During the late ’90s, dozens of activists camped out in the treetops of Northern California’s Headwaters Forest, protesting clear-cutting by Pacific Lumber. Their months – and even years – above the ground didn’t save the entire forest, but they managed to protect a few of the oldest groves. The tree-sits also drew intense media attention […]
Mason Adams
Posted inFebruary 18, 2002: Here lies the Rio Grande
Condor program laden with lead
Carcass-feeding condors dying from bullets
Posted inDecember 17, 2001: Bad moon rising
Show me the water
CALIFORNIA The California state assembly says developers must prove they have water rights before they receive final approval for their subdivisions. State legislators have debated a water-rights mandate for nearly a decade; it took the state’s electricity crisis (HCN, 1/29/01: Power on the loose), which raised the specter of natural resource shortages, to push Senate […]
Posted inDecember 3, 2001: Closing the wounds
Go west, fruit picker
WASHINGTON For years, migrant workers have flocked to eastern Washington to pick apples in the fall (HCN, 12/18/00: Troubled harvest). But with a jump in global competition, apple orchards have streamlined their operations to save costs, eliminating jobs in the process. This season, a late hailstorm wiped out nearly 30 percent of the apple crop […]
Posted inNovember 19, 2001: Bringing back the bosque
Will the circle be broken?
WASHINGTON Washington may log land formerly set aside for the endangered northern spotted owl. In 1997, the state implemented a Habitat Conservation Plan, which allowed the state to log some owl territories if it set aside other land for habitat. As an extra layer of protection, then-Department of Natural Resources Public Lands Commissioner Jennifer Belcher […]
Posted inNovember 5, 2001: Wyoming's powder keg
Ferrets weasel onto public lands
MONTANA The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has found that successful reintroduction of the black-footed ferret is nearly as rare and elusive as the weasel-like predators themselves. So when the Bureau of Land Management asked the agency this summer for an allotment of ferrets for release in less than ideal habitat, it ranked the request […]
Posted inOctober 22, 2001: Healing the Gila
Pygmy owls lose one in court
ARIZONA Since the federal government listed the cactus ferruginous pygmy owl as endangered in 1997, it has been a point of conflict between developers and slow-growth advocates in Tucson (HCN, 8/30/99: A pocket-sized bird takes on Sunbelt subdivisions). Now, a federal district judge has removed some federal protections for the tiny owl’s habitat. In July […]
Posted inOctober 22, 2001: Healing the Gila
Good Neighbor Handbook
Has your once-peaceful town been overrun by trophy homes, off-leash dogs and transplanted neighbors that just don’t seem to care? In eastern Washington, the Methow Conservancy is taking steps to prevent these sorts of unintended excesses. They’ve published the Good Neighbor Handbook: A Guide for Landowners in the Methow Valley. Authored by former HCN intern […]
Posted inOctober 8, 2001: Whoa! Canada!
Coho salmon lose federal protection
OREGON For years, scientists have argued over the differences between hatchery and wild salmon (HCN, 10/9/00: Killing salmon to save the species). When it listed the coho salmon as endangered, the National Marine Fisheries Service included only wild fish, drawing a line between hatchery and wild populations. In fall 1999, the Pacific Legal Foundation, a […]
Posted inOctober 8, 2001: Whoa! Canada!
Army Corps wavers on management plan
MISSOURI RIVER BASIN The release of an environmental impact statement on the operation of six dams along the Missouri River has resparked a 12-year-old debate on how to best use the waterway. During the late 1980s, a long drought created hard times for fish and farmers, prompting the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to re-evaluate […]