Being aggressively into kick-boxing and martial arts, of course I couldn’t resist responding to letter writer C.S. Heller’s taunt about my youth and his convenient implication that I am naive when I insist that the American bison be again allowed their inherent, native and ancient right to be a free-roaming, wild species (HCN, 10/27/97). Age […]
Communities
Posted inFebruary 2, 1998: Looking at dams in a new way
Iconoclast to the end: A New West son regards his father
It was my father who gave me the Clearwater River. It was an accidental gift delivered on a hot July day in Idaho. I can remember the van ride along the river on Highway 12; I was 14 and we were on our way to put in for a river trip down the Salmon River, […]
Posted inFebruary 2, 1998: Looking at dams in a new way
The bison are coming
In the December 1987 issue of Planning, we wrote what we thought was an innocuous article on land use in the Great Plains. The piece explored the state of the short-grass, semi-arid region between the 98th meridian and the Rockies, a sixth of the Lower 48. The most rural parts of the Plains faced long- […]
Posted inDecember 22, 1997: Gold Rush: Mining seeks to tighten its grip on the 'last, best place'
A rural county says no to pork
GUNNISON, Colo. – On a brilliant fall day in central Colorado, Federal Highway Administration engineer Mark Taylor offered Gunnison County commissioners $38 million. The money would pay to reroute, widen and pave the road connecting the small town of Buena Vista, pop. 2,141, to the even smaller town of Almont, pop. 300. The 35-mile road […]
Posted inNovember 24, 1997: Restoring a refuge: Cows depart, but can antelope recover?
Patience runs out in San Luis
After more than four years of work, the Sangre de Cristo Land Grant Commission voted Oct. 27 to end negotiations with Zachary Taylor, owner of the Taylor Ranch near San Luis, Colo. The commission agreed to remain in existence in case Taylor ever makes a reasonable sales offer, but “the state is fed up,” said […]
Posted inNovember 10, 1997: Drain Lake Powell? Democracy and science finally come West
Rail merger brings delays, derailments
Last year’s merger between the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific railroads was supposed to create a 35,000-mile transportation system with greatly improved service west of the Mississippi River (HCN, 8/5/96). But shippers are complaining that they’re losing millions of dollars because of bad service from UP, now the nation’s largest railroad. Service is so bad […]
Posted inOctober 13, 1997: The land is still public, but it's no longer free
The more remote, the better
Residents of isolated Stehekin Valley, Wash., population 70, believe their community is frozen in time, and they want to keep it that way. On the northeast end of Lake Chelan, bordering North Cascades National Park and within the Lake Chelan Recreation Area, the town features a post office, hotel and bakery. But there are no […]
Posted inOctober 13, 1997: The land is still public, but it's no longer free
Leaning Into the Wind: Women Write from the Heart of the West
Whenever I fill out a form that asks me to list my occupation, I put down “farmer,” the same word I use when I’m asked my husband’s occupation. The following is a true story: The man reading the form says, “Your husband is a farmer?” “Yes, my husband and I are farmers,” I reply. “You […]
Posted inSeptember 29, 1997: The timber wars evolve into a divisive attempt at peace
Keeping rural American rural
City sprawl has swallowed up rural communities; a revised edition of Saving America’s Countryside: A Guide to Rural Conservation shows how local action can stave off urbanization. Written by Samuel N. Stokes, A. Elizabeth Watson, and Shelley S. Mastran, the book offers everything from well-honed ideas for organizing residents to sample drafts of easements designed […]
Posted inSeptember 29, 1997: The timber wars evolve into a divisive attempt at peace
Excerpts from a New West dictionary
cal*i*for*ni*an (kal’ u forn’ yun) n. 1. resident of the state of California. 2. imprudent spender single-handedly responsible for inflated values of real property. [earlier form: Texan] en*dan*gered spe*cies (en dan’ grd spe’ sez) n. 1. every group that has had a representative address a public hearing in the West: “Ranchers, miners, etc.: We’re the […]
Posted inSeptember 29, 1997: The timber wars evolve into a divisive attempt at peace
‘Greens’ bulldoze a conservation effort
Karla Player has seen a lot of changes in the eight years she’s lived in Springdale, Utah. Each summer, more than 2 million people pass through this dusty gateway town of 300 on their way to Zion National Park. Most visitors spend just a few hours here, though lately, people are coming to stay. “You […]
Posted inSeptember 29, 1997: The timber wars evolve into a divisive attempt at peace
A town with a desert heart
TORTOLITA, Ariz. – The nerve center of this brand-new town is not a shopping mall, health resort or golf club. It’s 21 square miles of saguaro, palo verde, cholla and ironwood trees, packed so tightly together that you can’t walk through them without getting jabbed. A 30-minute drive northwest of Tucson, this is some of […]
Posted inSeptember 1, 1997: Radioactive waste from Hanford is seeping toward the Columbia
American Birding Association
To encourage young people interested in wildlife and conservation, the American Birding Association is sponsoring the Young Birder of the Year Competition, with lots of prizes, beginning at the end of September. In this year-long contest, kids 10 to 18 years old will be asked to write two essays, and keep a field notebook of […]
Posted inSeptember 1, 1997: Radioactive waste from Hanford is seeping toward the Columbia
The Taylor Ranch downsizes
In a surprise development, Zachary Taylor, owner of the controversial 121-square-mile Taylor Ranch in southern Colorado’s San Luis Valley, sold one-third of the property to an undisclosed buyer in early August. Since 1993, the state of Colorado and some valley groups have looked for money to purchase the ranch, which Taylor has been intensively logging […]
Posted inSeptember 1, 1997: Radioactive waste from Hanford is seeping toward the Columbia
One county’s misgivings over not-so-ordinary housing
Taos County, N.M. – Architect and developer Michael Reynolds doesn’t usually lock the gate to his property west of Taos, but ever since county officials drove out to inspect his work site, he’s been viewing outsiders with a wary eye. Recently a county code enforcement officer had red-tagged several houses under construction, and just after […]
Posted inAugust 18, 1997: The West that was, and the West that can be
Bad blood over good sheep
-I’ve had it with the land-grant system. They don’t care about people. They care about money, power, profits and greed,” charges Lyle McNeal, founder of Utah State University’s Navajo Sheep Project, which brought traditional Churro sheep back from the brink of extinction (HCN, 5/1/95). Now, the Navajo Sheep Project is in the process of becoming […]
Posted inAugust 18, 1997: The West that was, and the West that can be
Don’t blame women
Northwest Environment Watch in Seattle, Wash., isn’t very big at 1,400 members and five staffers, but its reach is ambitious. In less than four years it has published five reports, including The Car in the City, Stuff, and the latest and perhaps most provocative, Misplaced Blame: The Real Roots of Population Growth, by Alan Durning, […]
Posted inAugust 18, 1997: The West that was, and the West that can be
The West that was, and the West that can be
On Jan. 24, 1855, Henry David Thoreau sat down to his journal to reflect on all the ways his homeland had changed since the first English colonists had arrived on the shores of Massachusetts two centuries earlier. For several days, Thoreau had been reading the accounts of some of the earliest settlers. Compared to the […]
Posted inAugust 18, 1997: The West that was, and the West that can be
The West may not be literary, but it’s littered with reading matter
Along with watching birds on my long bicycle trips between several Western states and California, I developed a fascination with roadside signs. Among the most common were the hand-painted advertisements posted in many a rural driveway. People were selling rabbits, nightcrawlers, boxer pups, Fuller brushes, RV repairs, stud service, plants, dolls, mattresses – you name […]
Posted inAugust 18, 1997: The West that was, and the West that can be
How the writer learned that he is not very spiritual
My wife and I had just finished hiking Brims Mesa outside of Sedona, Ariz., when we spotted a woman at the trailhead wearing a purple velvet, or velour, dress that hung loosely to her bare ankles. In her right hand she held a hawk feather, and around her neck dangled a leather “medicine bag.” She […]