While most how-to forestry guides are tailored for Eastern landowners, former HCN intern Bryan Foster has brought the issue west in his new book, Wild Logging. Foster introduces readers to Western landowners, foresters and loggers, describing the physical work of marking timber sales, cutting trees, performing prescribed burns and removing felled timber. As he tells […]
Joshua Zaffos
Posted inJuly 7, 2003: Invasion of the rock jocks
Report brandishes cold facts about U.S. energy
A new report by the Rocky Mountain Institute suggests that we wean ourselves from foreign oil, not by drilling in Alaska or the Rocky Mountains, but by using less of it. Titled U.S. Energy Security Facts, the report says energy efficiency saved Americans about $365 billion in 2000. Those savings are our nation’s biggest and […]
Posted inJuly 7, 2003: Invasion of the rock jocks
Reinstating the heir to the Truckee River
A mammoth trout, thought to be extinct, could live again in a Nevada river
Posted inJuly 7, 2003: Invasion of the rock jocks
A ravaged river gets a new life
Note: in the print edition of this issue, this article appears as a sidebar to another news article, “Reinstating the heir to the Truckee River.” Twenty miles east of Reno on the McCarran Ranch, downstream from the famed Mustang Ranch brothel, there’s a 75-foot wide, meandering — and bone-dry — riverbed. Less than 200 feet […]
Posted inJune 9, 2003: How we see the West
A dirty use for Clean Water Act money?
Watershed managers in northern New Mexico are mounting a pre-emptive strike this spring with a forest-thinning project that aims to reduce wildfire risk. In February, the Forest Service began a thinning project in the Santa Fe National Forest, which surrounds the city’s municipal water supply. The Santa Fe Watershed Association, a local grassroots group, secured […]
Posted inJune 9, 2003: How we see the West
Tribes recognized at Little Bighorn
This summer, the National Park Service will finally acknowledge a missing chapter of history at the Little Bighorn National Monument. On June 25, the 127th anniversary of Custer’s Last Stand, the Park Service will unveil “Peace Through Unity” — a memorial to the American Indians who defeated General George Custer in battle in eastern Montana. […]
Posted inWotr
Who needs Superfund when we’ve got reality TV?
By the end of the year, only $28 million will be left in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund account. Superfund pays for the reclamation of abandoned toxic waste sites, and $28 million barely affords a study just to figure out how to clean up one of the 1,200 deserted dumps wasting away in American […]
Posted inApril 28, 2003: Indian Power
Roadkill 101
“Don’t touch that!” is what most kids hear when they investigate dead animals. But in Hayden, Colo., elementary school teachers are encouraging students – armed with maps and global positioning systems – to go in search of roadkill. Second- and fourth-grade students at Hayden Valley Elementary School have produced a map of roadkill patterns along […]
Posted inApril 14, 2003: Change comes slowly to Escalante county
Off-roaders steer agencies with dollars
A proposal for an off-road vehicle (ORV) trail in central Idaho is kicking up dust. The Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation wants to link 460 miles of existing routes already open to ORVs on federal lands. The agency says the loop trail, which would run through the Lost River Valley and the towns of […]
Posted inMarch 31, 2003: Tinkering with Nature
On the WaterWatch
Oregon’s rivers may run dry again this summer, but you can still saturate yourself with information about your favorite Beaver State stream. That’s because WaterWatch of Oregon has restructured its Web site to serve as a clearinghouse on state rivers. WaterWatch of Oregon, a nonprofit conservation group founded in 1985, is dedicated to restoring and […]
Posted inMarch 31, 2003: Tinkering with Nature
The hunt is on for a mystery killer
Leukemia cluster has Nevada town thirsty for answers
Posted inMarch 17, 2003: Bracing against the tide
Tangled up in blue
“It has been rightly said: Color is the first principle of place.” A quick look across any desert reveals a lack of watery blues and leafy greens. But Ellen Meloy fills that void in her memoir, The Anthropology of Turquoise. She uses turquoise — the color and the mineral — to explore desert geology, flora […]
Posted inFebruary 17, 2003: Wyoming at a crossroads
Born to be winter wild
For years, the only national organization representing winter recreation required members to embrace the two-stroke engine. But two years ago, a group of backcountry winter-recreation groups in California, Colorado, Idaho and Nevada united to create the Winter Wildlands Alliance to work for “human-powered” winter recreation on public lands. Today, the Boise, Idaho-based Alliance serves as […]
Posted inJanuary 20, 2003: A breath of fresh air
Refuge back in the crosshairs
Republican victories in the midterm elections could mean it’s open season on Alaska’s energy reserves. President Bush targeted the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska for oil and gas development in his 2001 national energy plan. But legislation authorizing exploration and development in ANWR failed to pass the divided […]
Posted inJanuary 20, 2003: A breath of fresh air
Wilderness proposal or political ploy?
Rep. Scott McInnis, R-Colo., surprised Congress and environmentalists in November when he introduced legislation to designate 49,800 acres of land in northwestern Colorado as the Red Table Mountain Wilderness. The bill included provisions for motorized recreation trails, helicopter training by the Colorado National Guard, and guaranteed water rights for the nearby town of Gypsum. Richard […]
Posted inDecember 23, 2002: In search of the Glory Days
How to go with the flow
In 1996 and 1997, the Yellowstone River in Montana surged forth in back-to-back, record-breaking floods that caused millions of dollars in damage (HCN, 3/27/00: The last wild river). Floodplain landowners scrambled to secure their property in an epidemic of bank-stabilization measures. But many river scientists believe that stabilization measures actually exacerbate floods, and can accelerate […]
Posted inDecember 23, 2002: In search of the Glory Days
Catch 22
NAVAJO DAM, N.M. – It’s a Thursday morning in October, and I count 58 vehicles in the parking lot next to the “Texas Hole” of the San Juan River. A mile or so downstream of the 402-foot high dam, this stretch of water is named for the Texans who used to fish for trout here […]
Posted inDecember 9, 2002: Life in the wasteland
Klamath water worth more in river
Klamath water worth more in river
Posted inDecember 9, 2002: Life in the wasteland
Fish and wildlife have rights, too
Fish and wildlife have rights, too
Posted inNovember 25, 2002: Planning's poster child grows up
Clinton-era monuments weather court challenge
A federal court has ruled that former President Clinton did, in fact, have the authority to create national monuments in four Western states. The Blue Ribbon Coalition, an off-road vehicle users group, and the Mountain States Legal Foundation had opposed the designation of six monuments in Arizona, Colorado, Oregon and Washington. National monument designation limits […]