Along with cherries and apricots, summer always brings a bountiful crop of visitors to our offices in Paonia, Colo. Author and photographer Dave Showalter came by on a Western Slope trip from his home in Arvada, Colo. He’s working on a conservation book depicting the beauty of the West’s sagebrush ecosystem and the many threats […]
Communities
Posted inAugust 2, 2010: The Fiery Touch
The Fiery Touch
Wildfire arsonists burn forests, grasslands and houses — and kill people. Now one faces the death penalty.
Posted inAugust 2, 2010: The Fiery Touch
The wealthy shouldn’t whine
In regards to the article “Health studies gas up,” I am frustrated at Ms. Waldholz’s lack of perspective (HCN, 6/21/10). While I agree wholeheartedly with all the measures to safeguard the public health and the health of the environment discussed in this article, I can’t help getting upset by who is doing the complaining: wealthy […]
Posted inRange
Over the River controversy continues
The Bulgarian-born artist Christo specializes in gigantic installations — like wrapping the Reichstag in Berlin, or arranging hundreds of fabric gates in New York City’s Central Park. For the past decade or so, he’s had plans to return to Colorado with “Over the River.” (His first Colorado project, an immense curtain in Rifle Gap, was about […]
Posted inWotr
Dressing for success in the mosquito-ridden West
Rain in the West is always an occasion for celebration, and this year in South Dakota we’ve had a lot of moisture to celebrate. To complain about this would be against the code of the West; heck, the code doesn’t let us complain about stuff like broken arms or legs, either. Several neighbors casually mentioned […]
Posted inJuly 19, 2010: The Ute Paradox
Case in point
Artifacts roadshow connects archaeologists to lost treasures
Posted inWotr
The atomic bomb and me
This year, the bomb and I became senior citizens. We were both born 65 years ago at nearly the same time in different parts of the West. Since then, nuclear reality has come to define everybody’s lives. But for me there’s even more of a connection, because of the radiation still lurking inside my body […]
Posted inWotr
The Gulf spill catastrophe can be a goad to do the right thing
If there’s one thing we’ve learned from BP’s disastrous oil spill, it’s how missed opportunities can come back to haunt you. One glaring example has received little attention, however. Back in 1965, Congress began funding land conservation through royalties from offshore oil and gas production, believing that the environmental cost of developing the outer continental […]
Posted inGoat
In defense of a rock
When I was in the fourth grade south of San Francisco, I squirted a glob of Elmers glue onto an index card, pressed a rock into it, and used a black felt tip pen to write a pretty cool sounding word beneath my specimen: Serpentine. Then, I added a brief description on the card in […]
Posted inWotr
Bison are flourishing, but not always in the right place
Though images of bison aren’t the first thing that pop into mind when you think of Grand Canyon, the animals that lumber like walking boulders have become a significant attraction for visitors to the North Rim. The bison are part of a herd that was introduced to the Kaibab Plateau in the early 1900s, courtesy […]
Posted inJuly 19, 2010: The Ute Paradox
How to return a pot
Imagine discovering a pot tucked inside an ancient ruin on a hike. That’d really look nice on my mantel, you think, and grab it. Later, you learn that collecting artifacts from public lands is not only illegal, it permanently destroys the object’s original context and meaning — the information that helps archaeologists piece together the […]
Posted inJuly 19, 2010: The Ute Paradox
Strength in small victories
Two letters slammed Kim Todd’s essay “Walking Woman” for alleged inaccuracies of grammar and, more deeply, for incorrectness of attitude — demonstrating exactly what too often turns us enviros into self-defeating scolds (HCN, 5/24/10). First, to the would-be grammarian: In 30 years of hiking and climbing the range as a native-born L.A. boy, I and […]
Posted inJuly 19, 2010: The Ute Paradox
Green on brown
Your recent article regarding renewable energy on brownfields is accurate and well-timed (HCN, 6/7/10). This idea makes sense for developers and site owners like mining companies, but the advantages for land conservation deserve to be more fleshed out. Siting large renewable energy projects on disturbed areas eases the pressure to develop pristine public lands such […]
Posted inJuly 19, 2010: The Ute Paradox
HCN rocks with eTown
ETown, the eco-groovy weekly radio music show based in Boulder, Colo., will honor HCN Founder Tom Bell and HCN‘s 40th Anniversary with its E-chievement Award at a special concert July 30 at the Redrocks Amphitheater near Denver. The “Greenrocks at Redrocks” event will feature great music from Lyle Lovett and Taj Mahal, a little stage […]
Posted inJuly 19, 2010: The Ute Paradox
Turning back the tide
Preserving the beautiful and fragile Elkhorn Slough
Posted inBlog
This Saturday, Prayers for the Peaks
Earlier this week I had the good fortune to share a conversation with David Johns, acting president of the Navajo medicine men’s association. Mr. Johns and his colleagues in the Dine Hataalii Association (DHA) are preparing for a Navajo Nation-wide day of prayer this Saturday, to support the campaign to protect the holy San Francisco […]
Posted inRange
Rants from the Hill: Greetings from Nevada
“Rants from the Hill” are Michael Branch’s monthly reflections on life in the high country of Nevada’s western Great Basin desert. I live with my wife and two young daughters in the high desert of the western Great Basin, at 6,000 feet on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada, on a desiccated hilltop so […]
Posted inWotr
Our cheap food comes at a high price
We have the food system we asked for. There’s a reason a burger at McDonald’s sells for about a buck. There’s a reason the food is of such poor quality in places where healthy nutrition is most important — our schools, hospitals and nursing homes. What we support prospers; what we feed grows. If we […]
Posted inRange
HCN Reader Photo – the Palouse
This reader photo spotlights a beautiful section of the Northwest, the Palouse. Photographer Joe Rocchio points out that the now-agricultural region was once a prairie; it must have been incredibly beautiful then, too. Browse eh existing images and add your photos to our HCN Flickr pool; we periodically feature them on the Range community […]