-How would you like it if you lost your jobs, your home and communities just because of an animal no one’s even heard of? Is that what America’s really about?” Tammy Jo asked every five minutes, every day, until she was unplugged. She is a member of the life-sized robotic ranching family that enthralled visitors […]
Staff
Posted inOctober 17, 1994: As elections near, green hopes wilt
Open sesame, grazing boards
The public must now be allowed, if not welcomed, to sit in on Utah’s grazing advisory board meetings. In late June, the state attorney general’s office issued a decision that forces all five of Utah’s BLM advisory boards to open their doors, even to activists such as grazing watchdog Scott Groene of the Southern Utah […]
Posted inOctober 17, 1994: As elections near, green hopes wilt
Nevada Water Forum
University of Nevada professor Jean Ford has published the findings of a series of Nevada Water Forums held around the state last spring. The forums asked: “How should we manage and allocate water to help create the Nevada we want over the next 20 years?” Participants considered maintaining the current system of water allocation under […]
Posted inOctober 17, 1994: As elections near, green hopes wilt
When are trapped wolves “taken’?
The Bozeman-based Predator Project has asked the federal Animal Damage Control agency to stop trapping coyotes after a gray wolf was found dead in a trap on a Montana ranch. The wolf, which had wandered from a pack in Glacier National Park, died from overheating in late August. Wolves in Montana are protected under the […]
Posted inOctober 17, 1994: As elections near, green hopes wilt
Babbitt helps a river
Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt has declared an 11-mile stretch of southern Oregon’s Klamath River a National Scenic River. Babbitt’s decision deals a death blow to the city of Klamath Falls’ proposed Salt Caves hydroelectric project, reports The Oregonian. Oregon citizens voted six years ago to include the free-flowing portion of the river in the state’s […]
Posted inOctober 3, 1994: Subdividing the desert: Should there be a vote?
Inspector commits “career suicide’
Steve Jones’ 20-year career in federal safety inspection may be over. He was fired Sept. 14 by the contractor that is building and operating a chemical weapons incinerator at Utah’s Tooele Army Depot. Jones says he’s spent a frustrating three months trying to track down safety violations there. Now Jones is commiting what he calls […]
Posted inOctober 3, 1994: Subdividing the desert: Should there be a vote?
No room at the top
Climbing one of Colorado’s 14,000-foot peaks used to be a solitary joy. These days 50,000 people top the state’s famous “fourteeners’ each year, and in one weekend on Mt. Harvard near Buena Vista, 133 signatures filled the summit register. Marketed in myriad guidebooks, the climbing craze is shattering solitude and trashing ecosystems, reports the American […]
Posted inOctober 3, 1994: Subdividing the desert: Should there be a vote?
Mike Synar loses
Oklahoma Rep. Mike Synar, D, one of Congress’ leading advocates for federal grazing reform, lost a Democratic primary runoff Sept. 20 to a little-known retired school principal. Virgil Cooper defeated the eight-term congressman 52 percent to 48 percent. Ranchers cheered the defeat of the outspoken critic of “welfare cowboys’ using public lands in the West, […]
Posted inOctober 3, 1994: Subdividing the desert: Should there be a vote?
Save the temperate forests
Because of logging gridlock in the Northwest, some timber companies have turned their saws toward the Northern Rockies. Forest activists will plan their response Nov. 9-13 at the Second International Temperate Forest Conference in Missoula, Mont. The Native Forest Network, a coalition of environmentalists, wants the gathering to attract indigenous peoples, conservation biologists, and non-governmental […]
Posted inOctober 3, 1994: Subdividing the desert: Should there be a vote?
Mining reform: dead or alive?
As Congress prepares to adjourn for the year, chances that it will pass legislation reforming the 1872 Mining Law grow slimmer by the day. Sen. Harry Reid, D, who emerged as a key negotiator for the Western Democrats, says the Senate would have approved a draft put forth by a House-Senate conference committee in early […]
Posted inOctober 3, 1994: Subdividing the desert: Should there be a vote?
Peak writing experience
Ten Native American writers from around the country will read from their work and participate in panel discussions Oct. 7-9 in the mountain town of Telluride, Colo. The Native American Writers Forum will take up the appropriation of Native American lore by non-Indian writers and how Native American literature and tribal oral histories can be […]
Posted inOctober 3, 1994: Subdividing the desert: Should there be a vote?
Yellowstone makes bragging hazardous …
Poachers may want to avoid Yellowstone National Park this fall. Rangers have begun photographing the park’s most spectacular wildlife so that pictures are available if the animals are killed and their heads mounted as trophies. “This way, if we find that poachers have gotten one of these animals, we know exactly what to look for […]
Posted inOctober 3, 1994: Subdividing the desert: Should there be a vote?
Evolving wetlands
-Change in the West: The Evolution of the Watershed Approach” is the title of the sixth annual conference of the Colorado Riparian Association, Oct. 5-7 in Alamosa, Colo. Representatives from federal agencies, The Wilderness Society, The Nature Conservancy and Western universities as well as local ranchers will talk about shifting demands on riparian areas, case […]
Posted inOctober 3, 1994: Subdividing the desert: Should there be a vote?
… As park poacher holds on to trophies
A professional bowhunter who admitted poaching protected elk in Yellowstone National Park for nine years may get to keep his spoils. Federal prosecutors say they will not press Donald E. Lewis to hand over his illegal animal trophies to the government, as mandated by a plea bargain Lewis and his hunting partner, Arthur Sims, agreed […]
Posted inOctober 3, 1994: Subdividing the desert: Should there be a vote?
Water planning in the desert
Residents of the driest state in the nation use more water per person than almost anyone else in the country. But change may be forced on Nevada by sustained drought and record population growth. The State Division of Water Planning is drafting a new policy to guide water-planning decisions for the next 20 years. The […]
Posted inOctober 3, 1994: Subdividing the desert: Should there be a vote?
Hikers can bear grizzlies
Restoring grizzly bears to Washington’s North Cascades and Idaho’s Selway-Bitterroot ecosystems won’t interfere with hunters, hikers or horseback riders, says a conservation group in Bellingham, Wash. The group, Greater Ecosystem Alliance, examined closures of trails and campgrounds caused by grizzlies in 11 national forests and two national parks. All had little effect on recreation. Blocked […]
Posted inOctober 3, 1994: Subdividing the desert: Should there be a vote?
Saved from subdivision
A letter-writing campaign to members of Congress last year helped protect 18,000 acres of privately owned land within central Colorado’s Roosevelt National Forest. The area, known as Cherokee Park, was owned by Union Pacific Railroad and targeted for sale to developers for recreational homes. Once alerted, the Trust For Public Land, a San Francisco-based organization, […]
Posted inOctober 3, 1994: Subdividing the desert: Should there be a vote?
Sole source
The EPA may grant special protection status to an aquifer that covers 14,000 square miles in eastern Washington and portions of western Idaho. A local environmental group, the Palouse-Clearwater Environmental Institute, petitioned the agency in 1992 to designate the Eastern Columbia Plateau aquifer as the “sole source” of drinking water for the area. The EPA […]
Posted inOctober 3, 1994: Subdividing the desert: Should there be a vote?
New look at a river basin
The market-oriented environmental group that helped McDonalds get rid of Styrofoam wants to save the Colorado River Basin. The Environmental Defense Fund recently launched its Colorado River Basin Initiative, a project that begins by re-evaluating the Colorado River compact. The compact has dictated water use in the basin for the past 70 years. EDF hopes […]
Posted inOctober 3, 1994: Subdividing the desert: Should there be a vote?
One down, three to go
Following the belief that conservation, like charity, begins at home, Ecotrust was founded three years ago in Oregon to save temperate rain forests in North America. The organization chose four rain forests to concentrate on. Now, thanks to a Canadian timber company, it can devote its resources to the three rain forests still at risk. […]