Can you imagine a world without traffic jams, potholes or auto accidents? Activists can at the Arcata, Calif.-based Alliance for a Paving Moratorium. Since 1990, the group has been urging people to get out of their air-polluting vehicles and find their feet again. The alliance’s 40-page, newsprint quarterly, Auto-Free Times, keeps the public up to […]
Staff
Three voices on Lake Tahoe
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. “The battle between the environment and business was really joined at Lake Tahoe in the 1970s. We’ve only recently learned to cooperate.” – Steve Teshara, Lake Tahoe Gaming Alliance “We’ve transcended partisanship. We work closely with the casinos and ski resorts now.” – Rochelle […]
Wolves will be wolves
When the federal government restored wolves to Yellowstone National Park two years ago, it anticipated that the surrounding states would ultimately take over management of the predator. Now, Wyoming has taken the first step in that direction by producing a draft wolf-management plan. The plan’s preferred alternative calls for allowing six wolf packs to move […]
Night of the Living Beanfield
Come hear “how an unsuccessful cult novel became an unsuccessful cult film after only 14 years, 11 nervous breakdowns and $20 million.” That’s how New Mexico writer John Nichols, author of the Milagro Beanfield War, describes his upcoming visit May 1-4 at Father Dyer United Methodist Church in Breckenridge, Colo. In two lectures, Night of […]
Colorado Coalition of Land Trusts
How do you keep land open and out of the hands of developers? The Colorado Coalition of Land Trusts will detail methods at its spring meeting May 1-3 in Colorado Springs, Colo. Workshops and talks will cover easements, stewardship, and funding opportunities for land trusts. Continuing legal education credit is available. Call 970/259-3415 or write […]
Wise Use Leadership Conference
Green infiltration of the Christian right and Endangered Species Act reform, are just some of the topics that will be covered at The Wise Use Leadership Conference at the Nugget Hotel in Reno/Sparks, Nev., May 2-4. The gathering includes workshops and talks by private-property advocates such as Kathy Benedetto of People For The West. For […]
Transportation partnerships
Transportation Partnerships, a May 1-2 symposium at the Hotel Colorado in Glenwood Springs, Colo., will highlight solutions for the state’s growing transport problems. Communities that have received grants – sponsored by the governor’s Office of Energy Conservation – will share what they’ve learned, including reports about trying to relieve traffic congestion in Boulder, and developing […]
Wetland Restoration in the Landscape
The destruction of wetlands may have dropped out of the headlines, but they are still disappearing at a rapid rate across the West. Whether it’s possible to restore wetlands will be the focus of the conference, Wetland Restoration in the Landscape, May 5-7 in Corvallis, Ore. The Society for Wetland Scientists and the Society for […]
Pacific Northwest Environmental Directory
From Puget Sounders to Trout Unlimited, you can find it in the 1996/97 edition of the Pacific Northwest Environmental Directory. It’s a good resource for job-hunters, researchers and anyone interested in environmental groups and agencies in Oregon, Washington and the Canadian province of British Columbia. The 230-page softcover book costs $18.50. Write to National Environmental […]
Scriptures
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign […]
Here’s looking at tourism
Tourism is as hotly debated in the West as clearcutting. Some see it as salvation for overworked landscapes and faltering economies; others see it as a more vicious form of extraction than mining and logging. All those perspectives as well as a few from the center will be at the “Seeing and Being Seen: Tourism […]
Cherish and Renew: Restoring Western Ecosystems and Communities
To Cherish and Renew: Restoring Western Ecosystems and Communities is the theme of the second annual Wallace Stegner Center symposium, in Salt Lake City, April 17-19. Revitalizing damaged natural resources and local economies will be the focus of discussion sessions hosted by writer and naturalist Terry Tempest Williams, sustainable agriculture expert Wes Jackson, Ted Strong […]
Desert Conference
An annual rite of spring, the 19th Desert Conference at Oregon’s Malheur Field Station, April 24-27, attracts people from around the country for field trips, networking, a desert rat poetry festival and lots of informative talks. Topics will cover the making of Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, cows and their intrusions into streams and the […]
High Country Blues
Interns share zeal, not meals Earnest Youth-Apple says that the idea of becoming an intern at High Country Blues came to him after talking to his hepatica. “She told me to get the word out any way I could; if it meant talking to people who are outright plant eaters, and those who are a […]
National Conference on Habitat Conservation
Habitat Conservation Plans, agreements implementing the Endangered Species Act on non-federal land, are almost always described as “win-win” situations. But are they truly conserving habitat? How are the species themselves faring? Come find out at the National Wildlife Federation’s first-ever National Conference on Habitat Conservation Plans, May 17 and 18, at Washington, D.C.” s Georgetown […]
The Raven Chronicles
The Raven Chronicles, a magazine of cultural diversity published three times a year in Seattle, Wash., is seeking contributions for an upcoming summer issue on images and ideas of the West. It is open to a variety of styles and asks only that submissions be “specific, original, brilliant.” The deadline is May 1. Write The […]
Carbon Monoxide Forecasting for Colorado Springs: 1996-2020
Local planners in Colorado Springs have underestimated both population growth and carbon monoxide pollution so as not to hinder the city’s rapid growth, warns physicist Val Veirs. The director of environmental science at Colorado College, Veirs predicts the sprawling city will violate the federal Clean Air Act within 15 years. His detailed report, Carbon Monoxide […]
Bay Area Nuclear Waste Coalition
Looking for a beautiful patch of land to defend on Earth Day? A desert gathering April 25-27 will protest a proposed low-level nuclear waste dump planned for Ward Valley, 20 miles west of Needles, Calif. (HCN, 3/3/97). Events include nonviolence workshops, ecology walks, tours of the proposed dump site and a Spirit Run hosted by […]
Copper mine rouses opposition
Flanked by massive cottonwoods and sycamores, Pinto Creek winds through the rugged mountains of central Arizona’s Tonto National Forest. Its narrow valley is a haven for an endangered hedgehog cactus, it contains scores of archaeological sites and it may soon become an open-pit copper mine. That prospect has roused local protest and national criticism, yet […]
Cut the fat out
Cut environmentally damaging subsidies and save $36 billion doing it, urges a report targeting 57 wasteful federal programs. The third annual Green Scissors describes how each program costs both taxpayers and the environment. Ending below-cost timber sales, the report says, could save $1 billion over five years. Twenty-five taxpayer and nonprofit groups contributed to the […]
