So many people want to take a river trip through the Grand Canyon that limits set by the Park Service – which many say favor commercial outfitters over private boaters – create an administrative nightmare for the agency.
Uphill for these Idahoans
Gene Bray and Irene Wright of Meridian, Idaho, stopped by the HCN office just before Election Day with an insiders’ view of Idaho politics. Bray is a board member of the Idaho Watersheds Project, well known in the state for its confrontational anti-grazing billboards. The 900-member group aims to give state grazing allotments a break…
Enlibra is better than what we’ve got
Dear HCN, I was pleased to read HCN’s Oct. 26 profile of Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber and the state’s efforts to restore habitat for coho salmon by involving environmentalists, landowners, timber companies and others in a consensus-based process. A sidebar article correctly notes that Gov. Kitzhaber’s Oregon Salmon Plan serves as a model for Enlibra,…
Murmurs about a new monument
The 3 million-acre swath of Bureau of Land Management land between the Grand Canyon and the Utah border, unromantically known as the Arizona Strip, is getting more visitors than usual these days. In late November, Bruce Babbitt toured the area and suggested that nearly 400,000 acres of the wide-open desert lands are worthy of stronger…
‘Speaking truth to power’ about bears
Dear HCN, Todd Wilkinson’s sad but necessary account of grizzly bear politics (HCN, 11/9/98) is as much an indictment of human nature as it is of organizational and personal conflict. The early Protestants used to talk about “speaking truth to power,” and power burned them at the stake. Times haven’t changed much. Speaking truth to…
No cheers for violence
Dear HCN, The attitude of the writer of “Three cheers for the arsonists at Vail” (HCN, 11/9/98), that the end justifies the means, is exactly the same as the attitude of those who cheered the death of the gay student in Wyoming, the attitude that led to the murder of the doctor in New York…
Not a creature was stirring…
The endangered Preble’s meadow jumping mouse has Colorado Front Range developers running scared (HCN, 3/16/98), but proposed temporary protections from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service may calm their fears. The small, secretive mouse lives near foothill mountain streams, and biologists believe that urban sprawl near Denver is contributing to its decline. The agency’s proposal…
ROOTS enjoyed shallow support
Dear HCN, As a former intern and longtime friend of the paper, I have often defended HCN’s journalistic integrity, even when your views didn’t happen to support my own. Paul Larmer’s recent article, “Idaho grizzly plan shifts into low gear” (HCN, 11/9/98), leaves me feeling painfully bereft of much defensible. Larmer focuses on the “ROOTS…
The Wayward West
There’s grim news for the Yellowstone cutthroat trout: Whirling disease, the fatal parasite that wiped out several trout populations in Colorado and Montana in 1994 (HCN, 9/18/95), has resurfaced in the prize fisheries of Yellowstone National Park. The extent of the disease in the park is not yet known, but the Salt Lake Tribune reports…
Bag the word “amphibian”
Dear HCN, I regret to inform you that the Turtle and Tortoise Liberation Front takes exception to Mark Matthews’ report on “amphibian underpasses’ being considered for the Flathead Reservation ostensibly to reduce the “hundreds of painted turtles smashed” on Hwy. 93 (HCN, 11/23/98). Turtles, being reptiles, go through no demeaning gill phase, nor do they…
Ice Bump survives congressional ax
For the second year running, the Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem Management Project (ICBEMP, or Ice Bump) has survived an attempt on its life in the U.S. Congress. The plan is the federal government’s most ambitious ecosystem management plan ever, covering 72 million acres of public lands sprawling across seven states. The $40 million environmental impact…
Going underground can be beautiful
Dear HCN, I was delighted to read, in “Wildlife crossings cut down on roadkill” (HCN, 11/23/98), that people are beginning to talk about wildlife bridges and underground highways. Just my cup of tea. But the Alberta overpass in your photo is ugly enough to set the movement back 10 years, though at least it is…
Sewage fouls Yellowstone
Outdated plumbing at tourist lodges in Yellowstone National Park is spilling sewage into lakes and streams, and the state of Wyoming has taken an unprecedented step: In October, it threatened to fine the National Park Service unless it fixes antiquated sewage systems pieced together over the last 50 years. Such fines are unprecedented in Wyoming,…
Cougars too close for comfort
Mountain lions will soon be prey in the popular federal Rattlesnake Recreation Area on the edge of Missoula, Mont. In early December, the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks and the U.S. Forest Service announced the end of a ban on hunting the big cats in the lower Rattlesnake area. The announcement comes after…
A river rat remembers
As we round a bend and come over a small rise, I feel like I’ve been hit in the middle of my everything. I grab for Frank’s arm and say, “Wait a minute, Bigfeets, I don’t think I can take much more of this. It’s too beautiful!” Suddenly, I’m crying. He nods, takes my hand,…
15th Cowboy Poetry Gathering
For those who like a little rhythm and rhyme, the Western Folklife Center holds its 15th Cowboy Poetry Gathering Jan. 23-30, in Elko, Nev. Besides public radio star Baxter Black and other outdoor poets, there are workshops on everything from sewing boots to estate planning for ranching families. For information, contact Western Folklife Center, 501…
North American Interdisciplinary Conference on Environment and Community
John Elder, Stephen Trimble and C.L. Rawlins will be featured speakers at the North American Interdisciplinary Conference on Environment and Community at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, on Feb. 11-13. Organizers are looking for participants from a variety of backgrounds to discuss the relationship between nature and society. For more information, contact Mikel Vause…
Targhee National Forest
Recent road closures on Idaho’s Targhee National Forest, intended to protect grizzly bear habitat, have stirred up massive local resistance. The forest is taking public comments through Feb.1 on a draft environmental impact statement for a plan to guide off-road vehicle use on forest roads and trails. The draft is available on the Web at…
Forest and Stream Management in the Oregon Coast Range
Learn about the latest ecosystem research on “Forest and Stream Management in the Oregon Coast Range” at a conference Jan. 12-13 at Oregon State University. Contact the Conference Assistant, Oregon State University, College of Forestry, 202 Peavy Hall, Corvallis, OR 97331-5707 (541/737-2329). This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline…
Wolf killers sought in Southwest
ALPINE, Ariz. – Four Mexican gray wolves splashed with fluorescent paint and wearing brightly colored radio collars scurried into the wild here in mid-December. Their controversial release is the latest act in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s bullet-riddled effort to bring the wolf back to the Southwest. Earlier this year, biologists had released 11…
Fallen forester
Did whistleblowers destroy a fine public servant?
Grand Canyon Gridlock
Note: four sidebar articles accompany this feature story: an excerpt from the journals of Buzz Holmstrom describes the first solo river trip through the Grand Canyon in 1937, a timeline of significant events within the Grand Canyon, a book review of “The Doing of the Thing: The Brief Brilliant Whitewater Career of Buzz Holmstrom,” and…
The last living Democrat in Idaho lays it on the line
Cecil Andrus writes the way he governed – in a brisk, plain-spoken style. His autobiography, Cecil Andrus: Politics Western Style, is as much a survival guide for Western Democrats and conservationists in hostile terrain as it is the story of his political life. How did Andrus, a former logger and an outspoken Democrat, survive 27…
From the journals of Buzz Holmstrom
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Camp on right at lower end Rapid – mile 247 with the last bad one above me – the Bad Rapid – Lava Cliff – that I have been looking for – nearly a thousand miles. I had thought – once past there –…
A brief brilliant life on the river
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. In 1869, John Wesley Powell, a one-armed Civil War veteran, was the first to explore and record the canyons of the Green and Colorado. Launching with nine sturdy men, Powell spent 100 days working his heavy, keeled boats downriver. There was no art to…
Grand Canyon Timeline
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. 1869 John Wesley Powell’s first expedition 1908 President Theodore Roosevelt makes Grand Canyon a national monument. 1911-12 Emery and Ellsworth Kolb make a movie of a river trip. 1919 Grand Canyon becomes a national park. First airplane overflight. 1922 Phantom Ranch is built. 1935-36…
River guide quits and tells why
I began my “career” as a Grand Canyon river guide in 1971, in the heart of what we later referred to as the clueless years. Few boatmen had more than a couple dozen trips under their belt; some were on their first. We had few wizened veteran guides to tell us where to hike, how…
Boating in the bathtub
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Another note: the drawing and layout of this article can only really be appreciated in the print issue. Here they come! The dories! Headed for the most difficult rapid in the Grand Canyon, at the worst possible water stage. This morning, blue skies and…
Dear Friends
Join us in Utah Readers in southern Utah and southern Nevada are invited to a High Country News potluck Friday, Jan. 22. Board members of this nonprofit newspaper plus several staffers will be on hand at the St. George Community Arts Complex, in the Pioneer Center for the Arts, 47 E. 200 N., St. George,…
Heard around the West
Who hasn’t bought a gadget or item of clothing that makes no sense but embarrasses us forever? The unscrewable ceramic soap dispenser, the one-cup hot plate, the rhinestone-edged tie, the round ice-cube maker – all mock us: “You are a foolish consumer; you buy useless objects!” A public TV station in Salt Lake City, KUED…