“Goofy logic” from “Ray Rong,” one critic charged. “The most ridiculous piece of journalism I have read,” said another. “Trash” and “rubbish,” said others. Those blasts came from angry environmentalists. They’re criticizing a piece of news analysis I wrote recently, about an environmental-health disaster in Libby, Mont. I intended it to be provocative. In that […]
Ray Ring
Posted inFebruary 21, 2005: Have Environmentalists Failed the West?
Where were the environmentalists when Libby needed them most?
The story of an ailing town in northwestern Montana calls into question the health of the environmental movement
Posted inDecember 20, 2004: Stand Your Ground
Rulings keep the West open for business
Decisions not to protect sage grouse and prairie dogs could mean more development in sagebrush and grasslands
Posted inWotr
Whatever happened to the environmental movement?
It can no longer be denied: The national environmental movement has stalled. It became glaringly obvious as the movement campaigned against George W. Bush for three years with no noticeable influence on his re-election. It’s proven more subtly by the fact that Congress has passed almost no significant environmental laws since 1980, and by now, […]
Posted inNovember 22, 2004: Conservationist in a Conservative Land
A New Dialogue for Idaho
Environmentalist Rick Johnson and Republican Congressman Mike Simpson are crafting a new language for wilderness protection, but not everyone wants to speak it.
Posted inOctober 11, 2004: The First Family of Western Conservation
Udall patriarch laments startling changes
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “The Coyote Caucus Takes the West to Washington.” Stewart Udall lives in a comfortable adobe house near downtown Santa Fe, N.M. Now 84 years old, he’s earned the distinguished looks of a Western sage, with his beaked nose, strong face, long hair. Each evening […]
Posted inOctober 11, 2004: The First Family of Western Conservation
State judges get political
Special-interest money pours into hotly contested judge campaigns
Posted inSeptember 13, 2004: When a Boom is a Bust
Wamsutter Profiles
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “When a Boom is a Bust.” The preacher Mike Smith has put in nine and a half years as pastor of Wamsutter Baptist Church, the town’s only surviving church (four others have closed in recent memory). He used to mine uranium in Jeffrey City, […]
Posted inSeptember 13, 2004: When a Boom is a Bust
When a Boom is a Bust
Natural gas has pumped money and workers into Wamsutter, Wyoming. But the town struggles to be anything more than a barracks for industry.
Posted inJuly 19, 2004: They're Here: Global Warming's Unlikely Harbingers
Supreme Court reins in citizens’ right to sue
Conservationists can’t interfere with the government’s ‘own ordering of priorities’
Posted inMay 24, 2004: In Search of Solidarity
Property-rights lawyers score one against wild salmon
Court rulings force re-evaluation of endangered fish and habitat in the Northwest
Posted inMay 10, 2004: Shooting Spree
The Faces Behind the Lawsuits
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Shooting Spree.” Relentless Johanna Wald Natural Resources Defense Council, branch in San Francisco Bio Law degree from Yale University, 1967 Helped open the first NRDC office in California in 1972, and quickly became the leader in BLM issues, pioneering cases on grazing, coal mining […]
Posted inMay 10, 2004: Shooting Spree
Shooting Spree
The Bush administration is perforating our basic environmental laws. Can a cadre of seasoned green lawyers stop it?
Posted inWotr
Judges tie themselves in knots when it comes to the West
Liberals have had their runs at dominating the federal court system, now it’s the Republicans’ turn. It’s not a sport, but it has some spectacular gyrations: Call it judicial flip-flopping. Most recently, it’s played by federal judges in Wyoming and Washington, D.C. — one ordering the National Park Service to ban snowmobiles in Yellowstone Park, […]
Posted inMarch 15, 2004: The New Water Czars
Should the Forest Service be blamed for a snowmobile wreck
MONTANA About 10 o’clock one February night in 1996, Michigan tourist Brian Musselman was snowmobiling on a groomed trail in Gallatin National Forest near West Yellowstone, when another snowmobiler “blasted over a 17-foot jump” and slammed into him, according to the Great Falls Tribune. The wreck left Musselman with severe brain injuries, and it raised […]
Posted inMarch 15, 2004: The New Water Czars
Ranching’s worst enemy? It’s not greens
Jury finds a meatpacker has taken ranchers to the cleaner
Posted inMarch 1, 2004: The Last Open Range
The New West collides with open-range laws
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “The Last Open Range.” Kent Knudson picked up a rifle and opened fire, defending his 40 acres in Arizona, and got handcuffed and hauled to jail. John Ward, driving a truckload of hay in Oregon one night, rounded a curve and smashed into 1,300 […]
Posted inFebruary 16, 2004: Courting Disaster
Tipping the scales
For four decades, the federal courts have stood up for environmental laws. If George W. Bush has his way, that will soon be ancient history.
Posted inFebruary 16, 2004: Courting Disaster
Jurisdiction shopping made simple
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Tipping the scales.” Dee Benson U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City, Utah A former staffer for Sen. Orrin Hatch; appointed in 1991 by Republican George H.W. Bush Quick take Off-road drivers love his courtroom Anti-green cases 1995 — rejected a challenge to ORV […]
Posted inDecember 22, 2003: Being Green in the Land of the Saints
Wildlife win one in Yellowstone
As part of a program to reduce conflicts between cattle and wildlife, the National Wildlife Federation has negotiated two important land deals with ranchers in the Yellowstone National Park region. In Wyoming in August, the federation raised $250,000 from other conservation groups, foundations and donors to buy out 77,000 acres of the Blackrock-Spread Creek grazing […]