When renowned zoologist Jane Lubchenco was sworn in as President Obama’s director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in 2009, she declared: “Science will be respected at NOAA; science will not be muzzled.” Lubchenco’s doctrine signaled a new day. Today, four years later, she would be the first to admit that her edict was […]
Politics
Posted inRange
A new vision for public lands
In 2012, the seemingly endless argument over what level of government ought to be the manager over part of the federal land estate flared up again, led by individuals in Utah and Arizona. In Arizona, in March, the state legislature passed a bill that called for federal land agencies to give up title to roughly […]
Posted inRange
Western States Survey says
Colorado College’s 2013 Western States Survey report is out. This year pollsters grilled 2,400 voters in Arizona, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming on energy, conservation and the role of government in both, and it yielded some fascinating results. Westerners’ views of natural resources and public lands, and the roles they play in our […]
Posted inGoat
Spending money to save money
Say you’re a struggling Western freelance writer. In a quest for some dependable cash, you apply to work on trail crew for a summer with the Forest Service — a great way to be in the mountains and make money. You call up the local USFS office and get assurance that yes, you’re qualified, and […]
Posted inRange
The state of Indian nations
National Congress of American Indians President Jefferson Keel began his annual report, State of Indian Nations, with a simple exclamation. “Indian Country is strong!” That statement, he added, is something he hasn’t always been able to say. He then described this as “a moment of real possibility.” And why not? There is a long list […]
Posted inWotr
Thoughts on Presidents’ Day
Abraham Lincoln was among my earliest heroes as a kid. I grew up in Illinois, a state that inculcated a love of the 16th president from the first days of school. My hometown was the site of one of the most famous of his pre-presidential debates with Stephen Douglas, and I often ate an ice […]
Posted inWotr
When frontier socialism thrived in Wyoming
The last name of a man in the dues ledger of the South Slavic Socialist Organization, No. 136, startled me — “Putz.” I glimpsed it not long ago in old documents at the “Slovenski Dom” in Rock Springs, Wyo., a town where politics once mingled with lodge fraternalism in the Old West. It’s because my […]
Posted inRange
Sally Jewell’s Adventure of a Lifetime
President Obama’s nominee for heading the Department of Interior, Sally Jewell, is noteworthy not for who she is, but for who she is not. She is a mountaineer, an ultra-marathon runner, a CEO of the outdoor gear giant REI, and a former bank executive and oil company engineer. She appears to be some kind of […]
Posted inGoat
Staring down the fiscal cliff
For evidence of the effects of political deadlock in Washington, look no further than a Jan. 25 memo from National Park Service director Jonathan Jarvis instructing park directors to prepare for deep spending cuts. The memo, leaked to the media by the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees, tells park directors not to hire any […]
Posted inGoat
Views of Chu
We’ve posted before about the mass exodus of cabinet secretaries Obama is facing (typical for a second-term president). One of the more notable vacancies is that of Energy Secretary – Steven Chu has announced he’s stepping down. When he took office in 2009, HCN senior editor Ray Ring gave his thoughts on Chu and other […]
Posted inFebruary 4, 2013: Making Good on the Badlands
Which way will the West go on guns?
Amid all the talk, legislative proposals and presidential decrees inspired by the recent shootings in Connecticut and Colorado, perhaps the most significant was the announcement in early January that former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., was starting a gun-control lobbying organization. Americans for Responsible Solutions seeks to raise $20 million by the next election cycle […]
Posted inGoat
Hello, climate change
Environmentalists got what they’ve been waiting for Monday, when President Obama reinvented himself as a committed liberal in his second inauguration speech. He referred to climate change by its proper name, rather than dancing a little rhetorical jig around it, and even summoned the Almighty. God, he said, “commanded” the planet to our care. He […]
Posted inGoat
FDA ruling on GMO salmon worries Alaska fishermen
On January 2, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game released its annual fisheries forecast for the Copper River region, famous for its prolific runs of succulent salmon. The forecast, awaited each year by fisherman living in the region’s port towns, makes predictions based on the previous years’ harvest, weather patterns, and a variety of […]
Posted inRange
A “tail” of two kitties: jaguars and ocelots on the comeback trail
By Matt Clark, Defenders of Wildlife Many people are surprised to learn that both jaguars and elusive wild cats known as ocelots are native Arizonans, and still roam the U.S.-Mexico borderlands to this day. They are even more intrigued to learn there is a breeding population of jaguars only 125 miles south of the border […]
Posted inRange
Obama should look to New Mexico for conservation legacy
Conservation is about balance: balancing the wants of today with the needs of tomorrow; balancing freedom with responsibility; balancing human’s power to harness nature, with respecting nature’s force and wisdom. Last week, the Center for American Progress pointed out in a report one place where the Obama Administration is out of balance: protecting the best, […]
Posted inGoat
Native women fail to find justice
Updated 11:28 a.m. Jan 11, 2013 In 2005, two Native American women in Oklahoma were kidnapped, blindfolded, and raped by three non-native men. Because they were blindfolded, they didn’t know if they were assaulted on state, federal, or tribal land. And, due to a tragic gap in the justice system, the location of the crime […]
Posted inArticles
In Montana, Dark Money Helped Democrats Hold a Key Senate Seat
In the waning days of Montana’s hotly contested Senate race, a small outfit called Montana Hunters and Anglers, launched by liberal activists, tried something drastic.It didn’t buy ads supporting the incumbent Democrat, Sen. Jon Tester. Instead, it put up radio and TV commercials that urged voters to choose the third-party candidate, libertarian DanCox, describing Cox as […]
Posted inWotr
Let’s hear it for a bipartisan-minded Republican
Imagine a Republican leader who racked up the following achievements: He fought smog by regulating vehicle emissions, kept dams from choking free-flowing rivers, set aside big chunks of wild backcountry for permanent protection, and supported a strong treaty to prevent harmful gases from mucking up the atmosphere. Democratic operatives might just invite this candidate to […]
Posted inDecember 24, 2012: The new Wild, Wild West
A sampler of U.S. environmentalists working in British Columbia
Mitch Friedman, head of Conservation Northwest, a Washington-based group whose advocacy reaches into British Columbia, has an unusual way of estimating the strength of the environmental movement: by the number of “activists per square mile.” In B.C., he says, that number is “very low — there are whole mountain ranges without a single citizen watchdog, […]
Posted inDecember 24, 2012: The new Wild, Wild West
Canadian government cuts pollution research that’s crucial in the U.S.
EXPERIMENTAL LAKES AREA, ONTARIO To reach Lake 658, you leave the Trans-Canada Highway in the moose-ridden backwoods of western Ontario, creep down a teeth-jarring gravel road, follow a trail to a different lake, hop onto a motorboat and then take a short hike to 658’s granite shoreline. The water is crystal-clear, and yet a sign […]