After being locked for years in a legal battle with farmers in California’s Central Valley, the federal government has decided to buy its way out. Westlands Water District irrigates more land than any other district in the country. But the salty, selenium-laced ground has grown increasingly less productive, because the district lacks adequate drainage for […]
Energy & Industry
Posted inApril 14, 2003: Change comes slowly to Escalante county
Fate of the Red Desert up in the air
A new Bureau of Land Management plan could re-open the door to oil, gas and coalbed methane leasing on over 432,000 acres of the Jack Morrow Hills, the heart of southwestern Wyoming’s Red Desert. The hills are home to a migratory herd of 48,000 antelope, a rare desert elk population, and seven areas being studied […]
Posted inApril 14, 2003: Change comes slowly to Escalante county
Grass roots prevail in ANWR and Wyoming
Conservationists chalk up two big victories — but they’re bracing for a long war
Posted inMarch 17, 2003: Bracing against the tide
‘Horse Whisperer’ wins a round in natural gas fight
A recent ruling in a Wyoming district court signals a win for ranchers who say energy companies are running roughshod over their land. The ruling comes in response to a lawsuit from Mary Brannaman and her husband, Buck, the horse trainer who inspired the novel and film The Horse Whisperer (HCN, 11/5/01: Wyoming’s Powder Keg). […]
Posted inWotr
A report from Nebraska, deep in drought
We’re dying out here. Thirsty grasses crunch underfoot, ground into sand that hasn’t gathered sufficient moisture to generate seed for new growth. Dried water holes wear wrinkled remnants of last summer’s mud, and powdery alkali sifts in our ever-present wind. Topsoil flies skyward from fields that never should have seen a plow. It’s a familiar […]
Posted inFebruary 17, 2003: Wyoming at a crossroads
Eco-groovy food for skinny wallets
While your favorite organic food brand guarantees a pesticide-free, responsibly grown product, it’s usually fortified with a hefty price tag. There’s relief: The Portland, Ore.-based Food Alliance offers consumers and farmers a label — guaranteeing products grown and harvested in equitable and safe conditions, using sustainable farming practices, and with little or no pesticides — […]
Posted inWotr
Reporters need to play a better numbers game
For nearly a decade, proposals to drill for oil in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge have been at the heart of a political debate that touches on a wide range of potent issues: the moral and military implications of America’s dependence on foreign energy supplies, the proper balance between stewardship and exploitation of natural resources, […]
Posted inFebruary 3, 2003: The death of the Super Hopper
A green light for methane development
A green light for methane development The latest plans for drilling up to 65,000 new coalbed methane wells in the Powder River Basin could leave the landscape pockmarked by 4,000 ponds that would eventually dry up into salt-encrusted pits. That’s the word from local environmentalists and ranchers who are facing off with a half-dozen energy […]
Posted inJanuary 20, 2003: A breath of fresh air
A mine falls, and a tribe may get the shaft
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “A breath of fresh air.” It was a glorious sight to many in the environmental movement: President Bill Clinton traveled to Yellowstone National Park in August 1996, donned a ranger hat, and announced a deal that would stave off a gold mine in the […]
Posted inJanuary 20, 2003: A breath of fresh air
Refuge back in the crosshairs
Republican victories in the midterm elections could mean it’s open season on Alaska’s energy reserves. President Bush targeted the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska for oil and gas development in his 2001 national energy plan. But legislation authorizing exploration and development in ANWR failed to pass the divided […]
Posted inJanuary 20, 2003: A breath of fresh air
A breath of fresh air
Surrounded by a massive industrial buildup, the Northern Cheyenne tribe defends its homeland
Posted inDecember 23, 2002: In search of the Glory Days
In search of the Glory Days
Two decades after the bust, Colorado’s last great mining town still gropes for a new identity
Posted inDecember 9, 2002: Life in the wasteland
Cowboys fight oil and gas drillers
Fed up with energy companies, frustrated by the Bureau of Land Management and worried about their land, several northwestern New Mexico ranchers locked their gates on Nov. 14, blocking private roads to natural gas wells. “We finally decided we’re tired of fooling with them,” says Tweeti Blancett. She and her husband closed a road leading […]
Posted inNovember 25, 2002: Planning's poster child grows up
Did the BLM Spike New Mexico’s ditches?
NEW MEXICO When federal land managers spread herbicide on rangelands 15 miles from Malaga, N.M., in mid-July, they had no idea what a mess they were making. A week later, a flash flood washed Spike 20P pellets into the Black River, contaminating a diversion ditch. “Supposedly, in moderate rain, the pellets would dissolve into the […]
Posted inNovember 25, 2002: Planning's poster child grows up
Reports drill Bush energy plan
As the Bush administration pushes its national energy plan, The Wilderness Society has published a report that says the plan’s initiatives are inadequate. The publication, Energy and Western Wildlands, says drilling for oil in U.S. Forest Service-regulated roadless areas will satisfy our national petroleum needs for less than a month, while natural gas reserves on […]
Posted inNovember 11, 2002: Behind the gate
Golden State gets a green power surge
California’s famous sunshine is about to be put to work. Under a new law signed by Gov. Gray Davis, D, in mid-September, California’s three investor-owned utilities must buy 20 percent of their power from alternative energy sources such as solar and wind. State environmental officials say the move will help California reduce pollution, and also […]
Posted inNovember 11, 2002: Behind the gate
Feds find shortcuts in nuclear cleanup
Tribes, environmentalists say Hanford is not a “sacrifice area”
Posted inNovember 11, 2002: Behind the gate
Washington citizens fight to save aging Hanford reactor
Note: in the print edition of this issue, this article appears as a sidebar to another news article, “Feds find shortcuts in nuclear cleanup.” The cleanup at Hanford Nuclear Reservation in southeast Washington has most citizens bidding a fond farewell to the nuclear era. But the planned closure of the Fast Flux Test Facility, a […]
Posted inNovember 11, 2002: Behind the gate
Wind power in the West gains speed
While energy companies scour the West for oil and gas, another, greener power source is on the rise: wind. Long regarded as expensive and unreliable, wind energy is now drawing the attention – and investment – of even the most conventional energy companies. In the last few years, technological advances and public policy have made […]
Posted inOctober 28, 2002: Shadow Creatures
Nuclear dump may be supersized
NEVADA It will be at least 8 years before a nuclear dump opens in Yucca Mountain, but every inch of space in it has already been claimed. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that new estimates released by the Department of Energy show that, once the existing commercial nuclear waste is moved into Yucca Mountain, there […]