Open your paper in the next few weeks, and you might see this headline: “Bush budget cuts end 911 coverage for Yosemite.” The story underneath says an official review of the National Park Service by a government agency found that budget cuts and staff vacancies at Yosemite National Park mean that visitors in life-threatening emergencies […]
Lynn Scarlett
Posted inMarch 15, 2004: The New Water Czars
User fees help land managers
Recently, High Country News published an article critical of the Recreational Fee Demonstration Program (HCN, 1/19/04). The article overlooks program benefits and neglects key improvements that address problems that surfaced in the early years of the program. Since 1985, recreation demand has increased approximately 65 percent on BLM lands and 80 percent at national wildlife […]
Posted inJanuary 19, 2004: Two decades of hard work, plowed under
Interior supports collaboration
In “Riding the middle path,” (HCN, 12/8/03: Riding the middle path) High Country News explores the efforts of Owyhee County citizens to achieve consensus on how to manage thousands of acres of public lands. The article rightly points out that this effort is an arduous one, as folks with widely varying interests, dreams, and backgrounds […]
Posted inWotr
In New Mexico, Sid Goodloe sets an example for the federal government
Sid Goodloe grows grass. Lots of it. His ranch near the village of Capitan is a green oasis in a southern New Mexico desert seared by drought. It’s not that his land isn’t hurting. Ponds and creeks are drying, and hip-high grasses now reach only to the knee. Still, his ranch has some water and […]