Nineteen populations of steelhead and salmon have had their critical habitat designations formally yanked (HCN, 4/15/02: Habitat protection takes a critical list). On April 30, a federal district judge approved a settlement to a lawsuit by the National Association of Home Builders that requires the National Marine Fisheries Service to conduct new critical habitat analyses […]
Matt Jenkins
Posted inMay 13, 2002: Beyond ecology: Restoring a cultural landscape
The Latest Bounce
Mounting criticism of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ creative cost-benefit analysis has prompted the agency to put 150 projects, such as harbor deepening and beach restoration, on hold. The soundness of the Corps’ criteria for evaluating projects has been questioned by the General Accounting Office and in a recent series in The Oregonian (see […]
Posted inMay 13, 2002: Beyond ecology: Restoring a cultural landscape
Property rights reined in
Urban planning and environmental protection got a shot in the arm on April 23, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that property owners at Lake Tahoe are not entitled to government compensation for a moratorium that prevented them from building on their land (HCN, 2/18/02). Following a series of Supreme Court decisions that bolstered […]
Posted inApril 29, 2002: The Great Salt Lake Mystery
Suburbanites compete for the lake’s freshwater
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Great Salt Lake’s fate largely turns on three rivers that flow out of the Wasatch and Uinta mountains. But as population booms along the Wasatch Front and water-use rates remain among the highest in the nation, development pressure is mounting on the Bear, Weber […]
Posted inApril 15, 2002: Raising a stink
The Latest Bounce
The U.S. Forest Service revoked its approval of the Rock Creek Mine in Montana’s Cabinet Mountains Wilderness – at least temporarily (HCN, 2/18/02: Battle brews over a wilderness mother lode). The agency’s decision came a day after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, facing a lawsuit and intense criticism from local activists, withdrew a biological […]
Posted inApril 1, 2002: Move over! Will snowmobile tourism relax its grip on a gateway town?
The Latest Bounce
The country’s next nuclear power plant may be built in Idaho. The Department of Energy’s “Nuclear Power 2010” initiative aims to get a new plant built somewhere in the U.S. by the end of the decade. One of three DOE sites under consideration is the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL), which a year […]
Posted inApril 1, 2002: Move over! Will snowmobile tourism relax its grip on a gateway town?
Drought pinches Colorado River reservoirs
California’s ‘surplus’ water not in jeopardy, yet
Posted inMarch 18, 2002: How I lost my town
Cactus Ed revisited
In the West, few names elicit as much veneration or revilement as that of Edward Abbey. But those of us who weren’t around during Abbey’s heyday, or never got to meet him, can only turn to books. Thirteen years after Abbey’s death, two new books add depth to the story of Cactus Ed. James Cahalan’s […]
Posted inMarch 18, 2002: How I lost my town
Can ‘charter forests’ remake an agency?
Experimental program seeks a cure for Forest Service analysis paralysis
Posted inMarch 18, 2002: How I lost my town
A dusty lake is plumbed halfway back to life
The dry bed of Owens Lake has a primal, wind-wracked sort of gestalt. With the Sierra crest towering almost 11,000 feet to the west and the blazing eye of the sun high overhead, it’s easy to believe you’re standing on the salt-rimmed edge of the sky. Owens Lake hasn’t actually been a lake for three-quarters […]
Posted inMarch 4, 2002: Seed in the ground
The Latest Bounce
President Bush officially approved the high-level radioactive waste dump at Yucca Mountain on Feb. 15 (HCN, 2/4/02: Yucca Mountain debate goes nuclear). Later the same day, Nevada filed a lawsuit – its fifth – alleging that the energy department’s reliance on man-made barriers, rather than Yucca Mountain’s natural geology, to contain radioactivity violates the Nuclear […]
Posted inFebruary 18, 2002: Here lies the Rio Grande
Groundswell for a monument?
UTAH After President Clinton used the Antiquities Act to establish Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in 1996, Gov. Mike Leavitt railed against the move as an abuse of executive power. But during his State of the State address this Jan. 28, Leavitt asked President Bush for something that made environmentalists’ jaws hit the floor: a 620,000-acre […]
Posted inFebruary 18, 2002: Here lies the Rio Grande
The Latest Bounce
All sides are hailing the negotiated settlement of a lawsuit challenging the Forest Service’s salvage logging plan for Montana’s burned Bitterroot National Forest (HCN, 1/21/02: Judge puts kibosh on logging plan). On Feb. 7, environmental groups, the logging industry and Bush administration officials announced a revised plan that removes 27,000 acres of sensitive roadless lands […]
Posted inFebruary 18, 2002: Here lies the Rio Grande
Battle brews over a wilderness mother lode
Activists say Montana’s Rock Creek Mine would harm grizzly, bull trout and clean water
Posted inFebruary 4, 2002: Last dance for the sage grouse?
The Latest Bounce
Utah’s Skull Valley nuclear storage site is moving forward (HCN, 11/19/01: Nuclear storage site splinters Goshutes). In early January, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a final environmental impact statement that moves the project one step closer to reality. The NRC will hold hearings in April, the same month that a federal judge will hear a […]
Posted inFebruary 4, 2002: Last dance for the sage grouse?
Grand Canyon plan relaunched
ARIZONA The Grand Canyon stretch of the Colorado River has become an ideological and regulatory war zone, as debates rage over the use of motorized boats, and private and commercial boaters fight for their share of the river-permit pie. In 1997, the Park Service tried to chart the future of the Colorado by starting work […]
Posted inJanuary 21, 2002: Finding the words
Unranchers gain ground
ARIZONA The Arizona Supreme Court has cleared another hurdle from the path of conservation groups that want to lease state grazing land and return it to pre-grazing conditions. On Nov. 21, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled 4-1 that the state land department can’t deny conservation groups the right to bid on state grazing leases. The […]
Posted inJanuary 21, 2002: Finding the words
The Latest Bounce
Two influential Utahns are on the move. On Jan. 8, Rep. Jim Hansen, R, announced that he will retire at the end of this year, closing out 22 years in the House (HCN, 6/4/01: Will the Grand Staircase suffer shrinkage?). The chairman of the House Resources Committee and much-reviled opponent of environmentalists cited family and […]
Posted inJanuary 21, 2002: Finding the words
A neighborhood for Aspen’s ‘middle’ class
Developer tries to revive his community
Posted inDecember 17, 2001: Bad moon rising
The Latest Bounce
A resolution to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling has been derailed in the Senate (HCN, 11/5/01: The Arctic: A slave to luck). Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, attempted to force the issue through by hitching an amendment to a railroad retirement bill, but failure to build the needed 60 votes of support […]