After a century of poisoning and shooting the black-tailed prairie dog at will, ranchers are up in arms over the push by conservationists to have the animal listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
Day of 6 billion
The United Nations predicts that on Oct. 12, 1999, the 6 billionth human will be born. The U.S. Census Bureau says it happened last month. Regardless, the number is already having a big impact. To find out more, the U.N. recommends two Web sites: the National Audubon Society Population and Habitat Program (www.earthnet.net/~popnet) and the…
Native Americans gather to defend homelands
More than 1,000 Native American people gathered in New Mexico to celebrate the 10th birthday of the Indigenous Environmental Network. The June gathering was held on the foothills of Mount Taylor, surrounded by the radioactive waste piles of Jackpile, the world’s largest uranium strip mine. The mine was worked by Atlantic Richfield/ Anaconda in the…
Waterton-Glacier International Writers Workshop
The 1999 Waterton-Glacier International Writers Workshop brings more than a dozen writers together to discuss writing and environmental issues. The Sept. 16-18 workshop meets at Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta, Canada, and costs $175 U.S. For details, contact Barb Grinder, Box 127, Hill Spring, Alberta, Canada T0K 1E0, e-mail: bgrinder@telusplanet.net (403/626-3658). This article appeared…
All That Glitters
All That Glitters is a beautifully illustrated book about Native American pots that surprise because they sparkle. Mica occurring naturally in clay in northern New Mexico makes the shine; Duane Anderson documents the continually emerging tradition of micaceous-art pottery. The publisher of the $27.50 paperback ($55 hardback) is School of American Research Press, P.O. Box…
Summit to Envision Colorado’s Future
A Summit to Envision Colorado’s Future invites some 200 teachers, students, government representatives and community and business leaders to work together as a team, planning a sustainable economic future for Colorado. Cosponsored by The World Business Council for Sustainable Development and the Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education among others, the summit can be attended either…
Making the land pay
Farmers and ranchers can supplement their incomes by putting tourists to work as “hands’ and allowing camping and hiking. That’s a way to make land pay and stave off selling out to developers, according to a new report about protecting wildlife habitat around Yellowstone National Park. The Greater Yellowstone Coalition, the Environmental Defense Fund and…
Dams must go
Can salmon be saved? A free, 15-page report, Returning Salmon by Restoring Rivers: The Case for Partially Removing Four Dams on the Lower Snake River, says yes. Prepared by the Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition, which includes 230 conservation groups, Indian tribes and others, the report says breaching the dams is the best way to…
The river rules a hidden canyon
Day 2 “Then the sound of motors. “Baloney boats,” says John. We look upstream and see a huge silver-gray rubber raft come charging around the bend, bearing down on us. Swarming with people, it looks like a floating anthill. John pulls our dory aside to let it pass. Waves and shouts. At full throttle the…
The Wayward West
A railroad must pay for illegally dumping toxic waste in Montana in the 1970s and 1980s. The Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad Co. used the Park County landfill to dump perchloroethylene, a solvent that can cause cancer and birth defects. The discarded barrels were marked “non-hazardous.” On July 21, a Montana jury ordered the railroad…
Beaver and Common Sense Conflict Solutions
A conference focusing on one of the most important animals in the wetlands corridors, the beaver, will be held Sept. 7-9 in Estes Park, Colo. Beaver and Common Sense Conflict Solutions is sponsored by the Humane Society of the United States, Wildlife 2000, and Rocky Mountain National Park. For more information, contact Sherri Tippie, 4905…
Judge halts nine timber sales
After five years of an uneasy truce, both sides in the Pacific Northwest timber wars are slugging it out again (HCN, 11/23/98). On Aug. 2, federal Judge William Dwyer sided with 13 environmental groups and blocked nine major timber sales while threatening to stop dozens more. Dwyer ruled that the Forest Service and Bureau of…
Effective Forest Road Management Workshop
Woodlot owners and professional foresters might be interested in the Effective Forest Road Management Workshop, at Oregon State University’s College of Forestry, Sept. 20-21. The workshop includes a field trip to examine forest roads managed by Starker Forests and Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians of Oregon. Contact Conference Assistant, Oregon State University, College of Forestry,…
Water Issues and Partnerships for Rural Arizona
At the Arizona Hydrological Society’s symposium, Water Issues and Partnerships for Rural Arizona, workshop participants will talk about everything from water quality to flood management, Sept. 8-11, at the Hon-Dah Conference Center in the White Mountains. Speakers include Stephen Cornell, director of the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy at the University of Arizona,…
A Guide to Land Exchanges in the Northern Rockies
American Wildlands has produced a helpful brochure, A Guide to Land Exchanges in the Northern Rockies, which explains what exchanges are in the works and what questions should be asked of decision-makers. For a free copy, contact American Wildlands, 40 E. Main, #2, Bozeman, MT 59715 (406/586-8175); awl@wildlands.org. This article appeared in the print edition…
Taylor Ranch sells
A land deal in southern Colorado has added another chapter to the tumultuous history of the Taylor Ranch. In the final days of July, owner Zachary Taylor sold the final 54,000 acres of the ranch to Western Properties Investors for $13 million. The ranch has been embroiled in a bitter land dispute since 1960, when…
Building on Leopold’s Legacy: Conservation for a New Century
The 50th anniversary of A Sand County Almanac will be celebrated Oct. 4-7 at the Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center in Madison, Wis. Building on Leopold’s Legacy: Conservation for a New Century presents Bruce Babbitt, Michael Dombeck, and conservation biologist Richard Knight, among others. The conference fee is $250. Live Webcasts of the conference…
America’s Redrock Wilderness
America’s Redrock Wilderness “I’m here to disprove the lie that local people don’t want wilderness; the truth is that most southern Utahns are frightened by runaway growth and want to see as much land protected from development as possible.” * Linda Wood, Cedar City, Utah, testifying at Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt’s 1995 hearings on wilderness…
Facts about prairie dogs
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Prairie dogs come in five types: Utah, Gunnison, Mexican, white-tailed and black-tailed. The Utah prairie dog is listed as a threatened species and the Mexican is listed as endangered. Prairie dogs are active during the day, but only if the sun is out. Socially,…
Prairie dogs found in pet stores and pounds
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. “So this is where prairie dogs live.” That was the first thought in Rebecca Fischer’s mind as she drove up to a flourishing 300-acre dog town not far from the Marias River outside Shelby, Mont. Although she hadn’t seen a dog town since she…
Craig Knowles, scientist caught in the middle
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Stoic is the word that might best describe Montana biologist Craig Knowles. If he were a university professor, some students might pan him as boring. But the students who went on to become experts themselves might dedicate their first book to him. Wearing blue…
Shooting: It’s not a hunt per se
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. The man in the baseball cap sits in a chair at a table, a high-powered rifle in hand. “Right there, he’s standing straight up right in front of you,” says his companion. “Get him.” “I got him,” says Randy. Boom! The rifle sounds, and…
One grassland grows prairie dogs
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. The sage-dotted prairie of Thunder Basin National Grassland in eastern Wyoming is alive with wildlife. Coyotes skulk in the draws while antelope outrun approaching vehicles across the flats. On slight knolls, ferruginous hawks and golden eagles are often seen at rest. In the overgrazed…
Do prairie dogs steal grass?
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Over the past century, conventional wisdom has said prairie dogs compete with cattle for grass and dig holes that can break the legs of unwitting livestock. Maybe stampeding cattle injured themselves during long cattle drives of the 1880s, but not many ranchers say it…
Dear Friends
Debut on the Web On Aug. 1, Web editor Chris Wehner launched our new site on the World Wide Web, and High Country News took a leap of faith. In the past, we’ve waited three months after an issue is printed before posting it on our Web site. We did this to encourage people to…
Heard around the West
Fresh from a river trip through Cataract Canyon in Utah, five passengers and the pilot of a single-engine Cessna faced a nasty emergency: The plane from Redtail Aviation was lugging, failing to gain altitude. Adding to the tension was the weight of at least one man, reports the Times-Independent of Moab, Utah. He weighed “above…
An island becomes a protest ground
PIERRE, S.D. – Thunderheads had been building over South Dakota’s capital city, and by dusk, most locals, on the lookout for a tornado, took cover. But a dozen or so Sioux Indian activists, camped in tepees and nylon tents on La Framboise Island in the middle of the Missouri River, didn’t go anywhere. They’ve been…
An ugly message marches down an Idaho street
COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho – The teenage kid standing next to me at the start of the July 10 Aryan Nations parade here had worked hard on his anti-Nazi sign. Using a variety of colors, he had painstakingly drawn the leader of the north Idaho neo-Nazis – Richard Butler – having, let’s say, non-missionary intercourse with…
Reviving a refuge
TULE LAKE, Calif. – It goes by the unappealing name of “Sump 1-B,” and it is a far cry from the vast lakes and marshes that covered much of the lower Klamath Basin at the turn of the century. Only inches deep, its murky water is too hot for fish. Sump 1-B has a twin,…
Never underestimate a working majority
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Four years ago, shortly after the Republicans took control of Congress, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, glorying in her new status as a member of the majority, rose on the Senate floor to propose an amendment to the Interior Appropriations bill. She goofed. Still a newcomer (she had won the 1992…
Standing up for the underdog
On a sunny fall day about a year ago, Jonathan Proctor arrived in the prairie community of Chadron, Neb., for an evening of proselytizing. Though groomed to become a Lutheran minister like his father, the boyish-looking 31-year-old had not come to town to save souls. His was a more difficult task. He would try to…