Alaska conservation act was innovative step
Communities
Posted inDecember 20, 2010: California Dreamin'
Activist brings diversity to green orgs
Marcelo Bonta helps color the environmental movement
Posted inBlog
California’s tribal harvesting imbroglio
Frankie Myers’s tribe, the Yuroks, have gathered and harvested everything from mussels to seaweed on the Northern California coast since “the beginning of time,” as he puts it. The myriad coastal resources are of important cultural value to many Pacific tribes, and recent studies have shown that pre-contact hunter-gatherers were extremely adept at harvesting in […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
States’ rights gone wrong
UTAH We hate to pick on the Beehive State, but sometimes Utah picks on itself. Take the $101 million in federal funds earmarked for the state to spend avoiding teacher layoffs — Utah’s share of a $10 billion package covering all 50 states. But was the Republican Legislature grateful for this windfall from Washington? Not […]
Posted inRange
The start of the sesquicentennial
Dec. 20 marks the 150th anniversary of the adoption of the South Carolina Ordinance of Secession, which ignited the Civil War — and so this year, Dec. 20 starts the sesquicentennial observance. There were a few Civil War battles in the West — most notably at Glorietta Pass east of Santa Fe, where an invading […]
Posted inDecember 20, 2010: California Dreamin'
A place to park — and live
I completely sympathize with and understand the problems faced by Jen Jackson (HCN, 11/22/10). Many Western tourist towns have become unaffordable for the ordinary people who are, ironically, indispensable, working in hotels, restaurants and recreational businesses. The towns should find some way to accommodate their trailers or RVs. But in “Heard Around the West,” you […]
Posted inDecember 20, 2010: California Dreamin'
Excavating John
The Book of JohnKate Niles225 pages, softcover: $22.85.O Books, 2010. John Gregory Wayne Thompson, the eponymous hero of Kate Niles’ second novel, The Book of John, moves between the southwest Colorado desert and the cold beaches of Washington’s Neah Bay, in the process retracing his personal life and loves. An archaeologist, John is 50 years […]
Posted inDecember 20, 2010: California Dreamin'
May your holidays be bright
We’ll see you again around mid-January — we’ll be taking a longer-than-usual publishing hiatus in December, to better align our printing schedule with the holidays, work on exciting stories for the new year, and overdose on eggnog and fudge. In the meantime, be sure to visit us on the Web at www.hcn.org for fresh blog […]
Posted inBlog
The price of green
This holiday, the spouse and I have decided to use some of our days off work to catch up on long-overdue home maintenance projects. For us, as for most other people, money is tighter this year, and we’re looking for ways to save on the supplies we’ll need. However, we’re also hoping to be as […]
Posted inWotr
The lessons of Butte, Montana
During the first half of the 20th century, the mines in Butte, Mont., were the most dangerous in the world. The work was tough, and the immigrants who did the work were even tougher, a quality that served them well underground but wasn’t always the right tool for the job aboveground. Heavy drinking was common. […]
Posted inRange
Rants from the Hill: Walking to California
“Rants from the Hill” are Michael Branch’s monthly musings on life in the high country of Nevada’s western Great Basin desert. If you’ve ever driven I-5 through northern California and up into southern Oregon, you may have seen the memorable bumper sticker that Oregonians use to welcome their California neighbors over the state line: “Welcome […]
Posted inBlog
No place for hate
At Wheatland High and West Elementary schools in eastern Wyoming, banners that declared the schools “no place for hate” raised a stir among parents early this year because the banners were sponsored in part by the Gay and Lesbian Fund for Colorado as part of a national Anti-Defamation League campaign. The Platte County School District […]
Posted inDecember 20, 2010: California Dreamin'
Carl Sagan is rolling in his grave
Just what we need: HCN endorsing pseudoscience (HCN, 11/22/10). Sam Western exhibits a pathetic lack of critical reasoning in his puff piece about Vern Bandy’s supposed dowsing abilities. Bandy’s claim to have accurately dowsed thousands of wells is apparently supported only by his own records. As the son of a well-driller, it is hardly surprising […]
Posted inDecember 20, 2010: California Dreamin'
An uncomfortable truth
Jen Jackson’s report describes a society that wants service industry workers and others to provide us with services we wouldn’t dream of living without (HCN, 11/22/10). But when those workers’ low-wage jobs don’t allow them to purchase or rent “acceptable” or “conventional” housing, we shun them as neighbors. We don’t want to be confronted with […]
Posted inDecember 20, 2010: California Dreamin'
Seeing is believing
My husband, Ron, has the same kind of dowsing ability described in your profile of Vern Bandy (HCN, 11/22/10). His grandfather “witched” with a fork from a peach tree. Ron purchased a metal rod and has used it a number of times. He was project manager on the remodel of the senior center in Lake […]
Posted inRange
A loss to our heritage
As a history buff, I enjoyed reading the HCN article about the preservation of old missions in Arizona — until I got to the end, where I read that Don Garate had died on Sept. 21. I knew Don, though not well, thanks to our shared interest in Juan Bautista de Anza, a Spanish soldier […]
Posted inRange
HCN reader photo – New Mexico moon
This week’s reader photo is simple, still, and lovely. It comes from HCN Flickr community contributor Justin Morris. Add your photo to our Flickr group too!
Posted inDecember 6, 2010: Toxic Past, Toxic Present
Debating Preservation in the Southwest’s Spanish Missions
TUCSON, ARIZONA The temperature drops dramatically as you step through tall church doors into the cavernous interior. The ancient five-foot-thick walls have the dignity of living ruins. Where plaster is missing, you can see graying adobe bricks, and the painted decorations on the whitewashed walls have faded. Yet the Tumacácori mission still seems to breathe, […]
Posted inWotr
Tips for tapping into your wild marketer
Now that it’s harder than ever to make a living in the rural West, we locals have to tap into our inner entrepreneur to survive. Hard work is still important, but creativity and judicious copying help a lot, too. Just use your imagination…. For example, Samantha Fox of Twisp, Wash., grew up in a deer-hunting […]