The Test of the West…

It was not that long ago, that many of us thought that the West was an open and pristine area immune from the squabbling and problems of the much more densely populated east. It was the place for us to think about when we thought about wide open spaces, the restorative powers of Earth and the place where man was dwarfed by his environment….

A nice thought to hold.


In our view, the West was big enough to absorb any challenge and bounce back.

Guess again!


In fits and starts, we have learned the West is subject to the same challenges that have mucked up things in the East and then a few more that we hadn’t considered…

When I say fits and starts, I am talking about those little hints that began bouncing off our antennae maybe fifty years ago…. .

For me, it began with something personal. The death of a young and healthy Army pilot who was ordered to fly through nuclear clouds in the West to gather research for some military project..

He followed orders.. And then died an untimely death due to cancer with nobody putting two and two together.. But then it didn’t just happen to him, it happened to others who traveled in the lands where nuclear weapons were tested and radiation remained to leave its invisible legacy that would strike down countless more…….

How little we understood about it when we lost our penultimate American hero, John Wayne, to lung cancer because he made his films not far from where the military tested its weapons..

Was Nature trying to tell us something then?

And why didn’t we listen.

But that was only the beginning….

After that, it was one thing after another.

But never has the West proven more vulnerable than it has under Bush & Company.

Development and drilling rights have been given out by the hundreds. At last count, some 800 development rights, a few with direct ties to Bush Sr., consultant, sites that have been plumbed and exhausted, drenched with cyanide and other heavy metals, with no concern for any living creature….

Developers have been destroying beautiful vistas with their drilling all over the West.

Coal miners have leveled beautiful peaks leaving in their place only eyesores….

Miners have contaminated the earth by pumping in cyanide that is used to separate gold from the earth.

This residue doesn’t automatically go away but penetrates into the land mass affecting aquifers and other lands used for grazing.

Developers and miners do minimal repairs to the environment and the scars as a result are widespread.

In pristine parklands, the president has approved legislation to use five percent of parklands for transportation saying that drilling cannot occupy more than twenty percent of the pristine lands. Only, the helter-skelter way in which land was used for roadways has literally destroyed the environment for already challenged species…

And turned these beautiful parks into blights on the collective consciousness….

Government storage facilities in the north-west are leaching toxic chemicals into aquifers and river beds that are critical to the survival of species.

Development of dams along the Columbia has seriously impacted the survival of wild salmon and cut off the principal supply of food of Native peoples as well as species dependent on salmon for their own survival.

Global warming and other environmental set backs have impacted Lake Meade and the principal source of water for the entire southwest; there are no alternatives. But the government shows no concern.

In the meantime, farmers and agrarian interests fight over access to water, their most precious commodity. And it can only get worse….

Resettlement programs for bison and the wolves are clashing with cattle barons in the north of Yellowstone; these wild animals are not used to be confined to any one geographic area…. Clearly, there is no interest in coexistence.

Out of control fires due to bad planning and the failure to eliminate old brush, plus planting of species of greenery that is not compatible with this kind of geology, does not auger well for native species in the California, Wyoming and other thickly forested areas.

Overcrowding and over building in parts of Colorado and other areas have surpassed attempts to provide intelligent infrastructure….

Over building in Las Vegas has challenged the availability of fresh water……

Storage of nuclear waste continues to be a problem….

Smog overrides much of Denver….

What to do?

Rethink a strategy that says the West is tough enough to prevail.

It’s not.

And only when all men can sit down in good faith and discuss the issues intelligently can there be a resolution to problems that are not going to go away by themselves.

Les Aaron