Stories

Nit Wits in the Sagebrush

My passing interest in what is going on at Cliven Bundy’s Nevada ranch is fueled mostly by the fact that, like Old Clive and thousands of other ranchers, the economic health of my ranching operation depends to a large extent on inexpensive federal government land leases.

Celebrating The Earth From The Ground Up

Spring is the easiest time of year to celebrate the earth because burgeoning beauty is everywhere. Our connection to our environment is heightened. For the first time in many months there is color in our gardens and in the trees.

Thinking Like A Mountain

The Sunday after Thanksgiving, just as the sun was lightening the sky, I sat in my pickup truck on an enormous flatland above the Cheyenne River. I had just finished flying my gyrfalcon, Sally, and she was happily having her breakfast on the ground beside the truck where I could keep an eye on her and frighten off predators that might see her and move in for an easy meal.

National Bison Day Keynote

It’s an honor to speak to you here at the National Museum of the Bison. Good to see old friends and colleagues in the audience. It’s like a homecoming: Federal and state biologists, TNC folks, bison producers and supporters that I’ve known for decades.

Basing Decisions On The Unknown

I am imagining a call to the United States Park Service where the phone simply rings and rings: nobody home at one of our countries premier land-managing agencies! How can this be? What could bring us to such a state of affairs?

Conversations with the Vegetable Guy

A dozen years ago, during a semester when I was teaching at Carleton College, I wandered down to the Co-op to see what it was all about. I had never been inside a food co-op and I was curious to know what drove the people who worked there.

Waiting for Summer Rain

Last night, the wind woke me about 12:30. It whipped the cottonwoods and I lay there hoping to hear it mix with the eerie, welcome lashing of rain against the roof. It has been a good summer, but if we could just get another couple decent rains - just another inch or two while the days were still sweltering - there would be grass as the ranch moved into autumn.

The Strenuous Life

We harvested buffalo just north of the small southwestern North Dakota town of Bowman. It was our first time harvesting in North Dakota, and we drove up the night before to meet the Director of North Dakota’s Meat Inspection Program and her Senior Inspector.