Eagle, Colo., residents wage a 13-year war against developer Fred Kummer’s plans to build a mega-ski resort called Adam’s Rib.
Environmental Action “96: Winning in November
L earn grassroots lobbying and election organizing at Environmental Action “96: Winning in November. The free Feb. 24-25 conference features a keynote address by Jim Baca, former director of the BLM, and an environmental forum with Colorado’s U.S. Senate candidates. Sponsors include CoPIRG, League of Conservation Voters Education Fund and Campus Greenvote. Contact the University…
The Snake River, Balancing the Vision
Idaho Rivers United and dozens of private and government agencies are co-sponsoring the fourth bi-annual river symposium: “The Snake River: Balancing the Vision.” Former Gov. Cecil Andrus opens the program, scheduled for Feb. 29-March 2 at the Weston Plaza Hotel in Twin Falls, Idaho. Contact Idaho Rivers United, P.O. Box 633, Boise, ID (800/574-7481). This…
Wyden squeaks in
Wyden squeaks in Oregon Democrat Ron Wyden eked out an 18,000-vote victory over State Sen. Gordon Smith in the Jan. 30 election to replace Sen. Bob Packwood. With the national media noting that environmental issues took center stage in the race, environmentalists have been quick to tout Wyden’s victory as part of a backlash against…
Seventh North American Interdisciplinary Wilderness Conference
Western literature, politics and ecology will merge at the Seventh North American Interdisciplinary Wilderness Conference. The event is sponsored by the Center for Environmental Arts and Humanities at the University of Nevada, Reno, and will take place at the Nugget in Reno. The Feb. 29-March 2 workshop features T.H. Watkins, editor of Wilderness magazine, and…
For seven days, it will flood
For one week this spring, the Colorado River will rage through the Grand Canyon much as it did before Glen Canyon Dam tamed its flow. The remedy for the canyon’s eroding beaches and silted backwaters was recommended in the 1995 Glen Canyon Dam Environmental Impact Statement. “The ecosystem of the Grand Canyon is based on…
13th National Trails Symposium
Trails ranging from urban bikeways to wilderness hiking paths will be discussed at the 13th National Trails Symposium, March 9-12, in Washington, D.C. American Trails, public-lands agencies and the Federal Highway Administration are sponsoring the workshop, which also features special on-the-trail field trips in the D.C. area. Contact American Trails, Box 200787, Denver, CO 80220…
Bad hunters meet good old boys
In Montana, out-of-towners pay a higher price for their hunting and fishing violations, even though locals commit most of the wildlife crimes. Non-residents who illegally killed fish or other wildlife in 1994 spent three times as long in jail as Montanans, according to an Associated Press analysis. They also lost their licenses for an average…
Politics imperil Mexican wolf comeback
As public hearings on ranching issues go, the Socorro, N.M., session on the endangered Mexican wolf last fall was a rare breed. Hundreds of green-capped environmentalists easily outnumbered ranchers, who more often fill the crowd with a sea of black and white cowboy hats. Environmentalists came dressed as Little Red Riding Hood, the Big Bad…
The other side of Cove-Mallard protests
Dear HCN, Your articles describing the Cove-Mallard Coalition fall far short of your usual in-depth reporting. They also imply support of their activities (to halt logging of old-growth trees, HCN, 2/5/96). While the coalition’s goal may be worthwhile, their methods stink. The Cove-Mallard sale may or may not be perfect but the Forest Service has…
Don’t stereotype us
Dear HCN, The “Hunting: Get Used to it” essay by Jim Fergus (HCN, 1/22/96) was exquisite – but Fergus shouldn’t be so hasty to stereotype HCN’s readership. Today I am a card-carrying environmentalist, but I am farm/ranch raised and hunting/fishing educated. I cut both my baby teeth and wisdom teeth on Outdoor Life. I believe…
Thoreau outgrew meat
Dear HCN, In “Unarmed but dangerous critics close in on hunting” (HCN, 12/11/95), a Sports Afield columnist quotes Henry David Thoreau in support of hunting. To finish the conveniently incomplete quote, “This was my answer with respect to those youths who were bent on this pursuit, trusting that they would soon outgrow it. No humane…
BuRec gets a new leader
The Bureau of Reclamation, slimmer now after former chief Dan Beard cut 1,500 from its workforce and $107 million from a $911 million budget, has a new boss. “I don’t have any agendas,” says Commissioner Eluid Martinez, who worked as New Mexico’s state engineer for four years. “I just want to do a good job…
We get it, does Fergus?
Dear HCN, Jim Fergus could’ve just typed something like: “Stupid, citified yuppies just don’t understand hunting. They never will, and they shouldn’t even try because hunters don’t care what they think.” (HCN, 1/22/96). Perhaps what non-hunters don’t get is how shooting the life out of a living creature can be such a positive experience. But…
Disease threatens bighorn restoration
For decades, wildlife officials from Idaho, Washington and Oregon have worked hard to restore bighorn sheep to the Hells Canyon area. But in December, they feverishly tried to remove them after a deadly outbreak of pneumonia-like pasteurella. Hoping to contain the disease, officials netted 72 sick sheep and transported them by helicopters and trucks to…
Hunting attracts weak egos
Dear HCN: One does not have to look very far or deep to discover that hunting is a sport for insecure egos and has nothing to do with sound biology, ecology or science (HCN, 12/11/95). Our game and fish agencies are for hunters by hunters and their feet have to be held to the fire…
A call to uproot roads
After torrential rains in northern Idaho triggered widespread landslides in national forests last November, some Idaho Fish and Game officials are urging the Forest Service not to repair damaged roads. They want the roads either re-engineered or obliterated. “We want them to fix the problem, so those roads aren’t just time bombs waiting to go…
City hogs
Dear HCN: Your comment about accident rates among four-wheel drives (Heard around the West, HCN, 12/25/95) was pretty amusing – especially so for us (liberal) East Coasters who rarely see any snow in the city of Baltimore. So many yuppies have succumbed to the need to buy these big gas hogs after being influenced by…
Small town design
SMALL TOWN DESIGN Conservation and development can go head-to-head in rural America. A new publication describes a two-year project in which landscape architects worked with rural communities to combine the two. The National Endowment for the Arts and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service sponsored the arrangement, which placed a landscape architect…
Let’s get real in New Mexico
Dear HCN: Your article on firewood cutting in New Mexico’s Carson National Forest (HCN, 12/25/95) correctly states that the Mexican spotted owl has only been found in one remote area of the forest. If we are to protect habitat for species that are not there, let’s start at the beginning: Protect the fragile dinosaur habitat.…
Our living resources
OUR LIVING RESOURCES Consider a two-inch-thick tome produced by the federal government and your eyelids are likely to fall. If the volume is Our Living Resources, your reaction could be just the opposite. Anyone interested in ecological issues may find this report indispensable. To begin with, the 530-page document holds page after page of full-color…
Dams be damned
DAMS BE DAMNED Activist Yvan Rochon wants to see two dams, built early in the century on Washington’s Elwha River, demolished (HCN, 9/18/95). “They went up as progress and we want to take them down in the name of progress,” says the 35-year-old medical researcher. Rochon and his group, the Elwha Dams Removal Fund, are…
Subterranean terror
SUBTERRANEAN TERROR “I thought if only I could get out, I’m going to get a whole new perspective on my life, because I’ve faced death square in the face.” * Dennis Workman, who was trapped in a mine for 56 hours This January, a young Utah man plunged 600 feet down a mine shaft on…
Costly Yellowstone invasion
COSTLY YELLOWSTONE INVASION There’s little hope of ridding Yellowstone Lake of its invading lake trout, says a report by the National Park Service. The illegally introduced lake trout, discovered by anglers in 1994, could diminish the native cutthroat trout population by 70 percent or more within 100 years. And by disrupting the food chain, the…
Colorado ski area dumps all over trout stream
WINTER PARK, Colo. – When a snow-grooming machine swept downhill at Colorado’s Winter Park ski area in late January, it did more than groom a wider ski run. It packed a section of Little Vasquez Creek with snow, possibly wiping out the stream’s population of cutthroat trout. Winter Park and the Forest Service are at…
Eagle County balks at fourth mega-resort
EAGLE, Colo. – Thirteen years ago, Fred Kummer’s dream of building a mega-ski resort outside this quiet Colorado town seemed like money in the bank. The wealthy developer had won the approval of Eagle County and the Forest Service, despite the opposition of a pesky group of locals. The construction industry was poised to throw…
Christians preach environmental gospel
God’s handiwork can only be destroyed by its maker, Wisconsin Evangelical Calvin DeWitt recently told National Public Radio. “If you didn’t make it, you’d better keep your hands off,” he warned, buttressing his argument with a verse from Revelation that says those who destroy the Earth will be destroyed. Evangelical Christians are only one source…
Does the Forest Service love communities as much as it loves ski areas?
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, Eagle County balks at fourth mega-resort. Readers of Snow Country magazine recently discovered a special advertising supplement tucked between stories of equipment and resorts: “Stewards of the Land: Skiing and the U.S. Forest Service, a public and private alliance.” The 15-page glossy infomercial, complete…
Ski workers look for a home
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, Eagle County balks at fourth mega-resort. Imagine Adam’s Rib in operation. Now picture 4,300 new workers scrambling for housing in a county that boasted five vacant housing units last year. “It’s not clear where the new people would go,” says Cathy Heicher, a member…
$400,000 buys property – and a vote
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, Eagle County balks at fourth mega-resort. MOUNTAIN VILLAGE, Colo. – Rich or poor, each American casts a single ballot: one person, one vote. Except here in Colorado’s newest town, where the real estate investors vote and the seasonal workers usually can’t. Mountain Village is…
Santa Fe ski area growth enrages locals
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, Eagle County balks at fourth mega-resort. If the Forest Service were ever to deny a ski expansion based on protests by locals, the recently approved Santa Fe Ski Area plan would have been the perfect candidate. A local 1994 newspaper poll found that 70…
Biologists to Yellowstone: Feed the grizzlies
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. – Feeding the grizzly bears here may not be such a bad idea; in fact, it may be the only way to ensure their survival into the next century, according to a new book, The Grizzly Bears of Yellowstone: Their Ecology in the Yellowstone Ecosystem, 1959-1992. A trio of biologists sees…
Budget impasse leaves BLM scrambling
From under a blanket of snow, the Miles City, Mont., Bureau of Land Management office should be preparing for spring. Ranchers need permits to send their sheep into pasture. Roads that have decayed over winter need repairs. Outfitters need permits for spring river trips, and mining companies want their environmental assessments completed. But the BLM…
Heard around the West
Television has brought its own set of icons into our world: O.J. as hero, O.J. as anti-hero; the Super Bowl as football game, the Super Bowl as cultural landmark. And for the first time this year, the Super Bowl as intergenerational Navajo entertainment. Ernie Manuelito of KTNN, the tribe’s 50,000-watt radio station, provided a play-by-play…
Federal negligence turns ordinary Montanans hostile
NOXON, Mont. – Until last spring, few people had heard of Noxon, Mont., a sleepy town in the morning shadows of the Cabinet Mountain Wilderness. That changed after the Oklahoma City bombing and the media frenzy around citizen militias, including the Militia of Montana (MOM) based in Noxon. Now, most folks who have heard of…
Dear friends
A man of words From a cabin in Wyoming, C.L. Rawlins has served as the (mostly) unpaid poetry editor for this paper for 14 years. Now, he wants to call it quits since “editing for non-publication doesn’t appeal.” It’s true we have printed far less poetry than, say, a decade ago, mainly because we tend…