In Idaho, the Nez Perce have become the first tribe to oversee the statewide recovery of an endangered species, the gray wolf, an experience that is energizing the tribe’s own political and spiritual recovery.
Myths of the California energy ‘crisis’
Dear HCN, Paul Larmer makes two fundamental errors in the second paragraph of his article (HCN, 1/29/01: Power on the loose). California deregulation didn’t “require” that power companies sell off their power generation; it just made it attractive to do so in the short term, and shortsighted utilities did just that. However, other utilities, notably…
Working in the trenches
Dear HCN, I enjoy your paper most of the time, but Ed Marston’s essay, “Rearranging the Grid,” struck an especially deep chord (HCN, 1/29/01: Rearranging the Grid). As his long, persistent efforts on the DMEA board have taught him, it may be in the trenches at the heart of our Western civilization that the battle…
Babbitt didn’t know best
Dear HCN, Ed Marston believes that a reborn Department of Interior under Bruce Babbitt has led America out of the darkness of greedy natural resource extraction interests and into the warm sunlight of enlightened environmentalism
Name that fish!
Dear HCN, Idaho Indian tribes won a long culture war when a legislative committee recently agreed to strike the word “squaw” from the map. But the tribes’ victory doesn’t let anglers off the hook. What are we to call the fish formerly known as squaw? A while back, state and federal agencies agreed to call…
Tome story hits home
Dear HCN, This letter is in response to Greg Hanscom’s article, “Road Block” (HCN, 12/4/00: Road Block). Back in December 1999, during a Christmas visit to my hometown of Albuquerque, I took a drive to the east side of the city and found yet another subdivision in the once empty Elena Gallegos Land Grant. I…
Decline of whitebark pine could mean hungry grizzlies
Dear HCN, We greatly appreciated the article by Mark Matthews, “Last chance for the whitebark pine” (HCN, 12/4/00: Last chance for the whitebark pine), which described the widespread decline of the once abundant high-elevation whitebark pine ecosystem in the Northwestern United States and Southwestern Canada. The losses result from the combination of introduced disease (white…
The latest bounce
The Bonneville Power Administration wants the Northwest to scrap salmon recovery plans (HCN, 8/28/00: he latest salmon plan heads toward a train wreck), so the federal agency can produce more power for the region. Due to low precipitation and expensive power, BPA says if it doesn’t release reservoir water now, the Northwest could be vulnerable…
Land trust becomes green developer
WASHINGTON For 30 years, a ferocious land-use battle between conservationists and would-be ski and golf resort developers has been waged on 1,020 acres on the banks of Washington’s Methow River (HCN, 11/28/94: Beauty eludes the beast: Washington’s Methow Valley may avoid industrial tourism). Now, an end appears to be in sight. In January, the Trust…
An agency in need of refuge?
Greens, managers wrangle over how to rescue neglected wildlife refuges
Wildlife management blossoms on the reservations
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. When the Nez Perce took on the Idaho wolf recovery program, they continued a long tradition of tribal wildlife management. “We’ve always managed – we just didn’t call it that,” says Buzz Cobell, a member of the Blackfeet tribe and a Native American Liaison…
Idaho predators are under the gun
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. The wolf will enjoy federal protection for at least a few more years, but other Idaho predators aren’t so lucky. In August, the seven-member Idaho Fish and Game Commission, which sets the agenda for the state Department of Fish and Game, adopted the state’s…
The return
The Nez Perce tribe brings wolves back to the Idaho wilderness — and reinvents its political future
Heard around the West
When the mighty stumble, satirists have a field day. California, the sixth-largest economy in the world, became an easy target once its halfway deregulation of electricity triggered billion-dollar deficits.A commentator on the Web site F–kedCom- pany.Com chortled, “All this whining and complaining that there’s no juice to run the Jacuzzis and there’s no way to…
Dear Friends
Changing times The Nez Perce tribe is returning to its stolen lands. As we report in this issue, the tribe now manages wolves on 15 million acres of central Idaho wilderness, and it’s even bought back part of the Oregon homeland that Chief Joseph fought for in 1877. Though many tribes continue to struggle against…
The mythic West and the billionaire
Only after looking over my shoulder as I left the Denver Art Museum did I realize the irony of the exhibit “Painters of the American West.” As usual, the blue neon Qwest signs flooded the Denver skyline. Behind both the art exhibit and Qwest, publicity-shy but firmly in charge, is Philip Anschutz, at last count…
How to draw a duck
Start with basic shapes: an oval for the body, a circle for the head, triangles for the bill and tail, a pole for the neck and a checkmark for the wing. Be sure to fill up most of your paper. Now, let’s round out the lines and add color. Then, draw in the duck’s habitat.…
‘Zero-Cow’ initiative splits Sierra Club
Are urban members ignoring rural range life?
Farmers asked to ante up for salmon
Some irrigators say dams are the problem, not ditches