Idaho Rep. Larry LaRocco, D, abandoned his attempt to push an Idaho wilderness bill through Congress this year. LaRocco struggled for 18 months to formulate a bill, but shelved it this July. “Once you get into the summer months and closer to November … the people who like to kill things become active,” said LaRocco […]
Staff
Posted inAugust 8, 1994: Glitz and growth take a major hit in Santa Fe
Where have all the tourists gone?
After all the worry and publicity about overcrowding at the Grand Canyon, the Park Service reported that visitation this summer has dropped by nearly 12 percent from last year. Not everyone is relieved; local businesses banking on a record-breaking flood of tourists are hurting. Theories about the decline range from the hot weather to foreign […]
Posted inAugust 8, 1994: Glitz and growth take a major hit in Santa Fe
Colorado water map
To help end the chronic battling over water in Colorado, a group has formed to provide impartial information on water issues. The nonprofit Colorado Water Education Forum is made up of 33 volunteers representing virtually every water interest in the state, ranging from farmers and dam builders to environmentalists and wildlife agency staffers. The group’s […]
Posted inAugust 8, 1994: Glitz and growth take a major hit in Santa Fe
Now you see them …
Indian ruins in the Southwest are disappearing, but it’s for their own good. Cartographers are wiping famous Anasazi sites off their maps. Due to a hot black market for sacred Indian objects and increased numbers of tourists, ancient cities such as Keet Seel, Awatovi, Hawikuh and Cutthroat Castle will no longer appear on many road […]
Posted inAugust 8, 1994: Glitz and growth take a major hit in Santa Fe
Pesticides linger in Northwest
A report commissioned by the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides found major groundwater contamination in five Northwest states. Neva Hasanein, the author of Uncovering the Legacy of Pesticide Use: What We Know About Ground Water Contamination in the Northwest, gathered information from researchers and government agencies in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and northern California. […]
Posted inJuly 25, 1994: 'Unranchers' reach for West's state lands
Sewage reservoir dogs
A threatened species of prairie dogs in Utah is on the verge of burrowing through sewage lagoons at Bryce Canyon National Park. Staffer Richard Bryant says in a worst-case scenario the lagoons could collapse, closing bathroom facilities and forcing the park to shut down. An estimated 27 prairie dogs, one-sixth of the estimated Bryce Canyon […]
Posted inJuly 25, 1994: 'Unranchers' reach for West's state lands
No one happy in Hells
The first Forest Service proposal in 12 years to restrict jetboats in Hells Canyon may sink. Both conservationists and jetboat advocates have blasted the preferred alternative, which restricts jetboats three days of the week, from July 4 through Labor Day, on 17 miles of the Snake River, which straddles the Oregon-Idaho border. Ric Bailey, floatboat […]
Posted inJuly 25, 1994: 'Unranchers' reach for West's state lands
Grizzly road delays
Fierce opposition from area residents has delayed a plan to improve grizzly bear habitat in Idaho’s Targhee National Forest. The Forest Service recently agreed to an out-of-court settlement with environmental groups to close hundreds of roads in an area adjacent to Yellowstone National Park (HCN, 4/4/94). But during an environmental assessment of the new plan, […]
Posted inJuly 25, 1994: 'Unranchers' reach for West's state lands
Fish benefit from trade
An eastern Oregon rancher recently swapped his water rights in a local stream for a year’s worth of hay. Rancher Rocky Webb will receive $6,600 worth of hay from the Oregon Water Trust in exchange for not irrigating 50 acres of pasture. The result: Steelhead trout will swim in more water, reports The Oregonian, and […]
Posted inJuly 25, 1994: 'Unranchers' reach for West's state lands
Navajo archaeologist honored
After 62 years with the National Park Service, Chancey Naboyia, the first known Navajo archaeologist, has retired. Naboyia, 84, was recently honored by colleagues with a lifetime achievement award, reports the Navajo-Hopi Observer. Naboyia worked as an archaeologist at national monuments such as Canyon de Chelly, Ariz., Mesa Verde, Colo., Aztec, N.M., and Chaco Canyon, […]
Posted inJuly 25, 1994: 'Unranchers' reach for West's state lands
Where wolves roamed
Where Wolves Roamed Under the government’s current wolf reintroduction program, wolf populations in the lower 48 states will reach only 5 percent of their historic numbers at best, says Matt Dietz. A graduate student at the University of Montana, Dietz worked with the Bozeman, Mont.-based Predator Project on a 46-page study of wolf reintroduction alternatives. […]
Posted inJuly 25, 1994: 'Unranchers' reach for West's state lands
Strangelove Park
Strangelove park Tourists on South Dakota’s Interstate 90 may soon visit more than just Mount Rushmore, Prairie Dog Town and the world’s largest drugstore, Wall Drug. Some of the nation’s 1,000 Minuteman missile silos are ripe for historic preservation, says the National Park Service, which is looking at two launch sites adjacent to Badlands National […]
Posted inJuly 25, 1994: 'Unranchers' reach for West's state lands
Prairie potholes
Prairie potholes When the glaciers retreated from North America, huge chunks of ice left behind made permanent divots in the Northern Plains. These glacial potholes – now prairie wetlands – provide vital habitat for migrating geese. Strategies to protect the rapidly decreasing prairie potholes from increased development and agriculture will be the topic of a […]
Posted inJuly 25, 1994: 'Unranchers' reach for West's state lands
Baca is still fighting
Although he lost his bid for the gubernatorial nomination in New Mexico, Democrat Jim Baca is still fighting for environmental causes. At a meeting of the Nevada Outdoor Recreation Association in Reno, Baca said it is residents of the urban areas who are thinking ahead and bringing a stronger momentum for change. He also said […]
Posted inJune 27, 1994: Home, home on the range ... where neo-Nazis and skinheads roam
Coming up dry
The bull trout is disappearing, says the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, but the agency cannot protect the trout as an endangered species because it doesn’t have the money. In a ruling June 7, the Fish and Wildlife Service found that the listing of the rare fish was “warranted but precluded.” Doug Zimmer, an Olympia, […]
Posted inJune 27, 1994: Home, home on the range ... where neo-Nazis and skinheads roam
So much for badges
Between 1953 and 1967, workers at Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant near Denver, Colo., were either incorrectly monitored for radiation or not monitored at all. Now, the Department of Energy is telephoning hundreds of current and former employees at the closed weapons plant to tell them they were exposed to more radiation than anyone knew. […]
Posted inJune 27, 1994: Home, home on the range ... where neo-Nazis and skinheads roam
Mount Graham fight continues
Environmentalists and Apache traditionalists have a new legal wrench to throw into the controversial Mount Graham telescope project the University of Arizona is building. The site designated for the $200 million project is outside the area approved by Congress in 1988, according to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court May 25. The university pushed […]
Posted inJune 27, 1994: Home, home on the range ... where neo-Nazis and skinheads roam
Lepidopterist poaching ring netted
-I plan on really cleaning house on Rocky Mountain butterflies next year. Am bringing 20,000 envelopes and I expect to fill them all up!” wrote one of three men indicted in a large butterfly poaching ring. All allegedly traded and poached butterflies between 1983 and 1992, from such places as Grand Canyon and Yosemite. An […]
Posted inJune 27, 1994: Home, home on the range ... where neo-Nazis and skinheads roam
Here come Rainbows
When some 15,000 members of the Rainbow Family meet within Wyoming’s Bridger-Teton National Forest later this month, things may be calm after all. In nearby Big Piney, population 454, townspeople are open-minded about the invasion of counterculture types from all over the country, says town clerk Susan Lison. In contrast to Pinedale, where residents are […]
Posted inJune 27, 1994: Home, home on the range ... where neo-Nazis and skinheads roam
In Wyoming, wildlife is public
Landowners can’t own exclusive rights to wild animals on their property, a judge has ruled in Wyoming. Texas millionaire Clayton Williams, owner of a 90,000-acre ranch in Carbon County, and three other Wyoming ranchers recently lost their challenge to a Wyoming law that says the state owns all wildlife as a trustee for its citizens […]