Behind daily headlines about bigger and more costly wildland fires, the firefighting community has been sweating out the issue of criminal liability for serious mistakes made on the fire line. It’s not just a firefighter issue: The public has a stake in how well firefighters protect lives, property and forest values. Firefighters who know they […]
Essays
Posted inWotr
A Western woman redefines the presidential race
In one decision, John McCain has reshuffled the election deck — especially in the West. His pick of Idaho native Sarah Palin for vice president means McCain has a good chance to win Montana, Nevada, New Mexico and maybe even Colorado, which were all leaning toward Barack Obama. If she doesn’t screw up, builds on […]
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A town’s downtown is the new (old) way to live
The sun rises over the mountains and floods my room with light. I lie in bed and listen to the cooing of conspiring pigeons on the roof. I’ve lately moved from Cody, Wyo., to Salmon, Idaho. Cody, like other towns surrounding Yellowstone National Park, has become an expensive place to live, especially for a freelance […]
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Longing for the way it never was
When I was a child and stayed with my grandparents in their house at the top of a cactus-studded hill, I cherry-picked their library, which ran floor to ceiling along the entrance hall. I figured Grandpa was the one who read Zane Grey — half a dozen of Grey’s exotic titles were lined up together […]
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Size matters with “green” bragging rights
I was reading the Boulder County Business Report recently when an article about the “greenest home in North America” caught my eye. The house was being built to fulfill the dream of a businessman who specializes in renewable energy. At first glance, Ronald Abramson’s project, now breaking ground 10 miles north of Boulder, Colo., seemed […]
Posted inAugust 25, 2008: Hot Wheels
Not even the privileged can deter a porcupine
When folks build homes (or mansions) next to wilderness, they are often shocked to learn that the wilderness is, in fact, wild. Critters they once thought of as cute and charming are suddenly villainous and voracious, devouring flower beds, tunneling under irrigation systems, even munching on pricey trees dropped into the landscape by crane. And […]
Posted inAugust 25, 2008: Hot Wheels
The old man and the stream
With my students and another teacher, I climb up from the suspension bridge across the Black Canyon, along switchbacks that wind through phlox-matted slopes. Crisp arnica leaves curl in the roasting sun. Several times we teachers stop for breathers, while the students wait impatiently, scarcely showing any discomfort. The trail descends briefly into a ravine, […]
Posted inAugust 25, 2008: Hot Wheels
Portrait of a threatened land
Travels in the Greater Yellowstone Jack Turner 288 pages, hardcover, $25.95. Thomas Dunne Books, 2008. Jack Turner’s Travels in the Greater Yellowstone chronicles both the subtle and radical changes that he’s seen in the place he’s called home for over three decades. Turner, author of several books on ecology and mountaineering, has watched this extraordinary […]
Posted inWotr
The less you have, the less you have to lose
The other day a friend of mine made a comment that has been rolling around in my head ever since. “You know,” he told me, “you’re pretty recession-proof.” I didn’t know how to respond. I was taken aback at first. I’d never thought of myself that way, but I guess I know what he means. […]
Posted inWotr
Not even the privileged can deter a porcupine
When folks build homes (or mansions) next to wilderness, they are often shocked to learn that the wilderness is, in fact, wild. Critters they once thought of as cute and charming are suddenly villainous and voracious, devouring flower beds, tunneling under irrigation systems, even munching onpricey trees dropped into the landscape by crane. And one […]
Posted inWotr
The way it looks in rural Oregon in this shaky economic world
A few years ago, local realtors in Joseph, a town of 1,000 in northeastern Oregon, were clamoring for houses and properties to put on the market; now, “for sale” signs are everywhere. Yet real estate deals in Wallowa County are stalled because the boom times in Bend, Ore., have come to a grinding halt. Four-dollar […]
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Democrats borrow from Madison Avenue
It’s like a supercharged dream: You find yourself sliding into the driver’s seat of a sleek, brand new car. Slap it into gear and you zoom ahead, through a spectacular wild-looking Western landscape. You take the curves faster than seemed possible, maybe around Utah’s eerie redrock spires, or between Rocky Mountain snowcaps, past waterfalls and […]
Posted inAugust 11, 2008: Trouble in (Private) Paradise
Downtown an old – and new – way to live
The sun rises over the mountains and floods my room with light. I lie in bed and listen to the cooing of conspiring pigeons on the roof. I’ve lately moved from Cody, Wyo., to Salmon, Idaho. Cody, like other towns surrounding Yellowstone National Park, has become an expensive place to live, especially for a freelance […]
Posted inWotr
Going backwards: building an oil refinery in South Dakota
In South Dakota, politicians and business leaders are cheering a massive oil refinery planned for the state’s southeast corner. If built, it will be the first oil refinery constructed in the United States in more than 30 years. There are, of course, good reasons why oil refineries aren’t being built anymore. In South Dakota, however […]
Posted inAugust 11, 2008: Trouble in (Private) Paradise
Under the asphalt a rumor thrives
This summer, with the crack of Indy’s bullwhip still echoing through theatres, it’s natural to indulge in a little romanticism about buried treasure. Even when — or especially when — said treasure lies below a worn-out asphalt parking lot in downtown Grand Junction, Colo., within easy reach of jackhammer and trackhoe. The booty in question […]
Posted inAugust 11, 2008: Trouble in (Private) Paradise
Living deep in place
Shopping for Porcupine: A Life in Arctic AlaskaSeth Kantner240 pages, hardcover: $28.Milkweed Editions, 2008. Shopping for Porcupine is a book that weaves between worry and worship, to borrow a phrase from its author, Seth Kantner. The autobiographical essays collected here offer a glimpse of Kantner’s life in his native north Alaska, portraying a harsh landscape […]
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Off-roaders drive closer to the Grand Canyon
Part of the pride in putting on the iconic flat hat and the green and grey National Park Service uniform is knowing you work for an organization that tries to protect some of the most beautiful and historic places in the world. After serving the National Park Service for 32 years — the last nine […]
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My dad and the quail he loved
Theirs is the call heard in the background of every Grade B western ever filmed, no matter the supposed location of the good guy vs. bad guy confrontation. It’s still a surprise to me, though, when I hear the California quail below my house on a blustery day that passes for spring in Montana. The […]
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What Westerners would love to ask the candidates
For a Westerner, this year’s presidential campaign has been both exciting and disappointing. There was excitement when Sen. Barack Obama and the entire Clinton family fought for support in Wyoming; who could ever have imagined that Democratic presidential candidates would be battling for delegates in a state that no Democrat has carried in 44 years? […]
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Death to cheeseburgers? Maybe not
If you’re concerned about the effect your food choices have on the environment, you might want to reconsider cheeseburgers. A recent study shows that beef and milk products are the world’s most polluting foods, thanks to the greenhouse gases released by cows. Meanwhile, in what has to be awkward news for locavores, the study, reported […]