Thoreau once said, “The woods and fields are a table always spread.” Apparently the National Park Service agrees. In blatant noncompliance (or perhaps misinterpretation) of its own leave no trace policy, national park managers have been allowing Native Americans to harvest wild plants and roots from parks, according to a letter from the Public Employees […]
Communities
Posted inWotr
EPA hearings can be so, like, high school
I recently attended an EPA hearing in Denver. I’m an environmental attorney who left my job to spend a year teaching in Italy, and now that I’m back in the United States, I’m relieved that this country has a rational system of environmental regulation. (Italy has great shoes and amazing cappuccino, but environmental regulation? Fuhgeddaboudit.) […]
Posted inAugust 20, 2010: A Hell of an Anniversary
Breath by breath
Drowning TucsonAaron Michael Morales330 pages, softcover: $15.95.Coffee House Press, 2010. “He’d felt safer in the desert than he ever had in his life, as if some outside force were protecting him. But now, in the bowels of the city, he was a stationary target.” That’s Tucson in the 1980s, a city of snowbirds, developers and […]
Posted inAugust 20, 2010: A Hell of an Anniversary
Righteous gluttony
In the produce section of the grocery store the other day, I saw apricots on sale for 99 cents a pound. They sat in a bin between grapes from Chile and cherries from the Flathead Valley of Montana. I don’t know where the apricots came from. I selected six and put them in the shopping […]
Posted inAugust 20, 2010: A Hell of an Anniversary
Visitors with flowers and fire extinguishers
We continue to enjoy a steady stream of visitors to our Paonia, Colo., office. We’re always impressed that so many of you find us, since our little town is more than an hour and a half from the nearest interstate highway. In mid-July, subscribers Lucy Meinhardt and Dave Zumwalt left us a note. “It seems […]
Posted inAugust 20, 2010: A Hell of an Anniversary
A brush with cowboy culture
On a gray, blustery, spring evening, my family and I drive into the Sky Ute Fairgrounds in Ignacio, Colo., eager to get to the rodeo. My 2-year-old son can’t wait to make his debut in “mutton busting,” an event in which young children cling to the backs of sheep loosed from bucking chutes. As we […]
Posted inRange
Educational benefits
Some people love to travel, but I am not among them. I have the good fortune to live in a town that’s just the right size. Salida, Colo., is small enough that I can walk to conduct most of my routine errands, and big enough for a supermarket, library, bookstore, pharmacy and the like. America’s […]
Posted inRange
A fast year
Lessons from the Indian Health System A year goes by fast. Way too fast. Thirteen months ago I plunged into my “year-long” exploration of the Indian health system. It’s been fascinating because there has so much activity: Congress enacted the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and included with that bill the permanent authorization of […]
Posted inAugust 20, 2010: A Hell of an Anniversary
Coming soon: HCN on glossy toilet paper
As I read Ray Ring’s words on what is the right format for HCN, I began to ponder that the correct mix is the mix that keeps you and your staff energized (HCN, 7/19/10). Without an engaged editor and staff, the publication will wilt. The rest is just packaging that can be adjusted. Sources of […]
Posted inAugust 20, 2010: A Hell of an Anniversary
Mute on Utes
Like writer Jonathan Thompson, I have deep roots on and near Ute lands in southwestern Colorado. While I realize he faced a daunting task — even without Ute secrecy — “The Ute Paradox” seemed way too couched in political correctness and an unwillingness to hold minority leaders to the same standards we demand of others […]
Posted inAugust 20, 2010: A Hell of an Anniversary
Wildfires and who’s to blame
I read John Maclean’s excellent article “The Fiery Touch” with mounting concern, for two reasons (HCN, 8/02/10). The first is the charge of murder. Several of my friends and colleagues are or have been wildland firefighters. My heart goes out to the families of all those killed in wildfires. Raymond Oyler is clearly a very […]
Posted inAugust 20, 2010: A Hell of an Anniversary
Capturing hearts and minds
Your story “Young, All-American, Illegal” is riveting and heartbreaking (HCN, 8/16/10). It should be required reading and viewing by anyone involved in immigration issues, regardless of political stripe. And that means all of us. I confess: The brouhaha surrounding the Arizona “show me your papers” debate didn’t matter to me, other than to rouse my […]
Posted inWotr
What have we learned a century after the Big Blowup?
A devastating wildfire leaves its marks on the West.
Posted inBlog
Loving an (artificial) lake
I’m a longtime resident of Arizona. Your reception of this bit of information is likely affected by recent news coverage of my state’s new immigration legislation, isn’t it? Every now and then, the Grand Canyon State wants to reassure the rest of the country that its flaming red-state status is secure, thank you very much. […]
Posted inGoat
“Lines Across the Sand”
Edward Abbey’s 1975 novel The Monkey Wrench Gang opened with a definition: sabotage … n. [Fr. < sabot, wooden shoe + -age: from damage done to machinery by sabots]…. From this subtle introduction, the book grew beyond its covers, even beyond the reach of its cantankerous author, and led a whole generation of upset desert […]
Posted inWotr
Slobs at Lake Powell foment a revolt
Each summer I do penance at Lake Powell for the environmental sins of its visitors. This summer was no exception as I volunteered to work on a houseboat called the Trash Tracker. Our job: picking up debris in 108-degree heat along 100 miles or so of the 1,900-mile shoreline. Our team found the usual amount […]
Posted inWotr
Medical marijuana trips up Montana
The state of Montana is frantically backpedaling six years after voters passed Medical Marijuana Initiative 148. (Don’t blame me, I didn’t vote for it.) One of 10 states now with medical marijuana programs, Montana has fallen into what might be called pot-plant purgatory as it struggles with blurry laws and even blurrier implementation plans, stalling […]
Posted inRange
“Government-run” no longer defines the Indian health system
A single phrase is often used to define the Indian health system: “Government-run.” Add those two words to any discussion about health care or reform and most people reach an immediate conclusion about the merits of the agency. Now it is time for the phrase to disappear because it no longer accurately describes the Indian […]
Posted inWotr
An improbable candidate runs in Arizona
Early in May, John Dougherty, the best investigative reporter I’ve ever known, made the eyebrow-raising announcement that he would run for the U.S. Senate in Arizona. To think that a writer stood any chance of knocking off John McCain was absurd, vainglorious … and … perfect, as a matter of poetic irony. Back in 1989, […]
Posted inRange
Rants from the Hill: A thousand-mile walk to home
“Rants from the Hill” are Michael Branch’s monthly musings on life in the high country of Nevada’s western Great Basin desert. Three summers ago I blew out a lumbar disc while running a jackhammer in the desert near my house—an accident that was the result of simple bad luck, with the odds perhaps skewed by […]