Every Bureau of Land Management district in the West will hold simultaneous public hearings June 8 on Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt’s Rangeland Reform “94 proposal. Most hearings will start with a workshop to explain the new grazing plan, then open for public testimony. The BLM wants to hear comments on two documents: proposed grazing regulations […]
Staff
Posted inMay 30, 1994: Can mining come clean?
Recycling attracts Utah tribe
In a move to create jobs and build a stronger economic base, the Skull Valley Goshute Tribe in Utah has joined forces with two environmental engineering firms to form a company called EnviroSolutions. “The largest markets in the 1990s and beyond are going to be in the environment,” says tribal attorney Danny Quintana. EnviroSolutions recently […]
Posted inMay 30, 1994: Can mining come clean?
Endangered waters
The Clarks Fork of the Yellowstone is the most endangered river in North America, reports the environmental group American Rivers. The wild and scenic river, which runs through Montana and Wyoming, is threatened by a proposed gold mine two-and-a-half miles from Yellowstone National Park. The project includes a 90-foot dam designed to hold millions of […]
Posted inMay 30, 1994: Can mining come clean?
International park draws fire
Supporters of an international park said, “Nature knows no borders,” but protesters at a recent Seattle conference didn’t agree. Two hundred park demonstrators marched and chanted, “What do we want? No park!” while United States and Canadian park representatives talked about joining recreation areas and parks in the 11 million-acre North Cascades ecosystem. Protesters fear […]
Posted inMay 30, 1994: Can mining come clean?
Saving the remnants
Of the 17 million acres managed by the Bureau of Land Management in Wyoming, 16 million acres have been developed and a “paltry 240,000 acres recommended for wilderness,” says Liz Howell, staffer in the Sierra Club’s Northern Plains office. Because these wild lands are being lost to dirt biking, oil and gas development and mining, […]
Posted inMay 30, 1994: Can mining come clean?
A savage SLAPP suit
A “conspiracy” exists to destroy the Savage Rapids Dam in Oregon, say Oregon residents who are suing Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, the Oregon governor, 15 state and federal agencies and 10 environmental groups. “If the preservationists win here, they’ll want to go after all the dams in the state,” said John DeZell, attorney and founder […]
Posted inMay 30, 1994: Can mining come clean?
Techno-weenie resources
Grass-roots environmental activists and community organizers who have to deal with nuclear issues are often accused of compensating for lack of scientific knowledge with emotion. Now the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Energy and Environmental Research has put a physicist at the disposal of groups that work in the shadows of the nuclear complex. Its president, […]
Posted inMay 16, 1994: Babbitt is trying to nationalize the BLM
At last, a California desert bill
After winning overwhelming approval in the U.S. Senate, the California Desert Protection Act is only one vote away from becoming law. The voluminous bill, which was held up for eight years by Republican opponents and commercial interests, would create 74 new wilderness areas, three new national parks, and protect a total of 6.3 million acres […]
Posted inMay 16, 1994: Babbitt is trying to nationalize the BLM
Woodlot owners at risk
-I know I’ll have to sue him,” says Ken Hopkins of Greenbluff, Wash., who is unhappy with a private logger who harvested trees on Hopkins’ woodlot. The dispute centers around the price for trees and environmental damages from improper logging, according to the Spokane Spokesman-Review. State officials in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Utah say […]
Posted inMay 16, 1994: Babbitt is trying to nationalize the BLM
A spinning door
Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Dan Beard isn’t happy with former agency colleague Joe Hall. Eight months after resigning as the number two official at the bureau, Hall was hired as a $95-per-hour consultant by the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District, reports The Denver Post. According to federal ethics law, former top officials must abstain from […]
Posted inMay 16, 1994: Babbitt is trying to nationalize the BLM
A bright idea
When the lights start to dim or the TV won’t turn on, some Navajos in Arizona know it’s time to drive to a gas station and recharge the car battery. For the 10,000 people who live out of range of the tribal utility’s powerlines, car batteries provide a quick, though inconvenient, source of energy. But […]
Posted inMay 16, 1994: Babbitt is trying to nationalize the BLM
BLM OKs drilling near cave, sort of
The Bureau of Land Management will allow a New Mexico company to drill for gas on federal land near Lechuguilla Cave, the deepest cave in the United States and part of Carlsbad Caverns National Park (HCN, 2/22/93). But Yates Petroleum says the strict criteria the agency established for the leases make it economically infeasible to […]
Posted inMay 16, 1994: Babbitt is trying to nationalize the BLM
A one-man Sagebrush Rebellion
A Nevada rancher refuses to pay more than $25,000 in fines to the BLM.
Posted inMay 16, 1994: Babbitt is trying to nationalize the BLM
It ain’t Antioch
Male grizzly bears basically have two courting styles: find a female and guard her from other males; or, find one that is mating, chase the male away and take over. Those are the conclusions of “Do Big Mean Studs Get All the Action?” and “Why Are Deadbeat Dads Often Abusive?” two chapter titles Lance Craighead […]
Posted inMay 16, 1994: Babbitt is trying to nationalize the BLM
Home on the Range: A Culinary History of the AmericanWest
To Catch Wild Ducks,Geese or Birds AliveSoak wheat in strong alcohol.Scatter where they are in the habit of feeding.Take them while they are drunk. * Early recipe book titled Cookbook private collection, ca. 1880 Coon Cake Take what flour you have, mix with water, shorten with coon oil and fry in coon fat. Army Coffee […]
Posted inMay 2, 1994: A struggle for the last grass
Judge chastises forest plan defendant
The Clinton administration’s Northwest forest plan received a blow March 21 when a federal judge ruled the plan was prepared in violation of a federal open-meetings law. Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., said the administration failed to include public comment and took information from a limited circle of […]
Posted inMay 2, 1994: A struggle for the last grass
Oregon dam is in limbo
The future of partially completed Elk Creek Dam in southern Oregon remains murky. Federal judge James Burns recently decided that the Army Corps of Engineers has not adequately considered new studies which show the dam significantly impairing salmon runs. But instead of ordering the dam razed, or lifting an injunction against completing work, the judge […]
Posted inMay 2, 1994: A struggle for the last grass
New job for an owl lawyer
The architect of the legal strategy to protect the Northern spotted owl and its habitat in the Pacific Northwest is the new president of the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund. On March 7, Victor Sher, 39, became the sixth president of the public-interest environmental law firm that represents several hundred non-profit clients, including the Sierra […]
Posted inMay 2, 1994: A struggle for the last grass
Rainbows over Wyoming
Counter-culture types will be dropping out somewhere in Wyoming this July when the 22nd Rainbow Gathering convenes. From 10,000 to 25,000 people are expected to come from across the country to one of Wyoming’s five national forests. Rolling Stone magazine reports that last year’s gathering drew about 10,000 people to a national forest in Alabama. […]
Posted inMay 2, 1994: A struggle for the last grass
BuRec downsizes
Seven years after the Bureau of Reclamation promised to transform itself from dam builder to environmental water manager, the agency announced its first self-imposed overhaul. Under an order signed by Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, the Bureau will move its headquarters from Denver back to Washington, D.C., streamline its management structure and cut 550 jobs, mostly […]