The first few tracks of The Diversity of Animal Sounds take me from the enthusiastic song of a male satin bowerbird in Australia to the deep-toned, primordial growls of the American alligator to the unabashed mating grunts of a jaguar. I am amused, and then deliciously frightened, and finally, slightly embarrassed – I keep the […]
Books
Posted inDecember 17, 2001: Bad moon rising
The Buffalo War: a maelstrom of Western issues
If there were one emblem of Western history, it might be the American buffalo. In Matthew Testa’s new documentary, The Buffalo War, that emblem becomes the focal point for an impassioned controversy. “The buffalo provide a mirror,” says Testa. “They reflect how we see ourselves and our place in wilderness. And that reflection is incredibly […]
Posted inDecember 17, 2001: Bad moon rising
Economics with a heart, but no soul
In 1996, Thomas Michael Power wrote Lost Landscapes and Failed Economies, an economic study of the Interior West, in which everything that happened was for the good. If the West were not the best of all worlds, it was as good as life would get on the coasts. We had half the money, but twice […]
Posted inDecember 3, 2001: Closing the wounds
Critical mass
Radiation workers in Ottawa, Ill., “downwinders” in Utah, unsuspecting veterans of the Gulf War – these are among the populations profiled in Learning to Glow: A Nuclear Reader. In the words of editor John Bradley, the anthology offers a glimpse into stories that “have been largely ignored, dismissed or suppressed.” Certain sections will be familiar […]
Posted inDecember 3, 2001: Closing the wounds
A water tale to set you on fire
Documentary filmmaker Drury Gunn Carr doesn’t seem to mind a little violence. Past projects with fellow producer Doug Hawes-Davis record coyote extermination (HCN, 7/31/00: Killing Coyote), wild horse harassment (HCN, 8/13/01: On the trail of an “exotic” native) and prairie dog shooting (HCN, 1/18/99: Another dog done gone) with a grim, unflinching eye. Thankfully, Gunn […]
Posted inDecember 3, 2001: Closing the wounds
Friendship in the Sagebrush West
When I think “anthology,” I usually think boring compilation or shallow “Best of” CD. But this year, three Western women have pulled together an anthology of writing that reminds me more of my favorite mix tape. In Woven on the Wind, editors Gaydell Collier, Linda Hasselstrom and Nancy Curtis unleash an outpouring of new writing […]
Posted inDecember 3, 2001: Closing the wounds
Trash talk
It would be a blessing if it were possible to study garbage in the abstract, to study garbage without having to handle it physically. But that is not possible. Garbage is not mathematics. To understand garbage you have to touch it, to feel it , to sort it, to smell it. You have to pick […]
Posted inDecember 3, 2001: Closing the wounds
A refreshing view
If there’s anything everyone can agree on about grazing in the West, it’s that livestock’s influence on the land has been ubiquitous. Biologists Carl and Jane Bock have spent much of their lives studying the ecology of one of the few exceptions, an 8,000-acre short-grass prairie in southern Arizona. In their thoughtful new book, The […]
Posted inDecember 3, 2001: Closing the wounds
Powell’s enduring teachings
What remains so astonishing about John Wesley Powell is that someone whose policy recommendations were almost totally ignored while he was alive should continue to command the attention of so many Western observers and decision makers a century after his death. Powell’s career studying the West included expeditions into the Rocky Mountains and, most notably, […]
Posted inNovember 5, 2001: Wyoming's powder keg
Pedal where Lewis and Clark paddled
In 1976, a time when bikes were still mostly for kids and cross-country cycling was virtually unheard of, a few friends got together to map a bicycling route across the U.S. in celebration of the nation’s bicentennial. Twenty-five years and 25,000 miles of bike trails later, the group, the Adventure Cycling Association, is attempting to […]
Posted inNovember 5, 2001: Wyoming's powder keg
All’s fair in smog and waste?
Ever wonder if being a renter increases your risk of cancer from hazardous air pollutants? Or whether your income level correlates to how far you live from a Superfund site? Now, by entering your ZIP code into a new Web site, you can get answers to questions like these, based on data collected from your […]
Posted inNovember 5, 2001: Wyoming's powder keg
Utah’s flower child
Flower aficionado Paul Ames is no pansy: Gathering wildflower seeds under a Utah sun is hot, back-breaking work. Besides, he dislikes the pansy. It and all exotic flowers, he believes, are pampered intruders that drink too much water and don’t belong in a desert state. For the past three years, Ames has been a champion […]
Posted inNovember 5, 2001: Wyoming's powder keg
Buying into salmon recovery
Shopping smart just became a way to help imperiled Northwest salmon. The new Chinook Book is the region’s first salmon-friendly resource and coupon guide to restaurants, recreation, food and household products. Created by the Celilo Group, a Portland, Ore.-based environmental consulting firm, the $18 book contains $5,000 worth of coupons for products like soaker hoses, […]
Posted inNovember 5, 2001: Wyoming's powder keg
Curriculum for a desert classroom
Nearly a decade ago, Christine Beekman of the National Park Service stepped outside of the visitor center classroom and into the desert of southeast Utah, leading a boisterous third-grade class into a maze of sandstone formations. She organized a game designed to teach the students about predator-prey relations in ecosystems, dividing the kids into groups […]
Posted inOctober 22, 2001: Healing the Gila
Good Neighbor Handbook
Has your once-peaceful town been overrun by trophy homes, off-leash dogs and transplanted neighbors that just don’t seem to care? In eastern Washington, the Methow Conservancy is taking steps to prevent these sorts of unintended excesses. They’ve published the Good Neighbor Handbook: A Guide for Landowners in the Methow Valley. Authored by former HCN intern […]
Posted inOctober 22, 2001: Healing the Gila
Grassfires burn bigger
In Montana’s Gallatin National Forest this past summer, rays of sunshine filtered through pine trees, diffusing in the smoky haze produced by ravenous flames. While such scenes make for alluring photographs and dramatic headlines, a new study says that wildfires in national forests account for less than 15 percent of acreage burned this year to […]
Posted inOctober 22, 2001: Healing the Gila
Remembering internment in Idaho
For just over three years, between August 1942 and October 1945, more than 10,000 Japanese Americans were unwilling residents of the Minidoka War Relocation Authority Center in southern Idaho (HCN, 10/8/01: Lessons of an intolerant past). This fall, the Sun Valley Center for the Arts will host Whispered Silences, a multidisciplinary exploration of internment in […]
Posted inOctober 8, 2001: Whoa! Canada!
Tony and the Cows
There is little doubt that conflict over environmental issues will intensify under the twin pressures of population and aspiration. It also seems likely that much of this conflict will involve public lands – those lonely, semi-arid basins and ranges where the cattle roam. From Tony and the Cowsby Will Baker In 1995, journalist and former […]
Posted inOctober 8, 2001: Whoa! Canada!
Three fiery reads
In the sixth chapter of his newly released book The Seasons of Fire, David J. Strohmaier pens an articulate elegy for the firefighters who died in Colorado’s 1994 South Canyon Fire. When Strohmaier traveled to the fatality site, “it had been only six weeks since the fire, but already thousands of small, light-green Gambel oak […]
Posted inOctober 8, 2001: Whoa! Canada!
Indians are cowboys
In old Western movies, the roles are rigid: characters on horseback are either cowboys or Indians. But these stereotypes, like most, are limiting and untrue. In reality, many Indians are cowboys, as the book, Riders of the West, demonstrates. Photographer Linda MacCannell and writer Peter Iverson set the record straight by following the Indian rodeo […]