Imagine, for a moment, that some kooky politicians in Washington, D.C.. decided they wanted to invade Iraq with feather dusters . Now, imagine a colonel in the Army warned them that this was a bad idea, and they need would need real tools of war, helicopters and tanks and such, to execute such a plan. […]
Writers on the Range
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With its back to the wall, California turns to the sea
It’s going to be a hot, feverish summer, even more so because water supplies are pinched unusually tight. Nowhere is that as true as in California. On New Year’s day, Interior Secretary Gale Norton rudely weaned the state off its long-running overuse of Colorado River water, slashing access to the river by 15 percent. Now, […]
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In Iraq, there’s hope of restoring the Garden of Eden
Watching the chaotic aftermath of repression andwar in Iraq hurts my heart. As an antidote, I conjure a vision of hope: a shimmering expanse of water and life that may once again grace the Iraqi desert. Until a decade ago, southern Iraq boasted one of the world’s largest wetlands, the Mesopotamia Marshes, almost 7,800 square […]
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Sometimes, it’s trout that have to be killed
Having written for and about trout anglers for 33 years, I’ve repeatedly admonished them for their lack of what Aldo Leopold, sire of wildlife management, called an “ecological conscience.” Too often a “trout is a trout,” and where it came from and what it’s displacing doesn’t matter. So I am astonished and delighted to see […]
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On the road, where everything falls away
There is nothing like being on a road trip, especially a Western road trip. On the road, anything is possible. The rest of life falls away into another dimension. If it isn’t a frontier of possibility, it’s at least a paved ribbon of it. On a trip years ago, I remember stopping in Truth or […]
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Bruce Babbitt and I have seen the past, and it no longer works
“That was the biggest bunch of BS I’ve ever heard,” complained one man. His friend agreed: “Yeah, I’ll bet neither Babbitt nor Williams have ever been near a timber mill.” Those comments were overheard as the two young men heard left a University of Montana auditorium after I’d introduced former Interior Secretary of the Interior […]
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He taught us to see — but not the whole picture
One of the most celebrated photographers in American history began his career by snapping the kind of family vacation pictures that betray no hint of visual genius. This should hearten any teenager whose early accomplishments with pen, camera, guitar or paintbrush seem inadequate to support dreams of artistic triumph. Ansel Adams was 14 when he […]
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Like it or not, Utah’s controversial monument is here to stay
I visited the spectacular Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in 1996, when it was still a raw wound in the body politic of southern Utah. As I talked to people in the scattered towns around the 1.7 million acre-monument, I found deep-seated anger and mistrust. One county commissioner told me President Clinton cynically designated the monument […]
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New Urbanism is just growth by another name
It’s hard to tell whether New Urbanism best fits the definition of a cult or a conspiracy. It has elements of both. Either way, my advice is not to drink the Kool-Aid. Embracing a politically correct excuse for growth is suicide for the West’s small towns. New Urbanism is the name given to a collection […]
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The West’s negligent landlord
Western Colorado Congressman Scott McInnis occupies a congressional seat that until 1972 was the most powerful in the West. It was owned by the late Wayne Aspinall, a Democrat, who chaired the House Interior Committee in the 1960s and early 1970s, when the federal government was pouring billions into the the Interior West. Federal agencies […]
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A California treasure shouldn’t hide itself
Four years ago, it seemed that one of the fiercest battles over West Coast timber had ended with the public’s purchase of the 7,000-acre Headwaters redwood forest in Northern California. But those trees continue to fuel controversy, this time over whether people should be allowed into the cathedral-like ancient groves located some 200 miles north […]
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A message from women, witnesses in black
Today, in the short space of one hour, I was cursed, yelled at and repeatedly shown the finger. One man pulled down his pants and stuck his rear out of a car window. Why? Simply because, together with seven other women, I donned all black clothing and a veil and stood silently on a sidewalk […]
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Looking at sprawl in familiar faces
Soon, it will be goodbye to the Colorado Front Range. The moving van is reserved, and Heather and our 4-year-old son, Josiah, will soon aim north and west from Boulder to the Missoula area in western Montana. It will be an adventure. We don’t know where we will live, maybe in a condo or a […]
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A national park in Utah should not allow laissez-faire climbing
In 1927, a gathering of huge sandstone windows in Utah was set aside by presidential proclamation and named Arches National Monument. Now a national park, its 75,000 acres welcome almost 800,000 tourists a year, who come from all over the world to look with awe. This marvelous place must be well protected by federal laws […]
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Skiing with the oldsters
Today, I got on a ski lift with a man who turned out to be a World War II fighter pilot. I couldn’t believe my ears. Three elderly gents had lined up with me to take a quad chair up the mountain, my only time with company on the lifts all day. We did the […]
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Mention planning in Oregon and get ready for a yawn
Advice for party-goers: If you’re hoping to enthrall acquaintances and potential dates, avoid the terms “urban-growth boundary or “transit-oriented development.” While working recently on a story about Oregon’s land-use system, I was eager to share my findings at social occasions. Bad idea. Few Oregonians understand how it works, and my attempts at conversation yielded polite […]
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If wolves can return to the West, why not New York?
Eight years after a wolf walked out of a pen and howled in Yellowstone National Park, it is clear the predators are here to stay. The restoration of wolves to Idaho and Yellowstone in 1995 has been wildly successful, even though many Westerners remain bitter about an intrusive federal government. Now, a decision announced earlier […]
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Living with bison at the edge of Yellowstone
Forty bison mill about on the football field at the school in Gardiner, Mont. One of the shaggy beasts rubs her head vigorously against the goalpost. A light snow is falling. I walk over and sit on a nearby boulder. I feel that it is the least I can do — just sit in the […]
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Grand Canyon and motorboats don’t mix
Last fall, standing on the traditional scouting point high above Grand Canyon’s legendary rapid, Lava Falls, we debated our course. Low water relieved us of the agony of choice: The left run, a maze of boulders, was too treacherous; we resigned ourselves to paddling the right-hand run through Lava’s thundering mayhem. Thirty years of river- […]
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Motorized rafts bring the public to enjoy Grand Canyon’s wonders
The National Park Service is now designing a new plan for managing whitewater river trips through the Grand Canyon. But in pursuit of a no-compromise agenda, a small group of wilderness advocates would like the clean, quiet, low-powered and environmentally friendly motors used on these trips banned. They’d like most of the park, including 240 […]