When Montana Sen. Max Baucus announced last week that he would not seek a seventh term in 2014, Montanans instantly began debating his legacy. After nearly 35 years in the Senate and four in the House, Baucus’ reputation as a conservative Democrat who straddled party lines is well established, and his mediocre lifetime score of […]
Writers on the Range
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Don’t mess with the Forest Service
Earl Butz, Richard Nixon’s controversial secretary of Agriculture, was a profane man known for his hair-trigger temper and rough handling of subordinates. So when the chief of the Forest Service stood him up for a meeting, Butz unloaded in response: “There are four branches of government,” he reportedly snarled, “the executive, legislative, judicial and the […]
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Snow, no longer so white
The recent online series, Trip, features Swiss free-skiers Nicolas and Loris Falquet skiing through snow colored with yellow, blue and umber dyes, all apparently non-polluting. It’s beautiful, slow-motion cinematography that captures the complexity of snow, with vivid contrasts between storm layers, cornices, powder and slabs. It’s also a timely metaphor, because the color of snow […]
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Look! Shooting stars!
My favorite Oregon wildflowers are called shooting stars, delicate darts whose blossoms with their sharp-pointed anthers and swept-back magenta petals seem to hurtle toward the soft spring earth from their height of six inches or so. These are among the first flowers to appear in our oak woodlands, long before the oaks themselves show any […]
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Wild horses: Too much of a good thing
I grew up with a dozen horses on Colorado’s eastern plains. In winter I busted hay bales to feed them, and, under a star-strewn sky, chopped holes in iced-over water tanks so the animals could drink. I’ve always believed that the outside of a horse is good for the inside of a man. But not […]
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Citing religious freedom is no excuse
Among the “cool facts” about golden eagles listed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology is this: “Members of the Hopi tribe remove nestlings, raise them in captivity, and sacrifice them.” “Cool” is not a word the Eagle Defense Network and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) would use. For the last 12 years, they’ve frightened […]
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The Hopi and eagle share a long relationship
Understanding another religion is no easy business. Americans nowadays often fool ourselves that religions can be put on or off like a suit of clothes, and that our own world-view is not religious unless we say so. We — especially secular humanists — also claim superiority for our idea of “nature,” an abstract space separate […]
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Some Earth Firsters celebrate in Idaho two decades later
One year ago, an aging contingent of Earth Firsters plus some of their young’uns converged on the banks of the Salmon River in central Idaho. Sixty or more stalwarts met to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the beginning of the so-called Cove-Mallard Campaign, a successful effort to prevent clear-cuts from replacing huge, old forests in […]
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Roadkill: It’s what’s for dinner
Last week, the governor of Montana signed a bill making it legal to salvage and eat wild animals that had been hit and killed by cars – in short, allowing humans to scavenge edible roadkill. The law applies to deer, elk, antelope and moose, and aligns the state with other states such as Alaska, Illinois, […]
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A truth-teller gets punished in Montana
There’s an old college cheer: “Lean to the left, lean to the right, stand up, sit down, fight, fight, fight!” For former Montana Democratic Congressman Pat Williams, it seemed that no matter which way he leaned, he found himself smack in the middle of a controversy, one that had been building on the University of […]
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Helping the newest immigrants find their niche
Immigration reform is back in the news, and that’s a good thing for the estimated 11 million undocumented workers who help make our economy go. But where I live, in western Colorado’s Roaring Fork Valley, the issue isn’t just documentation; it’s also helping these 18,000 or so new residents become our neighbors and friends. Not […]
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The white media kill Indians again and again
Recently, in a photo essay entitled, “Here’s what life is like on the notorious Wind River Indian Reservation,” the online Business Insider gave a tour of the sprawling central Wyoming home of the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone tribes. The essay delivered what it promised: a portrait of a place riddled with violence and addiction. A […]
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Eco-terrorism and me
It was not really surprising but, well, disappointing to hear that I’d been called an “eco-terrorist” by one of my neighbors. The news was second-hand, of course, which somehow made it worse. Whoever pronounced the judgment, whether she or he, hadn’t bothered to tell me about it, but let it slip, off-hand, as if it […]
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Pop Quiz
True or False? Earth Day was created in 1970 to celebrate all the wonderful ways that our society benefits from mining coal, extracting natural gas and burning fossil fuels. If you were a student in Utah this year, you might be tempted to answer “True,” thanks to an Earth Day poster contest that’s being promoted […]
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Maybe we should pay something for that open space
We take so many of the West’s open spaces for granted — the private ranches and agricultural lands that provide invaluable resources for us all – from clean air and water, wildlife habitat and crop pollination, to scenic vistas, hunting opportunities, and so much more. But landowners are rarely compensated for the far-reaching benefits they […]
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What do you do when you meet a predator?
The March day in western Colorado was crystalline clear. North-facing mountain slopes held up to a foot of snow; the south faces, however, were bare. I made my way up a favorite isolated mountain valley along a stream of beaver ponds. I saw no beaver, but I did see a small mountain lion track. It’s […]
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When a dog is part wolf
I sit on the porch, waiting. It could go either way, because Aluco is part dog, part wolf, and one side will win out depending on the day. Today is a good day. Aluco steps toward me and lightly touches me with his black nose. Slowly, I extend my hand and pet him. I know […]
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Of cars, booze, guns and angry mothers
Years ago, when I was much younger and dumber, I sometimes drove after drinking too much, occasionally even with a beer in hand. Once a state policeman stopped me leaving the small town of Joseph, Ore., and asked me to count backwards, touch my toes and walk a line. Fortunately, he knew me, and so […]
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Smug alert
Perhaps drilling rigs should be allowed in cities, towns and even into our own metaphorical backyards. It would be good for the environment. Maybe not your personal environment, but more broadly for our environment. Community planners for decades have urged mixed-use development, in which we combine work, play and shopping in closer physical proximity. Lately, we’ve […]
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Local food, even in winter
Most of what I’ve read lately about food in America makes me lose my appetite. Outbreaks of deadly pathogens that sicken or even kill people. Chemical spray and dead zones. Exploited workers. “Hollywood Food” that looks great but lacks taste and nutrition. It’s enough to make me want to sell my vegetable farm. That is […]