Environmental groups have put the squeeze on off-road vehicle enthusiasts in eastern Idaho’s Targhee National Forest. On Jan. 15, the Forest Service abandoned its policy of allowing snowmobiles, motorbikes or cars access to every part of the forest, on or off road. The decision is a part of the agency’s Targhee Travel Plan, which includes […]
Jason Lenderman
Posted inFebruary 16, 1998: Private rights vs. public lands
No, ma’am, this isn’t Mississippi
When people think of catfish, they’re more likely to imagine roadside cooking shacks in Mississippi than desert streams. But that could change now that the native Yaqui catfish has been restored to Arizona. In October, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released 350 of the blue-gray fish in the San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge near […]
Posted inFebruary 16, 1998: Private rights vs. public lands
Intel Corp. denied desert water rights
Money can’t always buy water, even in cash-poor New Mexico. Intel Corp., the world’s largest computer chip manufacturer, has lost a $1.5 million bid to buy water rights from southern New Mexican farmers near rural Socorro. The company’s 1994 water-use permit requires that it buy water rights, then retire them to offset 4 million gallons […]
Posted inFebruary 16, 1998: Private rights vs. public lands
From orchards to Philadelphia
Utahns who live in the booming Salt Lake City area need to manage growth now, says Baseline Scenario, a study by the nonprofit Utah Quality Growth Partnership. The partnership is a coalition of government, civic and business leaders concerned about urban sprawl in a 10-county area, including Salt Lake City. In the 1960s and “70s, […]
Posted inFebruary 16, 1998: Private rights vs. public lands
Scat dogs earn their keep
Moja and Molly aren’t ordinary Labrador retrievers – they earn their keep by locating animal scat for senior scientist Sam Wasser of the Center for Wildlife Conservation in Seattle, Wash. “This is going to completely revolutionize the science of animal monitoring,” Wasser said. Wasser has trained the dogs to sniff out bear and wolf droppings […]
Posted inFebruary 2, 1998: Looking at dams in a new way
A tiny tribe wins big on clean water
ISLETA, N.M. – A recent Supreme Court decision reaffirms a 2,500-member tribe’s right to tell the city of Albuquerque what it can and cannot dump into the Rio Grande River. The Isleta Pueblo sits six miles downstream from where Albuquerque dumps 55 million gallons of wastewater each day. Sewage from the city’s 450,000 residents makes […]
Posted inJanuary 19, 1998: After the gold rush
State fights nuclear waste shipments
In a measure environmental groups say will put 50 million Americans at risk of radiation exposure, Congress recently authorized storage of 50,000 tons of nuclear waste at the Nevada Test Site. Opponent Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., dubbed the bill “Mobile Chernobyl,” because it funds the transportation of spent nuclear fuel rods from power plants in […]
Posted inDecember 22, 1997: Gold Rush: Mining seeks to tighten its grip on the 'last, best place'
A rural county says no to pork
GUNNISON, Colo. – On a brilliant fall day in central Colorado, Federal Highway Administration engineer Mark Taylor offered Gunnison County commissioners $38 million. The money would pay to reroute, widen and pave the road connecting the small town of Buena Vista, pop. 2,141, to the even smaller town of Almont, pop. 300. The 35-mile road […]
Posted inDecember 8, 1997: Mono Lake: Victory over Los Angeles turns into local controversy
Is the Park Service too timid?
When Washington’s Mount Rainier blew its top 5,600 years ago, a massive mud flow buried much of the Puget Sound under hundreds of feet of mud and rock. Today, smaller mudslides from the volcano, called one of the world’s most dangerous, threaten Mount Rainier National Park. In the past decade, slides have destroyed a bridge […]
Posted inNovember 24, 1997: Restoring a refuge: Cows depart, but can antelope recover?
A ranch rescued
The Nature Conservancy of Utah is spending $4.6 million to save a working ranch from developers. The Dugout Ranch near Canyonlands National Park is now safely in conservancy hands since owner Heidi Redd and conservancy officials closed a deal Oct. 15. “I couldn’t be happier,” said a relieved Redd. “The Nature Conservancy has bent over […]
Posted inNovember 24, 1997: Restoring a refuge: Cows depart, but can antelope recover?
Tribes create a wilderness park
Buying back part of their original homeland, 11 tribes in California have established the first Native American-owned park, located 200 miles north of San Francisco along the California coast. The 3,900-acre InterTribal Sinkyone (pronounced sinky-own) Wilderness Park will be managed differently than Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon, however, because the tribes, including descendants of the […]
Posted inOctober 27, 1997: Deconstructing the age of dams
Activists wade through mudslides
Idaho environmentalists say that while the Senate debated cutting subsidies for logging in September, the Forest Service withheld politically damaging evidence that logging on steep slopes harms forests and native fish. After heavy rains triggered 905 massive mudslides during the winter of 1995-96 on the Clearwater National Forest in central Idaho, agency officials ordered an […]
Posted inOctober 27, 1997: Deconstructing the age of dams
Big trees fall in contested sale
Big ponderosa pine trees came crashing down Sept. 30 near Ojo Caliente, N.M., after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco denied yet another attempt by the environmental group Forest Guardians to stop part of the La Manga timber sale. “This is the last 3 percent of the forest that has old-growth […]
Posted inOctober 27, 1997: Deconstructing the age of dams
Burning down the woods
An Arizona timber company that accidentally burned 8,000 acres on the Coconino National Forest last year will be allowed to bid on a salvage timber sale in the burned area. The fire began in May 1996, in a smoldering slash pile left by Stone Forest Industries. The fire burned 8,000 acres north of Flagstaff and […]
Posted inSeptember 29, 1997: The timber wars evolve into a divisive attempt at peace
Just charge it
Only 50 or so electric cars are on Arizona’s roads, but the Tucson Electric Power Company has opened eight free charge-up stations in the city. General Motors says it chose Tucson, Phoenix, San Diego and Los Angeles as test markets because the cars perform better on flat terrain and in a warm climate. The EV-1, […]