Note: This article is a sidebar to a feature story. In late summer, Russell LaFountaine and four friends drove his 30-foot motorhome emblazoned with “Native Vote 96” over 10,000 miles of the West’s highways. Pulling into reservations, casinos and even the Democratic and Republican conventions, they spread their message: If Native Americans want change, they […]
Heather Abel
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Wise-users try to whip up a recipe for their own salvation
Casper, Wyo. – Utah House Speaker Melvin Brown tells the audience that he doesn’t want to end the evening on a negative note. But he does want to make you “mad enough to come back tomorrow recommitted.” To get their blood pumping, Brown conjures up an enemy – Thomas Michael Power – a University of […]
Posted inSeptember 30, 1996: Can this man break the right's grip on Idaho?
Tribal group tries again to save mountain
When Congress gave the University of Arizona a go-ahead to ignore environmental studies and build its third and largest telescope on Mount Graham, construction crews jumped into action (HCN, 5/13/96). Now, an obscure federal advisory group says builders moved too quickly and possibly illegally. According to the President’s Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, the Forest […]
Posted inSeptember 30, 1996: Can this man break the right's grip on Idaho?
Craig: Betting on Idaho’s enduring conservatism
Note: This article is a sidebar to a feature story. For Sen. Larry Craig, who has been in politics since 1974, the recipe for success is simple: Be a Republican. After all, Idaho has boasted the most conservative state legislature in the country four years running. “He’s not popular like (Wyoming Sen.) Alan Simpson was. […]
Posted inSeptember 16, 1996: The filthy West: Toxics pour into our air, water, land
Grazing bill returns for another round
Note: in the print edition of this issue, this article appears as a sidebar to another new article titled “Multicultural grazing boards off to a good start.” If Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., has his way, the Resource Advisory Committees, which just turned one year old, will never reach their second birthday. A bill sponsored by […]
Posted inSeptember 2, 1996: Last line of defense: Civil disobedience and protest slow down 'lawless logging'
Politics in cyberspace
What happens when a computer whiz with a penchant for the outdoors decides to tackle politics? Brad Udall, creator of one of the first on-line political action committees, hopes he can influence the composition of the next Congress. Following in the footsteps of his father, former Arizona Rep. Morris Udall, and his uncle, former Secretary […]
Posted inAugust 19, 1996: Western voices
A green Republican makes a run
Physician Robin Silver of Phoenix is known as an uncompromising environmentalist. Most recently, he forced the federal government to list the Mexican spotted owl as “threatened,” thereby stopping logging in the Southwest (HCN, 9/4/95). He has also fought against construction of a series of telescopes on Arizona’s Mount Graham (HCN, 7/24/95). So some Republicans may […]
Posted inAugust 5, 1996: Disappearing railroad blues
Animas-La Plata hits a wall in the House
An attempt last year in the House to halt funding for the Animas-La Plata dam project in southern Colorado failed by a miserable 151-275. This year, a second try slipped by 221-200. What changed the 75 or so Representatives’ minds? Election year, says Jeffrey Stier, spokesman for Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., who led the successful […]
Posted inJuly 22, 1996: Glen Canyon: Using a dam to heal a river
Santa Fe mayor’s friends now foes
When the Santa Fe activists who are organizing an overhaul of the town’s government discuss Mayor Debbie Jaramillo, they sound like initiates to a self-help group. “I spent 14 years of my life promoting her. It’s grossly sad and disappointing,” says activist Don Brayfield. “I worked with her for six years like a lapdog. I […]
Posted inJune 24, 1996: Catron County's politics heat up as its land goes bankrupt
Twenty-something takes Sierra Club’s helm
In the midst of moving its offices from San Francisco’s run-down Tenderloin district to the trendy South of Market district, the Sierra Club elected a new president, 23-year-old Adam Werbach. Werbach will be in charge of a network of 5,000 volunteers and the club’s professional staff. He is 24 years younger than the average member. […]
Posted inJune 24, 1996: Catron County's politics heat up as its land goes bankrupt
State lands: money isn’t everything
Pockets of land exist all over Colorado where locals hunt, hike, farm and ranch. They look like public land. But these 3 million acres of trust lands, established by the federal government in 1876, usually have one purpose – to make money for public schools. And increasingly, in these boom times, the state land board […]
Posted inJune 10, 1996: Outdoor Education
GOP moves to rein in its rebels
Two years ago, Barbara Cubin, a first-time candidate for the House of Representatives, stocked sporting goods stores across Wyoming with pamphlets describing her opposition to the “Clinton-Babbitt War on the West.” In Idaho, another first-time candidate, Helen Chenoweth, held a pretend endangered salmon bake to show her scorn for the Endangered Species Act. Now, as […]
Posted inJune 10, 1996: Outdoor Education
Learning from an inner-city garden
Ever since I was six years old, I’d thought outdoor education required yellow buses. Yellow buses say “the world is wide and curious – let me take you there.” They invite kids to climb onto their vinyl seats, throwing one last glance at parents, math homework and the mall. Then they roll through suburbia, past […]
Posted inMay 27, 1996: Utah ushers its frogs toward oblivion
Colorado Democrats ponder electability vs. purity
Tom Strickland and Gene Nichol are two 40-something former Texans who have used their law degrees to help the Sierra Club. They live 35 miles apart on Colorado’s Front Range, and they’re applying for the same job – Democratic replacement for retiring Republican Sen. Hank Brown. Most similarities end there. Strickland is a partner with […]
Posted inMay 13, 1996: Howdy, neighbor!
Mt. Graham telescope rides through Congress
The setting was as apocalyptic as a Gothic novel: While President Clinton was signing the bill April 26 approving the University of Arizona’s construction of a third telescope on Mount Graham, fire raced through the Coronado National Forest, up the base of the mountain, into red squirrel habitat and toward the two telescopes already pointed […]
Posted inMay 13, 1996: Howdy, neighbor!
The Northwest gets theatrical
Democratic candidates in the rural Northwest who want to moderate logging, mining and ranching usually don’t get too far. But recent miscues by some of their opponents could change the usual dynamic. Take, for example, Rep. Wes Cooley, R-Ore., who is best known for his bill to allow jet boats to blast through Hells Canyon, […]
Posted inMay 13, 1996: Howdy, neighbor!
Farm bill helps the land – sort of
For more than 60 years, farmers stopped by their local farm services agency each spring and signed their names to join the farm program. It felt like insurance: If the market prices for certain crops fell below a floor, the government would pay the difference. But security came at a price. The government told producers […]
Posted inApril 29, 1996: A park boss goes to bat for the land
A cautionary tale in Washington state
The GOP sweep in 1994 hit Washington state like a monsoon: In seven of nine districts, voters sent freshmen Republicans to the House of Representatives. But this year’s election presents a cautionary tale: If you won your last election by a razor-thin margin, perhaps you’d better not slavishly follow the GOP line on environmental issues. […]
Posted inApril 29, 1996: A park boss goes to bat for the land
Attempt at compromise leads to bloodbath
The Endangered Species Coalition, an umbrella group of over 100 organizations, just threw out one of its own. In mid-April, the Coalition booted the Environmental Defense Fund and severely reprimanded the Center for Marine Conservation and the World Wildlife Fund. Their offense? Some members of these groups had been holding secret meetings with industry leaders, […]
Posted inApril 15, 1996: Raising a ranch from the dead
Utah wilderness proposal rises and dies
The Utah wilderness bill is dead again, but not without a struggle. In mid-March, Alaska Republican Sen. Frank Murkowski sent the Utah delegation’s controversial plan opening 2 million acres of southern Utah to development on to the Senate as part of an omnibus parks bill. The bill linked wilderness designation of 1.2 million acres in […]