As dollars from the Economic Stimulus Act arrive here in the eight Rocky Mountain states, most Westerners seem to be talking about spending that money on shovel-ready jobs. The projects we hear about are intended to repair our crumbling schools, bridges, roads and sewers, or to restore our abused landscape. We know, too, that money […]
Pat Williams
Posted inWotr
Don’t starve the Forest Service
A whole lot of Rocky Mountain Westerners are concerned about President Bush’s recent proposal to cut the U.S. Forest Service budget. Out our way, the land is not an abstraction. The numbers in the Forest Service budget aren’t abstractions, either. They mean something real to our land and to our lives, and a cut of […]
Posted inDecember 10, 2007: Rebels with a Lost Cause
Wake up to the West, wannabe presidents
The Democratic presidential debate in Nevada this November was promoted as a chance for candidates to engage with the West and its concerns, but it might as well have been held in Anywhere, USA. The moderator, four journalists and most of the audience ignored every critical issue that’s central to our region. The first issue, […]
Posted inWotr
Wake up, wannabe presidents
The Democratic presidential debate in Nevada this November was promoted as a chance for candidates to engage with the West and its concerns, but it might as well have been held in Anywhere, USA. The moderator, four journalists andmost of the audience ignored every critical issue that?s central to us here. The first issue is […]
Posted inMarch 21, 2005: An Empire Built on Sand
Where were the unions?
High Country News asks: “Where were the environmentalists when Libby, Mont. needed them most?” (HCN, 2/21/05: Where were the environmentalists when Libby needed them most?). However, the more interesting question, closer to the bone, is: “Where were the labor unions?” As Montana’s congressman for 18 years, I knew many of the miners from W.R. Grace’s […]
Posted inWotr
Bruce Babbitt and I have seen the past, and it no longer works
“That was the biggest bunch of BS I’ve ever heard,” complained one man. His friend agreed: “Yeah, I’ll bet neither Babbitt nor Williams have ever been near a timber mill.” Those comments were overheard as the two young men heard left a University of Montana auditorium after I’d introduced former Interior Secretary of the Interior […]
Posted inOctober 22, 2001: Healing the Gila
Remembering Mike
One of the country’s statesmen died Oct. 5, 2001, at the age of 98. Mike Mansfield grew up in Great Falls, Mont., and worked in the copper mines of Butte before launching one of the longest and most distinguished political careers in history. It was punctuated by his staunch opposition to the Vietnam War. Below […]
Posted inAugust 14, 2000: Meth invasion
Interior secretaries have what it takes
Dear HCN, Some Westerners seem to believe that Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt is the only one who ever moved, under presidential direction, to encourage the preservation of land and water under national monument designation. America has had 48 secretaries of the Interior. Since the passage by Congress in 1906 of the act that allows presidents […]