New resorts smell a lot like real estate bonanzas
Mark Matthews
Posted inJune 7, 2004: Wal-Mart's Manifest Destiny
I’ve tried, but I can’t eat the view
I’ve given up on one of the great American dreams — owning a home of my own. Why? Because it’s becoming impossible to find affordable housing in the West, even in the non-resort towns. It’s easy to tell that Missoula, Mont., is still a working-class town. Just check out the traffic on the tree-shaded lanes, […]
Posted inWotr
The Passion of the Christ in Butte, Montana
I won’t be going to see Mel Gibson’s movie, “The Passion of The Christ.” Not because of any religious controversy, it’s just that I’m not sado-masochistic by nature. Besides, nothing can match my imagination when it comes to terror. The most violent scene I’ve seen in any film is when Marlon Brando gets beaten to […]
Posted inWotr
I’ve tried, but I can’t eat the view
I’ve given up on one of the great American dreams — owning a home of my own. Why? Because it’s becoming impossible to find affordable housing in the West, even in the non-resort towns. It’s easy to tell Missoula, Mont., is still a working class town. Just check out the traffic on the tree-shaded lanes […]
Posted inNovember 10, 2003: San Diego's Habitat Triage
A grizzly attack that was bound to happen
One of the most egotistical notions humans have is that we can “commune” with unpredictable wild animals. News headlines over the last couple of weeks have revealed the depth of our folly. During Siegfried and Roy’s Las Vegas nightclub act, a tiger turned on trainer Roy Horn. Doctors say Roy remains in serious condition. And […]
Posted inOctober 27, 2003: The Gear Biz
Bill would redraw the boundaries of national monument
But some Montana ranchers want to stay where they are
Posted inWotr
A grizzly attack that was bound to happen
One of the most egotistical notions humans have is that we can “commune” with unpredictable wild animals. News headlines over the last couple of weeks have revealed the depth of our folly. During Siegfried and Roy’s Las Vegas nightclub act, a tiger turned on trainer Roy Horn. Doctors still don’t know if he will survive. […]
Posted inOctober 13, 2003: The Big Story Written Small
Return of the King
Scientists finally have the seed they need to restore the beleaguered white pine — now they need a place to plant it
Posted inSeptember 29, 2003: Harvesting Poison
Timber companies borrow a tool from environmentalists
Conservation easements help protect private forests — and keep logging jobs alive, too.
Posted inJuly 7, 2003: Invasion of the rock jocks
Back on the range?
A century ago, the federal government took the Salish and Kootenai tribes’ land and bison for a wildlife refuge. Now, the tribes want to take back control. MOIESE, montana — Here on the National Bison Range, 350 to 500 bison roam a lush, mountain-hemmed prairie, part of a rich community of wildlife that includes bighorn […]
Posted inJuly 7, 2003: Invasion of the rock jocks
Demolish the dam, sayeth the Lord
Champagne corks popped recently in the office of the Clark Fork Coalition, a Montana environmental group. On April 15, the Environmental Protection Agency sided with the Clark Fork River, calling for the removal of the Milltown Dam and its toxic reservoir, just east of Missoula. “We’re thrilled,” says Tracy Stone-Manning, director of the coalition. “This […]
Posted inWotr
Giving back the bison
In the 1870s, a Salish Indian brave named Walking Coyote led a handful of bison calves from the Great Plains westward to the home of his people in Montana’s Mission Valley. Some traditions say he did so because he saw that Europeans were hunting the beast to extinction. Bison proliferated in the lush valley, which […]
Posted inMay 26, 2003: A losing battle
Rising from the ashes
HUSON, Mont. — The early morning temperature has already reached the 80s, as our six-person Forest Service silviculture crew starts up a steep ridge, our tools stuffed into the pockets of our orange vests. We carry clinometers for measuring the steepness of the slopes, compasses and maps for finding our way, and logger’s tapes for […]
Posted inMay 12, 2003: Planting time
Planting time
The native-seed business is blooming, but can a restoration economy take root in the West?
Posted inMay 12, 2003: Planting time
On Black Mesa, the natives make a comeback
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Planting time.” BLACK MESA, Navajo Nation — On a sterling, sunny spring day, a 14-story-tall machine chews gaping holes in the Navajo Nation tribal homeland. The Marion 8750 dragline weighs 9.8 million pounds, supports a 300-foot boom and operates a bucket that removes 200 […]
Posted inMarch 3, 2003: The Wild Card
Grasslands take a step toward nature
Efforts to restore an ecosystem are bold but controversial
Posted inFebruary 3, 2003: The death of the Super Hopper
A green light for methane development
A green light for methane development The latest plans for drilling up to 65,000 new coalbed methane wells in the Powder River Basin could leave the landscape pockmarked by 4,000 ponds that would eventually dry up into salt-encrusted pits. That’s the word from local environmentalists and ranchers who are facing off with a half-dozen energy […]
Posted inWotr
Public servants may go the way of the dodo
President Bush wants to privatize 425,000 federal jobs, one-quarter of the nation’s positions that are product or service-oriented in nature. Workers who exercise discretion, set policies and budgets, or perform other duties that are “inherently governmental” are immune from the process, for the time being. Does this sound good for private enterprise? Sure, for some […]
Posted inDecember 9, 2002: Life in the wasteland
The push is on to privatize federal jobs
Thousands of park and forest jobs could go to private contractors
Posted inDecember 9, 2002: Life in the wasteland
Outside the agency, it’s a cold, cruel world
Note: in the print edition of this issue, this article appears as a sidebar to another news article, “The push is on to privatize federal jobs.” Displaced federal workers will likely enter a brave new world when they step outside their agencies. The life of a contract forest crew, for example, is a far cry […]