We all know that irresponsible off-road vehicle use causes major damage to public lands. The June 8 HCN contained a story about Western states passing laws to more strongly regulate offroaders (“States rev up ORV rules“). KUNC’s Kirk Siegler recently interviewed associate editor Jodi Peterson about that story, focusing on the new laws and the […]
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Beaver and restoration – the rest of the story
The June 8th HCN edition included an excellent article on the potential for beaver to restore western watersheds and, in the process, improve water supplies. The piece, however, omitted a few important caveats: The movement to make a partnership with the Beaver People in order to restore western watersheds is welcome. But it is not […]
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Airports killing wildlife to prevent accidents
Today reports from two far-flung airports illustrate the ongoing conflict between modern human culture and animals simply doing what they do. In New York City — five months after Capt. “Sully” Sullenberger safely landed a US Airways jet in the Hudson River after hitting a flock of geese — some 2,000 Canadian geese living around […]
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What dreams shale come
Yesterday I read, “What every westerner should know about oil shale,” a report published last week by the University of Colorado’s Center of the American West. It left my ears ringing with a sort of dull reverberation that, while it lasted, actually seemed to be getting louder. I think that ringing sound had something to […]
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Going it alone
It’s fairly common knowledge that the poor, though they’ve released far less than their share of the world’s greenhouse gasses, will feel the nastiest effects of climate change. Usually, we take “the poor,” in this case, to mean residents of Tuvalu, Bangladesh, Papua New Guinea or other developing states whose governments lack the resources or […]
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An end to the “Snow War”?
Thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court, Arizona skiers may soon be spared the inconvenience of living in one of the Union’s warmest and driest states. Last week the high court removed the final legal hurdle blocking Arizona Snowbowl from making artificial snow with reclaimed sewage effluent on the San Francisco Peaks—a plan which 13 southwestern tribes […]
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Landscapes of power
A few miles north of Rock Springs, Wyoming, a big interpretive sign is titled, Landscapes of Power. Yes, the landscapes are powerful: The massive piece of earth that seems just to have awakened and violently ripped itself out of the land up the Green River from Vernal, Utah; or the cloud enveloped Wind River range, […]
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2008 wildfire redux
Recently I had the opportunity to backpack in Northern California’s Yolla Bolly-Middle Eel Wilderness. The wildflowers were wonderful and among the many birds I got a close up look at a Lazuli Bunting. One day I climbed Black Rock Mountain which provides spectacular 360 degree views – including a view of several of last summer’s […]
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Adobe Town drilldown
The tussle over Adobe Town continues. This spectacular chunk of Wyoming’s Red Desert has been in the sights of energy companies for years (see our story The desert that breaks Annie Proulx’s heart) . But the area has also been designated “Very Rare or Uncommon” by the state, in recognition of its unique geology, fossils, […]
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Government hunters become poachers?
Among the subsidies we taxpayers provide for agriculture, especially stock-raising in the West, is an agency euphemistically called “Wildlife Services,” which sounds like an organization that provides salt licks or improves habitat or something along that line. But it’s the old Animal Damage Control agency under a new name. It has the same […]
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What the FRAC do we know?
Drilling for natural gas really hasn’t been the most natural process. Numerous reports of groundwater contamination have skeptics and homeowners worried over hydraulic fracturing, a process used in nine out of 10 natural gas wells in the U.S. But finally, some proposed legislation to oversee the drilling: Representatives in both the House and the Senate […]
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A woolly problem
Domestic sheep and bighorn sheep don’t mix. Or at least they shouldn’t, say most biologists. The tame sheep tend to infect their wild cousins with fatal pneumonia. In Idaho’s Payette National Forest, the Forest Service has even banned grazing in areas where flocks might encounter bighorns (see our story Sheep v. Sheep). Recent developments have […]
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Unprecedented poaching in California
According to officials at the California Department of Fish and Game, the illegal sale of wildlife and “wildlife parts” generates something like $100 million per year — and it’s going up, as hard economic times have forced the state to cut back on game wardens. Only 230 wardens regulate 159,000 square miles of land, including […]
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Is humanitarian aid really “littering”?
In summer, the southern Arizona desert is among the most merciless environments on earth. Temperatures spike at 120 degrees. Shade is scarce. Each year hundreds of undocumented migrants die trying to walk north from Mexico. The grisly accounts of survivors and the quickly-mummified evidence on the ground suggest that a cooked brain and water-starved sensory neurons […]
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Sunshine and water
The solar-electric generating systems in my area are “photo-voltaic.” When photons from the sun strike certain materials, they give off electrons, which are then channeled to the electric grid. There’s another way to generate electricity from sunshine: Concentrate the solar rays to heat a fluid that in turn boils water, resulting in steam […]
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Whoosh! Down it comes!
I spend a fair amount of time at the HCN office reading online news, and writing blogs like this one. It’s easy, when surrounded by abstractions, to feel a little bit cut off from what makes things work around here in Paonia. One quick antidote to that feeling is to go down to the river on my […]
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No entrance fees
OK, so the Park Service didn’t put out a press release about how they’ll start allowing certain firearms in parks. But thankfully, they put one out about a few fee-free weekends this summer. That’s right, you won’t pay to enter “America’s Best Idea” on these weekends: June 20-21, July 18-19 and August 15-16. U.S. Interior […]
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Mixups over tribal IDs
From Walmart to the U.S.-Canadian border, Indians are encountering problems with their tribal IDs — partly due to new laws which went into effect June 1, partly due to bureaucratic glitches, and partly because of the ongoing failure of the U.S. government to treat Native Americans fairly. HCN reported on this problem in a story […]
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May Bats Prevail
Back in March, I wrote a post about the grisly lawnmower effect wind turbines can have on bats. Well, there’s some good news: a new study conducted by Iberdrola Renewables and independent conservation group Bat Conservation International found that bat death can be reduced by more than 70 percent if the turbines are turned off […]
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Give me your huddled masses…
If America is the land of beckoning opportunity, Mexico is the land of bargain operations — and cheap dental care, and sensibly-priced treatments for chronic illness. At least, that’s what Mexico is to about a million Californians each year. A group of researchers from the University of California at Los Angeles recently added another scuff […]