Some activists hope that the current hard times facing both workers and the environment will resurrect the strong alliances that once existed between greens and labor unions.
Also in this issue: NOAA Fisheries is drafting new regulations that will allow hatchery-raised fish to be counted along with wild salmon and steelhead, a move that property-rights lawyers hope will take the species off the endangered list.
Toxic chemical creeping toward Colorado River
CALIFORNIA, ARIZONA Chromium 6, the toxic element made infamous by the movie Erin Brockovich, is back in the news. In Southern California and central Arizona, water officials fear that the chemical might contaminate drinking water for some 20 million people, as it creeps toward the Colorado River from a pump station on a natural gas…
A champion of ‘cooperative conservation’: Interior Secretary Gale Norton
In recent months, High Country News has spilled a lot of ink covering the Bush administration’s policies for the public lands — and the controversies swirling around them. At the center of that storm is Bush’s secretary of the Interior, Gale Norton. Norton is charged with overseeing the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land…
Money wasted on war
I recently read Jon Christensen’s piece about the loss of ranch land in the West to development (HCN, 3/29/04: Who will take over the ranch?). Obviously, the public, primarily through its federal government, which has the most money to spend, has an interest in preserving these lands. This piece made me think about the Iraq…
The real solution: Buy ranchers out
Jon Christensen does a great job in portraying one of the biggest issues facing the conservation community in the West: the constantly increasing pressure to develop and subdivide (HCN, 3/29/04: Who will take over the ranch?). However, he fails to address an important question raised about land trusts: What will be the character of the…
You want to save the ranch? Save the ranchers
How refreshing to see a thoughtful, well-researched article about ranching in HCN, as opposed to the usual ritual bashing of cows and trashing of ranchers (HCN, 3/29/04: Who will take over the ranch?). Though HCN Executive Director Paul Larmer suggests that the paramount question is not, “How do we save ranching?” but rather, “How do…
This isn’t your daddy’s Democratic party
Your recent article on “Imagining a Democratic West” was a refreshing attempt to really examine the political realities of the West, rather than just engaging in the usual Republican-bashing (HCN, 4/12/04: The One-Party West). As one of the many conservative Westerners who really does care about our environment, I’d like to see some changes that…
The grizzly’s in the house — or at least, the yard
To make it in the wild as a grizzly in the Lower 48, you need an education. But mom may be teaching you some questionable survival skills: how to raid garbage cans, pilfer grain from barns and scavenge birdseed from backyard feeders. As humans spread into prime bruin habitat, some bears are becoming “suburban guerrillas.”…
Calendar
The Sierra Nevada Alliance is holding its 11th annual conference, which includes speakers, workshops and field trips, at Lake Tahoe, Aug. 7 and 8.www.sierranevadaalliance.org530-542-4546 The olorado Foundation for Water Education is offering tours of the Upper Colorado River Basin on June 23-25. The three-day tour will focus on urban water supply, recreational water use and…
Souvenir or sacred artifact?
Stealing from Indians didn’t end in the 19th century: Many sacred American Indian masks, pipes and other ceremonial artifacts still find their way into private collections. However, according to the American Indian Ritual Object Repatriation Foundation, most of these items properly belong to Indian tribes. The Repatriation Foundation got its start in 1992, after an…
Follow-up
President Bush’s proposal to offer work visas to undocumented immigrants in the U.S. has opened a window of opportunity, and many are rushing to take advantage of it (HCN, 2/2/04: Immigration reform from Washington, DC). The Border Patrol says that the number of people crossing the U.S.-Mexico border had declined over the last four years,…
Cougar hunt creates uproar
Following a sensational search, Arizonar esidents push for tougher protections for mountain lions
Houston Principles of the Alliance for Sustainable Jobs and the Environment
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “In Search of Solidarity.” Preamble On May 19, 1999, environmental and labor leaders confronted CEO Charles Hurwitz in Houston to demand that his Maxxam Corporation, which owns Kaiser Aluminum and Pacific Lumber Company, be held accountable for its impact on working people, communities and the…
At Yucca Mountain, deadlines take precedence over science
Don’t ask questions when you don’t know the answers: That’s the rule of thumb for trial lawyers who don’t want courtroom surprises. The Bush administration has a different rule of thumb when it comes to the science of storing nuclear waste: Ask as few questions as possible, and ignore answers you don’t like. Until January,…
In Search of Solidarity
Will hard times renew historic alliances between environmentalists and labor unions?
Laboring for the environment
I took a stroll through our lower pasture the other evening and discovered that April showers had turned it into a riotous weed patch. It wasn’t what my wife and I had planned three years ago, when we bought the badly overgrazed property. Back then, we took the advice of our local cooperative extension agent…
Dear Friends
New Interns Zach Smith arrived in Paonia just in time to escape the blistering summer heat of Santa Fe, N.M., where he wrote for the Santa Fe Reporter and volunteered for the Audubon Society, teaching elementary school kids the basics of geology and birding. A Denver native who has lived in six states and studied…
Property-rights lawyers score one against wild salmon
Court rulings force re-evaluation of endangered fish and habitat in the Northwest
Throwing out the dishwater
Once I lived in a one-room log cabin where I pumped my water from a well and heated it on a wood stove. When I was finished washing my dishes, I carried the dishpan outside and tossed the water on the nearby sagebrush. It seemed natural to me to return the water to the same…
Heard around the West
NORTH DAKOTA Give a cheer for cheeky Fargo, mocked as backward a mere decade ago in the movie Fargo, which featured locals spouting the stereotypical, “Yah, you betcha.” You can call the city “trendy” now, says the Los Angeles Times. Pricey condos have been built downtown, culture has arrived in the form of sushi bars…
Wolf foes get medieval
As feds prepare to take wolves off the endangered list, a rash of animal poisonings causes concerns
The Complete Gale Norton Interview
Full transcript of the HCN Interview with Gale Norton, along with Kit Kimball, communications officer with the Interior Department, and Matt Kales of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The concise interview is located at (HCN, 5/24/04: A champion of ‘cooperative conservation’: Interior Secretary Gale Norton) Editor’s Note: HCN is particularly interested in hearing from…
New Mexico may change wolf policy
Note: in the print edition of this issue, this article appears as a sidebar to another news article, “Wolf foes get medieval.” A troubled wolf-recovery effort in the Southwest may have found an unlikely ally: The traditionally anti-wolf New Mexico Game Commission has asked the state Game and Fish Department to re-evaluate its management of…