Montana’s wolf hunters hung up their bows last Saturday as archery season closed and rifle season began. Five years after the federal government dropped Montana’s wolves from the Endangered Species List and the state took over management, officials are still trying to trim the state’s growing wolf population. This year, each hunter can bag five […]
Wildlife
Posted inSeptember 2, 2013: Of Sparrows and Sodbusters
The story of Gimpy
An injured black bear draws sympathy from the community.
Posted inGoat
Montana takes another step toward restoring free-roaming bison herds
When 34 Yellowstone National Park bison bounded off a trailer into north central Montana this August, their century-long absence from Fort Belknap Reservation ended. The repatriation comes at a time when Montana is making gradual progress towards fostering free-roaming bison herds. While hundreds of thousands of bison live in Montana, most are commercial stock carrying cattle […]
Posted inWotr
In Alaska, fishing can be a true harvest
Fishing on the Kenai Peninsula and realizing what we’ve lost in the Lower 48.
Posted inSeptember 2, 2013: Of Sparrows and Sodbusters
Of Sparrows and Sodbusters
Western and Mexican conservationists race against time to save grasslands — and the species that depend on them
Posted inSeptember 2, 2013: Of Sparrows and Sodbusters
When turtles and national security collide
Your article about desert tortoises was well researched and written (“Mojave Squeeze,” HCN, 8/5/13). I’m concerned about the U.S. Army’s unsuccessful efforts with tortoise translocation at Fort Irwin as part of its land expansion authorized by Congress in 2001. Similar land-acquisition efforts are underway by the U.S. Marine Corps in Twentynine Palms, Calif., where the military […]
Posted inGoat
Volunteers track migrations of declining monarch populations
The days are getting shorter as autumn approaches, and volunteers around the country are getting their bug nets in order, preparing for the brief season when monarch butterflies will be migrating through their communities. Arguably the most recognized butterfly species in the world, monarchs captivate our imaginations with their big, colorful wings and long migrations […]
Posted inSeptember 2, 2013: Of Sparrows and Sodbusters
Conservation fund turns 50
Friends and foes agree: The 50-year-old Land and Water Conservation Fund needs a facelift. Created to bankroll conservation projects with royalties from offshore oil and gas drilling, the Fund has long been plagued by political wrangling. Congress is authorized to put in $900 million a year, but often appropriates far less. In 2015, the Fund’s […]
Posted inSeptember 2, 2013: Of Sparrows and Sodbusters
The endangered species industrial complex
I started my tortoise career in 1990 at the Nevada Test Site for the Yucca Mountain Project and remember a concerted effort to look for a proper translocation site for tortoise (“Mojave Squeeze,” HCN, 7/5/13). Dr. Kristin Berry accompanied my husband and me on our survey transect in 2001 for the Fort Irwin expansion area. […]
Posted inSeptember 2, 2013: Of Sparrows and Sodbusters
Brewers sparrows on the move
This time-lapse video shows how Brewer’s sparrows spread north from their winter habitat in the Southwest and Mexico’s Chihuahuan Desert Grasslands to their summer range in the American West. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology produced the maps with computer models that used recorded sightings and habitat data to predict where the birds were likeliest to […]
Posted inGoat
Why aren’t experimental floods helping native fish below Glen Canyon Dam?
Before Glen Canyon Dam tamed it in 1963, the Colorado River flowed red with mud, and the seasons ruled its temperature and flow. Today, the river is a vastly different ecosystem. Now, it’s the color of a tropical ocean because the dam holds back sediment, withering the beaches that river travelers love for camping. And […]
Posted inWotr
How can a court say a bear is ‘not natural’?
Questioning a recent court decision after a black bear killed a young boy in Utah.
Posted inWotr
Colorado’s ‘Berlin Wall for wildlife’ should get an animal crossing
Supporters hope to try out a revolutionary design on I-70.
Posted inGoat
Sexy wildflower photos remind us to take in life’s details
Tim Crawford – an all-around maverick and High Country News subscriber in Bozeman, Mont. – has been doing photography for conservation groups, magazines, books and other purposes for more than 50 years. Now he’s debuting a series of close-ups of “Wild & Feral Flowers,” including this Mexican hat (also called the prairie coneflower) and musk […]
Posted inAugust 19, 2013: Dinosaur Wars
Gnawing away at invasives
Only 3.2 percent of the 50 million federally owned acres overrun with invasive weeds were treated in 2009. That puts infested land on track to double by 2019. Meanwhile, some conservationists suggest a more palatable strategy: Eat the invaders that are devouring our ecosystems. Unfortunately, some of the West’s most insidious aliens, like tamarisk, may […]
Posted inAugust 19, 2013: Dinosaur Wars
New study questions how Greater Yellowstone bears are counted
Uncertainty over the health of grizzly population arises as officials consider removing it from the Endangered Species list.
Posted inAugust 19, 2013: Dinosaur Wars
The Latest: Fish & Wildlife to shoot thousands of barred owls
BackstoryAfter the northern spotted owl hit the endangered species list in 1990, recovery plans focused on curtailing logging in its old-growth habitat. But when the population failed to bounce back, biologists began to consider removing barred owls, a similar Eastern species that’s been invading the spotted owl’s Pacific Northwestern territory. A 2008 recovery plan, later […]
Posted inWotr
When young falcons take their cliff jump
People who study peregrine falcons wake up early. It’s hard to roll out of the sack at 4 a.m., well before the summer sun comes up, but over the years I’ve done so gladly, privileged to join several early-bird researchers in western Colorado’s Black Canyon National Park. In July, the eggs have long since hatched […]
Posted inArticles
Identifying ‘killer trees’ in Sequoia National Park
In the middle of August, I visit a backcountry campground in California’s Sequoia National Park to survey trees. Two teenage boys nap while their fathers roam the nearby woods, looking for firewood. I introduce myself as a forestry technician and mention that a dying white fir is leaning over one of their tents. Dropping my […]
Posted inArticles
The Latest: battles in the West’s bitter wild horse wars
BackstoryThe 37,000 wild horses roaming the West’s public lands strain ecosystems, ranches and taxpayers alike. Despite fertility drugs designed to lessen their numbers, today, more mustangs live in captivity than in the wild, costing the Bureau of Land Management about $76 million annually. Slaughter and hunting may be the clearest solutions, but public outrage makes […]