I’ve tended gardens around the West for much of my adult life, from the tomatoes and basil I nurtured through a Laramie winter in a solar greenhouse to the climbing roses I inherited in our yard in southern New Mexico’s Chihuahua Desert. Now I’m writing a book for Rocky Mountain gardeners, drawing on my education […]
Essays
Posted inAugust 4, 2003: Pipe Dreams
When did we become such gear-toting wimps?
When I read that the Outdoor Industry Association threatened to move its biannual gear show out of Salt Lake City as a protest against Utah’s wilderness policies, I was taken aback. Not by the announcement, but by the reported magnitude of the show: 15,000 visitors spending $24 million in the region to pore over high-tech […]
Posted inAugust 4, 2003: Pipe Dreams
Journey to the bottom of Navajo Lake
José “Ed” Marquez, 67, squints into the late afternoon sunlight, scanning what remains of Navajo Reservoir. “When they started filling the lake in 1961, I couldn’t imagine that this town I’d grown up in would soon be under water,” he says, waving his hand over the miles of dried and cracked mud now taking the […]
Posted inWotr
When did we become outdoor wimps needing so much stuff?
When I read that the Outdoor Industry Association threatened to move its biannual gear show out of Salt Lake City as a protest against Utah’s wilderness policies, I was taken aback. Not by the announcement, but by the reported magnitude of the show: 15,000 visitors spending $24 million in the region to pore over high-tech […]
Posted inWotr
Wartime does not always bring out our best
It is quiet here at midweek, the silence of Owens Valley in California broken occasionally by the croak of ravens and the throb of a car or truck passing on Highway 395. Infrequently, one of those vehicles slows and follows the dirt driveway leading into this place of sorrow and remembrance. There is little here […]
Posted inWotr
Everyone needs a place apart
Some years back, Marypat and I bought 20 acres of land in central Montana, two hours from our home in Bozeman. An unremarkable spot–a sandstone bluff, an intermittent creek, ponderosa pines, views of distant peaks. Beyond an outhouse and a campfire ring, we have done nothing to develop the place. We go there as often […]
Posted inWotr
Peace and quiet count in Glacier National Park
Last summer, while backpacking with friends in Glacier National Park, Mont., a familiar “whup, whup, whup” filled the air. The helicopter dropped over Kipp Peak towards us, its make and color belonging to a local — and booming — helicopter-tour company. Our solitude was disrupted; helicopter noise drowned out nature’s sounds. Despite being closer to […]
Posted inWotr
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, no, it’s a senator on a Harley
One my favorite things about living in the West is driving the winding, two lane roads, if you can survive the sluggish RVs, washouts, rock slides and icy patches. Now, there’s a new traffic hazard — senators on Harleys. Even if you don’t live near the mountains, you know our famous roads from automobile commercials […]
Posted inWotr
Camping out with faux fire can be just dandy
While last year’s fires were torching Western lives, homes and trees, their accompanying fire bans were torching something else: the West’s camping plans. “I don’t want to camp without a campfire,” my wife informed me last season, while smoke from the Hayman Fire settled over Denver. Her feelings echoed those of thousands of Western campers […]
Posted inWotr
Hanging loose in Wyoming’s bear country
My friend Fred says that what he enjoys most about camping in the wild is watching people hang their food. Though you’re miles from a television, it’s far funnier than anything Hollywood could invent. And on a recent trip with some friends, Fred and I demonstrated the truth of his theory. The concept is simple: […]
Posted inWotr
Don’t blame prairie dogs, they’re doing the best they can
First it was the plague, now it’s monkey pox. It seems like prairie dogs take it in the shorts every time a certain primate brings a new disease to this continent. What primate you ask? Well, the variety that includes you and me. In recent weeks I’ve been gritting my teeth every time I heard […]
Posted inJuly 7, 2003: Invasion of the rock jocks
Fire in the West: It’s no simple story
As scientists who have long grappled with the complexities of fire history in the West, we take issue with Ray Ring’s overreaching storyline that the recent spate of stand-replacing forest fires reflects wholly natural processes operating across all Western landscapes (HCN, 5/26/03: A losing battle). Ring further asserts that the main driver of recent crown […]
Posted inJuly 7, 2003: Invasion of the rock jocks
Once touched by drought, you never forget
From the mothers of my family, I learned about poverty and drought, experiences so profound they became proper nouns: the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl. When I was a boy verging on gangly teenager, a thunderstorm of unusual menace advanced one day from Nebraska toward my grandparents’ farm. She had not, she announced later, seen […]
Posted inWotr
We can still do right by the Yellowstone
Last summer, my wife, Katie Gibson, and I travelled the length of the Yellowstone River, 678 miles from its source on Yount’s Peak in Wyoming’s Teton Wilderness, to its confluence with the Missouri River, just inside North Dakota. We walked through the wild headwaters country and Yellowstone Park, then paddled over 500 miles from the […]
Posted inWotr
Risk important in outdoor adventures
We watched the steady stream of tourists snake its way toward Spruce Tree House, the only Anasazi cliff dwelling at Mesa Verde in southern Colorado where the federal agency allows visitors to guide themselves. It had been single file since leaving the museum, so we heaved a collective sigh. Petroglyph Trail, which runs one and […]
Posted inWotr
Cheap salmon, hidden costs
Salmon, once a delicacy, is now cheap and fresh and available year-round, appearing the embodiment of all that is good about progress. But behind that cheap price tag are costs — to our oceans, wild salmon and native cultures and economies. Off the coast of British Columbia, Atlantic salmon are raised in net pens dropped […]
Posted inJune 23, 2003: 'Sound science' goes sour
There’s a better way to clean up the RS 2477 road mess
The West’s public lands face many 21st century problems, including pressure from population growth and energy development. But they also face an old problem — the legacy of the Mining Law of 1866, which granted rights-of-way “for the construction of highways” on federal lands not set aside for other uses. That grant became section 2477 […]
Posted inJune 23, 2003: 'Sound science' goes sour
Put another tank on the fire
While last year’s fires were torching Western lives, homes and trees, their accompanying fire bans were torching something else: the West’s camping plans. “I don’t want to camp without a campfire,” my wife informed me last season, while smoke from the Hayman Fire settled over Denver. Her feelings echoed those of thousands of Western campers […]
Posted inWotr
Holes Western-style, from a century of mining
Gold has long been advertised as the “gift that lasts a lifetime.” True to the slogan, gold does last a lifetime, as demonstrated by the enduring shine that gold jewelry and coins display even after thousands of years of being buried or lost at sea. Unfortunately, gold’s shine isn’t the only thing that lasts a […]
Posted inWotr
Learning to love the power of fire
Thick weeds, old lumber, and brush surround our house, about a mile of dirt road from St. Ignatius, Mont., and about 45 miles north of Missoula. Neighbors and friends, accustomed to rural ways, suggested a fire to clean things up a bit. Despite childhood stints in the country, I am a Montana city person adjusting […]