The Bureau of Land Management is doing its part for national energy security. In mid-April, the agency announced its new policy for approving oil and gas permits. Now, the BLM will simultaneously process multiple permits with similar characteristics, instead of evaluating and providing environmental analysis for each one (HCN, 4/14/03: Grass roots prevail in ANWR […]
Laura Paskus
Posted inApril 28, 2003: Indian Power
Perchlorate: It’s not just for rocket fuel anymore
Note: in the print edition of this issue, this article appears as a sidebar to another news article, “Cold War toxin seeps into Western water.” Ammonium perchlorate shows up in hundreds of military munitions, from signal smoke (orange, green, violet and beyond) to hand grenades and anti-tank rockets, and on military bases from California to […]
Posted inApril 14, 2003: Change comes slowly to Escalante county
The Latest Bounce
Rep. “Butch” Otter, R-Idaho, and 17 Republican co-sponsors have introduced the “American Wilderness Protection Act.” Under the act, all wilderness study areas would lose protection as wilderness either immediately, as determined by the secretary of the Interior or secretary of Agriculture, or within 10 years of the act’s passage (HCN, 3/3/03: The Wild Card). Taxpayers […]
Posted inApril 14, 2003: Change comes slowly to Escalante county
Grass roots prevail in ANWR and Wyoming
Conservationists chalk up two big victories — but they’re bracing for a long war
Posted inMarch 31, 2003: Tinkering with Nature
While the nation goes to war, the Pentagon lobs bombs at environmental laws
The first time I saw the movie Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, Stanley Kubrick’s satirical depiction of Cold War America, I was too young to fully understand it. I watched it a second time while in college during the Clinton years, and found the flick brilliant, even […]
Posted inMarch 17, 2003: Bracing against the tide
The Latest Bounce
The money’s still rolling in to protect 97,000 acres of Colorado’s San Luis Valley. After The Nature Conservancy negotiated a $31.28 million price tag for the Baca Ranch last year, the federal government kicked in $10.5 million (HCN, 2/18/02: Dunes shifts toward park status). Now, Congress has pledged $12 million from the Land and Water […]
Posted inMarch 17, 2003: Bracing against the tide
White House record on rollbacks
It’s undoubtedly grim reading. But it should be required for every conservationist — Democrat, Green, Republican or Independent. The Natural Resources Defense Council has just released its review of the Bush administration’s 2002 record on the environment. In Rewriting the Rules: The Bush Administration’s Assault on the Environment, the council details more than 100 federal […]
Posted inMarch 3, 2003: The Wild Card
The Latest Bounce
New Mexico will continue to uphold two of its oldest — and bloodiest — traditions. State Sen. Steve Komadina, R-Corrales, introduced a bill earlier this year that would have outlawed cockfighting and dogfighting. But the state’s Senate Conservation Committee rejected the bill, upholding New Mexico’s standing as one of only two states in the nation […]
Posted inFebruary 17, 2003: Wyoming at a crossroads
The Latest Bounce
Interior Secretary Gale Norton has announced that 70 percent of full-time National Park Service jobs may be farmed out to the private sector — up from the 10 percent predicted last year (HCN, 12/9/02: The push is on to privatize federal jobs). The Interior Department paid CH2MHill, a private company, $5 million to design a […]
Posted inFebruary 17, 2003: Wyoming at a crossroads
Memories of a native river
The Columbia River today is tamed: Dams regulate water for farms and generate electricity. Rapids are a thing of the past. The wild salmon still left in the river have to be barged upstream to spawn. But, if you flip the pages of William D. Layman’s coffee-table book, Native River, and allow yourself to be […]
Posted inFebruary 3, 2003: The death of the Super Hopper
The Latest Bounce
Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve may soon see a fleet of new oil rigs (HCN, 1/20/03: Refuge back in the crosshairs). The Bureau of Land Management has just released its draft environmental impact statement for drilling in the reserve. Depending on which alternative the agency chooses, anywhere from 4.1 million to 8.8 million acres will be […]
Posted inJanuary 20, 2003: A breath of fresh air
The Latest Bounce
On New Year’s Eve, U.S. District Judge Christina Armijo ruled in favor of the Santa Fe, N.M.-based Forest Guardians and concluded that the Forest Service violated federal environmental laws when it neglected to study the long-term effects of grazing on the 25,000-acre Copper Creek allotment in the Gila National Forest. Though the cattle can stay […]
Posted inJanuary 20, 2003: A breath of fresh air
84-year-old bird law no match for the military
The United States has once again declared itself to be above international law — this time, a law aimed at protecting birds. Last April, a federal judge ordered all branches of the military to comply with the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act, a law that protects 850 species of birds through agreements with Mexico, Canada, […]
Posted inJanuary 20, 2003: A breath of fresh air
Tug-of-war continues over ancient bones
Kennewick Man case undermines federal authority to decide who gets to dig
Posted inJanuary 20, 2003: A breath of fresh air
One law, two bodies, two different decisions
Note: in the print edition of this issue, this article appears as a sidebar to another news article, “Tug-of-war continues over ancient bones.” Four years after the controversy over “Kennewick Man” first surfaced, the Bureau of Land Management in Nevada decided the fate of another ancient skeleton. In 1940, archaeologists found “Spirit Cave Man,” near […]
Posted inDecember 23, 2002: In search of the Glory Days
The Latest Bounce
Cattle rustling is still a problem in the Four Corners, according to the New Mexico Livestock Board. The board has proposed a joint-powers agreement between the Navajo Nation and New Mexico that would prosecute thieves on the 17 million-acre reservation, where stolen cattle are often hidden and then sold on the black market (HCN, 8/19/02: […]
Posted inDecember 9, 2002: Life in the wasteland
Election Bounce
Ranchers will continue to be forced to pay $1 per cow to corporate beef marketers. In early November, U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull in Billings, Mont., ruled against Montana ranchers Steve and Jeanne Charter and upheld the constitutionality of the “beef checkoff” rule (HCN, 9/30/02: Independent ranchers fight corporate control). It’s another victory for the […]
Posted inDecember 9, 2002: Life in the wasteland
Brownfields program makes cleanup profitable
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. While Congress and President Bush allow the Superfund cleanup program to bleed out, they’re pumping money into a related program called “Brownfields.” In January, President Bush approved $250 million for Brownfields, and is now asking Congress to double the program’s funding over the next […]
Posted inNovember 25, 2002: Planning's poster child grows up
Election Bounce
Most green initiatives and proposals across the West failed at the ballot box Nov. 5. Oregon voters rejected a measure that would have required the labeling of genetically engineered foods; Montanans won’t be buying back any private hydroelectric dams (HCN, 10/14/02: Montanans may take back their dams); and in Utah, both the Radioactive Waste Restrictions […]
Posted inNovember 11, 2002: Behind the gate
The Latest Bounce
National Marine Fisheries Service biologist Michael Kelly blew the whistle in late October on the agency’s failure to protect salmon in the Klamath River (HCN, 10/28/02: The message of 30,000 dead salmon). According to Kelly, in April 2002, the Fisheries Service repeatedly changed its biological opinion – ultimately lowering river-flow recommendations by nearly one-half – […]