Sometime in August, 100 or more domestic elk escaped from a game farm near Rexburg, Idaho, through a hole in the fence. The elk were bred for their huge antlers, and are known as “shooter bulls,” meaning they’re destined to be shot with bow and arrow or rifle, by clients engaged in an elaborate fantasy […]
Wildlife
Posted inOctober 30, 2006: Peace Breaks Out In New Mexico's Forests
Biomass: What to do with all that wood
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Peace Breaks Out In New Mexico’s Forests.” SANTA FE, New Mexico — Driving through the thickly forested mountains around New Mexico’s state capital, Mark Sardella doesn’t daydream about his next camping trip. Instead, he thinks about the untapped heat locked up in all those […]
Posted inOctober 16, 2006: A River Once More
Some ‘canned’ elk get uncanned
Although most of its neighbors have either banned or begun phasing out elk farms, the state of Idaho is still home to more than 70, with some charging shooters thousands of dollars to bag fenced, domesticated game. In August, as many as 160 elk escaped from an Idaho canned-hunt operation near Yellowstone National Park. It […]
Posted inOctober 16, 2006: A River Once More
Wildland acres burned
As global temperatures rise, wildfires are starting earlier and lasting longer into the season. As of press time there were 10 large fires (over 500 acres) burning in the West. This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Wildland acres burned.
Posted inOctober 16, 2006: A River Once More
A deliberate life in the Rockies
If you’re feeling assailed by civilization — its cell phones, computers and telemarketers — David Petersen has an antidote for you. But be forewarned: It’s strong medicine. It’s taken Petersen more than two decades to acquire his hard-earned lessons, and the going hasn’t always been smooth. In 1981, he and his wife, Caroline, left behind […]
Posted inWotr
Feeling crowded around here? It is!
One statistic jumped out of the morning paper and jolted my brain. The news was that America’s population will hit 300 million sometime during the third week of October. But it wasn’t that landmark figure that jarred my morning reverie. It was this: The United States population has grown from 200 million to 300 million […]
Posted inWotr
When bison gawk back, it’s smart to back down
Each time I visit Yellowstone National Park, I watch people ignore park regulations (and common sense) that say you should keep a distance of at least 25 yards from a bison. It’s almost as if folks think they’re in a giant petting zoo. Maybe the video I saw once of a man being gored by […]
Posted inWotr
Idaho’s permissiveness leads to elk on the lam
Sometime in August, 100 or more elk from an Idaho game farm escaped though a hole in the fence. The elk were from a domestic herd bred for huge horns and are known as “shooter bulls,” meaning they’re destined to be shot with bow and arrow or rifle by clients who engage in an elaborate […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
‘They both do not exist’
“They both do not exist.” — Wyoming Attorney General Patrick Crank, equating the federally protected Preble’s meadow jumping mouse with the mythical jackalope. Crank made the comparison at a congressional hearing on the mouse in Greeley, Colo., in September. U.S. Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., led the hearing. This article appeared in the print edition of […]
Posted inOctober 2, 2006: From the ground up
Zine Roundup: Gone fishing
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, “Undaunted muckraker,” in a special issue about community media in the West. Named for the brown rubber boots with hefty soles popular among fishermen, the zine Xtra Tuf is a richly tinted window into the fishing industry’s turbulent culture. Its creator, Moe […]
Posted inWotr
How do you enter a roadless area?
How do you enter roadless lands in the West? Quietly, with a walking staff, a sketchbook, a camera? Not according to the Bush administration: It enters with a chainsaw. On Aug. 7, loggers arrived at the Mike’s Gulch timber sale in the Siskiyou Mountains of southern Oregon, fired up their chainsaws, and began cutting trees. […]
Posted inWotr
Gutsy science wins the day
For any scientist, publishing in Science magazine marks a giant success. It’s one of the world’s premier scientific journals, and only about 7 percent of submitted manuscripts are accepted. But Dan Donato, a second-year graduate student at Oregon State University’s College of Forestry, overcame the odds. Donato was lead author of a study on the […]
Posted inSeptember 4, 2006: Blast from the Past
Endangered Species 101 — in poetry
Harvard entomologist Edward O. Wilson, father of sociobiology and a relentless biodiversity advocate, once estimated that human gluttony helps exterminate species at the rate of one every 20 minutes. The Dire Elegies laments the plight of North America’s endangered wildlife in poetic detail — but this is more than a disgruntled ode to dying species […]
Posted inAugust 21, 2006: The Lure of the Lawn
Loss and renewal in the Northwest
“These stories of loss are about farming and forestry in the Pacific Northwest,” writes Steven Radosevich in this compact collection of essays. “They come along with me out of my vineyard.” Radosevich, hunter, fisherman, grape grower and professor of forest science at Oregon State University, writes simple, painful prose about the diminishing natural wealth of […]
Posted inAugust 21, 2006: The Lure of the Lawn
Bearable ways to deal with bruins
Generally speaking, the last thing anybody wants is a book waving a “practical” banner. But practical can also be informative and funny, especially when it comes to bears. Linda Masterson, an award-winning writer and volunteer for the Colorado Division of Wildlife’s Bear Aware team, has succeeded in converting what could have been a boring how-to […]
Posted inAugust 21, 2006: The Lure of the Lawn
Wilderness cliffhanger
Three compromise bills pass the House, await Senate approval
Posted inAugust 21, 2006: The Lure of the Lawn
What is Xeriscaping?
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “The Lure of the Lawn.” Twenty-five years ago, Ken Ball and his Denver Water colleagues developed the seven basic principles of Xeriscaping. Those commandments are still in use today. Plan and design the landscape for water conservation and beauty from the start. Create practical […]
Posted inAugust 21, 2006: The Lure of the Lawn
Xeric Families of the West
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “The Lure of the Lawn.” Harold and Joan Leinbach First, it was floods, which left 10 inches of water standing in Harold and Joan Leinbach’s Boulder yard — and seeping under their foundation — in the spring of 1995. Then it was drought, which […]
Posted inAugust 7, 2006: Is It or Isn't It (Just Another Mouse)?
A few scientific definitions
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Is It or Isn’t It (Just Another Mouse)?“ When people think about the creatures protected by the Endangered Species Act, they tend to picture gray wolves, grizzlies or spotted owls. But the act draws finer distinctions than that, providing protection for subspecies and even […]
Posted inAugust 7, 2006: Is It or Isn't It (Just Another Mouse)?
There was no green in this Rainbow gathering
When we tell folks that we became the unwitting hosts for the Rainbow Family’s annual gathering, the first response is “the who?” The Family’s Web site, welcomehome.org, styles the Rainbows “the largest non-organization of non-members in the world.” At the beginning of July, more than 17,000 of them gathered in Big Red Park, north of […]