In the early 1980s, a group of activists from a small New England town fought the restoration of the nation’s oldest hydroelectric dam, the Sewalls Falls Dam on the Merrimack River. That battle ended when an April 1984 freshet washed away one-third of the century-old structure. But the fight kicked off a new social and […]
Books
Posted inFebruary 3, 2003: The death of the Super Hopper
Light and love in Wyoming
Before I can review Mark Spragg’s new novel, The Fruit of Stone, I need to perform an exorcism — of a New York Times book review by a guy named Jonathan Miles, whose credentials include Books Columnist for Men’s Journal (one of those magazines that show men how to spend an hour in a fitness […]
Posted inFebruary 3, 2003: The death of the Super Hopper
Dummy up and deal
(Card) dealers are reminded many times … that they are on the bottom of the food chain, where they have to feel fortunate to gather up the crumbs that fall off the table. On the other hand, where else can a person without a high school diploma earn forty to a hundred thousand a year […]
Posted inDecember 23, 2002: In search of the Glory Days
A gilded wrinkle in time
In his first work of historical fiction, planetary scientist William K. Hartmann digs into the history of the American Southwest and finds a unique and compelling mystery. The main character in Cities of Gold is the 16th-century Spanish explorer and friar Marcos de Niza, who was accused of spreading fables about the Southwest’s “seven cities […]
Posted inDecember 23, 2002: In search of the Glory Days
Building off the grid
“If you’re reading these words, it’s because you’re a dreamer. You dream of living where you don’t, and doing things you’ve never done.” Rex and LaVonne Ewing, authors of Logs, Wind and Sun … Handcraft Your Own Log Home … Then Power it with Nature, have written the book they searched for when building their […]
Posted inDecember 9, 2002: Life in the wasteland
Cow-free crowd ignores science, sprawl
The West is tiny when pitted against our imagining of it. We imagined the buffalo would never be extinguished and the beaver would never be trapped out. We imagined big trees would always stand over the next ridge. But in a short time, the mountain men and buffalo hunters and loggers rolled over this alleged […]
Posted inDecember 9, 2002: Life in the wasteland
Ranching advocates lack a rural vision
In the summer of 2000, in the midst of one of the most intense droughts in the Southwest in decades, I was radicalized by fire. During an 11-day backpack across the Gila Wilderness, my companion and I came across one of the rarest events in the cow-burnt landscapes of the West – a gentle fire, […]
Posted inNovember 25, 2002: Planning's poster child grows up
Reports drill Bush energy plan
As the Bush administration pushes its national energy plan, The Wilderness Society has published a report that says the plan’s initiatives are inadequate. The publication, Energy and Western Wildlands, says drilling for oil in U.S. Forest Service-regulated roadless areas will satisfy our national petroleum needs for less than a month, while natural gas reserves on […]
Posted inNovember 25, 2002: Planning's poster child grows up
Putting green Portland on the map
Though Portland has earned a reputation as a green city, with its well-publicized parks, organic markets and light-rail lines, even savvy locals find it challenging to connect the city’s disparate venues. The search just got easier with the Portland Green Map, a map with 800 resources and points of interest for Portlanders who lean green. […]
Posted inNovember 25, 2002: Planning's poster child grows up
A slap of Western reality
“Piety, kitsch, self-importance, sentimentalism – these deadly literary sins seem to thrive on good clean country air,” writes William Finnegan in his foreword to William Gruber’s book, On All Sides Nowhere. Finnegan hails Gruber for avoiding these sins in his memoir of life in northern Idaho. In 1972, Gruber and his wife moved from Philadelphia […]
Posted inNovember 25, 2002: Planning's poster child grows up
A Western water parable
By way of introduction, writer Robert Glennon recounts the tale of Ubar, “the fabled city of ancient Arabia known as ‘the Atlantis of the Sands.’ ” Sometime between 300 and 500 A.D., Ubar’s inhabitants drank dry the aquifer over which their city was built, and the town promptly collapsed into the emptied cavern below. That […]
Posted inNovember 25, 2002: Planning's poster child grows up
A briny time capsule
In 1970, when artist Robert Smithson constructed his 1,500-ft-long spiral-shaped sculpture in the Great Salt Lake, he planned for the natural rise and fall of the water to deposit salt crystals on its black stone base. But “The Spiral Jetty,” which used more than 6,650 tons of basalt, disappeared entirely in 1972, submerged in the […]
Posted inOctober 28, 2002: Shadow Creatures
Yellowstone goes retro
Yellowstone is not only our first national park; in 1922, it was also the nation’s second-largest bus company (right behind Greyhound), operating a fleet of 400 yellow convertible buses for visitors who traveled to the park by rail. But by the 1960s, as automobiles became the preferred transportation to the park, the yellow buses were […]
Posted inOctober 28, 2002: Shadow Creatures
Revisiting Alcatraz
In November 1969, a small group of Native American students and “urban Indians” landed on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay and occupied the former prison for more than 19 months. The “invasion” was a protest of the U.S. government’s Indian policies and programs, and some say it kicked off the fiery “Red Power” movement […]
Posted inOctober 28, 2002: Shadow Creatures
Does dam breaching make cents?
For years, the Hells Canyon dams in Idaho have been the subject of intense debate: Should we breach them and restore the Snake River, or keep the dams and save the local economy? Now, two reports have come out, representing both sides of the issue. After more than 10 years of research, Idaho Power, which […]
Posted inOctober 28, 2002: Shadow Creatures
A rez-to-rez film debut
Chris Eyre, director of Smoke Signals, just finished a one-of-a-kind movie premier for his new film, Skins: For four weeks, Eyre brought Skins to Native American reservations across the country in a mobile cinema trailer, outfitted with 100 seats, surround sound and a concession stand. Based on a novel by Native American writer and poet […]
Posted inOctober 28, 2002: Shadow Creatures
An activist who never let up
Norma Smith’s biography, Jeannette Rankin: America’s Conscience, records the inspiring courage, integrity and optimism of the first woman elected to Congress, dramatically recounting Rankin’s struggles and successes as an activist. Smith, a personal friend of Rankin, writes that as a congresswoman, Rankin’s interests shifted from suffrage to pacifism. She often said, “The first vote of […]
Posted inOctober 14, 2002: Democrats kick back: The politics of growth
Peer pressure
Violence against National Park Service law enforcement employees – including shootings and assaults – increased 940 percent in 2001. And just this past August, Mexican fugitives killed a park ranger in Organ Pipe National Monument in Arizona. These alarming statistics are included in a report released by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a private nonprofit […]
Posted inOctober 14, 2002: Democrats kick back: The politics of growth
The coalbed methane super-prime
Coalbed methane wells are quickly spreading across the West, with the BLM projecting 80,000 to be developed by 2010 (HCN, 9/16/02: Backlash). So the Rocky Mountain Mineral Foundation, a cooperative project of law schools, bar associations and industry associations, is holding a two-day conference in Denver entitled “Regulation and Development of Coalbed Methane.” The program […]
Posted inOctober 14, 2002: Democrats kick back: The politics of growth
Research, Lake Mead style
It’s a research laboratory, it’s an environmental education center, it’s É another houseboat on Lake Mead in Nevada. “Forever Earth” was dedicated at the lake in early October. The floating laboratory is a specially designed, 70-foot luxury houseboat, furnished with water and air quality monitoring equipment and a myriad of other scientific instruments. A research […]