Here in the Northwest, you can accumulate large quantities of the following: rainwater, unemployment and local literature. The folks at Oregon Quarterly (the University of Oregon’s magazine) collect the third. Last year, they ransacked their archives and created a new literary record of the region, Best Essays NW. Most of the 27 essays read like […]
Rachel Jackson
Posted inDecember 3, 2001: Closing the wounds
A water tale to set you on fire
Documentary filmmaker Drury Gunn Carr doesn’t seem to mind a little violence. Past projects with fellow producer Doug Hawes-Davis record coyote extermination (HCN, 7/31/00: Killing Coyote), wild horse harassment (HCN, 8/13/01: On the trail of an “exotic” native) and prairie dog shooting (HCN, 1/18/99: Another dog done gone) with a grim, unflinching eye. Thankfully, Gunn […]
Posted inNovember 19, 2001: Bringing back the bosque
Pollution pickle sours landowner
NORTH DAKOTA Like tremolite asbestos fibers, the Montana-based W.R. Grace & Co. vermiculite contamination problem gets stickier with time. Last year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency discovered asbestos-laden soil around a storage warehouse owned by the Minot Park District in Minot, N.D. While the agency is currently testing the extent of the contamination, EPA coordinator […]
Posted inNovember 5, 2001: Wyoming's powder keg
Utah’s flower child
Flower aficionado Paul Ames is no pansy: Gathering wildflower seeds under a Utah sun is hot, back-breaking work. Besides, he dislikes the pansy. It and all exotic flowers, he believes, are pampered intruders that drink too much water and don’t belong in a desert state. For the past three years, Ames has been a champion […]
Posted inSeptember 24, 2001: River of dreams
State proposes mother-lode mine fee
NEW MEXICO If New Mexico has its way, it will slap the state’s biggest mine with an unprecedented tab. In June, state regulatory agencies presented Phelps Dodge with a draft plan to close out the old (1910) and large (fourth largest in the country) Chino Mine near Silver City. It could cost the company $759 […]
Posted inSeptember 24, 2001: River of dreams
The timber sale that won’t die
Eagle Creek has become an icon for anti-logging activists
Posted inSeptember 10, 2001: The rise and fall of a desert stream
Organics, timber cut healthy deal
OREGON If chemicals from a private logging operation show up on Ed Smith’s organic herbal extract farm, all his worst fears will come true. Though Boise Cascade commonly sprays herbicides after it logs, Smith, cofounder of Herb Pharm in Williams, Ore., says his company would have to forfeit its organic certification and face ruin if […]
Posted inSeptember 10, 2001: The rise and fall of a desert stream
Texaco spill leaves residents fuming
MONTANA Despite its cheery name, metaphorical clouds hang over Sunburst, Mont., where the town’s 415 residents are grappling with a toxic disaster. About a dozen homes sit atop a gasoline pool that was formed 46 years ago when a Texaco oil refinery leaked just outside town. The underground spill contaminated groundwater and soil and released […]
Posted inAugust 13, 2001: No refuge in the Klamath Basin
Disappearing cowboys get exposure
Each spring, photographer Adam Jahiel leaves his home in northeast Wyoming and treks to the remotest corners of the Great Basin to photograph cowboys on their annual roundups. The seasonal journey has become a 10-year personal quest. Jahiel, whose photos have appeared in The New York Times and National Geographic among others, says he is […]
Posted inJuly 30, 2001: Not in our back yard
Counties cross the yellow line
UTAH Utah wilderness recently got a reprieve. In late June, a district judge ruled that three counties had illegally graded 16 undeveloped jeep tracks and footpaths located within Bureau of Land Management-maintained wilderness study areas and the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The judge concluded that Garfield, Kane and San Juan counties had for several years […]
Posted inJuly 30, 2001: Not in our back yard
Logging cut short for salmon
OREGON Salmon in the Pacific Northwest just got a break. In late May, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the National Marine Fisheries Service must re-examine how logging affects endangered salmon before 24 federal timber sales can proceed. That may mean loggers would provide larger buffers around riparian areas, thin units instead of […]
Posted inJuly 30, 2001: Not in our back yard
Tragedy re-ignites wildfire debate
Blaze in Washington’s Methow Valley kills four
Posted inJune 18, 2001: Transforming powers
University wolf study raises hackles
UTAH The Utah Farm Bureau Federation has a bone to pick with Robert Schmidt’s wildlife management class at Utah State University. The class recently studied the biological and economic effects of a hypothetical wolf population in Utah. But when the class took its findings public, the Bureau accused the students of being “pro-wolf” and said […]
Posted inJune 18, 2001: Transforming powers
Politics sink growth management
COLORADO After a failed ballot initiative, a dozen legislative bills and a special session that burnt the midnight oil, Colorado is no closer to managing its growth. Gov. Bill Owens, R, had promised citizens a solution by summer, but the Legislature couldn’t overcome a partisan impasse. Republicans opposed mandatory impact fees that would have forced […]
Posted inJune 18, 2001: Transforming powers
Banging the drum for change
Janet Robideau hates being told “no,” thanks to a Catholic boarding-school education where strict obedience was doctrine. Now, all those years of keeping silent and following rules have inspired her to do exactly the opposite: give voice to Montana’s urban Indians and change the rules that have restricted them for years. Robideau, a member of […]
Posted inJune 4, 2001: Tribal links
Intrepid explorer with a cause
Many recent college graduates shoulder their backpacks for a genteel trip to Europe. Not Soren Jespersen. The Northern Arizona University alum hoisted his for a five-month 2,200-mile solo trek around the Four Corners region to raise money for the Center for Humanitarian Outreach and Intercultural Exchange or CHOICE. The Utah-based group, directed by Soren’s dad, […]
Posted inJune 4, 2001: Tribal links
Jackson Hole takes aim at helicopter tours
WYOMING There’s a fierce dogfight in progress over the airspace in Teton County, Wyo. Vortex Aviation Services, headed by Gary Kauffman, is gearing up to begin commercial helicopter tours over the county’s scenic areas this summer (HCN, 8/14/00: Whirlybirds will fly over Jackson). The plan has environmentalists and other concerned citizens declaring war. “We don’t […]
Posted inJune 4, 2001: Tribal links
Will the Grand Staircase suffer shrinkage?
UTAH After years of griping about national monuments, Rep. Jim Hansen, R-Utah, wants to create one. The ranking member of the House Resources Committee is hoping to preserve 50 acres of Jurassic-era dinosaur tracks unearthed last year in St. George, Utah. The tracks show uniquely sharp detail of knuckles, tail drags and skin texture. But […]