Record salmon, steelhead runs buy time for endangered stocks
Steve Stuebner
Posted inJanuary 15, 2001: Plains sense
Coalition finds harmony in the backcountry
Skiers, snowmobilers agree to give each other elbow room in Idaho
Posted inJune 5, 2000: Change on the Plains
Supreme Court upholds Babbitt’s grazing reforms
Putting livestock on public land is a privilege, not a right
Posted inMay 22, 2000: Save Our Sagebrush
Activist calls for cease-fire on wolves
Others say killing problem wolves was part of the deal
Posted inFebruary 1, 1999: Saving the Platte
Wolves worry outfitters
Gray wolves transplanted to Yellowstone National Park and Idaho wilderness areas three and a half years ago are multiplying fast – but so are the concerns of Idaho hunting guides, who say the wolves are killing too many elk. “If the wolf recovery program goes on unchecked, it will put us out of business,” said […]
Posted inMay 25, 1998: Tackling tamarisk
Ruckus on a recreation river
Each summer, thousands of rafters and kayakers head for central Idaho’s Middle Fork of the Salmon River, considered by many the nation’s premier wilderness river trip. During the week-long, 100-mile journey, floaters play volleyball on the beach, fly fish for native trout, surf the rapids and cook up Dutch oven feasts – all in the […]
Posted inFebruary 16, 1998: Private rights vs. public lands
Counties want to develop public land
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. It’s not the pristine view that Lewis and Clark observed nearly 200 years ago. Wind surfers zip across the wind-whipped river; barges haul goods to seaports and cars cruise down the freeway. Cities, dams and homes dot the landscape. But the Columbia Gorge National […]
Posted inApril 28, 1997: Evangelical Christians preach a green gospel
States get semi-tough on poachers
A dramatic rise in flagrant cases of wildlife poaching has inspired a batch of new legislation that could truly put the hurt on criminal hunters in the West. Anti-poaching bills with stiffer fines and penalties are advancing in the New Mexico, Montana, Nevada and Idaho legislatures. But lawmakers in Wyoming and Colorado recently rejected efforts […]
Posted inFebruary 3, 1997: Bringing back the bighorn
Columbia Basin plan staggers home
It was heralded as the flagship of an effort to launch ecosystem management in the interior Northwest, an unprecedented attempt to knit together the needs of people and nature. So far, the Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem Management Project has languished for three years and cost taxpayers $40 million, with few tangible results. The first draft […]
Posted inDecember 9, 1996: Motorheads: The new, noisy, organized force in the West
Locals learn the value of a good view
STANLEY, Idaho – A proposal for two subdivisions on private land within the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, one of the nation’s scenic treasures, has stirred up long-held resentments between landowners and the Forest Service. A local outfitter’s plan to build 10 homes on a five-acre parcel has prompted a cease-and-desist order from the Forest Service. […]
Posted inNovember 25, 1996: Pollution in paradise
Idaho jury hits 12 Cove-Mallard protesters hard
An Idaho county jury recently assessed $1.15 million in damages against 12 Earth First! protesters, one of the largest civil awards ever levied against environmental rebels. The Oct. 30 verdict was made in connection with construction delays and $20,000 in damage to a D-8 Caterpillar tractor, a rubber-tired skidder and an excavator in the Nez […]
Posted inSeptember 2, 1996: Last line of defense: Civil disobedience and protest slow down 'lawless logging'
Radioactive waste is hot issue in Idaho
BOISE, Idaho – Nuclear waste critics have taken on Idaho Gov. Phil Batt with a bang. In 10 weeks they collected 52,000 valid signatures – some 10,000 more than were needed – to get a “Stop the Shipments” initiative on the November ballot. If voters say yes Nov. 3, not only will Batt’s agreement to […]
Posted inAugust 19, 1996: Western voices
Marvel wins a round
Anti-ranching activist Jon Marvel has won a favorable decision from the Idaho Supreme Court on the first state grazing lease that he challenged three years ago. On June 20, Idaho’s highest court ruled that the state Land Board violated the state constitution by awarding a 640-acre grazing lease to a Challis rancher, even though the […]
Posted inJune 24, 1996: Catron County's politics heat up as its land goes bankrupt
Idaho air base guns for more space, again
If cats have nine lives, how many lives do bombing range expansions have? Air Force officials hope their plan for an air training and dummy bomb range in southwest Idaho has at least three. In a series of meetings early this month, Mountain Home Air Force Base unveiled its third training-range expansion plan. Air Force […]
Posted inMay 13, 1996: Howdy, neighbor!
A faint ray of hope for Northwest salmon
For centuries, Snake River salmon have followed the force of raging rivers on their 750-mile journey from Idaho’s mountains to the sea. Yet their migration hasn’t been natural since the mid-1970s, when the Snake and Columbia rivers were converted into a hydroelectric factory and a 350-mile-long navigation canal. Now the fish have a technical alternative, […]
Posted inFebruary 5, 1996: Lack of enchantment: Santa Fe's boom goes flat
The secret life of wolverines
STANLEY, Idaho – Snow machines finally silent, four researchers walked toward a trap for elusive wolverines. All was still in the thick timber of the Sawtooth Wilderness until a growl made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Pacing inside the log-house trap was a wolverine about as big as a bear […]
Posted inOctober 2, 1995: Did Idaho libel the feds?
Is the ESA being gutted in order to save it?
Like navigators of a sinking hot air balloon, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is hastily casting off heavy parts of the Endangered Species Act – perhaps before a reform-minded Congress grounds the law altogether. The latest changes surfaced in late July when the Interior Department announced new streamlined, “user-friendly” consultation procedures for federal land […]
Posted inAugust 21, 1995: HCN's founder fights his last fight, yet again
Festering Idaho mine to be cleaned; others remain
SALMON, Idaho – Four mining companies have agreed to pay the $50 million cost of cleaning up toxic runoff from a defunct copper and cobalt mine. The complex deal between the companies, three federal agencies and the state of Idaho, addresses acid runoff at the Blackbird Mine, about 21 miles west of here. Since the […]
Posted inMay 29, 1995: Politics 101
Huge snowmelt may lift salmon past killer dams
Just when everything looked dim for endangered salmon in 1995, the snow gods came through. They hurled tons of snow at the central mountains of Idaho, which, combined with heavy spring rain, should mean big runoff in the creeks and rivers in the weeks ahead. By the beginning of May, the floodwaters were already beginning […]
Posted inApril 17, 1995: The New West's servant economy
Is it politics, or is it revolution?
With Republicans firmly in power after the November landslide, a kind of insurrection is brewing in nearly every Western state. In legislative halls throughout the West, it’s popular to assert states’ rights under the 10th Amendment, streamline or gut environmental regulations and push private property “takings’ legislation. Some states, including Arizona, Utah and Idaho, have […]