There’s a danger in praising journalism simply because it agrees with one’s preconceived notions, but I’ll take that risk. Your fire coverage in the Oct. 17 issue was terrific (HCN, 10/17/11, “A burning problem”). It’s such an important story. The graphic of state-by-state comparisons was particularly useful. I’ve been so preoccupied with New Mexico, especially […]
Politics
Posted inGoat
‘Wilderness Lite’ wins the day
One of the last decades’ most scintillating (that is, in the headachey confusing sense evoked by scintillating scotoma) enviro-legal ping-pong matches may finally be drawing to a close. On Friday, a three-judge panel at the federal 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver effectively reinstated the Clinton-era Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which banned new road […]
Posted inWotr
Elouise Cobell, rest in peace
updated Oct. 26, 2011 It is the rare person who gets to be enshrined in the pantheon of heroes. I remember the Herblock cartoon that came out the day after Dwight Eisenhower died. It showed acres of white crosses at Arlington National Cemetery, with the caption: “Pass the word, it’s Ike.” Across Indian Country this […]
Posted inOctober 17, 2011: A Burning Problem
Obama message control blocks journalists covering the environment
The conversation should have been easy: An interview about renewable energy on public lands with a federal official I know and trust, the rare bureaucrat who can spin administrative drudgery into a good yarn. But I soon sensed I was wasting my time. For there was another person on the line, too, one whose job […]
Posted inGoat
Friday news roundup: Pipeline of political posturing
Letters are flying as congressional lawmakers look to send a persuasive final word to the State Department on the Keystone XL Pipeline project in its final hour of debate. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., spoke for the first time against the project in an Oct. 5 missive, but 22 House Democrats signed a letter […]
Posted inGoat
Tea Party goes local
Pam Stout’s first brush with fame came in the spring of 2010 when, after appearing in a New York Times story about the rise of the Tea Party, David Letterman invited her on his show to explain the movement. “I know nothing about the Tea Party,” he said at the outset of the interview. Stout went […]
Posted inOctober 17, 2011: A Burning Problem
Lack of medical care on the firelines endangers firefighters
When the three young firefighters first appeared at the Dutch Creek trailhead in California’s Shasta-Trinity National Forest, veteran crew boss Tim Bailey felt uneasy. Their green protective chaps were a little too clean, and their chainsaws looked practically unused. But despite their apparent inexperience, the tree-felling crew from Washington’s Olympic National Park was gung-ho, recalls […]
Posted inGoat
State parks problems
State budget shortfalls have hurt many public amenities – including state parks. Starting in 2009, many Western states cut back on hours, staffing, and maintenance at their parks, and even closed some outright. Just about the only park system that didn’t suffer was Oregon’s, which uses lottery money to fund its parks. Now, in California, […]
Posted inRange
Oh, give them a home …
By Heather Hansen, Red Lodge Clearing House Imagine the nerve of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) suggesting that wild bison be managed with the use of wildlife management areas (WMA). That was the message they got last week at a meeting in Shelby, Mont., where local ranchers told an FWP representative that bison were […]
Posted inOctober 17, 2011: A Burning Problem
Chronicles of the ‘Cowboy Candidate,’ a review of Theodore Roosevelt in the Badlands
Theodore Roosevelt in the Badlands: A Young Politician’s Quest for Recovery in the American WestRoger L. Di Silvestro320 pages, hardcover: $27.Walker Books, 2011. With its obsessive inclusion of seemingly every grouse the future president shot, every letter he wrote, and every meeting he chaired during his stay in the West, Theodore Roosevelt in the Badlands […]
Posted inOctober 17, 2011: A Burning Problem
Good policy and good intentions won’t stop big wildfires
Southwestern wildfires are known to be fast-moving and destructive, but this summer’s conflagrations astonished even veteran observers. On May 29, two cousins abandoned a campfire in a ponderosa pine forest in eastern Arizona. The resulting Wallow Fire, encouraged by dry, windy weather, burned for the next five weeks. It became the largest wildfire in the […]
Posted inGoat
Feds crack down on “new California gold rush”
If you live in one of the 9 Western states where marijuana has been legalized for medical use, you may have noticed that there suddenly seem to be an awful lot of bright-faced, completely healthy twenty-somethings who claim to have chronic pain or glaucoma. While many people use the drug to help deal with real, […]
Posted inOctober 17, 2011: A Burning Problem
The Hatfield legacy: “deep and wide and wonderful”
Nice job praising Sen. Mark Hatfield (HCN, 9/5/2011). In 1974, we started the Environmental Center at Oregon State and one of our first recruits was Andy Kerr, who quickly quit school to dedicate his life to saving Oregon wildlands. Andy did a hell of a job, and still does. But I will never forget the […]
Posted inOctober 17, 2011: A Burning Problem
Where have all the Hatfields gone?
Politics aside, we need more senators and representatives like Mark Hatfield (HCN, 9/5/11). We used to have a couple of politicians here in Arizona who were political opposites — I mean really opposite. But they both got things done for the state: the straight-talkin’ Barry Goldwater and the great (for the landscape) Udalls. Can we […]
Posted inRange
Down with the “National Insecurity and Federal Lands Destruction Act”
By Heather Hansen, Red Lodge Clearing House Updated afternoon of 10/5/11 to reflect recent changes to the bill. I was cruising along the shoreline of Upper Waterton Lake a few years back, crossing from Canada to Goat Haunt, Montana. It was around the time of the sixth anniversary of 9/11 and, as we crossed the international […]
Posted inSeptember 19, 2011: Redemption
A part of something old: writer Kim Stafford’s storied places
In southwest Portland lies a strip of untamed land, bounded by busy roads in a dense, urban landscape. It is not a park, simply a tract of woods that developers missed. It is also not pristine nature, but it is what writer and Portland native Kim Stafford calls a “scattered Eden.” Those woods are just […]
Posted inRange
Why rural communities deserve investment
By Chuck Hassebrook, the Daily Yonder We cannot build a strong nation on a foundation of crumbling communities. Even the sound elements are weakened by those not maintained. So it would be a mistake to write off rural communities and suspend federal investment in their future, as advocated by some in the September […]
Posted inSeptember 19, 2011: Redemption
Cody Cortez: A faux-file of the West’s most mysterious writer
As fiercely reclusive as he is enigmatic, Cody Cortez is probably the most compelling Western writer you’ve never heard of. He lives off the grid and loathes the trappings of the literary life, spurning bookstore readings and appearances on National Public Radio. Among devotees, though, the pages of his books-in-progress, especially his memoir-in-the-making, Cowboy Rinpoche, […]
Posted inGoat
Pearls of discontent
Last week, The National Park Service released a draft environmental impact statement that assesses the impacts the commercial shellfish company has on the estuary where it’s based–particularly its impacts on eelgrass, water quality, and wildlife–and evaluates the pros and cons of issuing a new permit that would allow the company to continue operating.