For 30 years, activists have been working to remove two dams and restore salmon runs on Washington’s Elwha River, and now the goal is in sight — if the money comes through from Congress.
Check for your wallets
Dear HCN, I was surprised at the thoughts reflected in two articles in the Aug. 13 High Country News. In “The man in the rubber boots,” Paul Larmer states that in western Colorado, where he lives, 12 inches of rain falls. He says he lives in a desert. He says he used to use his…
Responsible ranchers obey the law
Dear HCN, Your recent story, “Showdown on the Nevada Range” (HCN, 8/27/01: Showdown on the Nevada range), was timely and objective. Whether from the extreme left or right, I think most Nevadans are getting a bellyful of dissident groups that peddle fear and distortion. More importantly, individuals like Mr. Colvin jeopardize the future of grazing…
Klamath water is finally for the birds
OREGON, CALIFORNIA Amid all the fighting this summer over water in the Klamath Basin of Oregon and California, many forgot about a significant water user that couldn’t protest in the streets or file a lawsuit – the threatened bald eagle. Although a biological opinion issued in April by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service mandated…
State proposes mother-lode mine fee
NEW MEXICO If New Mexico has its way, it will slap the state’s biggest mine with an unprecedented tab. In June, state regulatory agencies presented Phelps Dodge with a draft plan to close out the old (1910) and large (fourth largest in the country) Chino Mine near Silver City. It could cost the company $759…
The Latest Bounce
The terrorist attacks on Washington, D.C., and New York City may impact the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah, next February (HCN, 3/16/98: Olympic onslaught: Salt Lake City braces for the winter games). Officials are considering whether to cancel the games for safety reasons; if the games do proceed, security is likely to…
Grand Teton rancher gives up grazing lease
WYOMING The largest grazing-lease holder in Grand Teton National Park plans to give up his 2,000-acre lease. Brad Mead, co-owner of the Mead-Hansen Ranch and a fourth-generation Jackson Hole rancher, says his ranch will stop grazing on public land by the end of the year. Mead acknowledged that his ranch needed a “dramatic change in…
Oak killer on the loose
OREGON, CALIFORNIA A new plague threatens thousands of native oak trees in southern Oregon. Sudden oak death, which causes trees to bleed a reddish-black fluid and their leaves to droop and turn brown, has already killed thousands of trees in Northern California. Last month, forestry experts in Oregon learned that the disease had made its…
Klamath story misrepresents the ESA
Dear HCN, Rebecca Clarren’s article on the Klamath River Basin (HCN, 8/13/01: No refuge in the Klamath Basin) gives readers the most in-depth portrait of the real people engaged in the Klamath water conflict – farmers, Native Americans and commercial salmon fishermen – that has appeared to date in the national, regional or local press.…
River of dreams
The 30-year struggle to resurrect Washington’s Elwha River and one of its spectacular salmon runs
Heard around the West
Firefighters in the West battle extreme heat, unpredictable winds that can send wildfire racing up draws and endless hours on a fire line, but fish falling from the sky? It happened in Libby, Mont., reports Kevin Cardwell, who says the event will enter Forest Service firefighting lore. The incident occurred Aug. 17 as Todd Murray…
Dear Friends
Award-winning intern Congratulations to former Daily Astorian reporters Karen Mockler and Mike Stark. The pair will share the 4th annual Dolly Connelly Excellence in Environmental Journalism Award for their three-part series on the Columbia River Estuary, titled “Life on the Brink.” The $1,000 annual award was created by Seattle Post-Intelligencer columnist Joel Connelly to honor…
Far from out of it
The HCN offices on the morning of Sept. 11 were the same as any other place in the nation, and perhaps in the world: People quietly huddled around radios, trying to figure out what the events would mean for themselves and the future. Circulation manager Gretchen Nicholoff sweated out the hours until mid-day, when she…
In the house of the grizzly
We have begun to think of this place as ours. Every year, we cross the creek, ride up the long slope to the timbered bench, then drop into the meadow, as we have for a decade. It’s a coming home; a flood of memories of previous hunts, good times, hard work; a shared experience of…
Nature hits a home run for salmon
Record salmon, steelhead runs buy time for endangered stocks
Montana guts a green law
Environmentalists fear life in the post-MEPA era
The timber sale that won’t die
Eagle Creek has become an icon for anti-logging activists
The revival of a river people
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. At night the salmon move, out from the river and into town, They avoid places with names, like Fosters Freeze, A&W’s, Smileys, but swim close to the tract homes on Wright Avenue where sometimes in the early morning hours you can hear them trying…
‘Hydro(power) had no friends’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Orville Campbell has worked for the companies that have owned the Elwha dams for almost 30 years. He lives in Port Angeles. Orville Campbell: “From 1980-1990, the level of the drumbeat for dam removal was increasing over time, and in the early 1990s, that…
Lessons for the Colorado
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. The power of place worked wonders in the fight to fund Elwha restoration. When visiting congressmen were taken to the old dam, they saw the few remaining salmon rolling in the waters below, and they made a connection that no amount of beltway lobbying…
The enduring Endangered Species Act
Four years ago, Bruce Babbitt stood at a podium in Austin, Tex., and, in his most sonorous, Garrison Keillor-like voice, delivered the new gospel on endangered species. The conservationists’ most effective tool in the restoration of species and their habitats – the Endangered Species Act – was in peril, the then-Interior secretary told the Society…