Regarding Paul Larmer’s editor’s note about Cedar Hill and cell towers, cell coverage is forever (HCN, 12/21/09 & 1/4/10). I think it’s valid to ask why we need it everywhere, why it is inevitable, and whether in landscapes of beauty and integrity we should swallow the whole safety argument. Is the illusory cocoon of convenience […]
Growth & Sustainability
Posted inRange
Timber Corporations, Real Estate and Community Forests
Weyerhauser – the nation’s largest timber company – has announced that it will convert itself into a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT). The company’s stock rose about 7% when the conversion was announced in December. The Weyerhauser announcement came as no surprise to those familiar with western forest management; it has been under discussion for […]
Posted inRange
Does the Forest Service Truly Believe in Collaboration?
Recently, the U.S. Forest Service announced another attempt to revise its planning regulations. While the agency takes aim at making its decision-making more collaborative, at the same time it’s running into conflict from other planning processes at the state level. Many readers are probably familiar with the Forest Service’s saga of revision, as the agency […]
Posted inRange
Joshua Tree Landfill Victory
Joshua Tree National Park’s Eagle Mountains conjure up images of remote desert peaks, a boundless blue sky and the namesake bird of prey that soars above pristine canyons. But for many of us, Eagle Mountain brings to mind the ongoing battle over the proposed Eagle Mountain Landfill, to be located on lands belonging to Kaiser […]
Posted inDecember 21, 2009: Wind Resistance
Little orphan easement?
A look at what happens when a land trust dissolves
Posted inNovember 23, 2009: After the Floods
For the love of forests
In response to Ray Ring’s article about the roadless rule, as for the money put into the effort to establish the rule, is this not the pot calling the kettle black (HCN, 11/9/09)? Is there some reason why environmentalists and the left should be too pure to use philanthropic funding and lobbying? Sadly, to my […]
Posted inNovember 23, 2009: After the Floods
Roadless — for the seventh generation
“Roadless-less” attempts to portray a scandal that never existed in the roadless rule promulgation process (HCN, 11/9/09). The article depicts the series of judicial rulings upholding the roadless rule as merely party-line votes — a view that discredits the federal judiciary and wrongly suggests that the rule’s persistent vitality in the courts says nothing about […]
Posted inGoat
Snodgrass slowdown
As recently as this summer, it looked like Crested Butte Mountain Resort — a ski area in western Colorado renowned for its extreme terrain — might finally expand onto the forested slopes of uncharismatically-dubbed Snodgrass Mountain (Gusundheit!). The company has been pushing the expansion for decades, and a strong local opposition movement has been active […]
Posted inGoat
An impossible Shangri-la
In August of last year, we wrote about the Jenson brothers’ grand plans to turn a tiny, defunct ski hill in southwest Utah into a posh, exclusive mega-resort (see our story “An unlikely Shangri-la“). In building the Mt. Holly Club, the Jensons hoped to emulate the Yellowstone Club, the ultra-ritzy Montana ski and golf community. […]
Posted inGoat
The case of the missing binders
Central Washington’s Kittitas County, hungry for economic uplift since the fall of the timber industry, has been in the limelight a lot lately for scuffles over development. The proliferation of subdivisions there has met sharp criticism from certain corners (see Cally Carswell’s recent article “Death by a thousand wells” on the area’s over-reliance on exempt […]
Posted inRange
Can a border wall ever truly be removed?
It’s been 20 years this month since the Berlin Wall was dismantled, marking the beginning of the end for the Iron Curtain that once separated Eastern Europe from much of the western world. But according to a recent Wall Street Journal article, some of the region’s wildlife still hasn’t forgotten the man-made boundary that interrupted […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
Can’t see the forest for the skyscrapers
The last time anybody looked, no national forests grew in Washington, D.C., so why should the city get almost $3 million in stimulus funds to fight wildfires? Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso and other Western representatives are wondering, because their region is home to most national forests and the super-expensive wildfires that sweep through, destroying homes […]
Posted inWotr
If you want to support wildlife, support ranching
An old friend of mine once said, “Sometimes Wyoming people would rather fight than win.” He’s right, of course. Even though there are only about 500,000 of us and our state does feel more like a small town with long streets, and even if I don’t know you — though there’s a good chance that […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
Commuter commune
City parks in Phoenix stand empty much of the year, sizzling in the beastly heat that routinely climbs over 100 degrees. Fortunately, the valley’s new light-rail system has become a cool and movable feast, reports the Arizona Republic, in a story that was headlined “Singin’ on the Train.” The 20 miles of track linking Phoenix […]
Posted inRange
Huge Chunks of Land, Changing Hands
The collapse of the housing industry hasn’t been good to log prices. According to a report (pdf) published in June by Northwest Farm Credit Services, log prices are as low as they were in the 1980s and can barely cover the cost of logging. Across the Northwest, timber companies are delaying harvests and mills have […]
Posted inGoat
Rural renaissance redux
It wasn’t really my intention, but I was part of the “rural renaissance” of the 1970s when, for the first time in generations, many rural areas starting gaining population. In 1974, my wife and I, both Baby Boomers, moved from the civilized Front Range piedmont of Colorado to a rather remote rural area — […]
Posted inWotr
Too much bling
Last week, the teenagers among our dinner companions started talking about “bling.” An older man at the end of the table asked, “What is this bleen stuff?” “No,” the kids said, giggling. “You know, bling.” Well, no, he didn’t know. “Really?” Hilarious laughter; then definitions: “It’s like, shiny. Glittery. Sparkly. Jewelry. Like, fancy stuff. Rhinestones. […]
Posted inGoat
Population: 6.9 billion and counting
Last week New York Times reporter Andrew C. Revkin — one of few U.S. journalists following the population issue — wrote a short blog about China’s recent about-face on population policy. After decades of mandating a one-child limit, China is now urging “eligible” couples (those who are only children themselves) to have a second baby. […]
Posted inGoat
A dam marvel
Hundreds of feet above the Black Canyon’s raging Colorado River, the longest concrete arch in the Western Hemisphere is almost complete. In a month workers will finish construction on the arch support of the Hoover Dam Bypass bridge, open to the public in fall 2010. The new 4-lane bridge, on Highway 93, will replace the […]