The rattling trumpet call of sandhill cranes echoed throughout the Rio Grande Valley in central New Mexico this February. The flocks began to make their ascent into the sky, circling to gain altitude and then heading north. The cranes’ early departure — driven by climate change — reveals one of the many challenges of adapting […]
Writers on the Range
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I inherited an oil field. Now what do I do with it?
A writer faces a moral dilemma: fight the bureaucracy to end oil extraction on family land or give in?
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Fairy tales about the West are fueling public lands conflict
Last month, a federal court indicted the armed extremists who took over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Oregon on multiple counts of felony conspiracy, making threats and other serious charges. The property damage they caused, which is still being assessed, will likely be charged to the American taxpayers on whose behalf they claimed […]
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The Colorado caucus system works — sort of
The minuteae of the political process matter and are sometimes based on outdated systems.
Posted inMarch 21, 2016: Making Sense of Malheur
Stop trying to make biking in wilderness happen. It’s not going to happen.
I shouldn’t be writing this, and you shouldn’t be reading it. Far more pressing issues face our public lands. But a vocal minority is drudging up the long-resolved question of mountain biking in wilderness. They have even drafted a bill for somebody to introduce in Congress — the Human-Powered Wildlands Travel Management Act — that […]
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At Malheur, Sally Jewell was missing in action
The secretary of the Interior instead took a trip to Africa to combat wildlife poaching.
Posted inMarch 7, 2016: The Parks You Don't Know
Whiteness reigns in a new film celebrating national parks
The new film National Parks Adventure aims to inspire its viewers, as producer Shaun MacGillivray puts it, “to get off their couches and get outdoors.” Its destination of choice is our national parks, which are celebrating 100 years of management by the National Park Service in 2016. MacGillivray and his crew used every IMAX 3-D […]
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I’m garden-obsessed even though it’s still winter
Soon after learning I was less than nine months away from becoming a first-time father, I experienced an unexpected sense of déjà vu. The baby was coming whether or not the room was painted or anything else was ready. That feeling of being hitched to a biological clock that stops for no one is a […]
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Graffiti is destroying our national landmarks. I’m on a mission to stop it.
The Coconino sandstone at Grand Canyon means many things to many people. To the hiker, it indicates that he or she is almost at the top. To the artist, it is a graceful sweep of sculptured stone, and to the geologist, it evokes the trade winds blowing across Aeolian dunes 265 million years ago. But […]
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Tiny houses won’t solve our affordable housing problem
In Salida, Colorado, little homes come with a big price tag.
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The neglected history that began in the Utah desert
Last year we observed the 70th anniversary of our atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Back then, we were told that the A-bomb shortened the war and saved lives. Americans are still told that, though the truth of this is questionable. What most of us don’t remember – or more likely never knew – is […]
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Wolves are already headed for Colorado. Let’s make it official.
The official reintroduction of a breeding pair could help ecosystems and prevent conflict.
Posted inFebruary 22, 2016: Fractured
It’s been a deadly winter for backcountry fun
What would it take to keep snowmobilers and others safe in avalanche terrain?
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Nonviolent protest: A lesson for the occupiers at Malheur
On a cold Tuesday in January, when the Malheur occupation was in full swing, I marched alongside demonstrators in Portland to support the ousting of the Bundys and their armed militia. We were pretty much a hodgepodge group of birders, conservationists and nature-loving pacifists. There were no guns in sight; instead, demonstrators held signs high, […]
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To save their homeland, 25 tribes unite in the Southwest
Native peoples in the Southwest take the long view. They have lived in the redrock canyons of the Colorado Plateau for 12,000 years and have shown astonishing resilience in the face of devastating change in the last 500 years. Now, they bring this ancestral perspective to the management of public lands in the canyons and […]
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Potty-mouths have a long history in Western politics
Donald Trump is just the latest politician to resort to vulgar language.
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A new and more dangerous Sagebrush Rebellion
At first, as the armed occupation in Oregon’s High Desert unfolded in January, it looked like a widescreen version of the flare-ups we’ve seen in the West ever since the Sagebrush Rebellion erupted in the 1970s. Recall the so-called “oppressed ranchers,” their anti-federal rhetoric and the sight of cowboy-hatted heroes riding to their rescue. But […]
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The surprising history of the Malheur wildlife refuge
The refuge’s creation helped support nearby ranchers.
Posted inFebruary 2, 2016: Sagebrush Insurgency
Rep. Rob Bishop is chipping away at Theodore Roosevelt’s legacy
Utah Republican Rep. Rob Bishop is using his position as chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee to wage a war on the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt, our Republican president from 1901-1909. The latest front in this war is Bishop’s plan to mangle the mission of the Land and Water Conservation Fund. The fund helps […]