NEW ARRIVALS The HCN family has grown by two in recent weeks. Laura Paskus, HCN’s Southwest editor, gave birth to a baby girl on Sunday, Jan. 29. Lillian Jane arrived at 11:38 p.m., weighing 6 pounds, 15 ounces, and measuring 19 1/4 inches long. Laura and her husband, Hollis Lawrence, report that Lillie is “ridiculously […]
Colorado
Posted inFebruary 6, 2006: The Killing Fields
Dear friends
WELCOME, JANIEC! Janiec (rhymes with “Denise”) Gutierrez is the newest addition to our marketing department and is responsible for advertising sales. Janiec, a native of Southern California, moved to town last May after becoming engaged to a Paonian she met in Germany, where they were both working in the outdoor industry. She enjoys the pink […]
Posted inJanuary 23, 2006: Timberlands up for grabs
Dear friends
Welcome, new interns! Sarah Gilman arrived in Paonia for a winter internship, still smiling after a summer of trail work on Colorado’s 14,421-foot Mount Massive. A native of Boulder, Colo., Sarah is no stranger to the Paonia area. She spent two summers working at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, just over the hill in Gothic, […]
Posted inJanuary 23, 2006: Timberlands up for grabs
An ecosystem wanting for wolves
Predators could bring Rocky Mountain National Park back into balance
Posted inDecember 26, 2005: A New Green Revolution
Dear friends
HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM HCN Thanks to all our friends and subscribers for attending HCN’s annual holiday open house on Dec. 7. Thanks also to those who brought a holiday treat. The HCN staff is taking a much-needed break for two weeks, to bake fruitcake, guzzle eggnog, and celebrate with family and friends. The next issue […]
Posted inDecember 12, 2005: The Final Energy Frontier
Dear friends
VISITORS Longtime subscribers Charlie and Shelley Calisher of Red Feather Lakes, Colo., a town smaller than Paonia, dropped by in mid-September after failing to catch fish on the Dolores River. Writer Susan Tweit (a frequent contributor to these pages) and her husband, Richard Cabe, left a postcard on our door after hours, on their way […]
Posted inDecember 12, 2005: The Final Energy Frontier
Tapping into energy’s fringe
As companies drill for ‘unconventional’ natural gas, environmental impacts mount
Posted inDecember 12, 2005: The Final Energy Frontier
Heard around the West
COLORADO A deliciously funny film called The Lost People of Mountain Village wowed audiences at Telluride’s Mountainfilm festival and other venues around western Colorado. In deadpan style, the 15-minute pseudo-documentary explores what happened to the overlords who once lived above high-altitude Telluride. The joke for locals: The “town” of Mountain Village always feels abandoned by […]
Posted inNovember 28, 2005: Gold from the Gas Fields
Dear friends
HOLIDAY OPEN HOUSE The staff of High Country News cordially invites all readers and friends to our holiday open house. It will be at our Paonia, Colo., office at 119 Grand Avenue on Wednesday, Dec. 7, from 5 to 8:30 p.m. Feel free to bring a treat to share; we’ll provide beverages. PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARDS […]
Posted inNovember 28, 2005: Gold from the Gas Fields
Heard around the West
NEVADA You’ve gotta love Oscar Goodman, the mayor of Las Vegas: He doesn’t hesitate to trumpet what he thinks, no matter how over the top. Appearing on a TV program in Carson City recently, the mayor sounded off on lawbreakers who spraypaint graffiti over freeways. “These punks come along and deface it,” he said, according […]
Posted inNovember 14, 2005: Back On Track
Doubling density near Durango
After two decades of trying to hold the line against an increase in oil and gas drilling, commissioners in La Plata County recently signed deals allowing two energy companies to double the density of coalbed methane wells near Durango. Now that the companies’ infill applications have been approved by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation […]
Posted inNovember 14, 2005: Back On Track
Crossing hearts on Colorado’s plains
Laura Pritchett’s first novel, Sky Bridge, is set in “Nowhere, Colorado,” on the ranchland east of the plains town of Lamar. In this tiny place assaulted by big forces — climate change, the global economy, federal policies — teenage narrator Libby finds the prospects slim: “… all my old schoolmates are either doing drugs or […]
Posted inNovember 14, 2005: Back On Track
Dear friends
THANK YOU The cottonwood leaves are piling up along the North Fork of the Gunnison River, not far from the HCN headquarters. Inside, contributions to the Research Fund have been fluttering in. Many thanks to all who have contributed to the fund so far this fall; it’s what pays our writers, editors and photographers to […]
Posted inNovember 14, 2005: Back On Track
Commuter trains could connect the West’s far-flung cities
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Back On Track.” Even as light-rail lines promise to revolutionize transportation within the West’s metropolitan areas, longer commuter rails could connect these far-flung cities in ways they have not since railroad’s glory days a century ago. Unlike light rail, which uses overhead electrical lines, […]
Posted inOctober 31, 2005: The Public Lands' Big Cash Crop
The Latest Bounce
The Department of Labor has denied a whistleblower’s complaint that the BLM fired him in retaliation for exposing violations of federal law in a mine-cleanup project in Yerington, Nev. (HCN, 12/20/04: Conscientious Objectors). Earle Dixon supervised the cleanup of the abandoned copper mine for the BLM, and repeatedly complained publicly about inadequate efforts to deal […]
Posted inOctober 31, 2005: The Public Lands' Big Cash Crop
Dear friends
WELCOME, LUTHER! HCN welcomes new board member Luther Propst, the executive director of the Sonoran Institute. The nonprofit institute works with Western communities to promote stewardship, conservation and local economies. VISITORS University of Denver associate geography professor Don Sullivan dropped in with a pack of students after being snowed off nearby Grand Mesa, where the […]
Posted inOctober 17, 2005: The Ghosts of Yosemite
Dear friends
HELLOS AND GOODBYES The High Country News board of directors met in Santa Fe in late September, bidding farewell to two longtime members, and inviting five new people to join. Leaving the board are Emily Stonington and Michael Fischer. Emily, a state senator who raises sheep outside Helena, Mont., was one of the main forces […]
Posted inOctober 17, 2005: The Ghosts of Yosemite
Heard around the West
IDAHO A border collie adept at “child-herding, intense stares and home protection” has applied for a job with the city of Boise: He wants to chase Canada geese off the playing fields. In a letter purported to be from the herd dog, named Atticus in honor of the lawyer in To Kill a Mockingbird, he […]
Posted inOctober 3, 2005: Out of the Four Corners
Boulder gets the gas-drilling blues
Energy companies are drilling holes straight through efforts to preserve open space on Colorado’s Front Range. Boulder County has saved about 76,000 acres from development by buying property and creating conservation easements. However, the county doesn’t always control the mineral rights underneath that land — which leaves the surface property open to drilling. Previous landowners […]
Posted inOctober 3, 2005: Out of the Four Corners
Out of the Four Corners
A young archaeologist searches for clues to what drove a mass exodus from southwestern Colorado more than 700 years ago