When President Obama delivers his State of the Union address tomorrow night he’ll likely focus much of his attention on the economy and jobs — and the lack of them in this country. It’s also expected that the President will further signal a centrist drift. It’s unlikely the President will spend much time discussing the […]
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Posted inRange
Is Recreation in the Rockies Becoming a Bigger Forest Service Priority?
By Steve Bunk, 1-25-11 The West’s outdoor recreational industry—including ski resorts, outfitters, and others—is on track to have a stronger say in how national forests are managed in coming years. A vigorous lobbying effort, in which recreational groups and politicians of Rocky Mountain states played key roles, has had a big impact on new regulations […]
Posted inRange
Health cuts and Indian Country
Journalists like me have played the role of Chicken Little for many years. We have written dozens of stories about the consequences of an election, predicting what will happen after Republicans win and fulfill their promises to drastically cut government. Only very little happened. Sure, there were significant budget cuts and restructuring of programs under […]
Posted inRange
The return of nullification
The “Doctrine of Nullification” may be known only to American history buffs, but that could soon change, for Idaho is about to resurrect it and several other states — mostly in the West — appear poised to follow. Put briefly, the Doctrine holds that states have the authority to declare a federal law unconstitutional and […]
Posted inGoat
Mud Woman Rolls On
Coming January 30, the Denver Art Museum will open the doors to its freshly renovated American Indian galleries, featuring the well-known Santa Clara Pueblo sculptor Roxanne Swentzell among other fine artists. “People think there are no artists on our floor,” curator of native arts Nancy Blomberg says, referring to the stereotype of American Indian artists […]
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Water use: something we Arizonans can control
It’s an understatement to say that we’ve had a pretty grim new year so far here in the Grand Canyon State. First, of course, was the horrifying shooting rampage in Tucson on January 8th. Plenty has been said already about the possible causes and implications of that tragic event, and plenty more hard things need […]
Posted inGoat
The Visual West – Image 3
I can’t seem to sleep; I’m fighting a cold which makes breathing a conscious endeavor, but I think the real cause of my insomnia is the full moon. With a reflective boost from the January snow cover, our dark little corner of rural Colorado glows like a mall parking lot in the center of Denver, […]
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Bring the electrons home
On New Year’s Day, the city of Boulder, Colo., started down a road toward energy independence by decoupling with their electrical utility, Xcel Energy. After three years of negotiations for more green power failed, Boulder let its 20-year franchise agreement with Xcel expire at the end of 2010. When voters in the environmentally-minded city approved […]
Posted inRange
The Most Visited National Parks Could Be Self Sufficient
By Shawn Regan Visitors to national parks got into the parks for free this weekend, the first of 17 days in 2011 the National Park Service is waiving entrance fees. While it’s hard to complain about what seems like a free lunch, the NPS can ill afford such freebies. Its backlog in deferred maintenance projects […]
Posted inRange
Salazar goes wild
By Heather Hansen, Red Lodge Clearing House It wasn’t long after Interior Secretary Ken Salazar was in Denver last month, announcing a new “Wild Lands” policy, that debate over the order flared: will it illegally lock up too much land as “hands off” wilderness, or does it rightfully restore protection for wild tracts of land? […]
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Tribes: The Overlooked U.S. Climate Delegate
Editors Note: This piece is cross posted from Mother Earth Journal, where reporter Terri Hansen writes about indigenous people and the environment. The Cancun dust has settled, though I can’t shake the images of tourist luxury. As one of 10 Earth Journalism Network U.S. Climate Media Fellows I spent two weeks last December reporting the […]
Posted inGoat
Canis lupus update
“People freak out, flat-out freak out, when a wolf shows up.” That’s Douglas Smith, leader of the Yellowstone wolf project, quoted in our story last year (“Prodigal Dogs“) about the return of gray wolves to Colorado. And some people freak out enough to kill roaming wolves, despite the penalty — up to a $100,000 fine […]
Posted inRange
An anti-wilderness knee jerk
I guess it was predictable. No sooner had Interior Secretary Salazar announced that the BLM would manage certain public domain lands for their backcountry values, than the Farm Bureau Federation and its political allies went on the attack. According to them Salazar’s decision amounts to yet another “land grab” by the Obama Administration on behalf […]
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Bad Omens for Arch Coal
State officials in Montana and Washington are cracking down on projects that could expand coal production and trade in several Western states. Arch Coal Inc., a St. Louis-based company with a major stake in the expansion, doesn’t seem the least bit daunted–though maybe they should be. On January 12, the company paid $25 million for […]
Posted inRange
Celebrating Martin Luther King Day
I know how to celebrate most holidays. On Independence Day, I reread the Declaration of Independence and watch fireworks after dark. To bring in the New Year, I try to stay up till midnight. On Thanksgiving I feast with family, and so on. But I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to celebrate on Martin […]
Posted inRange
Rants from the Hill: In Defense of Missiles
“Rants from the Hill” are Michael Branch’s monthly musings on life in the high country of Nevada’s western Great Basin desert. The hill from which I rant is good for many things: to hold our house up high into the teeth of the desert wind and generate an updraft on which harriers kite; to give […]
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Saving Montana’s trees, one ranch at a time
By Heather Hansen, Red Lodge Clearing House When forestry experts in Montana concluded last week that December’s cold snap did little to kill beetle larvae nestled under lodgepole and ponderosa pine bark, it was harsh news for those watching the ever-growing bands of reddish-brown beetle-killed forests across the West. It would take at least a […]
Posted inGoat
In Western water law, “first come, first serve” has limits
Three miles south of the Tongue and Yellowstone Rivers’ confluence near Miles City, Montana, an oxbow parts Roger Muggli’s alfalfa fields from the rough gray hills on the other side. Most days, Muggli walks the diversion dam from the Tongue through ditches that feed water to his flood-irrigated crops. He works the old-fashioned way: no […]
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Putting the 40th Anniversary Blog to Bed
2011 marks 41 years that High Country News has been in existence. While another year is certainly noteworthy, especially in this age of disappearing print publications, it won’t carry the fanfare of the past year. This last year was anything but ordinary here at High Country News. To celebrate the organization’s 40th anniversary, subscribers hosted […]
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The Visual West – Image 2
Snow has the amazing ability to visually soften the land. Here, snow has transformed a small boulder field on Colorado’s Grand Mesa into a sensuous series of drifts. I shot this one in color, but like it better in black and white. For a lively and informative update of this year’s remarkable snow conditions in […]