MONTANA Hundreds of logging trucks and busloads of protesters circled downtown Missoula, Mont., June 21 to rail against the Forest Service’s proposal to protect 43 million acres of its roadless forests. About 2,000 people from all corners of western Montana joined a barbecue and rally sponsored by the timber and off-road-vehicle industries. Loggers and millworkers […]
Mark Matthews
Posted inJune 19, 2000: Accidental refuge: Should we save the Salton Sea?
Babbitt’s monument tour blazes on
Al Gore announces four new national monuments, while Republicans fight back
Posted inMay 8, 2000: After the fall
The Clark Fork unplugged
MONTANA On Montana’s Clark Fork River, pressure is mounting to demolish a dam. The Milltown dam sits seven miles upstream from Missoula, where the Blackfoot River and the Clark Fork meet. For years, it has acted as a plug, holding back 6.5 million cubic yards of sediment contaminated with arsenic and heavy metals washed away […]
Posted inMay 8, 2000: After the fall
Wanted: experienced firefighters
The Forest Service discovers it’s hard to find good help
Posted inApril 10, 2000: Beyond the Revolution
Reclaiming a golden landscape
MONTANA A court-ordered cleanup plan for the Golden Sunlight Mine in western Montana marks the beginning of a golden era of mine reclamation, say local environmentalists. “For the first time since the West was opened by miners, people have stood up and told the mining industry that they can’t leave a ravaged landscape when a […]
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
Libby’s dark secret
For decades, mine dust has been killing people in Libby, Montana. Why didn’t anyone do anything about it?
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
Who knew what, and when?
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. W.R. Grace maintains it has always been frank about the dangers of asbestos. Former workers and union leaders disagree. They say Grace didn’t come clean with its workers until 1979, 16 years after it bought the mine. Earl Lovick, who managed the Libby mine […]
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
‘It’s like sacking feather’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Former Grace worker Lester Skramstad is slowly dying from asbestos-related diseases. His wife and two children, now in their 40s, have also contracted asbestosis. The following is taken from his testimony in court. Lester Skramstad: “We built a screen, jig sort of a situation, […]
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
‘Grace is going to have to own up’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Don Judge is executive secretary of the Montana State AFL-CIO in Helena. Don Judge: “For many years, neither the union nor the workers knew that the dust had asbestos in it, but we asked the company to clean it up. In 1964, the union […]
Posted inFebruary 14, 2000: Land of the fee
Working class can’t foot the bill
For some, it’s a choice between recreation and a new pair of school shoes
Posted inJanuary 17, 2000: STOP
The swift fox comes home
Visitors to the rolling grasslands of Montana’s Blackfeet Indian Reservation may wonder what animal is making a chirping sound. It sounds like a bird, but it’s the mating call of the swift fox. The long-legged, long-eared and bushy-tailed animals were once common on the range, eating grasshoppers and Richardson’s ground squirrels. Lewis and Clark first […]
Posted inJanuary 17, 2000: STOP
Experiment takes the cut out of logging
COLUMBIA FALLS, Mont. – Surrounded by mountain forests that stretch 80 miles north to the Canadian border and 120 miles east to the Great Plains, this town grew from the seeds of logging. And in contrast to neighboring communities like Whitefish, which now depend on tourism generated by Glacier National Park, Columbia Falls remains a […]
Posted inSeptember 13, 1999: Troubled Oasis
Bear spray manufacturers get a hit of reality
MISSOULA, Mont. – One summer night in 1977, Bill Pounds awoke to chewing and grunting sounds outside his tent. The disabled Vietnam vet had set up camp near Hungry Horse Reservoir in northwestern Montana. “Coming from Arkansas, I thought it was a wild hog,” he says. Then he remembered that there are no wild hogs […]
Posted inSeptember 13, 1999: Troubled Oasis
A spray can is no substitute for smarts
Note: in the print edition of this issue, this article appears as a sidebar to another news article, “Bear spray manufacturers get a hit of reality.” Even if armed with an effective bear spray, backcountry users should not let down their guard, says Gary Moses, bear specialist at Glacier National Park. Grizzly attacks are infrequent, […]
Posted inAugust 16, 1999: Standing up for the underdog
Facts about prairie dogs
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Prairie dogs come in five types: Utah, Gunnison, Mexican, white-tailed and black-tailed. The Utah prairie dog is listed as a threatened species and the Mexican is listed as endangered. Prairie dogs are active during the day, but only if the sun is out. Socially, […]
Posted inAugust 16, 1999: Standing up for the underdog
Prairie dogs found in pet stores and pounds
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. “So this is where prairie dogs live.” That was the first thought in Rebecca Fischer’s mind as she drove up to a flourishing 300-acre dog town not far from the Marias River outside Shelby, Mont. Although she hadn’t seen a dog town since she […]
Posted inAugust 16, 1999: Standing up for the underdog
Craig Knowles, scientist caught in the middle
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Stoic is the word that might best describe Montana biologist Craig Knowles. If he were a university professor, some students might pan him as boring. But the students who went on to become experts themselves might dedicate their first book to him. Wearing blue […]
Posted inAugust 16, 1999: Standing up for the underdog
Shooting: It’s not a hunt per se
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. The man in the baseball cap sits in a chair at a table, a high-powered rifle in hand. “Right there, he’s standing straight up right in front of you,” says his companion. “Get him.” “I got him,” says Randy. Boom! The rifle sounds, and […]
Posted inAugust 16, 1999: Standing up for the underdog
One grassland grows prairie dogs
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. The sage-dotted prairie of Thunder Basin National Grassland in eastern Wyoming is alive with wildlife. Coyotes skulk in the draws while antelope outrun approaching vehicles across the flats. On slight knolls, ferruginous hawks and golden eagles are often seen at rest. In the overgrazed […]
Posted inAugust 16, 1999: Standing up for the underdog
Do prairie dogs steal grass?
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Over the past century, conventional wisdom has said prairie dogs compete with cattle for grass and dig holes that can break the legs of unwitting livestock. Maybe stampeding cattle injured themselves during long cattle drives of the 1880s, but not many ranchers say it […]