On September 7, 1975, in Glacier National Park, Mike Coppes and a fellow hiker met a pair of grizzlies on the trail. One of the animals charged, tearing Mike from a tree. In this piece, Mike's son Graham tells his father's story and while doing so, discovers his own.
Even in a region as rugged as Western Montana, where towering peaks are commonplace, the summits of Glacier Park are mind boggling. I first learned of this country as an impressionable child, seated around a fireplace, while my father regaled open-eyed company with a story from his short, but powerful history with the place I now call home.
If our lives are given meaning by those we love, then they too, are our impetus for inspiration. After 18 years of childhood surrounded by a vast sea of corn, I followed my father's influence and his stories, to Montana.
Maybe our lives, aspirations and dreams are merely an extension of our parents’ journey. So, if it was the will of a wild grizzly that my father continue living, in some ways, I too owe my existence to this creature.
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A lot of people are hot and bothered about the Bush administration's proposed rule to allow concealed weapons in national parks, but practically, is this really worth our time and effort?
Yes, it's maddening to tolerate such low-end, election-year politics spurred by the National Rifle Association (NRA), but I say give the gun lobby this hollow victory, so we can spend our time and energy on issues that could really help our national parks instead of worrying about something that's already happening and hasn't caused any problems.
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NewWest.Net is all about fostering dialogue about the Rocky Mountain West, and especially, conversation about what we think of as "the big story" of the region: Growth and change. One way we do that is through our conferences, which bring together people, from many sides of the issues, for robust discussions about the topics we cover here at NewWest.Net on a daily basis.
Nowadays, with high gas prices and renewed interest in good health fitness driving more and more people out of our SUVs and onto their bicycles, we also have a constant string of news articles about conflicts between motorists and cyclists. At the same time, government officials struggle to find a balance where all legitimate users of our roadways can peacefully coexist.
Being an active cyclist, I've frequently written about this subject over the past three years. Here is a chronology of those articles.
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What happens to ski bums when they grow up? In his essay collection The Monkey Wrench Dad, Durango's Ken Wright provides his answer to this question. Wright moved from Boston to Colorado in 1983 for a season of ski bumming and never left. He managed to carry on with the usual adulthood rituals (he married a fellow ski bum and has two now-teenage kids) while maintaining the lifestyle that he moved West for.
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Wasson Creek now flows all summer long. That’s cause for celebration because the upper section of the small creek, located near Helmville, Montana, is home to a vital population of pure-strain westslope cutthroat trout that had been cut off from the lower section by seasonal irrigation diversions. For the first time in decades, cutthroat can migrate down to Spring Creek, which eventually joins Nevada Creek, which in turn empties into the Blackfoot River above a stretch where fisheries have been in decline. Keeping water in Wasson Creek increases the likelihood that the celebrated river that, thanks to Norman Maclean and Robert Redford, runs unimpeded and unpolluted through the American imagination will continue to be inhabited by real native trout.
That Wasson Creek is free-flowing again is due to the efforts of Trout Unlimited’s Montana Water Project (MWP), which was set up ten years ago to test an unusual strategy for increasing in-stream flow—leasing private water rights. Along with the Montana Water Trust (MWT), established in 2001, the MWP believes that one of the most effective ways to resolve disputes over water use is to employ incentives—ranging from outright cash payments to providing improvements like new wells and more efficient irrigation equipment—to persuade ranchers, farmers, and other landowners to voluntarily return water to streams. Both groups specialize in developing arrangements that serve conservation ends while in no way challenging or encroaching upon private property rights, a hybrid approach that not long ago few would have thought possible, especially in the historically contentious arena of water ownership.
And although leasing has its share of critics, the results have been encouraging.
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It's hardly a news flash that the National Rifle Association (NRA) supports anti-conservation, if not anti-hunting, politicians. Even though I've written about it several times, I never realized how bad it was.
A just-released report by the NRA's nemesis, the American Hunters and Shooters Association (AHSA), deals out all the dreadful details, and it should be a major eye-opener for any hunter who still supports the NRA.
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A tragic story this morning in Boise just hit the wires: Authorities have found a body in a burned Boise home after a quick-moving grass fire destroyed 10 homes in the southeast section of the city last night.
During fire season in the West, mass evacuations can seem commonplace, overly cautious even -- especially when year after year, hundreds upon thousands of people evacuate from Western wildfires and often, nothing happens, to them or to their homes. But this is a stark reminder of just how important those evacuations plans can be and how we cannot be lulled by the routine of fires in our backyards -- a very sad reminder.
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The rule protecting millions of roadless acres on public lands across the West and around the country has followed a long and winding road since the Clinton administration put it in place.
Now it has taken another U-turn, and it leaves 58.5 million acres, mostly in the West, in limbo.
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The night before leaving to fight a wildfire, Tiffany Crow Shoe lies awake in bed, his heart punching against his chest. It's the end of July, but for Crow Shoe, it feels like Christmas Eve.
He closes his eyes and sees wild flames torching up into tree crowns. Chain saws roar, making room for firefighters to hump line around the perimeter. Crews chase the fire as it climbs up the mountain.
It's organized chaos, and it makes Crow Shoe feel alive. And free. He's been waiting and preparing for this all year.
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Americans are driving less, especially in rural areas, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced last week. The resultant drop in gas consumption (and combustion) is good, no doubt, but not for the country's gas tax-fueled Highway Trust Fund, already facing a multibillion dollar shortfall.
Highway projects around the country could be left unfunded if Congress doesn't act -- and it may disproportionately affect large, rural states.
Former book publisher who for 30 years has been filling in the spaces between fishing trips, hikes and bike rides by writing books and articles about the great outdoors.
Former book publisher who for 30 years has been filling in the spaces between fishing trips, hikes and bike rides by writing books and articles about the great outdoors.
