If natural gas was going to try and pick me up at a bar, the encounter would likely go like this: Gas: “I’m low-carbon, cute, and widely available.” Me: “You’re not that cute.” While natural gas keeps getting play as the “bridge fuel” that will help the United States reduce carbon dioxide emissions, it’s no […]
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Wile E. wins again
In February, I reported for High Country News on the possible evidence of wolves at the High Lonesome Ranch, an enormous ranch in northwestern Colorado owned by Texas attorney Paul Vahldiek, Jr. During visits over a seven-month period, biologist Cristina Eisenberg, an Oregon State University doctoral student employed by the ranch, had collected scat and seen […]
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A Grand Disappointment
This May, National Geographic Press published Running Dry: A Journey from Source to Sea Down the Colorado River. It’s by Jonathan Waterman, who lives on 20 acres near Carbondale, Colo. As someone who follows water issues, I wanted to like this book. But I couldn’t. That’s because I ran across so many errors at […]
Posted inRange
Wolf case highlights need for collaboration
Sometimes no news is good news, so I’ll count last week’s relatively uneventful oral arguments as a boon for continued wolf recovery efforts in the northern Rockies. But the mood both inside and outside the U.S. district courthouse in Missoula shows there’s still much work to be done to ensure sustainable wolf management in the […]
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A new chapter in Klamath River Water Wars
Two years ago High Country News’ cover boldly proclaimed Peace on the Klamath. The reference was to the Klamath River, where a collection of federal and state agencies, irrigators, fishing organizations and environmental groups had announced an agreement which the article claimed would end the river’s water wars and result in a future characterized by […]
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He who buys the most names wins
It wasn’t a lack of public support that killed the Fair Mining Tax Initiative in Nevada (see our cover story, “Nevada’s Golden Child”): to the end, the measure to impose a 5 percent severance tax on hardrock mining’s gross earnings had the support of 40 percent of the state, with a roughly a quarter still […]
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Should Salazar resign?
In the wake of a major disaster like the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, resignations like the recent departure of Elizabeth Birnbaum, director of the Minerals Management Service, are a de facto form of political appeasement. Environmental groups aren’t satisfied with Birnbaum’s head, though, and a group of them, led by WildEarth Guardians, are circulating a letter […]
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What about Watt?
Whenever the national media turns its attention to the Interior Department, I can’t help but think of James Watt. Since the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig and the ensuing gush of undersea oil, the agency has certainly been in the spotlight. As the Interior Secretary under the Reagan administration, Watt’s brash quips, unabashed partisan […]
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The great Colorado non-scandal
Last week, I talked to one of my daughters in Oregon, and she asked me about “the Romanoff scandal,” adding that it was much in the news out there and so it must be a really big deal in Colorado. It hasn’t been getting that much play in Colorado — I don’t recall anyone bringing […]
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Cheap grass
Grazing fees aren’t exactly bringing home the bacon … er, beef … for the feds. As we pointed out earlier this year, in the past 40-plus years the fee to graze a cow and calf on public land has gone up a measly 12 cents: from $1.23 to $1.35. That increase hasn’t even come close […]
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California voters OK reform of primary system
The biggest message in Western elections yesterday was California’s Proposition 14 — the ballot measure that aims to reduce the power of hardliners in both political parties. More than 54 percent of the California voters — fed up with extremists who cause gridlock — approved the reform. From now on, if the reform isn’t stalled […]
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Joshua Tree instructs students about climate change
When Joshua Tree National Park Ranger Caryn Davidson announced, “We cannot do much to change the course of climate change,” 30 students moved to the corner of the Black Rock Visitor’s Center under a large paper sign with the words “strongly disagree” written in black magic marker. “Mankind has the intelligence to destroy the world […]
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The summer the dam almost didn’t
“We could as well have been sticking two chewing gum companies together, or merging an anti-vivisection group with a professional society of biology teachers,” wrote the new staff in the Sept. 5, 1983 issue of High Country News, the first published from its new home in Colorado. Click for larger version Ed and Betsy Marston, […]
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Do you need to see a doctor? Queue up.
Part one in a two-part series “I need to see a doctor.” These six words have been written into our programming as modern humans. We wait in line at the clinic. We make an appointment. We know instinctively that this is the one person to see who can check out our health, fix us up […]
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A Culture of Failure
[O]ur investigation revealed an organizational culture lacking acceptance of government ethical standards, inappropriate personal behaviors, and a program without the necessary internal controls in place to prevent future unethical or unlawful behavior. – Office of the Inspector General, U.S. Department of Interior, Investigative Report, MMS Oil Marketing Group, Aug. 19, 2008 As if you needed a […]
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Big Plan on Campus
Not every school has endangered species in attendance. But when you’re the size of Stanford University, you’ve got more than a few enrolled. The university owns over 8,000 continuous acres in two counties, and several cities, much of which is undeveloped oak-studded savanna or forest. Five narrow creeks flow through to the San Francisco Bay, […]
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Colin Peterson, the 2012 Farm Bill and the environment
Lead by Chairman Colin Peterson of Minnesota, the House of Representatives Agriculture Committee held hearings and took testimony in April and May in preparation for a new Farm Bill. Peterson would like to pass a new version of the bill in 2012. The process began with a hearing in DC on April 21st which I […]
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Gulf tragedy highlights need for Native renewables
Six weeks after the blowout, the calamity in the Gulf of Mexico shows no signs of abating – in fact, information emerging from the region continues to reveal new dimensions of the disaster. Media reports suggest that this is the worst environmental catastrophe in history; that long-term damage to the Gulf’s ecosystem will cripple not […]
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The 2012 Farm Bill dance has a sad history
Last week the Agricultural Committee of the US House of Representatives began work on the 2012 Farm Bill with a kick-off hearing. I happened to be in DC at the time and I stood in line with lobbyists for farm groups waiting to get a good seat in the wood paneled hearing room. I was […]
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Regional variations in the GOP
Just as Coastal Democrats differ from Interior Democrats, Republicans come in regional varieties. Or so argues Jacob Weisberg in Slate, an online magazine owned by the Washington Post. He sees three GOP regions: Northeastern, Southern and Western. The Northeastern — the moderate variety — is nearly extinct, though showed signs of life with Scott Brown’s […]