Editor’s Note: In our interview with former Utah Sen. Bob Bennett (“Bob Bennett after the fall,” HCN, 10/29/12), Bennett said of his 2009 Washington County land bill: “The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance’s board was split 7-7 over the bill. So they took no position, which effectively let it move forward.” SUWA Executive Director Scott Groene […]
Politics
Posted inRange
Natural resources and the fiscal cliff
By Heather Hansen, Red Lodge Clearing House As even people living in a cave know by now, if Congress doesn’t strike a deal soon, some combination of automatic tax hikes and draconian budget cuts will kick in. As early as January 2, the first round of sequestration cuts will be triggered. I’ve heard little discussion […]
Posted inGoat
The name game
Enviros are dreaming – not of a white Christmas (which seems unlikely around most of the West, given ongoing drought) but of a greener White House. A president’s re-election often creates an exodus of Cabinet secretaries, as some decide to leave for other opportunities and others are asked to step down. Hencewith, some outright speculation […]
Posted inGoat
Wilderness trumps sustainable agriculture in Point Reyes
An epic battle over the future of an oyster farm in California’s Point Reyes National Seashore ended last Friday when Interior Secretary Ken Salazar rejected a request to extend the oyster company’s lease. Salazar’s decision effectively evicts the Drake’s Bay Oyster Company, which has operated the farm since 2004, and turns the 2,700-acre Drakes Estero […]
Posted inRange
Senate calls a foul on Sportsmen’s Act
By Heather Hansen, Red Lodge Clearing House With a highly anticipated majority, the Sportsmen’s Act of 2012 passed the Senate this week. No, wait, it totally didn’t. The high profile bill (S. 3525), which was authored and championed by Jon Tester (D-MT) would, among other things, increase access to public lands for hunters and anglers. It was […]
Posted inGoat
A monumental danger
Southern Arizona’s national monuments have the uneasy reputation of being good places to smuggle drugs and immigrants. Bureau of Land Management law enforcement rangers routinely find trash bags of marijuana stashed beneath mesquite and paloverde trees, piles of muddy, discarded clothes and Dumpsters-worth of empty water bottles, painted black to make them less visible in […]
Posted inNovember 26, 2012: Casting for Common Ground
Seattle-based artist paints portraits of a melting world
We only see what we look at. To look is an act of choice. — John Berger, Ways of Seeing Maria Coryell-Martin wants us to dance the horizon. We are in the Seattle Art Museum’s sculpture park, beneath a hunk of orange steel (The Eagle, by Alexander Calder), but she is looking past the art, […]
Posted inNovember 26, 2012: Casting for Common Ground
A snapshot of the 2012 election, by the numbers
84.1 Percent of population that is Native American in Sioux County, N.D. 83.9 Percent of Sioux County votes cast for pro-oil Democratic Senate candidate Heidi Heitkamp 1 Percent by which Heitkamp won North Dakota’s open Senate seat 10 Number of Utah’s 29 counties in which Obama received 10 percent or less of the vote 100 […]
Posted inGoat
The future of campaign spending
Imagine you’re one of the 40,000 people in America with a net worth of over $30 million. That’s enough to have some spare cash to play with. Why not use it to influence politics? Come on. You know you want to. Yet, you’re faced with a problem. According to analyses by the Center for Responsive […]
Posted inGoat
A pro-tax revolt?
Dear voter, This is a test of your reading comprehension: “Without increasing any tax rate or imposing any new tax, shall Delta County be authorized to collect, retain, and use all revenues derived from impact fees on new development on and after January 1, 2013, as a voter approved revenue change under Article X, Section […]
Posted inGoat
The Nevada surprise
For the last 12 years, Nevada has had but three Representatives in the U.S. House: Two from the southern Clark County cities where 70 percent of Nevada lives and works, and another representing everybody else — all of rural Nevada from Elko in the far northwest to Pahrump on the state’s Western border with California. […]
Posted inWotr
Remembering George McGovern as the elections pass
As the 2012 election recedes into the background, it’s still time to play the post-election game called “What did it really mean?” or, in the case of this election, “What did we get for $2.6 billion?” Pundits on the yak-yak circuit got the jump on the game when the election was quickly called for President […]
Posted inRange
Sportsmen given credit in Montana’s Dem governor win
Although not as highly watched as Montana’s seat in the US Senate, sportsmen are also being given partial credit for tipping the scales toward the Democratic victor, Steve Bullock, over Republican Rick Hill in the 2012 race for Montana Governor. A Lee newspapers analysis quoted Bullock campaign manager Kevin O’Brien, as he passed around the […]
Posted inGoat
A Western obstructionist gets obstructed
Updated 9:49 a.m., 11/12/12 James Inhofe, a 77-year-old senator from Oklahoma, a grown man with no history of mental illness, claims to have uncovered divine logic that refutes the science of global warming. He has sanguinely decoded the rubric among verses in the first book of the world’s most famous text — the Bible. Here […]
Posted inNovember 12, 2012: Nowhere to run
A review of On Arctic Ground
On Arctic Ground: Tracking Time Through Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve,Debbie S. Miller,142 pages, hardcover:$29.95.Braided River, 2012. The National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska is the largest single chunk of public land in the country — more than 10 times the size of Yellowstone National Park and home to caribou, polar bears and large populations of migratory […]
Posted inNovember 12, 2012: Nowhere to run
BLM mission fail?
The following comments were posted at HCN.org in response to Jodi Peterson‘s Oct. 16 blog “BLM looks for balance,” which concerned the recent wave of criticism the agency has received for its outsized focus on fossil fuel extraction. I retired after almost 35 years in BLM field offices. I believe the concept of public lands […]
Posted inNovember 12, 2012: Nowhere to run
Inslee’s opportunity
I hope Jay Inslee wins the Washington gubernatorial race and takes a courageous and legacy-making stand with the governor of Oregon to remove the Snake River dams to restore the salmon runs (“Races where the environment matters. Sort of.” HCN, 10/29/12). The science on this is conclusive. If Jay can win his race, it will […]
Posted inGoat
Great minds think alike?
On Tuesday night, Paonia, Colo.’s non-television-owning crowd packed the local theater to watch the election. Over cans of PBR, bags of popcorn and the glow of our smartphones, we watched as announcers flicked through graphics of county-by-county results on their touch-screen TVs. Looking around the theater, you never would have known that our rural western […]
Posted inGoat
Pot measures pass
“Federal law still says marijuana is an illegal drug, so don’t break out the Cheetos or goldfish too quickly.” That was the word from Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper’s office Tuesday night in response to voters passing a ballot initiative legalizing pot sales for recreational use in the state. A similar initiative passed in Washington State, […]
Posted inRange
Sportsmen sealed reelection for Sen. Jon Tester
Outside special interests dumped some $30 million dollars on the Montana race for the US Senate between Democratic incumbent Jon Tester and Republican challenger Denny Rehberg, but the race came down to something that costs $19: A Montana resident hunting and fishing license. Sportsmen issues of access, wolves and gun rights headlined both the news […]