by Laura E. Huggins Earlier this week, the Obama administration released its much-anticipated report on the America’s Great Outdoors initiative. The report is the culmination of 51 listening sessions held over the past year by administration officials to gather ideas on land management and outdoor recreation from across the country. The result, however, is just […]
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The Visual West – Image 7
The west side of the Colorado Rockies has its own unique weather patterns. Winter storms that smother the mountains to the east in dense, gray clouds, often break up over the valleys, leaving seams of clear sky that, at sundown, produce spectacular light shows. This shot includes a lower flank of Grand Mesa above Hotchkiss, […]
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Climate Models Suggest Tough Future for Wolverines
By Kylee Perez, 2-17-11 Wolverines are notoriously difficult to find in the wild. As climate change begins to threaten their dens in the United States, researchers say the animals could become even more rare. New studies from the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the U.S. Forest service suggest that climate change will begin to […]
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Fish (farm) on
If you dine on salmon in the Rockies, you’re used to having fish travel by interstate to your dinner plate. But even if you live on the coast, don’t be surprised if your next succulent fillet actually comes from the other side of the planet. Unless a menu says “wild,” the seafood special probably grew […]
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Will new brucellosis rules let the bison roam?
by Holly Fretwell As hundreds of bison make their annual winter migration out of Yellowstone National Park, most are hazed back into the park. Others are captured, quarantined, and occasionally slaughtered. This year, more than 500 bison are being held by state and federal officials. If the bison test positive for brucellosis, a disease that […]
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Western brain drain
Western states are among the leaders in a category that isn’t a good one to be a leader in — a “brain drain.” That’s the word from 24/7 Wall Street, which bills itself as providing “Insightful Analysis and Commentary for U.S. & Global Equity Investors.” The firm’s study looked at factors like standardized math and […]
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Rants from the Hill: The Ghost of Silver Hills
“Rants from the Hill” are Michael Branch’s monthly musings on life in the high country of Nevada’s western Great Basin desert. A decade ago, when we first scouted the rural high country where we ultimately bought land and built our home, there weren’t many folks out here from whom to get stories of whatever might […]
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Will the EJ legacy of Southwest coal be addressed?
I have been busy this year chasing my two young ones around the house trying to get giddy little happy people to take a few moments from their daily joy to drink some water, gulp vitamins and brush their teeth before bed so they can stay healthy. The need to play is often prioritized over […]
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Coal in the courts
When environmentalists began taking the climate change fight to the courts, their focus was strategically narrow. In the early part of this decade, most climate-related lawsuits focused on taking out the most immediate threat: new coal-fired power plants. It was a logical approach; had a slew of new plants come online, “they would’ve overwhelmed any […]
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The birds and the blades
Driving through rolling hills into California’s Bay Area on Interstate 580, it’s impossible to miss the thousands of windmills spinning in the incessant breeze off the Pacific. The Altamont wind farm, built during the 1970s oil crisis, was an early example of the West’s clean energy potential. But there’s a startling unintended consequence of all […]
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The Visual West – Image 6
I had never really listened to a body of water talk; but this small reservoir at the confluence of the Uncompaghre and Gunnison rivers in Delta, Colo., insisted on a conversation as its ice-covered skin loosened and shifted under a strengthening Spring sun. It’s voice sounded like the deep groans of whales, punctuated by thunderous […]
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Quenching Colorado’s thirst
By Heather Hansen, Red Lodge Clearing House Every winter in Colorado we watch our snowpack levels closely because they tell us how much water we’ll have in reserve for use on our farms and in our homes when the weather warms. Last week’s snowpack update showed that, due to a relatively dry January, supplies in […]
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Washington runoff causes stormwater stomachaches
By Lisa Stiffler Stormwater obviously causes problems for the environment and infrastructure, washing away salmon eggs in torrents of runoff and flooding basements. But does it threaten human health as well? You bet it does, and in ways that might surprise you. Polluted runoff flushes raw sewage across beaches, triggers blooms of toxic algae in […]
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Quieting the Grand Canyon cacophony
In early February, the National Park Service released a draft plan that promises to restore peace and quiet to big chunks of the Grand Canyon by sharply reducing helicopter and airplane tourism. Since 1987, the Park Service has been trying to cut down on noise from sightseeing flights over Grand Canyon and other parks, which […]
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Teaching climate change in coal country
In the Powder River Basin, on a vast, grassy plain between the Big Horn Mountains and the Black Hills, the city of Gillette, Wyoming sits on top of America’s largest coal deposit. So close is the city to the strip mines that students at Campbell County High School can look out the window and see […]
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Artificial Flooding May Help Grand Canyon
By David Frey, 2-09-11 When Glen Canyon Dam blocked the natural flow of the Colorado River to create Lake Powell, it unleashed a torrent of effects downstream, including in the Grand Canyon, where the once-muddy river became a blue waterway where native plants and animals struggled to survive. And they say the artificial flooding will […]
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USDA to farmers: plant genetically modified crops!
The biotech fairy must be whispering a whole lot of sweet nothings (made with genetically-modified sugar) into U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack’s ear. Or something. In late January, the Secretary announced the USDA’s decision to completely deregulate genetically modified alfalfa, allowing it to be planted anywhere, without restriction. Just about a week later, […]
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“What’s good for the rancher is good for the grouse”
Last spring, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determined that the greater sage grouse deserved listing under the Endangered Species Act, but declined to extend federal protections because resources were limited and other species were in more peril. At the time, the decision looked like the kind of politically savvy, centrist maneuver that has become […]
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The Visual West – Image 5
At about 4 p.m. every Winter afternoon, a small herd of mule deer meanders from the sagebrush and snow-clad flanks of Western Colorado’s Mt. Lamborn onto the numerous irrigated pastures below. There, they eat everything they can — dried grass, alfalfa and exotic weeds — to combat the nightly cold and the lingering effects […]
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Caveat emptor with eco-labels
Last September I noted that the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) had drawn the wrong kind of attention when it certified the Fraser River sockeye fishery despite opposition from scientists and environmentalists. The MSC tried to counter its critics, but the controversy instead joined a growing litany of complaints about the substance of its fish labeling […]