A homegrown consensus effort called the Owyhee Initiative is trying to save both wilderness and ranching in southwestern Idaho – but in the polarized Bush era, consensus is often controversial.
Also in this issue: Federal wildlife managers admit that the massive fish kill in the Klamath River in 2002 was caused, in part, by the diversion of water to farmers.
Bring back the green republicans!
Bully! Bully! Bully! Andrew Gulliford’s essay about President Teddy Roosevelt should be read by every card-carrying Republican (HCN, 10/13/03: Where’s Teddy when you need him?). I am and always have been a Republican. I would challenge that, between Roosevelt and Richard Nixon, we Republicans have produced some of the most significant conservation and protection legislation…
Roosevelt was a pragmatic conservationist
Andrew Gulliford opines that Theodore Roosevelt, if he came back today, would be flabbergasted by the Interior Department’s recent decision to jettison years of study on BLM wilderness areas (HCN, 10/13/03: Where’s Teddy when you need him?). I’m not so sure. Roosevelt certainly knew and respected John Muir, and supported his vision to preserve and…
Treadwell was no new-ager
The deaths of Timothy Treadwell and Amie Huguenard, ostensibly by grizzly mauling, were the stuff of sensational headlines, especially on the heels of the mauling of tiger-trainer Roy Horn in Las Vegas. It was predictable that the mainstream, corporate media would have a field day. We expected better of High Country News. We were disappointed.…
What’s with the uppity New Englanders?
As a sixth-generation Montanan, and longtime subscriber to High Country News, I usually just read your great paper and keep quiet. But this time I had to pick up my writin’ stick. Lisa Jones’ attempt at regional satire (HCN, 10/27/03: My sensitive man meets culture shock on the range) left me wonderin’ where on earth…
Drop the stereotypes
I had to comment on Lisa Jones’ article “My Sensitive Man meets culture shock on the range” (HCN, 10/27/03: My Sensitive Man meets culture shock on the range). My immediate reaction when I read the article was to laugh. After I thought about the article, however, I realized that Ms. Jones’ rantings were exactly the…
Essay insults easterns and westerners
When I read Lisa Jones’ essay, I wasn’t sure whether I was more offended by what she wrote about the West, where I now live, or Vermont, where I used to live. The West she ridicules as callow, uncultured, easily excited to a frenzy by images of its violent past; Vermont she insults with false…
Getting high in class
Taking off from the tiny airport in Glenwood Springs, Colo., with four high school students buckled into his Cessna’s back seats, Bruce Gordon interprets the panorama below: A plaid pattern of golf courses and cul-de-sacs abuts roadless mountains. From the vantage of 2,000 feet, Gordon hopes the students will see the contrast between the developed…
Calendar
The Algodones Dunes Photographic Tour is kicking off in early December in Twentynine Palms, Calif. The exhibit of photographs by Andrew Harvey — a benefit for the Center for Biological Diversity — will visit Los Angeles, Yuma, San Diego, Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Tucson. www.biologicaldiversity.org 520-623-5252 ext. 306 The Quivira Coalition’s third annual conference is…
Follow-up
New nukes — as well as old nuclear waste — may soon be headed West: Tucked inside the 2004 Water and Energy Appropriations Bill was $11 million for the Modern Pit Facility, a factory to build plutonium triggers for nuclear bombs (HCN, 9/1/03: Courting the Bomb). Now, it’s up to the Energy Department to decide…
Gas wells wash out habitat
The sheer volume of water that coalbed methane wells pour into streams could wipe out up to 30 aquatic species in the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana. James Gore, an environmental scientist, presented these dire projections in November at the International Petroleum Environmental Conference in Houston, Texas. Each of the basin’s 15,000 wells…
American Speedster
With its distinctive markings, an American pronghorn on the prairie range is about as inconspicuous as pepper in salt. But then again, when you can sprint at 60 miles per hour and sustain speeds of around 45 mph for mile after mile, stealth and camouflage aren’t that important. In Built for Speed, John Byers —…
Riding the middle path
In Idaho’s remote Owyhee region, an effort to protect wilderness and keep ranchers in business threatens to crack under pressure, or slip into oblivion
Save the middle ground: Hug a radical
Here’s a message for all the “radical centrists” out there, those who have decided that the best way to manage the public lands is to sit down at the table with ranchers, off-roaders and everyone in between, to come up with a plan everyone agrees on: The next time you run into a radical, thank…
A cheer for runaway bison and the Rocky Mountain Front
Anyone with a heart had to cheer the bison. One recent snowy day in Great Falls, Mont., three of the half-ton creatures were being loaded off a truck into a slaughterhouse. One of the half-wild bovines busted through a five-foot timber corral and — bingo! — led a buffalo breakout. The three beasts stampeded through…
Dear Friends
PARTY TIME The staff of High Country News cordially invites all readers and friends to HCN’s holiday open house at our Paonia, Colo., office (119 Grand Ave.) on Monday, Dec. 15. Knock back a few eggnogs with the entire HCN crew between 5 and 7:30 p.m. Please bring a treat to share. We’ll provide drinks.…
News flash: Fish do need water
Federal wildlife managers admit that a massive fish kill was caused, in part, by diversions of water to farmers
As Congress adjourns, the environment is left in limbo
As Congress wraps up its business for the year, Western lawmakers will be heading home with a little bit of pork and a whole lot of change. That’s not pocket change, however: New laws passed this year could mean some big changes across the Western landscape. The 108th Congress has passed a significant number of…
Utahns beat back radioactive waste
With the help of some ugly political wrangling by the Utah congressional delegation, a hazardous waste disposal company nearly succeeded in its bid to bring 12,900 cubic yards of highly contaminated radioactive waste to the state. But on Nov. 18, after vociferous opposition at home, Envirocare of Utah pulled its federal application to dump the…
Leaving Las Vegas
I lived in Las Vegas recently for about a year, doing research at a large weapons-testing facility outside of town. Among all the places I’ve lived, from tropical islands to small towns to Western strip-mall communities, Las Vegas seemed uniquely American for its boosterism of get-rich-quick schemes and the sex industry — and for the…
Forest protection on the honor system
After nearly a year of contentious debate about how best to reduce wildfire danger, the House and Senate passed the Healthy Forests Restoration Act on Nov. 20 (HCN, 5/26/03: Congress jousts over forest health). Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who worked to craft the bill, is hailing it as a compromise and a bipartisan success, but…
Heard around the West
COLORADO With just a few words, Beverly Hoover won third place in the High Country Shopper’s annual contest, “My Favorite Hunting Story.” She and her husband had moved from Pennsylvania to western Colorado in 1992, and soon after their arrival in Montrose, they were invited to a barbecue by new friends. The conversation turned to…
New nuke studies are in the works
When Congress passed the $27.3 billion Water and Energy Authorization Bill on Nov. 18, lawmakers voted to do more than revamp harbors and fund physics labs; they also set aside money for new nuclear weapons research, and reduced the time it will take to fire up the nation’s nuclear testing grounds. The bill included $6…
In Boulder-White Cloud mountains, another wilderness compromise
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Riding the middle path.” A hundred miles north of the Owyhee Canyonlands, another bold wilderness deal is brewing in Idaho, and the brewmaster is another conservative Republican congressman. “We have a rare opportunity to control our own destiny, by crafting our own legislation that…
Wilderness deals held hostage in salmon struggle
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Riding the middle path.” How tough do Idaho’s environmental negotiations get? Two months ago, when salmon advocates threatened to take control of the plumbing for southern Idaho’s gigantic farm-irrigation system, Norm Semanko held them off by taking a couple of wilderness deals hostage. Semanko…
Being a local doesn’t make you any better
“Where is this guy from?” I said to myself, flipping to the inside cover of the new book, “True Grizz,” by Douglas Chadwick. It said the author lived in Whitefish, Mont., a trendy town north of Flathead Lake. He may live there, I thought, but where’s he from? It’s embarrassing to recount my thought process.…