-On a quarter section in this country, no one could’ve or should’ve been expected to make a living.” * South Dakota rancher Clarence Mortenson A map of South Dakota’s Spring View Township from 1890 shows a landscape plowed and fenced off by homesteaders, lured by grandiose claims of what the plains might produce. In reality, […]
Dustin Solberg
Posted inMarch 1, 1999: Working the land back to health
The Wayward West
A Missoula, Mont., pulp mill says it won’t pump chlorine-related pollutants through its smokestacks or into the Clark Fork River anymore (HCN, 3/30/98). Smurfit-Stone Container Corp. says it’s pulling out of the paper-bleaching business because it can’t afford $40 million in EPA-mandated plant upgrades. Local activists cheered. “It’s just sinking in,” says Darrell Geist of […]
Posted inFebruary 15, 1999: Uncommon Bounty
Uncommon Bounty
Note: four sidebar articles accompany this feature story: a guide to identifying edible and medicinal plants, a profile of a mushroom harvester, and mushroom harvester Bill Knight and Hoopa Valley Tribal member Sherlette Colegrove sharing their views in their own words. With a few lengths of steel and the blue flame of a welding torch, […]
Posted inFebruary 15, 1999: Uncommon Bounty
Freedom of the woods
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Bill Knight is a 42-year-old mushroom harvester and buyer from Shelton, Wash. He got his start 10 years ago, and is a member of the Alliance of Forest Workers and Harvesters, a group providing a unified voice for the Northwest forest harvesters. “Someone takes […]
Posted inFebruary 15, 1999: Uncommon Bounty
It’s our tradition
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Sherlette Colegrove is a 42-year-old member of the Hoopa Valley Tribe in Northern California. She, too, is a member of the harvesters’ alliance. Since 1993, Colegrove has been harvesting plants and mushrooms introduced to her by her grandmother. “When someone was sick, she’d say […]
Posted inFebruary 15, 1999: Uncommon Bounty
An entrepreneurial spirit
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Each fall, Yan Saeteurn hitches a camper trailer to his V-6 Toyota pickup at his home in Redding, Calif., and heads four hours north to what is the locus of the matsutake mushroom harvest. There, near Crescent Lake, Ore., he builds a small wooden […]
Posted inFebruary 1, 1999: Saving the Platte
The Wayward West
Three men accused of slaughtering more than 30 wild horses in the Nevada desert have been arrested (HCN, 1/18/99). Two of the suspects, Scott Brendle and Darien Brock, are stationed at Marine Corps bases in California. Grisly details about the other suspect’s life have surfaced in Nevada newspapers. Anthony Merlino of Reno is described as […]
Posted inFebruary 1, 1999: Saving the Platte
To trap or not?
When the red fox expanded its range and moved into coastal California in the 1980s, wildlife managers relied on leghold traps to stop the clever predators from killing endangered marsh birds such as the California clapper rail and California least tern. Without the traps, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said, the red fox could […]
Posted inFebruary 1, 1999: Saving the Platte
Oregon Caves park to grow
Oregon Caves National Monument is known for its crystal pools and delicate mineral deposits, yet at 480 acres, it’s tiny. The final version of a new management plan, however, calls for expanding the monument by seven times – to 3,400 acres – a notion first discussed in the 1930s. “It’s difficult to manage a natural […]
Posted inFebruary 1, 1999: Saving the Platte
Ski the Butte?
Since the 1960s, some locals in Klamath Falls, Ore., have eyed Pelican Butte and dreamed of outfitting its snowy, timbered slopes with chairlifts and challenging ski runs. Past attempts fell flat when financiers ran out of money. Now, a Klamath Falls-based company with deep pockets is leading the effort to build a ski resort in […]
Posted inJanuary 18, 1999: Desert sprawl
ATV revolt
ATV revolt A proposal to close 400 miles of forest roads and 200 miles of trails to motorized vehicles on the Targhee National Forest has raised a storm of protest. The road closures are intended to decrease road densities in a grizzly bear recovery area – a move recommended by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife […]
Posted inJanuary 18, 1999: Desert sprawl
The Wayward West
Two of the managers of Colorado’s Summitville gold mine finally got their day in court, but the company higher-ups won’t ever step inside the courtroom to explain their role in the nation’s costliest mine disaster – the clean-up has cost $150 million so far. Six years after Galactic Resources declared bankruptcy, a federal court slapped […]
Posted inNovember 23, 1998: A patchwork peace unravels
Mining takes another hit
MONTANA Mining takes another hit In a small second-floor office in downtown Helena, Mont., a dozen people held a sort of vigil on this chilly election night. They’d brought a television and rigged it with rabbit ears earlier in the day, and tuned the radio to the local public radio station. There, in the Montana […]
Posted inNovember 23, 1998: A patchwork peace unravels
Voters thread through the ballot
COLORADO Voters thread through the ballot Voters faced a list of complex initiatives and referenda in Colorado. Amendment 13 asked them to amend the constitution to protect the burgeoning hog industry on the state’s eastern plains from strict environmental rules. Voters defeated it, 553,000 to 348,000, then voted for Amendment 14, which revises state law […]
Posted inNovember 23, 1998: A patchwork peace unravels
Keep on cutting
OREGON Keep on cutting By a margin of 878,000 to 208,000, voters defeated a ban on clear-cutting forests on public and private lands in Oregon. Popular Gov. John Kitzhaber spoke out against the ban, and mainstream groups such as Oregon Trout Unlimited refused to support the measure’s backer, Oregonians for Labor Intensive Forest Economics. Opposition […]
Posted inNovember 23, 1998: A patchwork peace unravels
Split on trapping
California and Utah Split on trapping California voters said no to trapping, banning leghold traps in the state, 3,974,000 to 2,951,000. The debate pitted animal-rights groups and the Sierra Club against the Golden Gate Audubon Society and other groups that claimed trapping predators, such as foxes, is in some instances necessary for the recovery of […]
Posted inNovember 23, 1998: A patchwork peace unravels
Election day highlights from around the region
WYOMING Republicans continue their lock on Wyoming: They maintained two-thirds majorities in the state Legislature while sweeping state offices, and Barbara Cubin easily held onto her at-large seat in the U.S. House. Leading this year’s windmill-tilting for the Democrats was bar owner, law student and state Sen. John Vinich of Hudson, who took on incumbent […]
Posted inNovember 9, 1998: Grizzly war
The 105th Congress didn’t come completely clean
At the last minute, out of the quagmire of the 105th Congress came word that the federal government is plunking down a $40 million down payment on the sprawling Baca Ranch in New Mexico (HCN, 8/3/98). In a Congress with few environmental victories, environmentalists were happy to put this one in the win column: “A […]
Posted inNovember 9, 1998: Grizzly war
Picturing Native American Culture
If you watched any television in the 1970s, you’ll recall the “Keep America Beautiful” campaign featuring Iron Eyes Cody – the Indian actor whose image, with a tear rolling down his wrinkled cheek, persuaded us to put litter in its place. His teary eye taught our society more than was ever intended – it helped […]
Posted inNovember 9, 1998: Grizzly war
Even in the remote West, growth happens
STEHEKIN, Wash. – Tucked into a narrow mountain valley on the shore of Lake Chelan is a village so small it barely qualifies for the state map. A single phone serves its 70 residents, no roads lead here and only a ferry links Stehekin with the nearest grocery store in the small city of Chelan, […]