I never planned to improve upon any kind of mousetrap but for some reason it appears I’ve done exactly that. This is how it happened: Every year my wife and I spend a few days avoiding the summer heat of western Colorado by camping high up in the White River National Forest. For the past […]
Politics
Posted inWotr
From a Republican’s perspective:Let’s cut through environmental red tape and cut trees to stop fires
On Aug. 22, President Bush went to Central Point, Ore., to view the devastation caused by catastrophic wildfires and announce his Healthy Forest Initiative. In one simple statement he summed up what Westerners have known for years and what nearsighted environmentalists don’t want to accept: “If you let kindling build up, and there’s a lightning […]
Posted inWotr
From a Democrat’s perspective: Let’s fight fire where it counts and stop pointing fingers
This year was among the worst in a string of terrible fire seasons. So far we have lost 6.5 million acres to wildfire “- more than twice the annual average. In my home state of New Mexico where we’ve have had a rough season, many residents are still smarting two years after fire destroyed hundreds […]
Posted inWotr
Can’t we all just give a little out on the trail?
“Can’t we all just get along?” With those words Rodney King became the world’s most unlikely idealist. Prior to that famous videotape of his beating at the hands of LA’s finest, Rodney was not only misbehaving, he was out of control. The man whose violent behavior led to the 1992 Los Angeles riots wondered aloud […]
Posted inWotr
In New Mexico, Sid Goodloe sets an example for the federal government
Sid Goodloe grows grass. Lots of it. His ranch near the village of Capitan is a green oasis in a southern New Mexico desert seared by drought. It’s not that his land isn’t hurting. Ponds and creeks are drying, and hip-high grasses now reach only to the knee. Still, his ranch has some water and […]
Posted inOctober 28, 2002: Shadow Creatures
Bush undermines bedrock environmental law
After 33 years, the National Environmental Policy Act may be ‘streamlined’
Posted inOctober 14, 2002: Democrats kick back: The politics of growth
The politics of growth
Note: this is one of several feature stories in this issue about the 2002 election. You think you have a lot to decide this November? Slip into the ballot booth with Arizona’s voters. Then you can vote for a ballot initiative that would require the state police to hand out marijuana for free. You can […]
Posted inOctober 14, 2002: Democrats kick back: The politics of growth
Around the West, the hot races to watch
Note: this is one of several feature stories in this issue about the 2002 election. ARIZONA Hispanics could stage a Democratic comeback Hispanics, who now make up one-fourth of Arizona’s population, may take half of the state’s eight seats in the U.S. House of Representatives for the Democrats. Raœl Grijalva is virtually guaranteed the seat […]
Posted inOctober 14, 2002: Democrats kick back: The politics of growth
Lassoing the West’s polital winds
The HCN staff and board are just back from our fall board meeting in Seattle. In the spirit of eating dessert first, we’ll start with the high point of the meeting, a talk from Tim Egan, national correspondent for The New York Times and author of books such as Lasso the Wind: Away to the […]
Posted inOctober 14, 2002: Democrats kick back: The politics of growth
New Mexico Greens lose steam
Democrats seem united behind Richardson for Governor
Posted inOctober 14, 2002: Democrats kick back: The politics of growth
A crossed heritage in the modern West
Imagine picking up your paper some morning and reading a story like this: “President George W. Bush called on Americans to support the administration in protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from oil exploration. The president also called for designating more wilderness areas, since ‘the destructive fires of last summer all began in areas that […]
Posted inOctober 14, 2002: Democrats kick back: The politics of growth
Democrats kick back
Note: this front-page editor’s note introduces five related articles: “Around the West, the hot races to watch,” “Montanans may take back their dams,” “New Mexico Green lose steam,” “Utahns could kill radioactive dump,” and “State’s big nuke waste fight takes a hit.” This November will be an “off-year” election, but reject the implication that nothing […]
Posted inSeptember 16, 2002: The Royal Squeeze
A modest forest proposal for President Bush
President Bush just whistled through southern Oregon for a quick look at our catastrophic wildfires and a high-profile policy address at a county fairgrounds. He repeatedly told a cheering crowd that he’s for “common sense” forest management to stem “endless litigation.” His boldness inspires me to come right out and say it publicly: I, too, […]
Posted inAugust 19, 2002: The Great Western Apocalypse
Presidential hopeful plays with fire
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Could Tip O’Neill have been wrong? Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle may be about to find out, perhaps to his regret. With one artful insertion of law, the South Dakota Democrat demonstrated that even if “all politics is local,” as O’Neill famously said, the local and the national become easily enmeshed, with […]
Posted inAugust 5, 2002: Land or money?
Montana’s governor is a poor choice to lead the West
The Western Governors Association, one of the region’s leading political organizations, has earned a reputation for trying to take a moderate approach to divisive issues. Governors of 18 Western states and three Pacific islands have met regularly for years to devise regional policies on wildfire, energy development and other issues, such as environmental protection. They’re […]
Posted inJune 10, 2002: Hatching reform
Interior’s conflicting interests
Deputy Interior Secretary J. Steven Griles is in a pickle. Last month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency effectively delayed the drilling of 39,000 coalbed-methane wells in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin – a major energy project Griles and the Bush administration had hoped to expedite (HCN, 11/5/01: Wyoming’s powder keg ). The EPA rated Interior’s environmental […]
Posted inMay 27, 2002: Wolf at the door
Grazing foes float a buyout
But will ranchers and Congress buy in?
Posted inMay 27, 2002: Wolf at the door
Congress goes barmy over the Army
WASHINGTON, D.C. – “Let’s all go barmy, live off the Army” sang Mack the Knife and his friends in The Threepenny Opera. They must be in town. Come to think of it, they must have gotten elected to Congress, which has been acting barmier-than-usual, thanks to the armed forces. It started in March, when the […]
Posted inMay 13, 2002: Beyond ecology: Restoring a cultural landscape
New monuments: Planning by numbers
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear, just before and after George W. Bush was inaugurated, when some of his Western supporters spoke openly about nullifying those 11 new national monuments created by the presidential predecessor they hated. Enter reality, both legal and political. It turns out that the […]
Posted inApril 29, 2002: The Great Salt Lake Mystery
Bush will edit NW Forest Plan
The Bush administration thinks the Clinton-bred forestry plan that has governed – and limited – Northwest logging since 1994 is a failure and needs overhaul or replacement (HCN, 7/26/93: Clinton vs. Foley: House speaker is furious at plan to protect Northwest forests). The Northwest Forest Plan procedures that aim to protect habitat for endangered species […]