When my parents were first married, my father wanted to name their newly created logging company “Moonscape Logging.” Thankfully, my mother nixed that idea, although it was an apt description of the clear-cutting that happened on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula in the ’70s and ’80s. Once logs were taken out of the forest, whatever remained got […]
Writers on the Range
Posted inWotr
No surprises, and no solutions, from raids aimed at illegal immigrants
On the morning of Dec. 12, immigration and other federal officials launched a simultaneous raid — the biggest ever of its kind — at Swift & Co. meatpacking plants across six different states. At the plant in Greeley, Colo., about an hour’s drive north of Denver, agents surrounded the windowless, monolithic facility, then entered, carrying […]
Posted inWotr
The best job in the world
I had the best job in the world this December. I made 50 people laugh and then start to cry. Some looked at me as if I were crazy, while others hugged me tight. I was a “Mystery Shopper” in Montrose, population 13,000, in western Colorado, who “caught” people shopping in local stores and gave […]
Posted inWotr
Chickens are roosting on private property in Oregon
Oregon’s Ballot infamous Measure 37 created an old-fashioned land rush as property owners, developers and opportunists raced to file claims for compensation before the recent deadline. An estimated 3,600 claims were filed with the possibility that the last-minute rush added 1,000 more. The total cost of the claims may top $7 billion, though no one […]
Posted inWotr
Democrats are still an endangered species in the West
Since last month’s midterm elections, Democrats have fallen all over themselves trumpeting their party’s gains in the Mountain West as the harbinger of a new political landscape. Many have suggested that the GOP now amounts to little more than a regional party with scant appeal outside the South. But a reality check is in order […]
Posted inWotr
A public-lands experiment needs to re-engage the public
Not long ago, a fat patch of private land lay isolated within the Jemez Mountains, surrounded mostly by Forest Service land. Though off-limits, many New Mexicans knew that this place, the Baca Ranch, supported an enormous elk herd and contained both geological and archaeological wonders. Today, that 89,000-acre private ranch is better known as a […]
Posted inDecember 11, 2006: Old but Faithful
They should shoot horses, shouldn’t they?
Our national obsession with keeping “wild” horses and burros on public lands that are incapable of supporting them has always struck me as bizarre, especially since it’s the result of our alleged love for them. Ask most any wild horse advocacy group and you’ll be told that wild horses are native wildlife and anyone who […]
Posted inWotr
Running wild in Yellowstone National Park
In Yellowstone, it’s never unusual for a car to halt smack in the middle of the road. Nor it is unusual for a car’s driver to stand in the road, gawking at wildlife. It is unusual for a driver to be shouting — at me. I was riding my bike on Yellowstone’s northeast entrance road, […]
Posted inWotr
Of salvage logging and salvation
Salvage is a word that is much in the air these days, not just in the woods, but also in the lecture halls of universities and in the marble corridors of Washington, D.C. It is a word of power, a soothing word implying many virtues: prudence and profit, rescue and redemption, both exploitation and, somehow, […]
Posted inWotr
Westerners sure love their mountain monikers
The first thing I noticed when I was plucked from a sound sleep by aliens and we started flying around was that all the Western towns and cities were conveniently labeled. Lifting off from Logan, Utah, I could clearly see the big mountainside “L” get smaller as we zoomed skyward. Heading west, it only took […]
Posted inWotr
Scooter blues: When you’re environmentally correct and get no respect
I wish I knew why Harley riders stare straight through me when I’m coming down the street on my scooter from the opposite direction. Sadly, I’m beginning to suspect American motorcyclists of subscribing to a caste system in which Harley Davidsons occupy the top tier, followed by the Euro-touro blends, the bullet bikes, dirt bikes, […]
Posted inWotr
Watching with wonder a parliament of snowyowls
One by one as the afternoon shadows stretched across the winter fields a few miles north of Pablo, in the Flathead Valley of western Montana, the parliament of snowy owls began to fly up to sit on the neighboring fence posts. Along the dirt roads circling the fields, cars were already pulling over and spotting […]
Posted inWotr
How bizarre: Wild horses have become sacred cows
Our national obsession with keeping “wild1” horses and burros on public lands that are incapable of supporting them has always struck me as bizarre, especially since it’s the result of our alleged love for them. Ask most any wild horse advocacy group and you’ll be told that wild horses are native wildlife and anyone who […]
Posted inWotr
How I did my civic duty
I am as civic-minded as the next person. I hold my nose and vote for the least objectionable candidate. On ballot initiatives and constitutional amendments in particular, I vote no if it is very long and not written in understandable English. I vote no a lot. This year, mortally tired of the attack ads, I […]
Posted inWotr
A little advice for environmentalists
Savvy environmentalists work both sides of the political street, rather than buying into any particular political party or ideology. I’ve concluded this after watching a dispute play out here in Oregon. The Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation have proposed building a gambling casino in Cascade Locks, a small town smack in the middle […]
Posted inWotr
Western Republicans have a few things to crow about
Here’s some solace for Rocky Mountain Republicans suffering the post-election glooms: It could have been worse. You could be New England Republicans, the few, the forlorn, the forgotten, in a six-state region with more than 14 million people, soon to have exactly one Republican member of the House of Representatives. Or you could be in […]
Posted inWotr
Alone with a radio phone
I live alone on the steep slopes of southern Oregon’s Rogue River canyon, which is a place that can’t decide whether to be California or the Pacific Northwest. I’m here for a solo writing residency, and what that means is that the days are mine to use or waste. My only neighbors are the Bureau […]
Posted inWotr
Having a third child in a world of scarcity
Whenever I approached my husband, I would have to think of the right way to phrase things. Rehearsing in my head, I’d stumble again and again on the word “want.” I might have been saying “I want a new sweater.” Or “I want to have pizza for dinner.” But I was almost 40, and I […]
Posted inWotr
A harvest cornucopia hangs on in New Mexico
I hate leaving this party. I go from person to person, a hug here, a kiss on the cheek there. I wave goodbye to Farmer Monte and thank him for all the harvests he has shared this year. October has always been my favorite time of year in New Mexico. Part of it is the […]
Posted inWotr
A Utah resort town welcomes 300,000 foreigners
In Moab, Utah, a town constantly visited by jeepers and hikers from all over the world, the arrival of 300,000 beings from Kazakhstan hasn’t received much press. But as the newcomers flutter in and make themselves more at home, people are starting to take notice. Diorhabda elongata is their sexy name, and most of us, […]