Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Invasion of the rock jocks.” Devils Tower National Monument, Wyo. Twenty-three Indian tribes claim cultural ties to this 1,200-foot volcanic butte, which, on busy summer days, crawls with upward of 120 climbers. To ease conflicts between climbers and Native Americans using the site for […]
Robyn Morrison
Posted inMarch 31, 2003: Tinkering with Nature
A small-town mayor challenges developers
Community discovers that once you’re on the growth train, it’s hard to get off
Posted inFebruary 17, 2003: Wyoming at a crossroads
As the dust settles
Asbestos from one of the nation’s worst Superfund sites has killed over 200 in Libby, Mont., and infected hundreds more with lung disease (HCN, 3/13/00: Libby’s dark secret). To outsiders, life in Libby might seem unfathomable. But in the video documentary, Dust to Dust, director Michael Brown shows how residents manage to persevere in the […]
Posted inFebruary 17, 2003: Wyoming at a crossroads
Conservation pays off in a desert town
A plan to purchase state land could save open space — and make money for schools
Posted inDecember 23, 2002: In search of the Glory Days
Logging for water creates a buzz
Proposals for clear-cuts emerge with the drought
Posted inSeptember 2, 2002: Backlash
One Colorado county takes a stand
Note: This is a sidebar to a main story headlined “Backlash.” HOTCHKISS, Colo. – “Not a drop of water runs off of this place,” says Steve Ela, looking out over his 112-acre orchard, where tiny sprinklers mist beneath a canopy of apple trees. The irrigation system that diverts ditch water to soak half the orchard […]
Posted inAugust 5, 2002: Land or money?
Land plan attracts an anti-grazing gorilla
Plan would put 1.7 million acres in hands of local trust
Posted inMay 13, 2002: Beyond ecology: Restoring a cultural landscape
Spilling salt into rivers
COLORADO The Southern Ute tribe has turned a spotlight on a plan to dump water from coalbed-methane wells into a southern Colorado river. Tribal leaders recently scolded state officials for failing to consult with them before issuing a permit that will allow two coalbed-methane wells to spill water into the Florida River. Usually, the poor […]
Posted inFebruary 18, 2002: Here lies the Rio Grande
Dunes shifts toward park status
COLORADO Rural communities often cringe at the prospect of the federal government owning more land. But residents in Colorado’s San Luis Valley are breathing a sigh of relief now that their valley is one step closer to becoming home to a new national park. In January, The Nature Conservancy signed an agreement to buy a […]
Posted inDecember 3, 2001: Closing the wounds
Church aims to purchase public land
WYOMING A national historic site along the Oregon Trail could end up in the hands of private owners. At the request of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, congressional delegates from Wyoming and Utah are drafting legislation permitting the sale of a several-hundred-acre parcel of land in central Wyoming to the […]
Posted inNovember 6, 2000: 'Re-inhabitation' revisited
Dear Friends
A forest history award On March 29, 1999, High Country News published Lynne Bama‘s story about public-land exchanges and the turn-of-the-century politics that led to checkerboarded lands in the West. Her story vividly outlined how private land came to dot public lands, and how attempts by federal agencies to consolidate their holdings led to controversy […]
Posted inOctober 9, 2000: The hunters and the hunted
New Mexico’s secret sport
Cockfighting in the land ofenchantment
Posted inMay 8, 2000: After the fall
Will bears get a break?
MONTANA With all-terrain vehicle and snowmobile use skyrocketing in the backcountry, environmentalists fear the machines could spell disaster for grizzly bears. Several groups recently sued the Forest Service to force the agency to study the way ATV and snowmobile use affects endangered grizzlies in Montana’s Gallatin National Forest. “It’s time for them to step up […]
Posted inMay 8, 2000: After the fall
Montana’s anti-Indian movement multiplies
A report by the Montana Human Rights Network says groups dedicated to undermining Indian sovereignty and culture are on the rise. Formed in 1990, in response to white supremacist and other hate groups in Montana, the Human Rights Network calls the anti-Indian movement “racist to the core.” Ken Toole, who wrote the 47-page report, Drumming […]
Posted inMay 8, 2000: After the fall
Logging doesn’t cut it
A sea of evergreens, uninterrupted by roads or clear-cut; an eroding mountainside, barren of everything but stumps and broken branches. Ancient Forests: The Power of Place, a 30-minute educational video, uses this contrast to paint a compelling picture of logging’s siege on Northwest forests. The video from Green Fire Productions, a nonprofit filmmaking organization, takes […]
Posted inMay 8, 2000: After the fall
Baca Ranch buy-out has strings attached
Bill could put millions of acres of public land on the auction block
Posted inMay 8, 2000: After the fall
Former uranium town wants its waste back
Town folk say radioactive waste will boost business
Posted inApril 24, 2000: At your service: Unions help some Western workers serve themselves
Grass roots keeps town tiny
WASHINGTON Nestled in a narrow valley at the remote north end of Lake Chelan, Wash., there’s a tiny town that can only be reached by boat, float plane, or a hike over the North Cascade mountains. Now it will stay that way. For nearly seven years, a developer threatened to boom Stehekin’s size by almost […]
Posted inApril 24, 2000: At your service: Unions help some Western workers serve themselves
Pump failure pummels salmon
OREGON A southern Oregon hatchery’s salmon stock was devastated when a pump failure killed nearly 1.4 million baby chinook. But no one is pointing fingers. When the Army Corps of Engineers shut off power to do some routine maintenance at the Cole M. Rivers Hatchery on the Rogue River, it was business as usual. “They […]
Posted inMarch 27, 2000: The last wild river
Preserving the westward way
The National Park Service wants to preserve everything from vistas to wagon ruts, graves and campsites along 13,000 miles of historic Western trails. A plan completed last fall provides guidelines for protecting the Oregon, California, Mormon and Pony Express trails. But saving a trail system that crosses 12 states isn’t easy, says Jere Krakow, superintendent […]