COLORADO Under the headline “Say what?” Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reporter Michael Bender let a legislator’s faux pas wave in the breeze. State Sen. Mark Hillman got so fired up during a debate about a renewable energy bill that would almost certainly put windmills on his turf — the state’s eastern plains — that he […]
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Posted inApril 12, 2004: The One-Party West
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IDAHO Are cows getting smarter? Every year, several cows make a break for freedom from barns in Bonneville County to go a-wandering. Resistance is futile. What was different this spring was the feistiness of a 1,000-pound black Angus. “We’ve been raising cows for 20 years,” said the owner, “and never had anything like this happen […]
Posted inMarch 29, 2004: Who Will Take Over the Ranch?
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CALIFORNIA Sea lions don’t usually venture inland — particularly 65 miles from the Pacific Ocean — but that’s what a hefty 300-pounder did recently in California. It was first spotted crawling in the middle of the road in the San Joaquin Valley, reports The Associated Press. One theory is that somebody “dropped it” there. A […]
Posted inMarch 15, 2004: The New Water Czars
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IDAHO Wilderness areas were not created equal. In order to pacify locals and win votes in Congress, most include more than a few reminders of both the old and developed West. The Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness in central Idaho, for example, grandfathered in outfitters’ cabins and backcountry plane access. Now, the Forest […]
Posted inMarch 1, 2004: The Last Open Range
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NEVADA Better not mess with Nevada: It’s big, and getting bigger. Last year, Nevada gained an average of 6,141 people every month, making it number-one for growth in the nation for the 17th year in a row, reports the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Citing climate and affordability, 70 percent of the newcomers to the state flock […]
Posted inFebruary 16, 2004: Courting Disaster
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UTAH Some people in rural subdivisions worship the wandering moose on their doorstep; others go for their guns. Jack Fenton, a worshipper in Summit County, says he was thrilled when a yearling moose moseyed up to his front door to nibble on a wreath. But his neighbor shot and killed the moose — and also […]
Posted inFebruary 2, 2004: Mending the Nets
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THE WEST Democrats can get really lonely in the West. In rural areas, some are even driven to change their party affiliation to Republican. They’re not converts — heaven forbid — they just want to vote in the primaries where the real choices get made. Now, there’s a weblog to bond Western dissidents. It’s called […]
Posted inJanuary 19, 2004: Two decades of hard work, plowed under
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TEXAS In the Dubious Achievement category, let’s send the 2003 Biology Award to Texas A&M’s vet school, which just cloned a white-tailed deer with a rack measuring 230 points on the Boone and Crockett scale. The lead researcher told the Houston Chronicle that the trophy buck is a “conservation tool.” The bottle-fed deer, dubbed Dewey, […]
Posted inDecember 22, 2003: Being Green in the Land of the Saints
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CALIFORNIA Remember that New Yorker cartoon, the one where a plump pussycat looks at its behind in a mirror and asks: “Does this collar make my butt look too big?” Well, humans are passing on their overeating habits to pets. Medical researchers warn we’re also bad influences on wildlife: Bears in the Lake Tahoe area […]
Posted inDecember 8, 2003: Riding the middle path
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COLORADO With just a few words, Beverly Hoover won third place in the High Country Shopper’s annual contest, “My Favorite Hunting Story.” She and her husband had moved from Pennsylvania to western Colorado in 1992, and soon after their arrival in Montrose, they were invited to a barbecue by new friends. The conversation turned to […]
Posted inNovember 24, 2003: New Mexico goes head-to-head with a nuclear juggernaut
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MONTANA Here’s a story to make you wince: Three mountain lion kittens, all about eight weeks old, tried to cross railroad tracks 12 miles west of Butte. The kittens were wet from crossing a nearby creek, and the air temperature was only 10 degrees. So the kittens stuck fast, one frozen to the track on […]
Posted inNovember 10, 2003: San Diego's Habitat Triage
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UTAH It must be nerve-racking to teach school in Salt Lake City, where, at any time, a person can legally walk into a classroom with a gun concealed in clothing or tucked into a backpack. But that’s state law, so what’s a school district to do? One state legislator pooh-poohs potential problems, advising teachers and […]
Posted inOctober 27, 2003: The Gear Biz
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COLORADO The little racehorse that could — Seabiscuit — is adjusting to a life of luxury on a guest ranch in the mountains above Telluride, Colo. The 4-year-old horse who starred in the movie Seabiscuit “is really a sweetheart,” says Dave Farny, who runs Skyline Guest Ranch. “He’s got a good rein — he’ll spin, […]
Posted inOctober 13, 2003: The Big Story Written Small
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CALIFORNIA Non-Californians might assume that living close to nature is a wonderful thing. Not so at Del Webb’s Sun City in Palm Desert, a 1,600-acre gated community for 9,000 people. Residents complain vociferously about sand in a nearby nature preserve that won’t stay put. “We are getting buried,” said Dennis DeBorde, 74, at a public […]
Posted inSeptember 29, 2003: Harvesting Poison
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NEVADA The satirical newspaper The Onion spoofed the Burning Man celebration in the Black Rock Desert, reporting that everybody was too spaced out to bother going. But in fact, some 30,000 people turned out in late August to “burn the man” — a 77 foot-high neon-colored effigy made of wood. Flames shot 150 feet in […]
Posted inSeptember 15, 2003: The West's Biggest Bully
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THE NEW WEST To the question, “What would Jesus drive?” originally asked by the Evangelical Environmental Network, one group has an easy answer: a large SUV, of course. “Most people think it’s a ridiculous question, and that’s the approach we’ve taken toward our own ads,” says a spokesman for the Sport Utility Vehicle Owners of […]
Posted inSeptember 1, 2003: Courting the Bomb
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UTAH Some Western wag once said that the most dangerous thing in a forest was a bunch of Boy Scouts with hatchets. In Utah’s Wasatch-Cache National Forest, make that heavy equipment instead of hatchets. When his son needed a service project to become an Eagle Scout, Scott Vanleeuwen proposed “cleaning up” an abandoned trail that […]
Posted inAugust 18, 2003: Where the Antelope (and the Oil Companies) Play
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IDAHO Editorials across the country spanked Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig for wielding his formidable clout just to bring what the New York Times called “wasteful pork” to Boise — in this case, eight C-130 cargo planes that the Air Force supposedly promised to Boise’s Air National Guard seven years ago. Only four planes have […]
Posted inAugust 4, 2003: Pipe Dreams
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COLORADO Your poinsettia isn’t wilting, it’s trying to warn you. June Medford, a Colorado State University biologist, came up with the idea to genetically engineer plants to tattle on terrorists. How would the plants accomplish this? By changing color in the presence of a biological or chemical agent. The potential is huge, claims USA Today: […]
Posted inJuly 7, 2003: Invasion of the rock jocks
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CALIFORNIA It had to happen: Orange County is running out of rural land for gigantic housing developments. “We don’t have any dirt left,” a real estate analyst told the Los Angeles Times. There are still plans for up to 42,000 homes and condos on about 54 square miles. But the easy paving-over is over, and […]