In the Northern Rockies, gray wolves may face the problems of inbreeding
Wildlife
Posted inWotr
West’s forests will never be the same
Last year’s Indian summer fires in Montana were so intense, so awesome in their fury, that they even spooked veteran firefighters. Pilots dumping retardant on the Jungle Fire southeast of Livingston, Mont., reported flames jumping 500 feet above the tree line. For comparison, imagine a wall of flames leaping over the Washington monument. Hotshots, those […]
Posted inArticles
Losing their luster
In the 1850s, “gold fever” lured hopeful prospectors to Colorado, but left most disappointed. Now people still flock to the state in search of gold, but instead of precious metal, they look for bright yellow aspen leaves. This autumn, however, those gold seekers, like the disenchanted souls before them, may find a depressing development: Colorado’s […]
Posted inSeptember 17, 2007: Facing the yuck factor
In search of giant trees and unseen realms
One of former President Ronald Reagan’s more notorious remarks concerned the grand California redwoods. There was “nothing beautiful about them,” he said, “just that they are a little higher than the rest.” An inspiring corrective to Reagan’s indifference is Richard Preston’s The Wild Trees. The author of The Hot Zone follows professional and bare-knuckled gonzo […]
Posted inSeptember 17, 2007: Facing the yuck factor
Cutting trees to save the forest
Leveraged buyouts are the newest tool in forest restoration
Posted inSeptember 3, 2007: A Climate Change Solution?
Sounding the alarm for nature
This year marks the 45th anniversary of the publication of Rachel Carson’s landmark book, Silent Spring. Twenty-seven years after her death, Carson – who would have been 100 this year – continues to influence Americans’ daily lives. Her legacy is reflected all the way from the Environmental Protection Agency’s restrictions on pesticide use down to […]
Posted inArticles
The great American cat fight
Phantom cat of forest and desert, the jaguar slinks through its surroundings, an optical illusion of tawny, sun-dappled fur. It manifests and evaporates with hardly a trace amid the darkness of South American rainforests and the shattered canyons of the arid Southwest. By the 1980s, however, a century of predator control, hunting and habitat loss […]
Posted inAugust 20, 2007: Bonfire of the Superweeds
Living precariously with wolves and cattle
Through the end of June last year, we got along fine with the wolves. I was working on a ranch in Montana’s Madison Valley, where the wolves ran elk to exhaustion in the high country while yearling cattle fattened on the lower pastures of the ranch. Peaceful coexistence with predators seemed within our grasp, and […]
Posted inAugust 20, 2007: Bonfire of the Superweeds
The Weed-wackers
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Bonfire of the Superweeds.” Sue Rutman had been warned: Buffelgrass, she’d been told, loved disturbance. Pulling up the weed would only overturn more desert soil, spread seeds, and encourage its expansion. But as the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument botanist watched buffelgrass cover longer […]
Posted inWotr
A happy 63rd birthday to Smokey Bear
It’s time we give an overdue nod of gratitude to that venerable bruin of fire prevention: Smokey Bear, who just turned 63 this August. At a time when bears are being tranquilized and relocated all over the West for Dumpster-diving and campsite pantry raids, Smokey remains the only honorable bear role model. You won’t find […]
Posted inArticles
Super rodents build super habitat
Faster than a speeding coyote, able to leap small cacti in a single bound — two “superhero” rodents, the kangaroo rat and the prairie dog, thrive amid the heat and dry sand of the desert Southwest. Each creature influences its environment to an extent that far outweighs its size – a real-life version of Mighty […]
Posted inAugust 6, 2007: Guns R Us
A forest in flux
Perched 25 stories high in a construction crane – above the crowns of the Douglas firs – environmental writer Jon Luoma surveyed the forest canopy, searching for a humble lichen, Lobaria oregana. The lichen forges an intimate relationship with the trees, swapping nutrients for a home and helping the firs grow taller. These sorts of […]
Posted inWotr
Living precariously with wolves and cattle
Through the end of June last year, we got along fine with the wolves. I was working on a ranch in Montana’s Madison Valley, where the wolves ran elk to exhaustion in the high country while yearling cattle fattened on the lower pastures of the ranch. Peaceful coexistence with predators seemed within our grasp, and […]
Posted inAugust 6, 2007: Guns R Us
The owl and I
“I rejoice that there are owls,” Henry David Thoreau once wrote. For 30 years, I had no idea what he meant. I grew up in Los Angeles, and if owls soared the smoggy skies, I never saw them. Only after moving to Oregon did I learn the word “raptor.” Intrigued by these magnificent, carnivorous birds, […]
Posted inAugust 6, 2007: Guns R Us
Two weeks in the West
White-tailed prairie dogs are short, stout rodents that burrow in the plains of Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Montana. Their numbers have declined – some estimates say by as much as 90 percent – over the years, thanks to habitat loss, oil and gas development, grazing, bubonic plague and wholesale eradication efforts that include shooting and […]
Posted inArticles
Love for the clay-loving buckwheat
By 8 a.m., the July day felt like a scorcher. Waves of heat rippled along the western Colorado adobe hills, shriveling plants and baking the soil to a fractured crust that crunched with every step. Two white tents peeking from between golden hills could have been a mirage, if it weren’t for the sizzle of […]
Posted inJuly 23, 2007: Hydrogen Highway Revisited
Throwing raptors into flight
NAME: Rob Domenech VOCATION: founder and lead biologist for Raptor View Research Institute HOME BASE: Missoula, Montana KNOWN FOR: banding more golden eagles in the U.S. than all other banding stations combined SPARE-TIME SPORT: grappling jujitsu On an exposed ridge in Montana’s Helena National Forest, high on the blustery Rocky Mountain Front, Rob Domenech recoils […]
Posted inJuly 23, 2007: Hydrogen Highway Revisited
A taste of ecological medicine
In Nature’s Restoration, writer and naturalist Peter Friederici transports the reader to six ecologically damaged landscapes, from Bermuda to Arizona, that people are struggling to restore. Some of the challenges derive from the painstaking work inherent in restoration: plant by plant, species by species, two steps forward, one step back. Friederici also examines the conundrums […]
Posted inArticles
The perils of secrecy
Is the wolverine, the country’s most
enigmatic predator, in danger of extinction, or just
misunderstood?
Posted inWotr
When is a barred owl a red herring?
The draft recovery plan identifies competition from the barred owl, which is not native to the Pacific Northwest, as the primary threat facing the northern spotted owl. – U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, April 26, 2007. That’s right, I’m a barred owl. My wife tells me to keep quiet, keep my beak clean, try to […]