If you haven’t read Rebecca Clarren’s excellent HCN cover story on the West’s immigrant dairy workers and the on-the-job dangers they face, do it now! If you have read it and want to learn more, you should check out the story’s hefty (and heavy) sidebar: A comprehensive list of deaths and injuries in the West’s […]
Blog Post
Posted inGoat
Fighting the fire
“A healthy, fit firefighter is a safe firefighter.” This is what Stan Palmer, a member of the Northwest Wildfire Coordinating Group’s Safety and Health Working Team tells me when I ask about firefighter fatalities (See the related infographic on the top five causes of firefighter deaths since 1910). Over the years, firefighters in the West […]
Posted inGoat
Pot season in the parks
High Country News reported this phenomenon four years ago, in a piece by Adam Burke called The Public Lands’ Big Cash Crop. But this year the story is making big headlines around the West as huge gardens of marijuana are discovered and destroyed on public land from California to Colorado. The Denver Post reported today […]
Posted inGoat
Classroom innovation
In eastern Idaho, one small rural school recently gained international fame. In late July, the Teton Valley Community School of Victor, Idaho, was recognized as one of eight finalists in the 2009 Open Architecture Challenge: Classroom. The competition, sponsored by Architecture for Humanity, received 400 submissions from 65 countries. Finalists included two other U.S. teams […]
Posted inGoat
Nestle water plan approved
Last week, Nestle received approval to tap mountain spring water and haul it to Denver for bottling and distribution under its Arrowhead label. The approval came from a unanimous board of Chaffee County Commissioners, following months of deliberations and lengthy hearings. Chaffee County, with about 15,000 residents, sits along the Arkansas River in […]
Posted inRange
It’s a great job (except for the benefits)
I’m reading a job announcement for a great gig. It pays $15 an hour. Flexible hours. Important work – and it’s classified as “long-term temporary.” That’s another way of saying: no benefits. In a country that has opted for an “employer-based” health care system this should be the smoking gun; primary evidence that it’s a […]
Posted inRange
Huge Chunks of Land, Changing Hands
The collapse of the housing industry hasn’t been good to log prices. According to a report (pdf) published in June by Northwest Farm Credit Services, log prices are as low as they were in the 1980s and can barely cover the cost of logging. Across the Northwest, timber companies are delaying harvests and mills have […]
Posted inGoat
“Don’t lie for the other guy”
Sponsored by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona, and the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, a new campaign aims to slow the flow of guns bought in Arizona and smuggled into Mexico. “Don’t lie for the other guy” is currently emblazoned on 92 […]
Posted inRange
This Week’s HCN Reader Photo
This week’s reader photo comes from Flickr contributor T. R. Baker, and features Nevada, in black and white. You can add your photos to HCN’s Flickr photo pool. We’ll pick one to feature each week on our Web site. Don’t forget to tag them “highcountrynews.” You can also check out last week’s selected reader photo […]
Posted inRange
Birdwatching in the desert
Lightning flares in the bruised afternoon sky over the Arizona-New Mexico line. Wind scrapes across the grey-green flats from the west, flinging a fistful of gray birds through the air. Purple rags of cloud stream ahead of the storm. A chill strikes the desert. Thunder claps. I take cover under the overhung cut bank of […]
Posted inGoat
Friends of the Forest
What do sixty volunteers, the U.S. Forest Service, Trout Unlimited and MillerCoors have in common? They’re all participating, in one way or another, in the Clear Creek restoration project at the Arapaho National Forest this Saturday, as part of the National Forest Foundation’s third annual Friends of the Forest Day. Other partners include the National […]
Posted inRange
Seeing the Forest for the… Wildlife?
While Americans love animals—half the nation are pet owners and billions of dollars are spent on wildlife and bird watching each year — our animal affinity seems to wear a little thin when it comes to nitty-gritty policy debate. But policy is what allows forests to be clear cut and hazardous mining runoff to end […]
Posted inRange
The health care debate comes home
If you pay attention at all to the network news, you’re no doubt aware of controversy surrounding August Recess town hall meetings which Members of Congress have been conducting in their districts. The news reports I’ve seen show folks making angry accusations and claiming that aspects of health care bills which have been moving forward […]
Posted inGoat
Rural renaissance redux
It wasn’t really my intention, but I was part of the “rural renaissance” of the 1970s when, for the first time in generations, many rural areas starting gaining population. In 1974, my wife and I, both Baby Boomers, moved from the civilized Front Range piedmont of Colorado to a rather remote rural area — […]
Posted inGoat
Clash along the Columbia
Ten simple words. For the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde in western Oregon, ten words introduced into an existing law would restore their relationship with the land upon which their ancestors lived. Other tribes, however, consider the move risky. Last month, Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-OR) introduced a bill in Congress that would add the Grand […]
Posted inGoat
Why West?
In an attempt to clear the craziness clouding the health care debate and drum up support for a public option, President Obama parachuted into unfriendly territory last Saturday—and not for the first time. It was his second visit to Grand Junction, Colo., in conservative Mesa County, where John McCain spanked him last year, 64 to […]
Posted inRange
Clearcutting and climate change
Late last week the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit in California challenging approval of 400 acres of clearcuts in Northern California’s Sierra Mountains. In the press release announcing the lawsuit, the Center claims that approval of the clearcutting by California’s Board of Forestry violated California law which requires that state agencies analyze […]
Posted inRay
Obama does Montana … and vice versa
Preparing to be in a Montana town hall with the president of the United States on August 14, 2009: First think about what to wear. Faded jeans? That would be Montana-ish. But notice a hole worn right though the old denim. So not the faded jeans. Maybe the dark blue jeans that haven’t faded yet […]
Posted inGoat
Obama in Grand Junction
Promoting his health care package, President Obama will appear Saturday, August 15 in Grand Junction, Colorado, where some of Western Colorado’s angry natives are primed — by right-wing talk show host Glenn Beck and others — to vent their opposition, not just to Obama’s health care proposal but to his presidency as a whole. Some […]
Posted inRange
Necessary Journeys
Yesterday my friend C. crossed into Nogales to help deported immigrants deal with their staggering doses of bad luck. A river runner and wilderness guide, she possesses advanced first-aid skills that come in handy along the border. While coyotes and drug runners circled the open-air humanitarian aid station looking for new recruits, C. wrapped ankle […]