a radical
I’m far from the first to notice the increasing popularity of the phrase “radical environmentalist” and its close cousin “environmental extremist” in political discourse lately, but I’m getting darn sick of it. Rick Santorum’s “phony theology” dust-up in February was a prominent national example; as I’m sure you remember, he accused President Obama of adhering to […]
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Friday news roundup: field changes, from football to strawberries
For avid news hounds, this week saw some shake-ups, showing us that we can be ever surprised. Let’s start with the important stuff. TEBOW TRADED FROM THE DENVER BRONCOS! The West will lose Bronco quarterback Tim Tebow, whose “polarizing skill set” brought us some of the most memorable football moments of 2011. Thus, Tebowmania heads eastward, […]
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The superweeds are coming!
The enemy grows among us, and it’s spreading. Worse, its powers stand to increase. Invading legions of superweeds have taken root in our fields. In California, growers battle at least 24 different types of herbicide resistant weeds, in nearly 2,000 sites across more than 200,000 acres. Idaho weed scientists report infestations across 240,000 acres. Around […]
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Desert Water for Coastal Lawns?
If you accept the interpretation of the Santa Margarita Water District — Orange County, California’s second-largest water supplier — nature has been terribly wasteful with water in the desert. Take, for example, the little bit of rain that falls in the far-away Cadiz Valley, near California’s border with Nevada in the Mojave Desert. About four […]