In Montana, Bundy and his followers celebrate a sound defeat of federal prosecutors.
Hal Herring
Posted inOctober 30, 2017: The Changing Face of Woods Work
The changing politics of woods work
Cash-strapped agencies use private contractors to the detriment of local communities.
Posted inJune 13, 2016: Water to Dust
Taking water’s measure
A three-day trip to measure Montana’s snowpack follows a century of tradition.
Posted inMarch 21, 2016: Making Sense of Malheur
The darkness at the heart of Malheur
A Westerner traces the roots – and meaning – of the Oregon occupation.
Posted inArticles
Can we make sense of the Malheur mess?
A writer finds camaraderie and despair inside the Oregon standoff.
Posted inJune 24, 2013: Water Rights
The Rocky Mountain Front blues
Augusta, Montana Nine years ago this May, my wife, Holly, and I bought an old house in Augusta, aiming to live and raise our children in a landscape and a culture — the two are inseparable — that we respect. About 20 miles west of town, the fierce wall of geology known as the Rocky […]
Posted inNovember 12, 2012: Nowhere to run
The violent story of our first national park: A review of Empire of Shadows
Empire of Shadows: the Epic Story of YellowstoneGeorge Black548 pages, hardcover: $35. St. Martin’s Press, 2012. Whenever my country’s absurd politics wear me out, I remind myself that we were the first nation to have a true national park: Yellowstone. Sometimes, I’ll even drive the four hours or so south from my home to the […]
Posted inDecember 12, 2011: Out on a limb
A tree-climber’s tale of harvesting cones to save whitebark pines
You wipe the sweat out of your eyes with a sap-stiffened glove, clinging tightly with your other hand to the one live branch, thick as a hammer handle, that is keeping you up here and alive, 30 feet or so above the rocky earth, while your boots struggle to balance on twigs and your knees […]
Posted inAugust 22, 2011: Looking for Balance in Navajoland
A life in the wild
Wolfer: A MemoirCarter Niemeyer374 pages, softcover: $17.99.BottleFly Press, 2010. Former federal trapper and shooter Carter Niemeyer, the author of the memoir Wolfer, seems an unlikely advocate for wolves and other predators. A “wolfer,” after all, is a person who kills wolves, a job with its genesis in the great wildlife extermination campaigns that are as […]
Posted inMay 30, 2011: Wolf Whiplash
How the gray wolf lost its endangered status — and how enviros helped
Augusta, MontanaIn September of 1995, I worked on a trail-building crew along the edge of Little Blackfoot Meadows, in the Helena National Forest near Elliston, Mont. It was a big piece of roadless country, mostly lodgepole pines over a lush carpet of whortleberry bushes. The meadows were a sunburnt dun color, and the willows along […]
Posted inMay 10, 2010: The Secret Lives of River Guides
One Way to Save the Wolf? Hunt It.
Montana wildlife managers deem the first wolf season a success, for both hunters and hunted
Posted inArticles
Put your money where your mouth is
It’s time for environmentalists to fund predators in the same way that hunters and anglers do.
Posted inDecember 22, 2008: What a mess
Trashing the earth, and the truth
This is the last time I will ever tell this story. For an environmental reporter, the past eight years have produced a jungle of topics to explore at will, but the lessons learned there could not have been more unpleasant. This is the story of one of those lessons. In April of 2004, Field and […]
Posted inWotr
It’s time for a ceasefire on guns
Gun owners represent at least 4 million of the nation’s most dedicated voters, and in election after election, they affect the outcome. Sometimes they elect politicians who are corrupt or unabashed lackeys of corporate interests — people whose only appeal to gun owners is that they promise to leave the Second Amendment alone. Now, however, […]
Posted inOctober 27, 2008: Prophets and politics
Why we all need the Democrats to abandon gun control
At this year’s annual Gun Rights Policy Conference in September, National Rifle Association President Sandy Froman endorsed Arizona Sen. John McCain in the upcoming presidential election. This came as no surprise; the Democrats have long been denounced by the NRA as the anti-Second Amendment party — Nanny-State know-it-alls, Big-Government gun-controllers out of touch with the […]
Posted inJune 25, 2007: Predator hunters for the environment
Predator hunters for the environment
Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife has protected a lot of Western land and species. It’s also killed a lot of coyotes (and can’t wait to go after some wolves).
Posted inOctober 30, 2006: Peace Breaks Out In New Mexico's Forests
Idaho’s permissiveness leads to elk on the lam
Sometime in August, 100 or more domestic elk escaped from a game farm near Rexburg, Idaho, through a hole in the fence. The elk were bred for their huge antlers, and are known as “shooter bulls,” meaning they’re destined to be shot with bow and arrow or rifle, by clients engaged in an elaborate fantasy […]
Posted inWotr
Idaho’s permissiveness leads to elk on the lam
Sometime in August, 100 or more elk from an Idaho game farm escaped though a hole in the fence. The elk were from a domestic herd bred for huge horns and are known as “shooter bulls,” meaning they’re destined to be shot with bow and arrow or rifle by clients who engage in an elaborate […]
Posted inFebruary 6, 2006: The Killing Fields
The Killing Fields
A buffalo hunt turns into a slaughter on the border of Yellowstone National Park. But could this be the key to setting the animals free?