Letters From The West

rbarker773

May 615 min

How a Republican congressman got a wilderness protected unanimously during the Obama Administration

Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson and Idaho Conservation League Director Rick Johnson were sitting in The Mayflower Hotel’s dining room in...

rbarker773

May 55 min

This may be the best fly fishing spot near an urban area

If ever a river proved the wisdom of wild trout management it is the South Fork of the Boise River . Here is a place only 60 miles from...

rbarker773

May 44 min

From the signal fires of Yellowstone to the megafires of today

Sept. 7, 1988 at Old Faithful Giant wildfires, megafires, have burned across the United States and Canada the last several years as the...

rbarker773

Apr 293 min

Water is power in the American West

The overriding law of the old American West was simple: First come first served. That meant the first person to divert from a river on to...

Rocky Barker

Mar 133 min

Yellowstone remains regal despite changes

A visitor making their first trip to Yellowstone National Park will find a landscape as wonderous as I found when I first arrived to...

Rocky Barker

Mar 133 min

Molokai is to Hawaii what Idaho used to be to the United States

Yama Kaholoaa is a carpenter on the island of Molokai in Hawaii. Each summer he, his wife and their seven children moved into the lush...

Rocky Barker

Feb 53 min

Retirement Reflections

I have finally gotten over my long journalism career. I retired in 2018 after 22 years as an environmental reporter-blogger-columnist for...

Rocky Barker

Feb 53 min

From Malheur to January 6th

Rocky Barker

Feb 57 min

Crossing the Divide

At the end of an icy road on the edge of the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness in Idaho four wolves and three very different groups

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