Fall, for me at least, is the time of still moments, of stepping back and watching silently as the light shifts and the colors change. This photo, by Flickr user juliaahbell, while black and white, seemed to capture that feeling perfectly. High Country News picks a reader photo each week (approximately) – join our Flickr […]
Wildlife
Posted inRange
Wolf victory still elusive
A recent opinion piece by Mike Medberry wisely suggested that there needs to be a reasonable middle ground in the deeply polemical attitudes toward managing wolves in the West. Unfortunately, this encouraging argument was followed by much of the same tired, politicized and oversimplified rhetoric, pitting environmental groups against the government and mischaracterizing the premise […]
Posted inGoat
Claws out for big cat protection
Macho B’s death, contentious and untimely, could also be criminal. The capture, collaring and euthanization of America’s last known wild jaguar in March was illegal, according to the Center for Biological Diversity, who brought a lawsuit against Arizona Game and Fish Department yesterday. The Center asserts that AZ Game and Fish did not have the […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
UnBEARable
An adventurous bear in Snowmass, Colo., didn’t need surgery, just a ladder. Apparently hoping to do some rad riding, he dropped into the town skate park’s bowl. Unable to skate vert, he was then busted down there, with no way out. One can imagine young onlookers confusing him with some shaggy old-school skater, before realizing […]
Posted inWotr
An ecological dilemma
It took the power of two flashlights to discover the source of the metallic screech that had been keeping us up nights. There, on the top of a telephone pole, sat a chunky juvenile great horned owl, plaintively calling for its parents to come feed it. But then my attention turned to the ground below […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
Serpentine Siamese Split
The cow that belonged to the aforementioned tongue didn’t fare very well except, perhaps, as carne asada. But a rather unusual pair of rattlesnakes is doing just fine after a 45-minute surgery at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum outside of Tucson. The two snakes were found as one – conjoined just below the head – […]
Posted inWotr
Conservationists wrong to oppose wolf hunt
Wolves have recovered, and it’s time for more rational management
Posted inHeard Around the West
Animal Farm Gone Crazy
At first glance, it seemed like just another mundane story about horse massacres and the role they will play in starting the next American Revolution. Then we dug deeper and learned the details about the ex-CIA agent and his hog-tied co-worker, not to mention the duck-killing dog. Ultimately, we confronted the dark truth of the […]
Posted inWotr
Building brainpower on the cheap
It is not a nice day. The temperature is in the 50s and it is overcast and sprinkling. Through the ponderosa pines I can see that the mountains to the west are sprinkled with white. It will not be long before the rain turns into snow. If I pass the field exams, it will lead […]
Posted inGoat
‘Tis the season
In the Rocky Mountains, wedged between Summer Tourist Season and Fall Big-Game Hunting Season, is a relatively brief interval of crowded highways known as Aspen Season. It has nothing to do with the Colorado resort town, and everything to do with the tree, whose leaves change color. Technically, the leaves don’t exactly change […]
Posted inSeptember 14, 2009: Home
The lodgepole hegemony
Hillary Rosner’s article puts undue emphasis on the negative aspects of the pine-bark beetle infestation affecting forests around the West (HCN, 8/17/2009). While it is a difficult adjustment for many of the area’s residents and the cause of a few tragic deaths, this event has many positive aspects as well. In my view, it is […]
Posted inRange
Phenology and the Mojave Desert
Last spring I found myself transfixed by the brilliant crimson petals of a Mojave mound cactus and the seemingly endless procession of bee pollinators that crept into its petals. Flowers and fruit are pleasing to the eye, so it’s no wonder that in the Mojave Desert they attract bees and also many wildflower enthusiasts. But […]
Posted inGoat
It Happened in the Shrubbery
Last weekend, as the Station wildfire on the northern edge of urban Los Angeles doubled, and doubled, and then doubled again – it has now grown to 250 square miles in the Angeles National Forest – I sat down to re-read “Fire Management of California Shrubland Landscapes” by Jon E. Keeley of the U.S. Geological […]
Posted inRange
Big Horn Betrayal
By Allen M. Jones, NewWest.Net Guest Writer, 8-31-09 I like to hunt, and I like to fish, and I like to do them in good conscience. This means, first and foremost, that I do my best to obey the rule of law, toe the line in the interests of, among other things, preserving the resource. […]
Posted inGoat
Hunters become the hunted
Yesterday, on the opening day of Idaho’s first wolf season in decades, at least two hunters made quick use of their recently purchased wolf tags. The hunt began amidst whirling debate, after Montana Federal Judge Donald W. Molloy delayed ruling on a lawsuit brought by 13 environmental groups to halt the hunt. Concerned that the […]
Posted inRange
HCN Reader Photo: Pronghorns in Montana
This week’s reader photo comes from Madrid Miner, who’s been posting some lovely shots up on the HCN Flickr group. You can add your photos to our Flickr group; we pick one a week to feature on our site.
Posted inGoat
Today’s best fire pics
This morning, the fires continue to burn in California, Utah, Arizona, Colorado and elsewhere. And the haunting yet beautiful fire photos continue to make their way into the Intertubes so that those of us who are lucky enough to be far away from the fires can experience them vicariously, and safely. The L.A. Times probably […]
Posted inGoat
Summer’s almost over (and fire season is here)
Yowch. It’s hot out and it’s dry and it’s smoky. Often, in this part of Colorado, the end of August marks the tail end of the wet monsoon season. This year, the monsoons were rather feeble, if they arrived at all, and during the last two weeks we’ve experienced some of our hottest days of […]
Posted inAugust 31, 2009: The dark side of dairies
As the crow flies
Crow Planet — Essential Wisdom from the Urban WildernessLyanda Lynn Haupt230 pages, hardcover: $23.99. Little, Brown and Company. 2009. Even though crows are unusually smart, make attentive parents, use tools, can learn to speak and are notoriously playful, they can’t seem to shake their bad reputation. They’re far more “loud, large, and conspicuous” than most […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
Enlightened llama
The other day, while reading the Recorder Herald, a venerable community weekly established in Salmon, Idaho, 123 years ago, we came upon the curious story of a llama that had apparently lost weight to a fatal degree. Or, as the headline put it: “Llama killed by lightening.” The animal was found on its back, “with […]