Sometimes it takes more courage to compromise than to take a stand. That has become true for many of the ranchers, environmentalists and local officials fighting over the last wild places left in the West. The people whose lives are most tied to the scenic landscapes of the region have been asked to take sides […]
Writers on the Range
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The origin of names
As a child, I was fascinated by surnames. Was someone named King descended from royalty? How did Carl come to have so many sons? Then I moved to a small town, where the issue is not so theoretical. Among my friends, for example, are Dave and Sue The Writers and Tom The Guy Who Does […]
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The message of trees marked in blue
In late December, just after the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated protection for all of the roadless national forests we have left in the West, I walked up Deadwood Ridge in southern Idaho to see what we’d saved. The trail climbs through a ponderosa pine forest that continues to evade logging. Back in 1996, […]
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The bedbug letter, as it applies to overpopulation
It is an urban legend, but I believe it. A travelling salesman complained to a hotel that he’d been bitten by bedbugs. He got a lengthy apology back saying that bedbugs had never been seen on the premises or even within blocks of the hotel. Inside the envelope he also found a note: “Send the […]
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Who are we?
I spend a lot of time alone. Most writers, if they are lucky, do. I’ve been fine-tuning a memoir, facing into truths about myself I would rather forget. As I turn to national newspapers and magazines in the deluded effort to unwind after too much time in my own company, I find myself wondering who […]
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On the road with Edward Abbey, chaos as usual
(Editor’s note: Renowned Western writer Edward Abbey, who died in 1989, would have celebrated his 76th birthday this Jan. 29, 2003.) About this time of year, almost 30 years ago, the writer Ed Abbey and I were laboring through the exurbs of Ajo, in the south of Arizona. We were driving on a miserable backcountry […]
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A timber mill’s demise shakes everybody up
I recently had the privilege of listening to the business manager of a lumber mill in Seeley, Mont., talk frankly about what to do when a small town’s major employer pulls the plug. Comptroller Loren Rose of Pyramid Lumber was invited to Libby, Mont., because that’s where Stimson Lumber had just laid off 300 workers. […]
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There’s a wilderness niche for mountain biking
I’m a mountain bicyclist. The pleasure of my life is pedaling through wild places, experiencing the views, the changing colors and textures of the plant life, the occasional animal sightings. On the trail, I’m renewed, and my commitment to public-land preservation is strengthened. I think that’s the way most mountain bikers feel, and historically, we’ve […]
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Two legs good in wilderness, two wheels bad
Like many mountain bikers, I’m happiest when I’m charging up and down hills through the West’s spectacular public lands. I live in Durango, Colo., arguably the mountain bike capital of the world, and I ride every day. While I’ve spent most of my cycling years on roads, in the last five years I’ve been spending […]
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Changing the world, one person at a time
I was fresh out of college and green — in more ways than one — when I learned that not all environmentalists are created equal. I’d applied for a job with a 10-year-old national environmental organization, based in Boston, that recruits young people to work on grassroots campaigns all over the country. Invited for an […]
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An eco-wacko figures a few things out
The Gallatin National Forest, in southwestern Montana, recently ended a public comment period for revising its recreation plan, which, among other things, allocates trail use between motorized and non-motorized users. The debate was marked by more editorial spleen-letting and rude outbursts than I’ve seen since Gay Pride marched in Bozeman, years ago. Remember, I live […]
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A dispatch from the New West battleground
Early in April 2000, I attended the auction of a ranch near my own, in a rural western South Dakota county that has resisted zoning. This is my report from the front lines where the real battle of the West is being fought — with money. The ranch was advertised as a single unit of […]
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When whiteouts in winter seem like forever
Sometimes it can’t be helped, that long drive across the West, rolling the odometer like a slot machine that promises to pay off with just one more spin. The gas gauge hovers around “half” and it looks like you’ll get there without stopping again in the middle of who knows where. Home is all you […]
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Yellowstone should keep out polluting and intrusive snowmobiles
In 2003, Yellowstone will celebrate a centennial. It’s been 100 years since President Theodore Roosevelt dedicated the famous stone archway at the north entrance of the world’s first national park. The Park Service plans to commemorate the event. I wonder what Roosevelt would say if he could attend. I picture him pounding his fist and […]
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Snowmobiles are the people’s choice for Yellowstone
The Bush administration’s decision to upset the ban on snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park has been met, as expected, with howls of outrage from both environmentalists and a lot of the media. After the millions of grant dollars spent lobbying and litigating to ban snowmobiles, the Greater Yellowstone Coalition and other environmental groups should be […]
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Real men head for Alaska
There is the West, and then there is Alaska, a region so wild and isolated as to make Wyoming appear tame as a strip mall. Flying to Kodiak Island (“America’s second largest island”) is risky on a good day. The day I chose to travel to the island on business was not a good day. […]
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Public servants may go the way of the dodo
President Bush wants to privatize 425,000 federal jobs, one-quarter of the nation’s positions that are product or service-oriented in nature. Workers who exercise discretion, set policies and budgets, or perform other duties that are “inherently governmental” are immune from the process, for the time being. Does this sound good for private enterprise? Sure, for some […]
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A Christmas tradition pueblo-style
At age 79, Vidal Aragon is moving strongly into his second century as perhaps the premier silver smith in the 12 pueblos of the Rio Grande in New Mexico. He signs his jewelry with the bear paw and “VA” merged together. His name commands top prices with the Santa Fe trade. He doesn’t have to […]
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Life on the border, where education gets lost
Before I started my job this year as librarian and English teacher on the Tohono O’odham reservation, I visited the campus. A teacher looked me over and said, “You better come in that library like a gangbuster.” A gangbuster? Having just turned 25, I must have looked as young as I felt. But I’d studied […]
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Medical use of marijuana is a states’ rights issue
Medical use of marijuana is a states’ rights issue By Seth Zuckerman Like the Democrats in the U.S. Senate, marijuana advocates suffered a setback at the polls last month. By a margin of 2 to 1, Nevada voters trounced a much-publicized proposal to legalize cannabis for personal use. B ut the Bush administration would be […]