On June 21, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the $18.9 billion Interior Department appropriations bill. The legislation bans drilling in national monuments (HCN, 4/23/01: Monuments caught in the crosshairs), and prevents the Bush administration from reversing the 3809 hard-rock mining reform rule (HCN, 2/12/01: New mining regs slip into rulebooks). The Senate is currently […]
Rebecca Clarren
Posted inJune 18, 2001: Transforming powers
The Latest Bounce
President George Bush has nominated Fran Mainella to be the first woman chief of the National Park Service. Mainella, currently the director of the Division of Recreation and Parks for Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection, has funded new cabins and other park infrastructure with thousands of dollars from the private sector. If confirmed, she will […]
Posted inJune 4, 2001: Tribal links
Takings legislation cracks Oregon’s green foundation
Rural landowners say government is regulating them to death
Posted inMay 21, 2001: Quenching the big thirst
The Latest Bounce
Over 22,000 communities nationwide may be at risk from summer wildfires, especially those with neighborhoods where houses and forests meet, warns the Boise-based National Interagency Fire Center (HCN, 5/7/01: Back into the woods). All the communities are seeking a portion of the $240 million Congress set aside last year for fire management and fuels reduction. […]
Posted inMay 7, 2001: Back into the woods
The latest bounce
The Bush administration has nominated Neal McCaleb to head the Bureau of Indian Affairs. McCaleb, a member of the Chickasaw Nation, is a former Oklahoma secretary of Transportation. Trained as a civil engineer, he served as a state congressman for eight years, during which time he supported a state effort to tax Indian businesses on […]
Posted inMay 7, 2001: Back into the woods
Drought drains the West
Dry skies spell trouble for farmers, fish and forests
Posted inApril 23, 2001: The Big Blowup
The latest bounce
A federal judge in Idaho has ordered the state to stop killing badgers, ravens and coyotes. Last February, in an attempt to increase numbers of declining sage grouse, the Idaho Fish and Game Commission authorized Wildlife Services to kill the bird’s predators (HCN, 2/26/01: Idaho predators are under the gun). The court ruling is the […]
Posted inApril 9, 2001: The water empress of Vegas
Republicans launch counteroffensive
Bush administration revokes environmental rules
Posted inMarch 26, 2001: Teach the children well
The Latest Bounce
President George W. Bush has nominated J. Steven Griles to serve as deputy secretary of the Interior. If confirmed by the Senate as second in command, Griles would help Secretary Gale Norton create policy and manage Interior’s eight bureaus (HCN, 1/15/01: Coloradan tapped for Interior). Currently a lobbyist who represents the National Mining Association, Griles […]
Posted inMarch 26, 2001: Teach the children well
Farmworkers reap a minimum wage
IDAHO Idaho farmworkers now are entitled to the same right laborers across the nation have had for decades: a minimum wage (HCN, 12/18/00: Troubled harvest). Until recently, Idaho farmworkers were paid by the amount of apples they picked or the number of trees they pruned. But now, if that rate isn’t equal to at least […]
Posted inMarch 26, 2001: Teach the children well
Dear Friends
The Ides of March It’s hard not to get a case of spring fever these days, though Mother Nature is being her typical, contradictory self in western Colorado. Just as the first crocuses and daffodils pushed their green heads through the soil last week, a Pacific storm dumped a foot of cement-like snow on Paonia, […]
Posted inMarch 12, 2001: Divided Waters
Priests preach to the choir: Protect the Columbia
The Roman Catholic Church isn’t traditionally considered the home of radical greens. But 12 bishops from the Pacific Northwest and Canada have jumped into the environmental fray, and in late February, they released a long-awaited and controversial pastoral letter about the Columbia River (HCN, 9/11/00: Holy water). The letter, nourished by three years of discussion […]
Posted inFebruary 26, 2001: Return of the natives
The latest bounce
The Bonneville Power Administration wants the Northwest to scrap salmon recovery plans (HCN, 8/28/00: he latest salmon plan heads toward a train wreck), so the federal agency can produce more power for the region. Due to low precipitation and expensive power, BPA says if it doesn’t release reservoir water now, the Northwest could be vulnerable […]
Posted inFebruary 26, 2001: Return of the natives
An agency in need of refuge?
Greens, managers wrangle over how to rescue neglected wildlife refuges
Posted inFebruary 12, 2001: Mr. Babbitt's wild ride
The latest bounce
Pay your user fees or pay the price, says the Forest Service (HCN, 2/14/00: Land of the fee). The agency is prosecuting Terry Dahl, 58, of Southern California for failing to buy a $5 Adventure Pass and ignoring 11 warnings left on his car while he recreated in the Los Padres National Forest. The Adventure […]
Posted inFebruary 12, 2001: Mr. Babbitt's wild ride
Dear Friends
Winter kicks in The snow gods have smiled on Colorado’s Western Slope. Falling steadily for a week, snow has blanketed apple trees, compost heaps and coal trucks. Farmers and ranchers have reason to hope their water rights won’t be called this spring, and boaters are dreaming of a river season that lasts longer than two […]
Posted inFebruary 12, 2001: Mr. Babbitt's wild ride
Don Ewy is no timber beast
HCN subscriber Don Ewy is not your typical logger. A self-described environmentalist who has fought to limit development on public lands, Ewy has selectively logged small trees in North Park, Colorado’s only state forest, for the past 31 years. During that time his only employees have been his three children, and he says his daughter […]
Posted inJanuary 29, 2001: Power on the loose
The latest bounce
New rules released in early January by the National Marine Fisheries Service signal a new phase in the salmon recovery effort. It is now a crime to harm or kill threatened salmon along the West Coast (HCN, 12/20/99: Unleashing the Snake). That means land users such as farmers and developers could be sued by anyone […]
Posted inJanuary 29, 2001: Power on the loose
Landowners could get gas relief
For years, landowners in Colorado have complained that the Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, charged with regulating methane gas development, is biased towards industry (HCN, 9/25/00: Colliding forces: Has Colorado’s oil and gas industry met its match?). Now, four bills currently in the state Legislature promise to give landowners more rights. Greg Walcher, the head […]
Posted inJanuary 15, 2001: Plains sense
Coloradan tapped for Interior
Gale Norton is conservative, bright andrelativelyunknown