The saying, “time heals all wounds,” may not apply to Utah, at least not to its politicians. Though more than a year has passed since President Clinton created the 1.7 million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah, the state’s congressional delegation continues to try to dismantle it. Republican Rep. Jim Hansen told the Salt […]
Paul Larmer
Posted inSeptember 15, 1997: Yellowstone at 125: The park as a sovereign state
Feds take on a sneaky species
Two years ago, Pat Mehlhop waded through a willow thicket on the shore of Elephant Butte Reservoir in southern New Mexico, carrying a 20-foot-long pole with a mirror attached to one end. The ecologist with the New Mexico Natural Heritage Program was in search of what has become a rarity along the state’s waterways: the […]
Posted inAugust 4, 1997: Vanishing habitat
Judge clubs Sierra donor
A San Francisco Superior Court judge has found that Ray Graham III maliciously prosecuted the Sierra Club Foundation and owes the organization $2.8 million. The judgment, made in mid-July, is the latest wrinkle in the long-standing feud between Graham, an heir to the Firestone fortune, and the foundation over a $100,000 donation he made back […]
Posted inAugust 4, 1997: Vanishing habitat
‘I’ve never seen a good HCP’
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories. Attorney Tara Mueller works with the Environmental Law Fund in Oakland, Calif., where she helps grassroots environmental groups monitor Habitat Conservation Plans. Tara Mueller: “I can’t say that I’ve ever seen an example of a good HCP. There’re so many places that […]
Posted inAugust 4, 1997: Vanishing habitat
‘We’ve turned down bad HCPs’
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories. Curt Smitch is an assistant director for Region 1 of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which covers Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Idaho and Hawaii. He oversaw the region’s Habitat Conservation Plan program when it took effect in 1994. Curt Smitch: “We […]
Posted inAugust 4, 1997: Vanishing habitat
‘Landowners need more incentives’
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories. Many consider Michael Bean, a senior scientist with the Environmental Defense Fund, the dean of endangered species protection in the United States. Others say he weakened the Endangered Species Act in the name of practicality when he helped craft the 1982 amendments […]
Posted inAugust 4, 1997: Vanishing habitat
‘HCPs need peer-reviewed science’
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories. Volunteer Michael Schindell works for the National Endangered Species Network in Sacramento, Calif. Michael Schindell: “HCPs have weak science. A good example is a plan for Yellow County, Calif., which is a rapidly growing bedroom community west of Sacramento. That HCP uses […]
Posted inAugust 4, 1997: Vanishing habitat
Habitat Conservation Plans
Who wins and who loses whenUncle Sam cuts deals with landowners to protect endangered species?
Posted inAugust 4, 1997: Vanishing habitat
‘The real problem is lack of time’
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories. Biologist Dennis Murphy, president of the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford University, is a science advisor for several Habitat Conservation Plans in Southern California. The plans were designed to protect the California gnatcatcher and other species while allowing development in the […]
Posted inJune 9, 1997: Chaos comes to Costilla County
Sierra Club Foundation vs. Ray Graham III: the case that won’t die
In 1853, Charles Dickens wrote Bleak House, about a lawsuit so long pursued that the principals were dead and the original issues lost in the mists of time. Ray Graham III vs. the Sierra Club Foundation is no Jarndyce vs. Jarndyce, but it may be on its way. The multimillion-dollar fight between the two began […]
Posted inJune 9, 1997: Chaos comes to Costilla County
Paul Larmer responds
Paul Larmer responds: Tom Power may be correct in his assertion that the employment numbers I used – and cited by county officials – are exaggerated. I should have been more careful before using them. The economist who has worked on Kane County’s economic plan, Gil Miller, says Power’s information merits a closer look. But […]
Posted inMay 12, 1997: Planning under the gun: Cleaning up Lake Tahoe proves to be a dirty business
Judge is bullish on trout protection
Pushed by a federal judge, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says it has started the process of listing the bull trout under the Endangered Species Act. The announcement was sad news for the governors of Idaho and Montana, who both have crafted state recovery plans for the cold-water-loving species, partly in an attempt to […]
Posted inMay 12, 1997: Planning under the gun: Cleaning up Lake Tahoe proves to be a dirty business
Oregon gets shot at saving salmon
In a move that speaks loudly of the Clinton administration’s approach to resolving endangered species conflicts, the National Marine Fisheries Service will give federal protection to one population of wild coastal salmon but not another. Under a court-imposed deadline, the agency decided April 25 to list the southern population of coho – which spawn in […]
Posted inApril 14, 1997: Beauty and the Beast
Beauty and the Beast
The president’s new monument forces southern Utah to face its tourism future.
Posted inApril 14, 1997: Beauty and the Beast
A proud and defiant native
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Though as a child she lived in Idaho and for a while in Tooele, Utah, Garfield County Commissioner Louise Liston has always considered her birthplace, Escalante, home. Before becoming a commissioner 10 years ago, Liston taught in a one-room school in the town of […]
Posted inApril 14, 1997: Beauty and the Beast
‘This monument was just plain stupid’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Roger Holland, 52, is a Kanab town councilman, a part-time rancher and a mining consultant. He has done geological surveys on the Kaiparowits Plateau within the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Roger Holland: “This monument was just plain stupid; the president did it to keep […]
Posted inApril 14, 1997: Beauty and the Beast
Let’s ‘work with the situation’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Gerry Rankin moved from Salt Lake City to Big Water, Utah, pop. 350, more than six years ago. When she isn’t teaching at the town’s only school, she is the mayor of the town, which lies just a few miles west of Lake Powell. […]
Posted inMarch 31, 1997: Big Sky, big mess in Montana
Founding father challenges his movement
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – On the surface, everything seemed under control at the Western States Coalition Summit VII held here last November. The wise-use movement’s leaders delivered the sermons, and the crowd of 300 responded with well-timed murmurs, hand-clapping and even outright whoops of delight. Yet, behind the scenes, the cracks of a movement […]
Posted inFebruary 3, 1997: Bringing back the bighorn
Injunction lifted in the Southwest
A 16-month logging injunction on national forests in New Mexico and Arizona was lifted by a federal judge Dec. 4. Judge Roger Strand ruled that the Forest Service had completed a biological opinion on how its forest plans would affect the threatened Mexican spotted owl. The decision means the agency can proceed with logging in […]
Posted inJanuary 20, 1997: Bees under siege
When dead bees don’t make a case
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. If most beekeepers are the proverbial shy and retiring types, Tom Theobald isn’t one of them. From his beeyards in Niwot, just northeast of Boulder, Colo., he has pushed state and federal officials hard to address bee kills he believes have been caused by […]