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Letters From The West


Earth Day is still a time of hope 55 years later even as Northland completes its successful mission
Chequmegon Bay as the sun sets on Northland College The last 55 years or so has been a time of change of a geologic scale. The debate...

Rocky Barker
2 days ago4 min read
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Northlands' Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute helped transform Northwoods into a sustainable society
Chequamegon Bay on Lake Superior, the home of the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute The day I arrived at Northland College, August 27,...

Rocky Barker
Mar 2914 min read
325 views
6 comments


March 2, 1977 was the day that I decided to make journalism my career. My marriage and these pictures all happened because of Northland.
The announcement last week that Northland College of Ashland Wisconsin, my alma mater, would close at the end of this academic year ,...

Rocky Barker
Feb 282 min read
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Trump takes water that belongs to San Joaquin Valley farmers and sends it south to L.A. Will Idaho's water be next?
Schafer Dam is on Lake Success near Porterville, Calif. and President Trump has drained water from the reservoir to aid the firefighting...

Rocky Barker
Feb 22 min read
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New House rule keeps threat to our hunting, fishing and wide open lands alive despite Supreme Court victory
A vista in the backcountry of the Boise National Forest east of Boise. The Supreme Court refused to hear Utah’s lawsuit seeking to...

Rocky Barker
Jan 292 min read
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The Los Angeles Fires mean at least one thing for sure for Idaho, more people are going to move here from there
A wall of fire burns through California (Courtesy Tim Walton of Calfire) The one thing we know will happen in the wake of the giant fires...

Rocky Barker
Jan 153 min read
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Carter's bold act to protect 100 million acres of wild Alaska began with a float trip on Idaho's Middle Fork of the Salmon River
Jimmy Carter and his family float down the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho in 1978. By Rocky Barker The most significant land...

Rocky Barker
Dec 30, 20242 min read
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Grizzly Bear 399 lived to old age because we made room for her and her cubs. But she died because we have too many people in her wilds
Grizzly Bear 399 in Grand Teton National Park with a cub by her side (National Park Service/ A.J. Adams) By Rocky Barker The life and...

Rocky Barker
Dec 12, 20244 min read
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The problems and the players are not going away as the Trump administration takes over managing endangered salmon and steelhead
Guide Mike Hicks looks at the hatchery steelhead caught by Brad Marczuk on the Salmon River 600 miles from the Pacific. Wild steelhead...

Rocky Barker
Nov 9, 20244 min read
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So is selling off public lands the answer to the housing crisis? How about in the Boise foothills?
William Perry Pendley During the Vice-Presidential candidates debate last month Republican J.D. Vance raised the idea that we can solve...

Rocky Barker
Oct 16, 20242 min read
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Idaho Republicans aren't worried about water sovereignty when its Trump turning the faucet
The mouth of the Columbia River where it meets the Pacific Veteran Northwest Journalist Randy Stapilus is baffled that Idaho’s...

Rocky Barker
Oct 4, 20242 min read
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Sam Altman wants to build a nuclear reactor in Idaho based on the research done at the INL's Experimental Breeder Reactor II
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm looks at fuel recycling facilities and liquid metal experiments at Oklo's lab at Argonne National...

Rocky Barker
Sep 27, 20242 min read
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Donald Trump says he will divert the 'giant faucet' of the Columbia River south to thirsty California
Ice Harbor Dam dumps waters from the Snake into the Columbia Former President Donald Trump suggested there was a “large faucet” up North...

Rocky Barker
Sep 17, 20242 min read
878 views
1 comment


Wrong Tree tells amusing inside stories of a wildlife expert who gets his hands dirty
Jeff Wilson rarely missed a chance to make an encounter with an animal or a human a learning experience. The Iowa farm boy, who made a...

Rocky Barker
Sep 11, 20244 min read
70 views
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Congress passed the Wilderness Act 60 years ago and its inspirational force lives on through an ever-crowding world
A falls in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness This week, 60 years ago, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Wilderness Act,...

Rocky Barker
Sep 5, 20243 min read
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Klamath dams finally come down; thank Brownie Carson and the river advocates in Maine for kicking off the movement
We paddle the free-flowing Kennebec River a day after Edwards Dam came down (NRCM) Shrouded in the New England mist, Everett “Brownie”...

Rocky Barker
Sep 3, 20244 min read
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Stanley has survived the worst the Wapiti Fire has thrown at them as it created its own terrible weather
The Wapiti Fire near Stanley creates its own weather during the heat of the afternoon(U.S. Forest Service} The worst may be over for the...

Rocky Barker
Aug 30, 20243 min read
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Endangered Salmon have overcome many obstacles but still survive in the Columbia and Snake rivers and again depend on an election to safeguard their future
Salmon still survive in the Columbia and Snake rivers and again depend on an election to safeguard their future

Rocky Barker
Aug 26, 20246 min read
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The 1910 forest fires and their hero Pulaski couldn't stop the natural forces that led us to the megafires of today
I stand before the mine adit where Pulaski survived the 1910 fire in 2010 The memory of Old Faithful in 1988 stuck I my mind as I crawled...

Rocky Barker
Aug 20, 20245 min read
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In the Idaho desert lies the most popular slightly radioactive tourist attraction in America
Sixty nine years ago, Experimental Breeder Reactor 1 generated enough electricity to power a string of four light bulbs at what is now...

Rocky Barker
Aug 12, 20242 min read
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