I am a friend and colleague of Elizabeth (“Liz”) Birnbaum, who recently managed the Minerals Management Service in the U.S. Department of the Interior. She left her position several weeks into the BP spill in the Gulf. The reporting on her sometimes claims or implies that she lacks sufficient commitment to environmental protection or safety. […]
Politics
Posted inGoat
Telemocracy #1
Greetings, earthlings, and other denizens of the West. This is the first installment of what will be an ongoing High Country News roundup of Western campaign commercials. I have scoured the interwebs, and picked out a few that are particularly great in their own special ways. In today’s episode, “If you can’t say something nice, put it […]
Posted inAugust 2, 2010: The Fiery Touch
The drift dweller
Colorado scientists track the ubiquitous mountain snow mold
Posted inAugust 2, 2010: The Fiery Touch
In Utah, the more things change, the more they stay the same
No one can accurately predict the future, whether it’s the effects of climate change or the flow of the Colorado River. But it’s always interesting to speculate. Here in San Juan County, Utah, it appeared there might be some progress in the decades-old debate over which public lands should be protected as wilderness. Republican Sen. […]
Posted inWotr
Wolves: The debate is seldom rational
The wolf pot continues to boil in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. Now, another state has been added to the stew. In Oregon, environmentalists are protesting the piecemeal removal of wolves from the Endangered Species list, hunters want less competition from wolves, and ranchers complain that wolves are killing their livestock. In eastern Oregon, where there […]
Posted inJuly 19, 2010: The Ute Paradox
Seeing the triceratops for the trees
Kirk Johnson combines science and art to create an ancient landscape
Posted inRange
New national monument is an idea worth considering
By Bill Schneider, NewWest.net guest blogger, 7-15-10 Back in February somebody leaked seven pages of a “vision document” conceived within the Department of the Interior and created quite a political uproar. OMG! Top brass in the Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service (all Interior Department agencies) and a few […]
Posted inJuly 19, 2010: The Ute Paradox
Border creep
Surrendering U.S. turf : That’s the impression given by new signs on some Bureau of Land Management land in southern Arizona. The signs — which warn people to avoid the area south of Interstate 8 — were installed after a local sheriff’s deputy was reportedly shot by a Mexican drug trafficker in late April. “We […]
Posted inJuly 19, 2010: The Ute Paradox
The fight for the Flathead
Environmental victories come in increments, not meetings
Posted inRange
Push polls in the Rockies
I had read about “push polls,” but until last week, I had never been exposed to one. A “push poll” may sound like a real poll at first, but as the questions proceed, it’s obvious that the pollster is trying to influence your thinking, rather than find out what you’re thinking, which is what legitimate […]
Posted inRange
Environmental Law’s Greatest Tragedy
Ask John or Jane Q. Public about how the environmental laws in this country are implemented, and you’re likely to get a blank stare. No one really knows, but with the BP spill and Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant leaks in the headlines, people are sure the system isn’t working. As a practicing environmental lawyer, […]
Posted inGoat
New face, old body
The dissolution of the Minerals Management Service has led to a revival of two venerated bureaucratic traditions: infighting and hoarding of office supplies. While BP-owned oil continues gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, the section of the Department of the Interior tasked with regulating offshore drilling and collecting royalties has been dissolved and divided into […]
Posted inJune 21, 2010: Immersed in the Wild
An infestation of the imagination, in a bark beetle lab
Trucker trades the open road for beetle research
Posted inJune 21, 2010: Immersed in the Wild
Fish face-off
A proposal to ban gillnets in Oregon has commercial fishermen up in arms.
Posted inGoat
Should Salazar resign?
In the wake of a major disaster like the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, resignations like the recent departure of Elizabeth Birnbaum, director of the Minerals Management Service, are a de facto form of political appeasement. Environmental groups aren’t satisfied with Birnbaum’s head, though, and a group of them, led by WildEarth Guardians, are circulating a letter […]
Posted inBlog
What about Watt?
Whenever the national media turns its attention to the Interior Department, I can’t help but think of James Watt. Since the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig and the ensuing gush of undersea oil, the agency has certainly been in the spotlight. As the Interior Secretary under the Reagan administration, Watt’s brash quips, unabashed partisan […]
Posted inJune 21, 2010: Immersed in the Wild
Bloody Mystery Lingers in the Desert
An unsolved murder increases fears along the Mexican border
Posted inGoat
The great Colorado non-scandal
Last week, I talked to one of my daughters in Oregon, and she asked me about “the Romanoff scandal,” adding that it was much in the news out there and so it must be a really big deal in Colorado. It hasn’t been getting that much play in Colorado — I don’t recall anyone bringing […]