The uncertain truce set up by Pres. Clinton’s 1993 Northwest Forest Plan is threatened by dissatisfaction as environmentalists, loggers and scientists still fight over remaining old growth and cannot agree how best to manage the forests.
Courting the green vote
ARIZONA Courting the green vote At first glance, it looked like a travel folder touting Arizona, so thick was the carpet of yellow flowers at the base of the San Francisco Peaks, and so perfectly red were the rock spires of Monument Valley. But the eight-page, glossy brochure was a campaign ad for a state…
Voters thread through the ballot
COLORADO Voters thread through the ballot Voters faced a list of complex initiatives and referenda in Colorado. Amendment 13 asked them to amend the constitution to protect the burgeoning hog industry on the state’s eastern plains from strict environmental rules. Voters defeated it, 553,000 to 348,000, then voted for Amendment 14, which revises state law…
Keep on cutting
OREGON Keep on cutting By a margin of 878,000 to 208,000, voters defeated a ban on clear-cutting forests on public and private lands in Oregon. Popular Gov. John Kitzhaber spoke out against the ban, and mainstream groups such as Oregon Trout Unlimited refused to support the measure’s backer, Oregonians for Labor Intensive Forest Economics. Opposition…
Split on trapping
California and Utah Split on trapping California voters said no to trapping, banning leghold traps in the state, 3,974,000 to 2,951,000. The debate pitted animal-rights groups and the Sierra Club against the Golden Gate Audubon Society and other groups that claimed trapping predators, such as foxes, is in some instances necessary for the recovery of…
Election day highlights from around the region
WYOMING Republicans continue their lock on Wyoming: They maintained two-thirds majorities in the state Legislature while sweeping state offices, and Barbara Cubin easily held onto her at-large seat in the U.S. House. Leading this year’s windmill-tilting for the Democrats was bar owner, law student and state Sen. John Vinich of Hudson, who took on incumbent…
Lake trout linger in Yellowstone
The Park Service pulled 7,000 trout from Yellowstone Lake this year. The fish are lake trout – an exotic first found here four years ago – that scientists blame for ravaging native Yellowstone cutthroat trout. Some of these exotic fish are more than 20 years old, and Park Service biologist Dan Mahoney says the fish…
Amax’s return delayed
The return of a molybdenum mine proposed for Red Lady Bowl near Crested Butte, Colo., has been stalled – temporarily, at least (HCN, 12/8/97). In September, a water court judge postponed a trial to determine whether mining conglomerate Cyprus-Amax can create a reservoir, after the company changed its plans. Cyprus-Amax decided to downsize the mine…
Hunting? Call it competition
Dear HCN, As an anthropologist with an active interest in primatology, I find Stephen Gies’ letter of response (HCN, 10/26/98) to Ken Wright’s review of David Petersen’s hunting book Elkheart interesting (HCN, 9/28/98). Gies suspects that Petersen’s psychological need to hunt is based on “primordial revitalized manhood.” This is a pretty good intuitive generalization. A…
Hunting: Whose hands are really bloody?
Dear HCN, After reading Stephen Gies’ tirade against hunting (HCN, 10/26/98), I felt compelled to clarify the logic in his ethical position. From his letter, his position can be summed up in two statements: 1) Killing and eating domesticated animals is ethical, and 2) Killing and eating wild animals is unethical. That is, it is…
There’s no excuse for criminal acts
Dear HCN, I found it ironic and disturbing that the same issue containing an article decrying the hate crime in Laramie had a letter cheering the hate crime in Vail and an opinion piece loosely excusing it (HCN, 11/9/98). Whether you like the Vail decision or not, it was shaped by public involvement and scrutiny.…
Bounty on wolf killers
Government agents and environmental groups are offering $25,000 to anyone who turns in those responsible for killing Mexican gray wolves. The reward followed an announcement by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service investigators that a wolf found dead near the Arizona-New Mexico border in early November had died of a gunshot wound. It was the fourth…
Tom Wolf should check a few facts
Dear HCN, Please may I quibble over a couple of minor points in Tom Wolf’s informative essay about Floyd Dominy and Morrow Point Dam (HCN, 10/26/98). Morrow Point is indeed an elegant engineering marvel, and you have to admire the artful audacity of its designers, but the Black Canyon of the Gunnison is a marvel,…
The flaws of Harry Reid
Dear HCN, The recent cover article in HCN suggested that Sen. Harry Reid was the best Western environmental senator (HCN, 9/28/98). While he is far superior to many of his colleagues, the article failed to mention many of his shortcomings. For example, Sen. Reid is co-sponsor of legislation that would transfer thousands of acres of…
The Wayward West
Forest Service officials in Driggs, Idaho, found a homemade fertilizer bomb on their office doorstep Oct. 19. Targhee National Forest Supervisor Jerry Reese thinks the bomb, which was quickly defused by a sheriff’s deputy, might have been planted by someone upset with road closures meant to protect grizzly bear habitat. Off-road vehicle users and others…
It’s in the mail
Dear HCN, Stephen Lyons’ essay on our very own Helen Chenoweth was wonderful (HCN, 9/28/98). However, he didn’t answer the question I wanted to ask Helen about God forgiving her. Did she get it in writing? Scott W. Reed Coeur d’Alene, Idaho This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline…
Mining takes another hit
MONTANA Mining takes another hit In a small second-floor office in downtown Helena, Mont., a dozen people held a sort of vigil on this chilly election night. They’d brought a television and rigged it with rabbit ears earlier in the day, and tuned the radio to the local public radio station. There, in the Montana…
It’s a good day to be indigenous
From this moment on kindly refer to my family as “indigenous.” Or, if you prefer, “First Peoples.” With the discovery of what could be my long-lost European relative – Kennewick Man – it’s time to respect my elders. Kennewick Man, found in 1996 on the banks of the Columbia River near the town of the…
The West of the ’90s is the South of the ’60s
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Well, so much for the Revolution. It was decimated on the Pacific Coast, demolished in the Northeast, even damaged in the South. And it never amounted to much in the Midwest. So after four short years, it has been expunged, this much-discussed political sea change, often called the Gingrich Revolution, gone and…
Amateur essayists walk a changing forest
HART’S COVE, Ore. – In the Siuslaw National Forest, the contrast in viewpoints among those on the trail is as stark as night and day. “They’re amazing,” says Mary Collins, shaking her head in wonder as she stares through the rain at the gray-barked, old-growth trees that rise like pillars. Sitka spruce trees – some…
A patchwork peace unravels
Renewed controversy threatens the truce of Clinton’s Northwest Forest Plan
Ecosystem management hits ‘Ice Bump’ in the road
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Other regions, such as the Sierra Nevada and the interior Columbia Basin, have attempted to develop ecosystem management plans. In the interior Columbia Basin, the attempt is not going well. The Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem Management Project (the initials ICBEMP inevitably became “Ice-bump’) is…
Dear Friends
First snow It was like getting hit in the face with a cream pie: A wet snow dumped on much of western Colorado early this month. Trees, still laden with leaves, bent low, some breaking, some perilously stretching power lines, and until the mist cleared, all seemed heavy and ominous. Then the sun chased the…
Wildlife crossings cut down on roadkill
MISSOULA, Mont. – A radio-collared Canada lynx cautiously approaches the Trans-Canada Highway in Alberta’s Bow River Valley. A large recreation vehicle rumbles into view. The cat hesitates, then nervously skitters back into the brush. About 50 yards from the roadside, it lies down for about a half hour before rising to make another attempt to…
Heard Around the West
A two-headed deer? A wildlife biologist for Montana said he’d never heard of it before. But it was true. One deer head was alive and attached to its body, while the other had been severed from its torso, most probably after a macho duel that involved the two bucks butting heads and then locking antlers.…