Despite a few high-profile wildfires, 2013 was a fairly quiet fire season after all.
Mitch Tobin
Posted inMarch 5, 2007: Wish You Weren’t Here
Getting the lead out
A proposed ban on lead ammo in California could save condors
Posted inFebruary 21, 2005: Have Environmentalists Failed the West?
Rancher wins big in libel suit against enviros
Calling itself “nature’s legal eagles,” the Center for Biological Diversity has earned a national reputation by suing the federal government. Largely through its lawsuits, the center has forced the listing of fully one-quarter of the 1,264 plants and animals now protected under the Endangered Species Act. So it was no surprise to find the Tucson-based […]
Posted inAugust 30, 2004: How Long Will it Flow?
Squirrels and scopes in the line of fire
The Mount Graham red squirrel suffers an ecological shock
Posted inApril 26, 2004: Outsourced
Water holes awash in controversy
ARIZONA Environmentalists and state game managers are locked in a battle over the man-made water holes that some biologists say are keeping bighorn sheep and other desert species alive in the drought. As the Sonoran Desert National Monument south of Phoenix, the Arizona Game and Fish Department and the Bureau of Land Management want to […]
Posted inFebruary 2, 2004: Mending the Nets
Phelps Dodge looks to revive mining in the Copper State
Would the mine be a boon to southern Arizona, or a taxpayer rip-off?
Posted inJanuary 19, 2004: Two decades of hard work, plowed under
Warm-water native fish are left out in the cold
Little is being done to pull the Southwest’s native fish back from the brink of extinction, according to an independent team of biologists. The study of a dozen warm-water fish in Arizona’s Gila River Basin found that half the species no longer exist in wild populations, while five species occupy less than one-fifth of their […]
Posted inSeptember 15, 2003: The West's Biggest Bully
Delta beast rears its head
The U.S. Department of Interior may be ready to resurrect the Yuma Desalting Plant
Posted inSeptember 1, 2003: Courting the Bomb
State land no longer just for the cows
For the first time, environmentalists have outbid a rancher to gain control of a grazing allotment on state land in Arizona. The Santa Fe-based Forest Guardians had tried to lease the allotment since 1997. But the state land office repeatedly rejected the applications, saying only ranchers could bid on Arizona’s 8.3 million acres of school-trust […]
Posted inJuly 7, 2003: Invasion of the rock jocks
Bikers want back in to national park
Tucson’s fat-tire fanatics are pushing Saguaro National Park to reopen its Cactus Forest Trail to mountain bikes. In 1991, under pressure from the local biking community, the National Park Service opened the 2.5-mile route to mountain bikers. The trail — the first in a national park to allow mountain bikes — was jointly maintained by […]
Posted inApril 14, 2003: Change comes slowly to Escalante county
Monument presents a management morass
In Arizona’s Ironwood Forest, recreationists, ranchers and illegal immigrants vie for space
Posted inMarch 3, 2003: The Wild Card
Fences go up along the Mexican border
Interior Secretary Norton ‘troubled’ by impacts on desert wildlife
Posted inFebruary 17, 2003: Wyoming at a crossroads
Where’d you get that cactus, partner?
Not only do southern Arizona cities get water from Colorado, Utah and Wyoming; now, they’re importing cacti from Texas. Prickly Trade, a new study from the World Wildlife Fund, reveals that cities such as Tucson and Phoenix are importing much of their drought-tolerant landscaping from west Texas. Between 1998 and 2001, almost 100,000 succulent plants […]
Posted inApril 1, 2002: Move over! Will snowmobile tourism relax its grip on a gateway town?
Wheels still spin after desert lockdown
ARIZONA An unforgiving expanse of Arizona desert that’s almost as big as Rhode Island is now off limits to nearly everyone except drug smugglers, illegal immigrants and the Border Patrol agents who chase them. From March 15 to July 15, dirt-road closures meant to protect the endangered Sonoran pronghorn will prevent public access to three-quarters […]
Posted inMarch 4, 2002: Seed in the ground
A wing and a genius grant
After 11 years of quietly helping researchers and environmental activists carry out their projects from the air, Tucson pilot Sandy Lanham was awarded a $500,000 “genius grant” from the MacArthur Foundation on Oct. 23. Other pilots bill $300 an hour for similar services. But Lanham’s Environmental Flying Services, with the help of charitable foundations, only […]
Posted inDecember 17, 2001: Bad moon rising
Protecting Arizona’s underground wonderland
State agency may condemn private land near Kartchner Caverns
Posted inAugust 27, 2001: Restoring the range of light
Dangerous parks
National park rangers say inadequate funding is adding new risks to their jobs. Crime in parks is on the rise, and most parks don’t have the money to beef up their law enforcement. To publicize the problem, the U.S. Park Rangers Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police has listed the top 10 most dangerous […]
Posted inJuly 2, 2001: Can Nevada bury Yucca Mountain?
Luxury homes torched in Tucson
The fires follow a string of similar arsons in Phoenix
Posted inJune 18, 2001: Transforming powers
Arizona waffles on wolves
The state may pull its support for reintroduction
Posted inNovember 6, 2000: 'Re-inhabitation' revisited
Will a watched refuge ever revive?
Buenos Aires managers see slow progress, but ranchers are champing at the bit