The flames have illuminated – and possibly strengthened – the park’s intimate connections with its neighbors
Michelle Nijhuis
Michelle Nijhuis is a contributing editor of HCN and the author of Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction. Follow @nijhuism.
Posted inAugust 20, 2007: Bonfire of the Superweeds
Bonfire of the Superweeds
In the Sonoran Desert, good intentions combust
Posted inJuly 3, 2000: A river resurrected
A river resurrected
The Colorado River Delta gets a second chance
Posted inJune 19, 2000: Accidental refuge: Should we save the Salton Sea?
Accidental refuge: Should we save the Salton Sea?
BOMBAY BEACH, Calif. – Steve Horvitz, the superintendent of the Salton Sea State Recreation Area, keeps a copy of the movie Chinatown on his office bookshelf. He’s seen the tale of ruthless Los Angeles water barons many times, and it still makes him angry, but he doesn’t watch it as often as he used to. […]
Posted inJune 19, 2000: Accidental refuge: Should we save the Salton Sea?
Trickle of hope
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. An international border slices through the final stretch of the Colorado River, and for decades the region has been pushed to the political margins by both the United States and Mexico. The river only occasionally reaches the Gulf of California, and the once-lush wetlands […]
Posted inApril 24, 2000: At your service: Unions help some Western workers serve themselves
The Wayward West
Two packs of Mexican wolves are getting a second chance in the wild. Several months ago, the packs were recaptured after conflicts with people and livestock in Arizona’s Apache National Forest (HCN, 1/31/00: Yellowstone wolves are here to stay). The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decided that the remote Gila Wilderness in New Mexico would […]
Posted inMarch 27, 2000: The last wild river
Mine proposal stumbles
CALIFORNIA The Bureau of Land Management might just say “no.” For years, critics have blasted a proposed open-pit gold mine on public land in southeastern California, arguing that the Glamis Imperial Corp. project would destroy both Native American sacred sites and habitat of the threatened desert tortoise (HCN, 8/2/99: Weighing artifacts against gold). After a […]
Posted inFebruary 28, 2000: Acre by acre
‘We need a whole paradigm shift’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. In 1990, the McDowell-Sonoran Land Trust was founded to protect a 36,000-acre, billion-dollar chunk of private and state land near the affluent community of Scottsdale, Ariz. “We realized we weren’t going to raise that money selling T-shirts, so we went to the city,” says […]
Posted inFebruary 28, 2000: Acre by acre
‘Our first focus is the landowner’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. The Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust is the first land trust founded by agricultural producers. Jay Fetcher, a rancher in Colorado’s Yampa Valley, hit on the idea of a cattlemen’s land trust when he and his family put an easement on their land in […]
Posted inFebruary 28, 2000: Acre by acre
‘The growth wasn’t organic’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Utah Open Lands is a statewide group that holds about 18,000 acres in conservation easements. In 10 years, it’s grown far beyond the expectations of executive director Wendy Fisher, who helped start the group in Park City when she was finishing her senior year […]
Posted inFebruary 28, 2000: Acre by acre
Acre by acre
Can land trusts save the West’s disappearing open space?
Posted inFebruary 28, 2000: Acre by acre
A land-trust toolbox
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. When land-trust staffers get together, they can sometimes sound more like a group of real estate lawyers than environmental advocates. The deals they broker are complicated, but they use a few basic tools over and over again. A conservation easement is a legal agreement […]
Posted inFebruary 28, 2000: Acre by acre
‘We didn’t even know what a land trust was’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Sanctuary Forest was founded in 1987 to protect Big Red, a 2,000-year-old redwood tree in Northern California’s Mattole River watershed. “We started with 11 people, since it took 11 of us to join hands and stand around this one particular tree,” says executive director […]
Posted inFebruary 14, 2000: Land of the fee
Hazel Wolf: She made it
Hazel Wolf died in Port Angeles, Wash., on Jan. 24 at the age of 101. Wolf, a lifelong activist for social justice and the environment (HCN, 11/9/98: Wise words from a veteran activist), once told author Studs Terkel that she wanted to live to see the year 2000. “Then I’m going,” she said. Wolf, a […]
Posted inJune 19, 2000: Accidental refuge: Should we save the Salton Sea?
‘Something has got to give’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Steve Horvitz is the superintendent of the Salton Sea State Recreation Area. Steve Horvitz: “A lot of people may argue and say, “Why is the sea so important?” Because it supports the millions of birds that use it. They ask, “Isn’t there another resource […]
Posted inJune 19, 2000: Accidental refuge: Should we save the Salton Sea?
‘It’s no horror story to me’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Norm Niver has lived in Salton City with his wife, Connie, for nearly 30 years. A retired professional musician and TV repairman, he now publishes The Pelican Post, a newsletter about the Salton Sea. He’s been known to test the purity of the sea’s […]
Posted inJune 19, 2000: Accidental refuge: Should we save the Salton Sea?
‘They wasted a lot of money’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Mary Belardo is chairwoman of the Torres-Martinez Band of Desert Cahuilla Indians. The Torres-Martinez still own land under the sea, but a bill now in Congress would allow the band to purchase 11,800 high-and-dry acres closer to the towns of Indio and Palm Springs. […]
Posted inDecember 6, 1999: Peggy Godfrey's long, strange trip
Battling over the bottom line
Congress and the Clinton administration have finally called a truce on the national budget. On Nov. 19, the House and Senate approved a $385 billion spending package, including $14.9 billion for the Interior Department. Both sides are claiming victory, but Will Hart, spokesman for Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, calls the process “frustrating.” “(We were) dealing […]
Posted inNovember 22, 1999: Go tell it on the mountain
Nevada names
JARBIDGE (Elko). A Nevada post office, established March 5, 1910, and town (the most isolated mining camp in the state) … According to Jarbidge legend, the name … comes from a Shoshone Indian word Jahabich, meaning “devil,” or from Tswhawbitts, the name of a mythical crater-dwelling giant who roamed the Jarbidge Canyon for many years. […]
Posted inNovember 22, 1999: Go tell it on the mountain
The secretary’s must-do list for Western lands
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt’s Western road tour didn’t finish at Steens Mountain; in fact, no one seems quite sure where it will end. In addition to the Arizona Strip and the Missouri River Breaks, several other Bureau of Land Management sites could gain greater […]