Women’s tax dollars help fund public land – yet that public asset isn’t seen as safe for all people to enjoy.
Recreation
Posted inArticles
National Park Service chief expands sexual harassment probe
Upcoming survey to determine if misconduct at the Grand Canyon represents a widespread problem.
Posted inApril 4, 2016: A Land Divided
Developers look to cash in on the Grand Canyon’s popularity
The landmark stands at a crossroads, as tourism booms and more development seems inevitable.
Posted inArticles
Grand Canyon abolishes river district in response to sexual harassment allegations
The abrupt decision leaves the future of NPS river management up in the air.
Posted inArticles
It’s inevitable. There will be bikes in wilderness.
It hasn’t happened yet, but one day, bicycles and baby strollers will be welcome in wilderness. That’s the goal of the nonprofit Sustainable Trails Coalition, which seeks to permit other forms of human-powered trail travel in wilderness areas, besides just walking. Congress never prohibited biking or pushing a baby carriage. Both are banned by outmoded […]
Posted inMarch 21, 2016: Making Sense of Malheur
Drugged up fishes, Bundy’s feral cattle, and a how-to for cannibalism
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
Posted inArticles
Western states struggle to reform recreational streambed mining
Recent bills to change suction dredging regulations faltered in Idaho, Washington and Oregon.
Posted inMarch 21, 2016: Making Sense of Malheur
Stop trying to make biking in wilderness happen. It’s not going to happen.
I shouldn’t be writing this, and you shouldn’t be reading it. Far more pressing issues face our public lands. But a vocal minority is drudging up the long-resolved question of mountain biking in wilderness. They have even drafted a bill for somebody to introduce in Congress — the Human-Powered Wildlands Travel Management Act — that […]
Posted inArticles
Forest Service rejects Grand Canyon luxury village
The setback is just the latest in a 30-year push to develop the rim.
Posted inMarch 7, 2016: The Parks You Don't Know
National parks: Where we go and where we don’t
Much of the Park Service’s land in the West is poorly visited and little-known.
Posted inMarch 7, 2016: The Parks You Don't Know
Secrets of the National Park Service
Readers and staff speak out on surprising favorites.
Posted inMarch 7, 2016: The Parks You Don't Know
The tricky allure of unpeopled places
Longing for solitude on the land, and feeling uneasy.
Posted inArticles
Graffiti is destroying our national landmarks. I’m on a mission to stop it.
The Coconino sandstone at Grand Canyon means many things to many people. To the hiker, it indicates that he or she is almost at the top. To the artist, it is a graceful sweep of sculptured stone, and to the geologist, it evokes the trade winds blowing across Aeolian dunes 265 million years ago. But […]
Posted inFebruary 22, 2016: Fractured
It’s been a deadly winter for backcountry fun
What would it take to keep snowmobilers and others safe in avalanche terrain?
Posted inFebruary 22, 2016: Fractured
Bishop’s ‘Grand Bargain’ in Utah is no deal, say enviros
The much-anticipated land-use plan has ramped up the tensions it promised to defuse.
Posted inArticles
Should coyote hunting contests be banned?
The debate over organized kills and whether they actually impact population, via a new podcast.
Posted inArticles
Above normal snowpack in some of last winter’s driest regions
Precipitation in recent months chips away at California drought, but the water deficit will be hard to overcome.
Posted inArticles
Forest Service leaves control of water rights to ski resorts
How does industry control of water affect public land management?
Posted inArticles
Grand Canyon park’s 15-year failure on sexual harassment
Interior Department investigation shows a history of harassment, hostility and retaliation.
Posted inArticles
What if the Grand Canyon were private? An alternate future for the park.
In the beginning, you didn’t need any permits. OK, that’s a slight exaggeration. Even back in the halcyon days of the 1960s, permits were required to backpack in Grand Canyon, but they weren’t a big deal. We would drive up after school and bang on the door of park headquarters, whereupon a ranger would clamber […]