Things have sure changed around here. When I moved to Salida in 1978 to work for the local newspaper, I covered many hearings about roadless areas and their suitability as wilderness. And invariably, the local business community was opposed to “another federal land grab” that would “lock up valuable resources” and “deprive us of a […]
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Posted inRange
Rethinking recreation in grizzly country
By Heather Hansen, Red Lodge Clearing House In far north-central Glacier National Park (GNP), on the U.S.-Canadian border, is a spot called Goat Haunt. It’s a remote area on the U.S. side, accessed by most people via a ferry across Upper Waterton Lake from Canada. Several years ago I was walking from there toward the […]
Posted inGoat
Bark beetles in double-time
Bark beetles have always been part of Western forests, cycling from massive outbreaks into periods of low activity. But the current beetle outbreak is unprecedented – it has killed 30 million acres of lodgepole, ponderosa, jack pine and whitebark so far, in a swath from New Mexico up into Canada and even Alaska. Now, scientists […]
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Carrots for conservation
A new conservation program that gives landowners incentives to improve habitat for lizard and prairie chicken.
Posted inRange
New Keystone XL route could still threaten Ogallala aquifer
By Lisa Song, InsideClimate News “A relatively modest jog around the Sandhills”—that’s how one TransCanada executive describes the Keystone XL oil pipeline’s new route through Nebraska, which is expected to be released in the next few weeks. But while the path will avoid the Nebraska Sandhills—a region of grass-covered sand dunes that overlies the critically important […]
Posted inGoat
Friday news roundup: repeals and drying rivers
As we reach the end of a week that seems rife with repetitions, and as candidates continue to wax and wane in popularity like so many moon cycles, we’re holding steady. Resignations have also been running amok, with some so fed up they leave their company, their zoo or even their empire, but fear not […]
Posted inGoat
Catching up on carbon capture projects
On a recent bike ride home from Paonia’s Paradise Theater, where the evening film was Melancholia, Lars Von Trier’s surreal goodbye to planet Earth, I observed the starry Colorado sky like a born-again tramp and only slightly avoided succumbing to the dolor from the film’s creeping commentary on humanity’s desperate plight against a doomed existence. […]
Posted inRange
Wildlife on working lands get a leg up
By Heather Hansen, Red Lodge Clearing House Rural landowners in the West, and in several states back East, just got a big incentive to protect seven vulnerable species on their property. Working Lands for Wildlife, a new partnership between the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, was announced last week. The money […]
Posted inGoat
That old Bakken forth
There’s an ongoing, half-bitter joke at High Country News that nothing we cover ever reaches true resolution. Flip through newsprint HCN papers from the 1990s and you’re bound to see headlines you could very well read on our blog or in our now-glossy pages today: “Las Vegas seeks watery jackpot,” “Conservatism still reigns in Idaho,” […]
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The mystery of Death Valley’s missing pupfish
Updated 3/12/12 3:01 p.m. The Devil’s Hole pupfish is arguably one of the cooler species around. These tiny iridescent blue fish, just a bit over an inch long, live in one place only, a deep pool in the Amargosa Valley of west Nevada, in a place called Ash Meadows, an outpost of California’s Death Valley […]
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U.S. is net energy exporter! (Psych!)
By now you’ve surely read the headlines that proclaim, “US Nears Milestone: Net Fuel Exporter” or “US Becomes Net Oil-Product Exporter” or, the most ambitious and egregious, “U.S. Becomes Net Energy Exporter.” The stories affixed to the headlines certainly have a triumphant air to them, and why shouldn’t they? After four decades of our leaders […]
Posted inGoat
Friday news roundup: solar flares and hoot owls
Temperatures rose here in our home base of Paonia. Perhaps it was the solar flare. The dawning spring added a tinge of anxiousness to our office seats as thoughts of Frisbee and barbeque and mountain tipi trips distracted our work. Like many small rural towns, Paonia fosters diverse friendships. New social ecology research from Wellesley […]
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Slippery science: avalanche prediction still tricky
We’ve got one month left of prime avalanche season, and in the U.S. there have been 25 fatalities. Here is a vote for no more. Around the West this winter we’ve had relatively light, late snowfall and fluctuating temperatures; and recent fatalities have led to talk of of this year being especially bad for avalanches. […]
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Money flows through it
Gird yourselves Western folk: Those of you who live in Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico — all coveted 2012 presidential swing states — are in for it. You’ll endure the brunt of the negativity that is sure to flood the airwaves during this year’s advertising campaign … er, election season. And, as you’ve probably heard, […]
Posted inGoat
Pipeline pushback
How do you move a fluid natural resource from where it’s extracted to where it’s needed? The obvious answer is a pipeline. Here in the West, pipelines move oil, gas and water – but perhaps we should take a cue from Germany, where in Munich, a 300-meter pipeline carries beer. A few years ago in […]
Posted inGoat
All dogs great and small
There’s a western myth out there that needs to be set right: the myth of the western mountain dog, the notion that to be a great canine companion in the rough and tumble American West, a dog must be robust, daring, unpampered, as comfortable in the rugged backcountry as it is on the couch. A […]
Posted inRange
Expedition Denali, exploring why diversity matters
For the first time a team of African-American climbers is assembling to make a bid for the summit of the tallest peak in North America, Denali. Led by the National Outdoor Leadership School in 2013, this expedition aims to encourage minority youth to enjoy outdoor recreation as part of an active lifestyle as well as […]
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Friday news roundup: Endangered species, oily disappointments
This week was a tough one for news watchers. Our favorite Monkee died, yet another member of that rare, endangered species — the moderate Republican — fell by the wayside, and good manners seem ever on the wane. Even upstart subway station ads are becoming shockingly rude. Despite our general melancholy, we still took heed of tweets […]
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Into the Big Empty
Cross posted from the Last Word on Nothing. I grew up in the Hudson Valley of New York State, and went to college in western Oregon — both beautiful places, beloved by many. But I never knew what it was to love a place until I spent a college summer in southern Utah, where I worked […]
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Fear and loathing in Arizona
Though I can’t recollect exactly what I ate, Dr. Brown had a BLT. Our Texas governor had recently left for the White House. We were having lunch at IHOP on University Street in College Station and talking about black film, rapper Tupac Shakur (she disliked him) and romances gone sour. Dr. Brown taught “African Americans […]