Just as the booming — or busting — West needs her most, the Albuquerque Tribune is no more. The paper published its last edition on Saturday, Feb. 23, after 86 years of rough-and-tumble journalism that included winning a Pulitzer Prize. The paper was owned by the Cincinnati-based E.W. Scripps Co., which decided last August that […]
Shea Andersen
Posted inWotr
Wildfire can make you run for your life
As we stood on a hillside in Idaho’s Boulder-White Cloud mountains watching a fire bear down on us, I told my friend Dave that this was the closest I’d been to a wildfire without getting paid for it. We’d just finished speed-hiking down from a high lake basin, after the Forest Service told us to […]
Posted inFebruary 2, 1998: Looking at dams in a new way
Ski resort plans ruffle feathers
The forested hump of Pelican Butte stands like an island in Oregon’s Cascade Mountains. Bounded by a wilderness area, a national park (Crater Lake), and a national wildlife refuge, the butte is known for its stands of old-growth Shasta red fir, nesting spotted owls and wintering bald eagles. A ski area proposal from Jeld Wen […]
Posted inOctober 13, 1997: The land is still public, but it's no longer free
Paying to play in the Sawtooths
KETCHUM, Idaho – Buying a recreation pass for the ranger district here and the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, two popular parts of the Sawtooth National Forest, is easy. The hard part is remembering to do so. For the first time ever, a walk across the Sawtooth’s mountain meadows isn’t free. On July 1, the Forest […]
Posted inJune 9, 1997: Chaos comes to Costilla County
Forester retreats on grazing rules
With the Idaho congressional delegation breathing down his neck, Sawtooth National Forest Supervisor Bill LeVere withdrew his controversial grazing rules, which were regarded as the toughest in the nation. In March, LeVere told his district rangers to cancel ranchers’ permits if violation warnings went unheeded. But after a roasting in Washington, D.C., from Idaho Reps. […]
Posted inApril 28, 1997: Evangelical Christians preach a green gospel
Forest supervisor shows Congress some dirty pictures
It was billed as a Washington, D.C.-style “barbecue,” but the roastee – Sawtooth National Forest Supervisor Bill Levere – was prepared for the heat. In early April, Idaho Rep. Helen Chenoweth ordered Levere, the manager of the central Idaho forest, to come to the nation’s capitol and defend his tough new penalties for ranchers who […]
Posted inFebruary 17, 1997: No home on the range
‘Ugly’ addition must go
When it comes to enforcing scenic easements on private property within Idaho’s Sawtooth National Recreation Area, the Forest Service plays hardball. The agency went to U.S. District Court in March 1995, when it discovered a barn-style addition to Kenneth and Sharon Walker’s A-frame. The Forest Service had paid previous owners of the property $26,000 in […]
Posted inOctober 2, 1995: Did Idaho libel the feds?
Move over, Catron County
Not to be outdone by other angry rural counties in the West, Lake County, Ore., wants to buy the 1 million acres of Forest Service land within its boundaries. Officials of the county in south-central Oregon say they’re frustrated by a federal bureaucracy that has slowed timber harvesting and hurt the local economy. To make […]
Posted inOctober 2, 1995: Did Idaho libel the feds?
Triage for trees attacked
Triage for trees attacked Environmentalists in southern Oregon say the Forest Service wants to “kill the patient” in an effort to protect a rare tree species from a fatal root fungus. The Port Orford cedar, native to the southern Oregon and northern California coast, has succumbed throughout its range to the fungus, which spreads through […]
Posted inSeptember 18, 1995: The West's fisheries spin out of control
Parks may get control of their air
In an effort to maintain the peace and quiet national parks are known for, Rep. David Skaggs, D-Colo., has introduced a bill giving the Park Service more control over who flies over its lands. His National Park Scenic Overflights Concessions Act gives power to the secretary of the Interior and the Park Service to regulate […]
Posted inSeptember 18, 1995: The West's fisheries spin out of control
Protecting the coho
In a long-awaited announcement, the National Marine Fisheries Service has proposed to list coho salmon as a threatened species in Oregon and California, though not in Washington. “Pacific salmon are in serious trouble,” said regional fisheries director William Stelle, in The Oregonian. “This is a wakeup call to the region.” If listed under the Endangered […]
Posted inSeptember 18, 1995: The West's fisheries spin out of control
Williams almost gets his wilderness
Although Rep. Pat Williams, D-Mont., has never slipped a Montana wilderness bill past an unfriendly Senate, the White House has given him a temporary victory. Williams announced Aug. 23 that an administrative order from Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman will stop development on 1.7 million acres of roadless national forest in Montana. The order establishes a […]
Posted inSeptember 4, 1995: I came, I saw, I wrote a guidebook
A pothunter is nailed at last
Earl Shumway, the notorious pillager of Anasazi burial sites in Utah, has been convicted of looting. Shumway had built a record of illegal pillaging of historic sites since 1984, bragging that he was untouchable (HCN, 12/26/94). When asked by The Salt Lake Tribune to describe Shumway, Utah state archaeologist Dave Madsen was brief: “Pothunter. Looter. […]
Posted inSeptember 4, 1995: I came, I saw, I wrote a guidebook
Owl shuts down the Southwest
In a ruling reminiscent of the Northwest spotted owl conflict, federal Judge Carl Muecke ordered the 11 national forests of Arizona and New Mexico to halt all logging until their forest plans adequately protect the Mexican spotted owl. The Aug. 24 temporary injunction, which immediately stopped all timber operations, came in response to a lawsuit […]
Posted inSeptember 4, 1995: I came, I saw, I wrote a guidebook
Taking aim at the Forest Service
Somebody in Nevada doesn’t like Toiyabe Forest Ranger Guy Pence, and to show it they’ve bombed both his office (HCN, 4/17/95) and a van parked at his Carson City home; the latter attack occurred Aug. 4. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., blames the attacks on “the ugly underbelly of the county supremacy movement in Nevada.” When […]
Posted inSeptember 4, 1995: I came, I saw, I wrote a guidebook
Burns would shear wolf funding
Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., wants to kill one federal environmental program to fund another. His amendment to the recently passed Interior appropriations bill would cut wolf reintroduction budgets and give the money to whirling disease research. Burns told The Billings Gazette that “whirling disease represents a real threat to Montana’s economy and environment, while wolf […]
Posted inAugust 21, 1995: HCN's founder fights his last fight, yet again
No takers for torched timber
Though the Forest Service is selling burned timber in the West at bargain-basement prices, the timber industry doesn’t seem interested. Industry buyers haven’t even shown up at many recent sales auctions in Idaho and Washington. On the Boise National Forest in Idaho, five recent sales drew no takers, prompting federal officials to drop their prices. […]
Posted inAugust 21, 1995: HCN's founder fights his last fight, yet again
Higher pay for hotter jobs?
-If they called them firefighters, they’d have to pay them like firefighters.” That’s the aim of union organizer Kenny Harrell of the Sacramento-based California Professional Firefighters. Harrell wants better pay for federal wildland fire crews, now called “forestry technicians.” Under that title, federal firefighters are paid less than municipal workers and then only while battling […]
Posted inAugust 21, 1995: HCN's founder fights his last fight, yet again
HCN interns: city kids meet gritty rural life
As word filters in from former HCN interns, I’m beginning to understand my place in a long and distinguished line of grunt laborers. I see now that I’m riding a wave’s crest, benefiting from past intern suffering. Compared to bygone days, my time is a cakewalk. One change is that the town of 1,400 is […]
Posted inAugust 7, 1995: Fighting fires, and indignities
No more water for Aspen – for now
Aspen Ski Co. lost a bid for expansion when the Colorado Supreme Court ruled in June that the company could not drain a creek to make more artificial snow for its Snowmass Resort. The court agreed with the Aspen Wilderness Workshop and the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund that the Colorado Water Conservation Board had […]