Back in 2009, I reported on new research indicating that “pesticide cocktails” — mixtures of common agricultural pesticides, including common off-the-shelf herbicides, and so-called “inert” ingredients — are more deadly to salmon than they are when used separately. That finding came about as part of a larger effort by the US EPA, the National Marine […]
Politics
Posted inGoat
Of beetles and borders
The mountain pine beetle’s red hand of death (see photo below) continues to plunder Rocky Mountain forests, according to a report released last week by the U.S. and Colorado forest services. The rampant pest chomped through another 400,000 acres of pines in Colorado and southern Wyoming last year, for a grand total of four million […]
Posted inGoat
Sexual assault on the rez
Will the Obama administration’s efforts in Indian Country help end a decades-long epidemic of sexual violence and abuse against women on reservations? One can only hope that the momentum spurred by the Tribal Law and Order Act of 2010 and the work of a new Department of Justice task force to streamline prosecution of violent […]
Posted inBlog
The State of the Union and the environment
When President Obama delivers his State of the Union address tomorrow night he’ll likely focus much of his attention on the economy and jobs — and the lack of them in this country. It’s also expected that the President will further signal a centrist drift. It’s unlikely the President will spend much time discussing the […]
Posted inRange
Health cuts and Indian Country
Journalists like me have played the role of Chicken Little for many years. We have written dozens of stories about the consequences of an election, predicting what will happen after Republicans win and fulfill their promises to drastically cut government. Only very little happened. Sure, there were significant budget cuts and restructuring of programs under […]
Posted inRange
The return of nullification
The “Doctrine of Nullification” may be known only to American history buffs, but that could soon change, for Idaho is about to resurrect it and several other states — mostly in the West — appear poised to follow. Put briefly, the Doctrine holds that states have the authority to declare a federal law unconstitutional and […]
Posted inJanuary 24, 2011: Serendipity in the Desert
Ronald Reagan: The accidental environmentalist
Expect to be hearing plenty about Ronald Reagan: The centennial of his birth is coming up soon. Our 40th president was born on Feb. 6, 1911, in Tampico, Ill. A commemorative postage stamp is in the works, along with traveling exhibits, academic symposiums and sculpture unveilings. Few Western environmentalists will be celebrating — but maybe […]
Posted inRange
Salazar goes wild
By Heather Hansen, Red Lodge Clearing House It wasn’t long after Interior Secretary Ken Salazar was in Denver last month, announcing a new “Wild Lands” policy, that debate over the order flared: will it illegally lock up too much land as “hands off” wilderness, or does it rightfully restore protection for wild tracts of land? […]
Posted inJanuary 24, 2011: Serendipity in the Desert
Monument, schmonument
It’s refreshing to see the Obama administration take some protective steps on the National Landscape Conservation System lands (HCN, 12/20/10). Unfortunately, telling an agency with a tradition of neglect and exploitation to focus on conservation may be optimistic, especially when federal lands will face hostility and budget cuts from conservatives in the new Congress. President […]
Posted inRange
An anti-wilderness knee jerk
I guess it was predictable. No sooner had Interior Secretary Salazar announced that the BLM would manage certain public domain lands for their backcountry values, than the Farm Bureau Federation and its political allies went on the attack. According to them Salazar’s decision amounts to yet another “land grab” by the Obama Administration on behalf […]
Posted inGoat
New Mexico governor sucker-punches enviro regs
On January 1, 2011, New Mexico’s new governor, Republican Susana Martinez, took office. Nine minutes into her first day, she got right down to business with executive order 2011-001 [PDF], the innocently-titled “Formation of a small business tax force,” which not only created said task force but, more importantly, placed a 90-day hold on most […]
Posted inRange
A Moment of Opportunity for Counties with Public Lands
By Mark Haggerty, 1-11-11 U.S. Agricultural Secretary Tom Vilsack just announced that this year’s “transition” payments to counties from the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act (SRS) will again “contribute to rural communities becoming self-sustaining and prosperous.” The Secretary stressed that these payments ($389 million) fund local roads and schools—important for communities still feeling […]
Posted inGoat
Rep. Giffords — moderate, and green
By now, we’ve all read and heard the tragic and horrifying accounts of the attempted assassination of three-term Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), which resulted in 6 dead and 14 injured, including the Congresswoman. It’s not clear if the mentally-ill shooter also had political motivations. Giffords is known as a moderate and has voiced strong criticism […]
Posted inRange
Arizona shooting poses another threat to democracy
There’s already been ample commentary about the Jan. 8 horror in Tucson, Ariz. Six people, ranging from a 9-year-old girl to a federal judge, were killed, and 14 were wounded, among them Gabrielle Giffords, who represents that part of Arizona in the U.S. Congress. The suspect, 22-year-old Jared Loughner, was captured at the scene. Responses have […]
Posted inArticles
Ronald Reagan: The accidental environmentalist
Former president’s economic decline was enviro boon
Posted inGoat
The best of the Top 10s
Here at HCN, we’ve scoured the Internet to bring you some of the most noteworthy Top Ten lists of the year, for your edification and amusement. In no particular order, and mostly from Western media outlets: Come across any good Top 10 lists to share? Or do you have your own? Post ’em below (as […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
Tougher than most
WYOMING Surely she was exaggerating, but maybe not. Republican Cynthia Lummis, Wyoming’s lone congressional representative, insisted that she knew people in her state who would actually choose death over taxes — resolving to quit dialysis or other live-saving treatments — “in order to die so their estates won’t be taxed” if the Bush-era tax breaks […]
Posted inGoat
Merry Christmas, small farmers and all eaters
The U.S. Congress gave the American public — and small farmers and ranchers — a bit more than a lump of E. coli-tainted coal this year. Their 2010 stocking stuffer is a freshly-passed food safety bill that gives the Food and Drug Administration additional powers to help keep our food supply safer. One important provision […]