Note: This article is one of several feature stories in a special issue about community media in the West. It sounds as if a lone angel alighted on the head of a pin, and encountered — to her surprise — a choir of angelic cousins there. Of course, we know that angels like gathering in […]
Adam Burke
Posted inOctober 31, 2005: The Public Lands' Big Cash Crop
The Public Lands’ Big Cash Crop
SHINGLETOWN, California — On a cool, late-September morning on the outskirts of this Northern California town, two men board a helicopter in a cow pasture. Each of them holds the title of “special agent,” but the agencies they represent are as different from one another as any two agencies could be. Dave Burns sports a […]
Posted inNovember 8, 2004: Keepers of the Flame
Keepers of the Flame
GILA NATIONAL FOREST, New Mexico — In April 2003, a thunderstorm built over southwestern New Mexico’s Black Range. Clouds darkened the skies above soft-shouldered hills and steep canyons covered by dense thickets of juniper and piñon pine and galleries of tall ponderosa pine. Sometime around 2:00 in the afternoon, lightning struck on Boiler Peak, northwest […]
Posted inJune 21, 2004: A Walk Between Worlds
As fire season ignites, Smokey Bear’s legacy lingers
Land managers talk about letting firesburn, but politics douse the flames
Posted inMay 26, 2003: A losing battle
A native son of Oregon writes of heartbreak, determination
As its subtitle suggests, David James Duncan’s latest book of essays, My Story as Told by Water, has a little bit of everything: “confessions, Druidic rants, bird-watchings, visions, prayers.” At its core, the book is about how this native son of Oregon — author of the novels The River Why and The Brothers K — […]
Posted inApril 14, 2003: Change comes slowly to Escalante county
The Northwest’s diehard diplomat
Former Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber fought to bring a divided state together
Posted inMarch 17, 2003: Bracing against the tide
Fish farms challenge our commitment to the wild
If you’ve ever been to the Pike Street Market in Seattle, you’ve undoubtedly witnessed one of the pinnacles of fishmonger bravado. Order up a whole salmon at Pike Place Fish and employees snap into action, shouting like a platoon of marines. One hoists the fish you’ve chosen from an ice-heaped display table. Another dashes to […]
Posted inMarch 17, 2003: Bracing against the tide
‘Horse Whisperer’ wins a round in natural gas fight
A recent ruling in a Wyoming district court signals a win for ranchers who say energy companies are running roughshod over their land. The ruling comes in response to a lawsuit from Mary Brannaman and her husband, Buck, the horse trainer who inspired the novel and film The Horse Whisperer (HCN, 11/5/01: Wyoming’s Powder Keg). […]
Posted inFebruary 17, 2003: Wyoming at a crossroads
Author says we’ll ‘match the scenery’ whether we like it or not
Wallace Stegner citations are a commonplace in High Country News. Stegner, a writer and historian, is our bard (if we have one), and perhaps most familiar to HCN readers for his call to Westerners to create a “society to match the scenery.” Now comes a Colorado writer who quietly turns this idea on its head. […]
Posted inNovember 11, 2002: Behind the gate
Wind power in the West gains speed
While energy companies scour the West for oil and gas, another, greener power source is on the rise: wind. Long regarded as expensive and unreliable, wind energy is now drawing the attention – and investment – of even the most conventional energy companies. In the last few years, technological advances and public policy have made […]
Posted inSeptember 16, 2002: The Royal Squeeze
The big show with braids
The success of his film Smoke Signals offered Native American writer Sherman Alexie an entree into the world of Hollywood. It was a short sojourn. Alexie’s interest in busting stereotypes ran headlong into the film industry’s weird conservatism, which favors target-marketing over story line and big-name stars over talent, casting Filipino actor Lou Diamond Phillips […]
Posted inSeptember 16, 2002: The Royal Squeeze
Sherman Alexie in his own words
Note: in the print edition of this issue, this article appears as a sidebar to another news article, “The big show with braids.” On Hollywood: “Hollywood is the most liberal community in the history of the world. And yet the way they conduct their business is Machiavellian. Donald Trump and the Enron executives would fit […]
Posted inMay 13, 2002: Beyond ecology: Restoring a cultural landscape
Energy boom’s forward guard stalls out in Utah … for now
Despite setback, drive to explore the West continues
Posted inMay 13, 2002: Beyond ecology: Restoring a cultural landscape
Land board says, ‘Look before you lease’
Activists say they have discovered development’s Achilles’ heel
Posted inSeptember 24, 2001: River of dreams
River of dreams
The 30-year struggle to resurrect Washington’s Elwha River and one of its spectacular salmon runs
Posted inSeptember 24, 2001: River of dreams
The revival of a river people
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. At night the salmon move, out from the river and into town, They avoid places with names, like Fosters Freeze, A&W’s, Smileys, but swim close to the tract homes on Wright Avenue where sometimes in the early morning hours you can hear them trying […]
Posted inSeptember 24, 2001: River of dreams
‘Hydro(power) had no friends’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Orville Campbell has worked for the companies that have owned the Elwha dams for almost 30 years. He lives in Port Angeles. Orville Campbell: “From 1980-1990, the level of the drumbeat for dam removal was increasing over time, and in the early 1990s, that […]
Posted inSeptember 24, 2001: River of dreams
Lessons for the Colorado
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. The power of place worked wonders in the fight to fund Elwha restoration. When visiting congressmen were taken to the old dam, they saw the few remaining salmon rolling in the waters below, and they made a connection that no amount of beltway lobbying […]
Posted inMarch 12, 2001: Divided Waters
Dear Friends
Divided waters Our lead story on the lower Rio Grande started out as a class project. Writer Megan Lardner, a graduate student in journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, traveled to El Paso and Ciudad Juarez as part of her class with freelance writer and radio producer Sandy Tolan. During his semester as a […]
Posted inApril 24, 2000: At your service: Unions help some Western workers serve themselves
One dam, two rallies
A protest draws demonstrators who want to drain Lake Powell, and those who love it