Desert cultures are a breed apart. The environments of each shape the particular ways in which its inhabitants – human and otherwise – survive and express themselves. But beyond each desert’s distinctive topography, climate and culture, “a living river of common heritage runs through them all.” So says Gary Nabhan, Sonoran Desert ecologist and author […]
Communities
Posted inWotr
The secret of Los Angeles’ great-tasting water
Los Angeles has done it again — topping the list for the World’s tastiest tap water. “Good water rises to the top,” said producer Jill Klein Rone of the 18th annual “academy awards” of water held in Berkeley Springs, West Va. “Our tasting process is vindicated when the same waters are rated by a completely […]
Posted inWotr
Can I lose 20 pounds before my 50th high school reunion?
My 50th high school reunion is this summer. I’d love to go. But vanity and I long ago parted company and while I probably don’t look any worse than most women my age, I no longer have to whip out my ID to get the senior discount. I tell myself that it is a long […]
Posted inApril 14, 2008: Taking to the Trees
A life of words and wilderness
Deeply felt, often metaphysical and sometimes maddening, Rick Bass’ memoir describes his long journey West, from the “petrochemical horrors” of Houston to the Yaak Valley in the far northwestern corner of Montana. But his cross-country migration is merely a starting point for the musings in Why I Came West. The book serves as a study […]
Posted inApril 14, 2008: Taking to the Trees
Tough sledding
A few weeks ago, after a party, my son Truman, who is 7, asked me, “You know when I was outside yesterday with Danny?” “Did you have fun?” I asked. “Yeah,” Truman said. “Except Danny said he was going to kick me in the head because I don’t believe in God.” This is the kind […]
Posted inApril 14, 2008: Taking to the Trees
Heard Around the West
COLORADO Directors, take note: Don’t even think about staging a play in Colorado if it features a character with a nicotine habit. A three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals recently ruled that smoking indoors anywhere in the state enjoys no protection under the First Amendment – and that includes puffing away on a cigarette […]
Posted inApril 14, 2008: Taking to the Trees
Two weeks in the West
It’s been a knuckle-chapping, post-holing, white-out freeze of a winter in the West, prompting many a global warming naysayer to crow about buying Al Gore a snow shovel. Not so fast though, weather weenies. A recent report based on long-term data from about 2,000 sites around the West shows that the region has warmed 70 […]
Posted inApril 14, 2008: Taking to the Trees
A Montana rancher stands his ground against subdivision
Name Vernon Gliko Age 86 Hometown Belt, Montana Occupation Farmer/rancher He Says “They were friendly people back then. Everybody was trying to help everybody because they were in the same situation. Well, now, you know, you may not even know your neighbor.” Biggest change in his lifetime Transition from using horses to tractors Known for […]
Posted inWotr
Home, home on the cyber-range
A different kind of neighborhood news now serves parts of Colorado’s Front Range, those high-altitude communities “up the hill” from Denver. It’s paperless, free-form, relentlessly local and increasingly popular. It’s a Web site called Pinecam.com, and for people living in the towns of Conifer, Pine, Bailey and Evergreen, it has become a fact of life […]
Posted inWotr
Push, whack, shove, wallop and pound
I started with hard red wheat. Our pioneer ancestors mostly ate bread made of cornmeal until the wheat began to thrive in the arid climate and thin soil. Hand grinders like mine pulverized it fine enough for bread, even cakes. Kneading, I could see my grandmother’s strong arms working the dough on the cupboard by […]
Posted inMarch 31, 2008: My Crazy Brother
Reasons to stay
“Wyoming,” Charlotte Bacon writes, “made you feel that an articulated reason to stay was a good thing to develop.” In Bacon’s new novel, Split Estate, that nebulous feeling drives Arthur King to leave New York City with his two teenagers, Cam and Celia, after his wife, Laura, commits suicide. He rashly moves the family west […]
Posted inMarch 31, 2008: My Crazy Brother
Two weeks in the West
Remember when that little shack down the road (every Western town has them – real rustic “fixer-uppers” oozing “charm,” “character” and mouse feces) sold for a few hundred grand? Well, today even spanking-new McMansions in some Western burgs won’t fetch that kind of money, thanks to an increasingly uncertain housing market and banks’ stiffer lending […]
Posted inMarch 31, 2008: My Crazy Brother
Conservation easement conundrums
Colorado and other Western states crack down on abusers
Posted inMarch 31, 2008: My Crazy Brother
Native Intelligence
Lili Singer turns Californians on to backyard bounty
Posted inMarch 31, 2008: My Crazy Brother
My Crazy Brother
A personal look at the West’s suicidal tendencies
Posted inMarch 31, 2008: My Crazy Brother
A message to our grandchildren
‘The lifetime crusade of your days must be to develop a new energy ethic to sustain life on earth.’
Posted inMarch 31, 2008: My Crazy Brother
Heard Around the West
WYOMING Spring really is around the corner, says longtime “Far Afield” columnist Bert Raynes in the Jackson Hole News&Guide. With keen eyes, he’s observed some of the season’s earliest manifestations: “Coyotes in pairs and in groups … Ravens in mock pursuits. Bald eagles carrying nest materials, horned and great gray owls calling, dippers in noisy, […]
Posted inArticles
Surviving a friend’s suicide
‘I know something about black holes now—because there was one inside of him.’
Posted inWotr
Easter and the urban farmer
If she’d lived, this Easter would have been the fourth birthday of my eldest hen, Annabelle. She was the last of a tribe all named Annabelle, all of whom arrived as day-old chicks on Easter Sunday 2004. In the intervening years, various Annabelles fell prey to dogs, skunks and finally, last week, raccoons. Such is […]
Posted inMarch 17, 2008: Seeking the Water Jackpot
Finding beauty in devastation
Chris Peterson might be the best wildlife photographer you’ve never heard of. With quiet effort over many years of working for the Hungry Horse News, a weekly based in Columbia Falls, Mont., Peterson has honed his craft – stalking birds, bears, gravity-defying mountain goats and the other denizens of Glacier National Park. He captures them […]