During the rising tide of environmentalism in the 1960s, one man earned the title of the movement’s “most durable foe.” Historian Steven C. Schulte’s new book, Wayne Aspinall and the Shaping of the American West, profiles the congressman who unabashedly promoted the development of the West’s public lands and shaped American environmental policy. For more […]
Books
Posted inMarch 29, 2004: Who Will Take Over the Ranch?
Asbestos beyond Libby city limits
Since Andrew Schneider and David McCumber broke the story of Libby, Mont., in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, what began as local news about miners and their families dying of asbestosis has mushroomed into a national health disaster. Now, in their new book, An Air That Kills, they expose the asbestos industry’s deadly impact on the lives […]
Posted inMarch 29, 2004: Who Will Take Over the Ranch?
Calendar
Want to get to know the Grand Canyon a little better? Then take a class with the Grand Canyon Field Institute, the nonprofit partner of the Grand Canyon National Park. Throughout the year, the Institute offers classes such as “Women’s Rim-to-Rim Backpack,” “Wilderness First Responder Training” and photography and archaeology trips. For more information or […]
Posted inMarch 29, 2004: Who Will Take Over the Ranch?
Living with the wild
When houses, driveways and garages colonize once-remote locales, the critters already living there might become muted, but they don’t go away. In The Raccoon Next Door: Getting Along With Urban Wildlife, Gary Bogue, former curator of the Lindsay Wildlife Museum in Walnut Creek, Calif., tells how to co-exist with the wild animals, birds and insects […]
Posted inMarch 15, 2004: The New Water Czars
A new look at Yellowstone
“Wholly an unattractive country. There is nothing whatever in it, no object of interest to the tourist, and there is not one out of twenty who visits for purposes of observation this remote section.” So declared one congressman in the late 1800s, dismissing the valleys of Yellowstone. What a difference a century can make: Today, […]
Posted inMarch 15, 2004: The New Water Czars
Calendar
Head to San Francisco for the 15th Global Warming International Conference and Expo on April 20-22. Sessions will range from “Climate Change Mitigation” to “Extreme Events and Impacts Assessments” to “Agricultural and Forestry Resources Management.”http://globalwarming.net 630-910-1551 The Upper Green River Valley Coalition is sponsoring a conference in Pinedale, Wyo., on March 26-27. “Wells, Wildlife and […]
Posted inMarch 15, 2004: The New Water Czars
Heroes for the wild
Know someone who’s worked tirelessly to protect the West’s wild places? Nominate him or her for a “Wilderness Hero” award. The program, which began last year, will honor two volunteers each month leading up to the 40th anniversary of the Wilderness Act this September. Award sponsors include The Campaign for America’s Wilderness, the Sierra Club, […]
Posted inMarch 15, 2004: The New Water Czars
Can’t we all just get along
“Mud wrestling” might be the best term for what happens when we try to hash out messy environmental issues, says a recent report from the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado-Boulder. But the West is full of talented scientists who can help pull us out of the ring if we’d just […]
Posted inMarch 1, 2004: The Last Open Range
Ski areas get greener
Western ski areas got their best grades yet in the 2003-2004 Ski Area Environmental Scorecard — but they weren’t spectacular. The median score for the 76 ski areas, graded by the Ski Area Citizens’ Coalition, was a C+. Tops were Colorado’s Aspen (93.9) and Buttermilk (93.3), which earned high marks for being environmentally conscious. Vail […]
Posted inMarch 1, 2004: The Last Open Range
Resurrected memories of a prison camp
If we haven’t already forgotten our nation’s World War II-era internment camps, we speak of them only in hushed tones. Even in the eight Western communities where the camps once stood, their memory is lost, rolled up and stowed away like old chain-link fence. A new exhibit touring North Dakota, “Snow Country Prison: Interned in […]
Posted inMarch 1, 2004: The Last Open Range
Calendar
San Diego will be hosting the Annual West Coast Conference on Soils, Sediments and Water on March 15-18. The conference is sponsored by the Association for Environmental Health and Sciences; hot topics include bioremediation, brownfields, military base cleanup and pesticides. www.aehs.com . 413-549-5170 Find out whose money your lawmaker is spending: Check out the Center […]
Posted inMarch 1, 2004: The Last Open Range
Reading for — and about — a rainy day
Here in the Northwest, you can accumulate large quantities of the following: rainwater, unemployment and local literature. The folks at Oregon Quarterly (the University of Oregon’s magazine) collect the third. Last year, they ransacked their archives and created a new literary record of the region, Best Essays NW. Most of the 27 essays read like […]
Posted inFebruary 16, 2004: Courting Disaster
Tongue-tied in the Southwest
There’s no denying that some Spanish speakers get frustrated with the dialect that’s spoken in New Mexico and southern Colorado. Take, for instance, the Jemez Mountains. Anyone who’s sat through a high school Spanish class would say “HEM-es.” Don’t try that in New Mexico: Those are the “hay-mez” Mountains. Luckily, Rubén Cobos, a professor for […]
Posted inFebruary 16, 2004: Courting Disaster
Calendar
The Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute’s 13th annual land-use conference will be held in Denver on March 11 and 12. Guest speakers include Carolyn Raffensperger, director of Science and Environmental Health Network, and Hal Clifford, executive editor of The Orion Society; panels range from “Land Use Decisions and Water Quality” to “Smart Growth, Nimbyism and […]
Posted inFebruary 16, 2004: Courting Disaster
Big cats on the block
In The Beast in the Garden, David Baron weaves a compelling parable of man and animal, of the Old West and the New West, of wildlife that is no longer wild. Looking back at the history of mountain lions in Boulder County, Colo., over the past 150 years, he writes about our changing relationship with […]
Posted inFebruary 2, 2004: Mending the Nets
Indian poll power
How many American Indian voters does it take to elect an official? The answer should matter to every candidate in this election year, since American Indian votes could swing elections in districts throughout Montana, South Dakota, New Mexico, Nevada and Arizona. NativeVote 2004, spearheaded by the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), an organization of […]
Posted inFebruary 2, 2004: Mending the Nets
Calendar
The 22nd Annual Salmonid Restoration Conference, “Collaborative Watershed Efforts for Salmonid Recovery,” will be held in Davis, Calif., March 17-20. Workshops, field tours and technical sessions will focus on topics affecting recovery efforts for salmon and steelhead and associated ecosystems locally, regionally, and globally. www.calsalmon.org 707-223-1770 The Society of Petroleum Engineers International Conference on Health, […]
Posted inFebruary 2, 2004: Mending the Nets
Restoration evolution
“Ecological restoration” has a good ring to it. So good, in fact, that the two words are used by everyone from the environmentalists at The Nature Conservancy to the heads of America’s biggest corporations. While conservation groups look to restoration as a way to hasten the recovery of native ecosystems harmed by agriculture or industry, […]
Posted inFebruary 2, 2004: Mending the Nets
Renewable energy made simple
For most people, living with the energy supplied by Mother Nature is more noble aspiration than practical reality. But thanks to Rex Ewing’s new book, Power With Nature: Solar and Wind Energy Demystified, everyone who embraces renewable energy in theory but not in practice, is now officially out of excuses. Ewing tackles a complex, technical […]
Posted inJanuary 24, 2005: Written in the Rings
A bear book that tames the fear factor
“Wyoming is bear country,” Tom Reed writes in Great Wyoming Bear Stories, a book of yarns from the wild high county in and around Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks — land he calls the grizzly bear’s “last, best stronghold.” Unlike the authors of the many “slasher” bear books on the market, Reed writes with […]