Western Nature Writers
An Interview with David M. Armstrong
David M. Armstrong is a Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado and the author of several books, including the recently published third edition of Rocky Mountain Mammals (University of Colorado Press, $19.95), a guide to the mammals of this region and those in Rocky Mountain National Park in particular. Packed with photos and facts, the book is worth its weight to lug on a backpacking trip. I recently interviewed Professor Armstrong via email about the best way to spot mammals in the wild, the projected fate of the pika, changes he's observed in Rocky Mountain National Park, the dearth of Bigfoot sightings there, and how we should "honor [our] cousin," the montane vole.
New West: Have you noticed any changes in Rocky Mountain National Park over the years?
David M. Armstrong: The fauna of any place is a dynamic phenomenon, a “work-in-progress,” and changes are sometimes subtle. Obvious changes in recent decades have been the substantial increase in the number of elk in the National Park and vicinity, ups and downs in numbers (hence visibility) of bighorn sheep and beaver, the increase in the number of black bears in recent years, the establishment of moose in the National Park (from introduced population in North Park).
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Breaking News
Supreme Court Overturns D.C. Gun Ban
The U.S. Supreme Court has just overturned the Washington D.C. gun ban, citing self-defense and Second Amendment Rights. The decision essentially means the court sees the 2nd Amendment as applying not only to millitary, but to individuals as well.
The court was split as expected 5-4, with Antonin Scalia, John G. Roberts Jr., Anthony M. Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. voting to overturn and John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer against it. Click here for a PDF of the full opinion
As the Washington Post reports, Scalia wrote the decision, noting that gun violence could be curbed in other ways, "including some measures regulating handguns." He went on, "But the enshrinement of constitutional rights necessarily takes certain policy choices off the table. These include the absolute prohibition of handguns held and used for self-defense in the home."
The court furthered the self-defense theme when it also ruled that a requirement making gun-owners store all shotguns and rifles unloaded, disassembled or trigger-locked was unconstitutional, writing that it was a "prohibition against rendering any lawful firearm in the home operable for the purpose of immediate self-defense."
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COMMENTS WORTH REPEATING
Guns and the Most Controversial Nonprofit of Them All
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall. What is the Most Controversial Nonprofit Organization of Them All?
Can we agree that it is the National Rifle Association?
Fervently supported by millions of gun owners, but bitterly criticized by its detractors, including many hunters who feel the gun group elects anti-hunting politicians who vote consistently against the protecting wildlife habitat. Critics think the NRA stands for Not Really an Ally or National Republican Army.
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AHSA JOINS WITH NRA IN OPPOSING D.C. GUN BAN
NRA Nemesis Alive and Well, and Supporting ObamaEven when you're the biggest and toughest of them all there's always somebody there to challenge you, as the National Rifle Association (NRA) has learned. The NRA's two-year-old nemesis, the American Hunters and Shooters Association (ASHA) just won't go away.
"I'm here to tell you we're alive and well and plan to continue being a viable alternative to the NRA," announced AHSA President Ray Schoenke at a news conference at the annual conference of the Outdoor Writers Association of America currently being held in Bismarck, North Dakota.
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blog: ON RIVERS AND RANCHING
Burning the Ditch
I walk double time through a year’s worth of accumulated tumbleweeds. A bottle of propane—the squat, white kind you see next to barbeques—drags my left hand down. At the end of a rubber hose and three feet of steel, the torch is whooshing, kicking out a gas flame too pale to see in the afternoon light. Pointing it backwards with my right hand, I swivel the torch in time with my steps. I make sure to lick the flame beneath the dry grass that overhangs the ditch banks. I fire each side in turn, trying to be thorough.
Looking over my shoulder I can see flames boiling up where the torch has been. They catch fast and burn faster, exploding upward with a rush that hoists still-flaming stalks and embers towards the blue sky. The fires expand like gasoline dripped on water.
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New West Book Review
On the Road with Boulder’s Queen of Shoes and Sloth
Queen of the Road
By Doreen Orion
Broadway Books, 293 pages, $13.95
Don't be fooled by the author photo in the back of Boulder author Doreen Orion's new travel narrative, Queen of the Road. It depicts her wearing sneakers and exercise clothes, smiling next to her dog at a scenic overlook to which they've presumably hiked. Although she looks like a standard REI-shopping, backpacking, Yoga Journal-reading, outdoor-worshiping Boulderite, she reveals her true nature early on in Queen of the Road, which details the year she and her husband Tim spent cruising America in a tricked-out luxury bus.
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MICROBREW MONTANA
Angry Hanks Brewing: A Method to His Madness
When you meet the owner of Angry Hanks Brewing, you can quickly see that he isn't angry. In fact, he isn't even Hank. He's happy, and he's Tim.
As in Tim Mohr, founder, owner and head brewer at two-year old Angry Hanks Brewing of Billings. And I'm probably about the thousandth guy to ask him why he calls it Angry Hanks.
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opposition makes waves in Canada
Obama Opposes Cline MineBarack Obama has joined the list of prominent state and federal officials who oppose a proposed coal mine in the Canadian Flathead Valley.
On May 29, Obama’s Montana campaign manager Matt Chandler sent an e-mail to Will Hammerquist of the National Parks Conservation Association announcing the presidential candidate’s opposition to a plan by the Cline Mining Corporation to begin an open-pit coal mine in the headwaters of the Canadian Flathead River drainage.
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migration cut short
At Montana’s Biggest Wind Farm, Bat Deaths Surprise Researchers
As wind power gears up in Montana, the effects of large-scale wind projects on wildlife remain a concern: Birds may be in the clear, but bats are running into trouble.
Turbine-related fatalities at Judith Gap Wind Energy Center near Harlowton were 1,206 bats and 406 birds, according to a 2007 preliminary study prepared by TRC Solutions' Laramie, Wyo. office.
For more than a year, TRC has been preparing the first post-construction avian and bat fatality monitoring and grassland bird displacement surveys for Judith Gap Energy, and now owner Invenergy has decided to go ahead with another year of study, said Judith Gap operations manager John Bacon, to get a "better feel" for the reasons behind the high bat mortality rate.
"The bats were a surprise for us," he said.
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george wuerthner's "on the range"
Privatize Profits, Commonize Costs
For the past few weeks I have been traveling around the West where I have seen numerous examples of where private companies and individuals have reaped great profits from exploitation of public lands, while the negative consequences of their activities are left to the public to live with or fix.
This is what Garrett Hardin called the PPCC—privatize profits and commonize costs.
On the Olympic Peninsula in Washington where once stood some of the most magnificent old growth forests in the West, we now have stump fields and numerous hillsides covered with young forests—but none of the huge trees that once blanketed the region. The trees were hauled away leaving scarred hillsides, and wrecked salmon streams. The timber barons got the money, the land was degraded, and judging by the worn out appearance of the logging towns, most of the wealth surely didn’t stay in the community.
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