American Indians who claim the federal government owes them billions of dollars are crying foul over a recently released report. In 1996, Indians across the country filed a class-action lawsuit, alleging the Interior Department mismanaged billions of dollars in royalties from oil and gas production, timber-harvesting and grazing on Indian land (HCN, 2/4/02: Indian trust […]
Gail Binkly
Posted inMay 12, 2003: Planting time
Phelps tries to dodge bond
Phelps Dodge Corporation, the state of New Mexico and environmentalists remain locked in a conflict over the cleanup of an open-pit copper mine in southern New Mexico. In March, the New Mexico Environment Department approved a draft permit for the Chino Mine near Silver City, the fourth-largest copper mine in the country, with a suggested […]
Posted inApril 14, 2003: Change comes slowly to Escalante county
Forest thinning slows fires, increases concerns
Not only did forest thinning slow the spread of last summer’s Hayman Fire in Colorado, it helped prevent subsequent damage from erosion, according to a study conducted by the U.S. Forest Service (HCN, 7/8/02: The anatomy of fire). The blaze, which was the largest fire in Colorado history, slowed when it hit the sites of […]
Posted inMarch 17, 2003: Bracing against the tide
Looters sneak into monument
President Clinton established the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument in southwestern Colorado to protect an estimated 20,000 archaeological sites, ranging from scattered potsherds to intact cliff dwellings (HCN, 4/23/01: Monuments caught in the crosshairs). Monument officials, however, are having a hard time fending off looters and vandals. Since the monument was created in June […]
Posted inWotr
Talking trash in a national monument
The December afternoon was dry and warm as I eased my car along a remote, rock-studded road on Canyons of the Ancients National Monument near Cortez, Colo. I hadn’t seen another soul, so it was a surprise when I came around a curve at 5 mph and spied a Ford pickup parked facing me in […]
Posted inDecember 9, 2002: Life in the wasteland
Cowboys fight oil and gas drillers
Fed up with energy companies, frustrated by the Bureau of Land Management and worried about their land, several northwestern New Mexico ranchers locked their gates on Nov. 14, blocking private roads to natural gas wells. “We finally decided we’re tired of fooling with them,” says Tweeti Blancett. She and her husband closed a road leading […]
Posted inNovember 25, 2002: Planning's poster child grows up
Colorado community battles a toxic shipment
Locals confront the state’s first import of radioactive waste
Posted inSeptember 30, 2002: Delta Blues
Thumpers hit a speedbump
COLORADO On August 16, seismic “thumper trucks” were poised to explore for oil and gas in the Canyons of the Ancients, a national monument in southwest Colorado, home to several rare lizards and more than 5,000 archeological sites. But four environmental groups sued to stop the 30-ton trucks from rolling across the landscape, and in […]
Posted inSeptember 16, 2002: The Royal Squeeze
The BLM stabs at a tired land
Bush’s push for oil and gas development touches down on the San Juan Basin
Posted inAugust 27, 2001: Restoring the range of light
A-LP gets federal A-OK
Colorado’s huge water project poised for funding
Posted inMay 21, 2001: Quenching the big thirst
County tax collectors visit public lands
COLORADO For the second time in six years, the Colorado Supreme Court has ruled that counties can tax ski areas, park concessionaires and others who use public lands for profit. In a 4-3 decision issued Feb. 21, the court found that a 1996 law granting property-tax exemptions to entities with “possessory interests” in public lands […]
Posted inApril 23, 2001: The Big Blowup
Monument status could wreck ruins
BLM officials need money to manage masses
Posted inFebruary 12, 2001: Mr. Babbitt's wild ride
Easement saves artifacts
Conservation easements usually protect open space on private land (HCN, 2/28/00: Acre by acre: Can land trusts save the West’s disappearing open space?), but a new easement in southwestern Colorado also protects what’s underneath the land. In December, an agreement between landowner Don Dove and the Montezuma Land Conservancy preserved 110 acres of ancestral Puebloan […]
Posted inDecember 18, 2000: Still here: Can humans help other species defy extinction?
Counties want a park road opened
UTAH An unpaved road to spectacular sandstone Angel Arch in Canyonlands National Park has become another battleground in the continuing war between rural county commissioners and the federal government. The Park Service restricted motorized travel along the primitive Salt Creek Road in 1995, reducing the number of vehicles per day from 70 to 20. Since […]
Posted inOctober 9, 2000: The hunters and the hunted
Migrants leave trail of trash
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Visitors to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument along the Arizona/Mexican border experience one of the most untrammeled pieces of Sonoran Desert in the American Southwest. Nourished by two rainy seasons a year, it teems with hundreds of plant species, including towering saguaro, ocotillos and […]