A Fourth of July party landed Nevada’s Jarbidge Shovel Brigade in hot water (HCN, 7/31/00). The Justice Department has sued the group for clearing rocks and debris from a national forest road, closed to protect endangered bull trout. l For the first time, the Bureau of Indian Affairs has formally apologized for mistreating Native Americans. […]
Greg Hanscom
Greg Hanscom is the publisher and executive director for High Country News. Email him at greg.hanscom@hcn.org or submit a letter to the editor.
Posted inSeptember 25, 2000: Backyard boom
Ranchers test an agency’s image
Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt boasts that the BLM is moving away from its early reputation as the “Bureau of Livestock and Mining” to a more conservation-minded agency overseeing national monuments around the West (HCN, 11/22/99). This summer, when managers ordered cows off Utah’s drought-stricken Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, that new reputation was put to the […]
Posted inSeptember 11, 2000: Holy water
Dear Friends
A sad goodbye When you live in a small town, you have to wear a lot of different hats. Here in Paonia, pop. 1,600, for example, the mayor runs a laundromat and carpet-cleaning business and drives a school bus. Many people work several jobs and volunteer at the schools, the public radio station, the ambulance […]
Posted inAugust 28, 2000: The mine that turned the Red River blue
Dear Friends
The bears are in town Summer in Paonia has been an absolute bear. Cool mornings fairly burst into flame once the sun rolls over the top of Jumbo Mountain. Daytime temperatures hover in the 90s. The heat has sent many of us hiking for the high country. But even the mountains are dry, and that […]
Posted inAugust 28, 2000: The mine that turned the Red River blue
Down the Rio Grande, one piece at a time
Ernie Atencio’s cover story about Questa, N.M., and the story on page 3 about the silvery minnow are the latest installments in our series on the Rio Grande. We kicked off the series, funded by the McCune Foundation, last fall with a special issue titled, “Imagine a River” (HCN, 10/11/99: Imagine a river). Most series […]
Posted inJuly 31, 2000: Out of the darkness
Water district has identity crisis
NEW MEXICO The largest irrigation district on the Rio Grande has received some bone-shaking news: The Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District, formerly thought to be an arm of the state, is a federal agency. In 1951, the Bureau of Reclamation bailed out the nearly bankrupt district, spending millions to renovate dams and irrigation ditches. At […]
Posted inJuly 31, 2000: Out of the darkness
In New Mexico, a surprising proposal rises from the flames
For 11 years, Santa Fe’s Forest Guardians have been unflinching in their opposition to logging on the Southwest’s national forests. But this June, they blinked. Following the Cerro Grande fire that swept through Los Alamos, Forest Guardians released its first-ever proposal for cutting trees. The proposal calls for thinning and prescribed burning in Santa Fe’s […]
Posted inJuly 31, 2000: Out of the darkness
Dear Friends
Life in a petri dish July in Paonia is time for cherries, apricots and early morning irrigation. It’s time to crank up the swamp coolers and charge down Grand Avenue to jump into what’s left of the North Fork of the Gunnison River. But most of all, it’s the season for visiting far-flung friends and […]
Posted inJuly 3, 2000: A river resurrected
‘The vampires are in charge of the blood bank’
Note: this article is a sidebar to the news story “Utah’s river kid takes on the water buffaloes.” Zachary Frankel, a native of Salt Lake City, is the executive director of the Utah Rivers Council. Zachary Frankel: “I lived in Washington state and studied river ecology. I went diving in rivers and realized how gorgeous […]
Posted inJune 19, 2000: Accidental refuge: Should we save the Salton Sea?
Babbitt’s monument tour blazes on
Al Gore announces four new national monuments, while Republicans fight back
Posted inJune 19, 2000: Accidental refuge: Should we save the Salton Sea?
The end of a water mine?
Note: in the print edition of this issue, this article appears as a sidebar to another news article,”The Great Sand Dunes: the next new national park?“ A federal buyout of the Baca Ranch would erase the threat of a sale, by a private developer, of San Luis Valley water to the Front Range. But pressure […]
Posted inAugust 28, 2000: The mine that turned the Red River blue
Shaky truce on the Rio Grande
Amid a political dust storm, an agreement keeps endangered fish alive
Posted inApril 10, 2000: Beyond the Revolution
The beauty of self-reliance
Reader Portia Masterson walked into the office on a drizzly day in late March. It was an unusual moment for a couple of reasons: first, Portia usually sticks close to her home in Golden, near Denver; second, when she’s out and about, she’s usually riding her bike. Masterson owns Self-Propulsion Inc., a bike shop that […]
Posted inFebruary 14, 2000: Land of the fee
Fees around the West
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Arapaho and Roosevelt national forests, Colorado A fee to see the top of Colorado’s Mount Evans sparked rage from some motorists when they discovered that they were the only visitors paying. The Forest Service changed its approach, charging drivers $6 per carload at the […]
Posted inJanuary 31, 2000: Searching for pasture
The Wayward West
Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt says he’s one step closer to protecting 1.1 million acres of West Desert wilderness (HCN, 7/5/99). To garner support for a federal wilderness bill, Leavitt has agreed to trade to the Bureau of Land Management 118,000 acres of school-trust land within the proposed wilderness for 128,000 acres of federal land near […]
Posted inDecember 20, 1999: Unleashing the Snake
Westerners take sides on road ban
Around the West this winter, citizens flocked to Forest Service “listening sessions,” part of an initial scoping process to collect comments on President Clinton’s October directive to protect roadless forests (HCN, 11/8/99). Conservationists dominated regional meetings held in 10 cities, including Portland, Missoula, Salt Lake City and Albuquerque. Many supported the Oregon-based Heritage Forest Campaign: […]
Posted inOctober 25, 1999: Monumental chaos
Clinton proclaims a far-reaching forest plan
President Clinton made headlines Oct. 13, when he announced a sweeping initiative to protect 40-60 million acres of unroaded national forests. At a ceremony in the George Washington and Jefferson National Forest in Virginia, Clinton put his full support behind permanent protection for land currently covered by an 18-month road-building moratorium, in addition to roadless […]
Posted inOctober 11, 1999: A home-grown Water War
A tiny fish cracks New Mexico’s water establishment
Note: a sidebar article, “A water empire in the desert,” accompanies this feature story. ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Sitting in his office on the outskirts of this sprawling desert city, Jeff Whitney remembers a poster that hung at an Arizona ranch where he worked as a teenager. A crotchety old cowboy smirked from the wall and […]
Posted inOctober 11, 1999: A home-grown Water War
A water empire in the desert
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories. Albuquerque, N.M. — “I can talk,” says Subhis Shah. “But first, my wife says I need to take a coconut to the river.” The river is the Rio Grande, which flows through a bank of greenery not far from Shah’s downtown office. […]
Posted inSeptember 13, 1999: Troubled Oasis
The Wayward West
Endangered chinook salmon have put the brakes on a new traffic light at a dangerous intersection in Puyallup, Wash. Because the light will be funded with federal money, the city must complete a biological assessment to determine if construction will harm salmon or other wildlife. Nearby resident Pam Bott told AP a two-month delay is […]