Remember the oil crisis? It’s only just begun, according to the petroleum primer When Will the Joy Ride End? published by an Aspen, Colo., nonprofit, the Community Office for Resource Efficiency. With catchy phrases, hard facts and many graphs, authors Randy Udall and Steve Andrews stress that when global oil production peaks, it may already […]
Staff
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
Restoring the Roaring Fork
The Roaring Fork River Valley in western Colorado has a friend – a nonprofit conservancy created to protect the river and its tributaries. From its headwaters at Independence Pass at 12,900 feet, the Roaring Fork flows 45 miles northwest through the booming town of Aspen on its way to the Colorado River. The conservancy, founded […]
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
Leeches and cod liver oil
Ever wonder if you could have survived the measles epidemics and the streets that ran with sewage in the West’s early days? An exhibit of over 200 artifacts from the 1880s to World War II at the High Desert Museum in Bend, Ore., might test your imagination. The exhibit features an “aroma interactive” of Native […]
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
Fees please visitors
Land-management agencies call new user fees an “unqualified success’ and they’re asking Congress to make them permanent. During its first season on more than 200 sites around the country, the fee program raised $53.5 million. Before the trial fees got under way, public correspondence ran about 2-to-1 against, saying they discouraged low-income and local users […]
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
But trouble the Mountaineers
Mount Rainier National Park bypassed public discussion and sprang a surprise fee on backcountry visitors recently, drawing a protest letter from the Mountaineers, the Seattle-based conservation group. The Mountaineers says the new hierarchy of fees is too steep, especially for short visits. Two visitors might pay $10 to enter the park, $20 to camp in […]
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
Motorizing Montana’s trails
The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks and the U.S. Forest Service give motorized trail projects the go-ahead without scrutiny, according to The Montana State Trails Program: Motorizing Montana’s National Forest Trails, a 13-page report by the Predator Project in Bozeman. Widening trails significantly damages habitat, but agencies dismiss it as “repair and maintenance,” […]
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
Utah Wilderness Coalition
The Utah Wilderness Coalition of 155 conservation groups is taking its show on the road. Open houses explaining its re-inventory of potential wilderness on Bureau of Land Management lands will be held in Ogden, July 1, and Salt Lake City, July 8, both at 7 p.m. Later meetings are scheduled for San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, […]
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks
Winter recreation is a hot topic at Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks as well as at the five-mile John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway that connects them. To involve the public in an upcoming environmental impact statement, open houses have begun in Idaho, with more meetings set for Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Minnesota and Washington, […]
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
Wisdom of the West: Designing our Future Together
The Wisdom of the West: Designing our Future Together, a conference in Wenatchee, Wash., sponsored by the Planning Association of Washington and others, and to be held July 29-31, invites those interested in Western planning to participate in dozens of programs such as “Ethics for the everyday planner & commissioner” and “Stream corridor management – […]
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
Aspen Center for Environmental Studies
The Aspen Center for Environmental Studies hosts a summer of naturalist-guided programs for kids and adults. Participants can choose from activities such as exploring beaver ponds at sunset or riding a gondola to the summit of Aspen mountain. Call 970/925-5756 or visit the Web site at http://www.aspen.com/aces. This article appeared in the print edition of […]
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
Alaska Wildlife Alliance
The Alaska Wildlife Alliance, an Anchorage-based nonprofit, is alert to wildlife protection issues throughout its enormous state. Since its start 20 years ago as part of Greenpeace Alaska, the alliance has voiced the opinions of the state’s non-hunters in its quarterly, The Spirit. “Protecting wildlife and their habitat is the bottom line for us. We […]
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
Community Strategic Training Initiative
The eighth annual Community Strategic Training Initiative will be held July 30-Aug. 2 at Reed College in Portland, Ore., with over 50 workshops offered on community organizing. Workshops include Confronting the Anti-Indian Movement and Initiative Campaigns that Win. Registration deadline is July 10. Contact the Western States Center, P.O. Box 40305, Portland, Oregon 97240 (503/228-8866); […]
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
Victory for the bull trout
Compelled by continuing litigation from environmentalists, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed two populations of bull trout as threatened – one in Oregon’s Klamath River Basin and the other in the huge Columbia River Basin, reaching into Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana. The legal battle was waged by three nonprofit groups – Alliance for […]
Posted inJune 8, 1998: Don't fence me in
Defending the dunes
Shifting sand dunes might be the fastest-moving thing in the coastal town of Florence, Ore., population 6,200, and some residents would like to see it stay that way. But as the area’s timber and fishing industries die off, a new kind of development is moving in to take their place. In the spring of 1997, […]
Posted inJune 8, 1998: Don't fence me in
A family preserves the West
If not for Tom Wetherill’s deathbed wish, paper wasps might still be nesting in the century-old photo albums collected by his grandfather, one of five brothers who made the modern discoveries of Mesa Verde and other Indian ruins in the Southwest. Though later archaeologists ignored the Wetherills, maligning their work as insufficiently rigorous, the family […]
Posted inJune 8, 1998: Don't fence me in
9th Annual South Platte Forum
The 9th Annual South Platte Forum requests abstracts proposing posters for a conference examining the competition for water in the South Platte Basin of Colorado’s Front Range. Send abstracts by Aug. 1 to Laurie Schmidt, Colorado Water Resources Research Institute, 410N University Services Center, Fort Collins, CO 80523-2018 (970/226-0533). This article appeared in the print […]
Posted inJune 8, 1998: Don't fence me in
Wild Rockies Rendezvous
Alliance for the Wild Rockies invites conservationists to celebrate its 10th anniversary at the Wild Rockies Rendezvous at the Teller Wildlife Refuge in Corvallis, Mont., Sept. 18-20. Speakers include Peter Kostmayer, executive director of Zero Population Growth, and Michael Frome, author of The Battle for the Wilderness. To register, contact Jamie Lennox, P.O. Box 8731, […]
Posted inJune 8, 1998: Don't fence me in
Ecosystem Restoration: Turning the Tide
The Northwest chapter of the Society for Ecological Restoration is sponsoring Ecosystem Restoration: Turning the Tide, Oct. 28-30, in Tacoma, Wash. The conference includes symposia on riparian restoration, exotic species control and agricultural land restoration. Call Washington State University for information at 800/942-4978. This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the […]
Posted inJune 8, 1998: Don't fence me in
Colorado Fourteeners Initiative
The yearly number of hikers attempting a 14,000-ft. peak has tripled in 10 years, to 200,000, says the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative. And that is why the coalition of five nonprofit groups seeks volunteers to restore heavily eroded trails. Those interested in high-altitude work on Huron Peak and Humboldt Peak can contact Kristen Sauer, Colorado Fourteeners […]
Posted inJune 8, 1998: Don't fence me in
Wyoming Dinosaur Center
What’s more exciting for kids than seeing dinosaur bones? Digging them up, of course. The Wyoming Dinosaur Center, 120 miles southeast of Yellowstone National Park, offers kids 8-13 a chance to join scientists and technicians for two-day digs this summer. Already unearthed: sauropod remains (those long-necked veggie-eaters from Jurassic Park) and allosaur teeth and tracks. […]