On the California-Mexico border, environmentalists from two countries are working to restore the Colorado River Delta.
The Wayward West
In the wake of the Los Alamos fire, New Mexico Sen. Pete Domenici, R, is proposing a bill that some worry is another “salvage rider” (HCN, 9/2/96: Last line of defense). Domenici says that in order to reduce fire danger, federal agencies should be able to thin trees without enduring lengthy environmental review. Environmentalists say…
Protesters rock roadless area hearings
MONTANA Hundreds of logging trucks and busloads of protesters circled downtown Missoula, Mont., June 21 to rail against the Forest Service’s proposal to protect 43 million acres of its roadless forests. About 2,000 people from all corners of western Montana joined a barbecue and rally sponsored by the timber and off-road-vehicle industries. Loggers and millworkers…
Plum Creek is here to stay
Dear HCN, In response to the lead article, “After the fall” by Steve Thompson, and Ed Marston’s column (HCN, 5/8/00), here is Plum Creek’s perspective. We at Plum Creek disagree with the premise of both the column and the article that sets up an artificial conflict between small mills and large forest products firms such…
Tooele opens the door to more toxics
UTAH Writer Chip Ward has called his home turf of Tooele County, Utah, the “most extensive environmental sacrifice zone in the nation” (HCN, 2/14/00: Canaries in the Utah desert). The 7,600-square-mile county on the western edge of the state is home to a chemical-weapons burner, a biological warfare proving ground, a bombing range, a hazardous-waste…
Why does Congress starve public lands?
Dear HCN, Diane Pietrasanta says that her wilderness fee program in the Sierra should generate enough revenue to “pay five or six seasonal rangers where there would have been none” (HCN, 2/14/00: Land of the fee). I think the real issue is not “should we charge fees?” or “how much should we charge?” but rather…
Expansion faces restrictions
COLORADO Telski, the ski resort in southern Colorado’s Telluride, is expanding onto national forest lands now that a lawsuit brought by two locals and two environmental groups has been settled (HCN, 8/4/97: A do-over in Telluride). In an out-of-court agreement, Telski owner, Telluride Ski & Golf Co., was authorized to add 733 acres, nearly doubling…
Optimism for Nevada’s weedy wasteland
Dear HCN, I’ve been working with reclamation in the Great Basin for 17 years and personally know the learned gentlemen interviewed by Jon Christensen. Your article left me feeling like all our efforts over the years (HCN, 5/22/00: Save Our Sagebrush) have little show. I agree that the crested wheat plantations are more like museums…
The basin has a much-ballyhooed plan
NORTHWEST No one’s holding their breath, but approval may be close for an interagency plan outlining management of 63 million acres of federal land across Idaho, eastern Washington, eastern Oregon and western Montana (HCN, 6/23/97: New plan draws hisses, boos). In the works for over six years, the hefty and ballyhooed Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem…
Environmentalists challenge aerial gunning program
COLORADO Shooting coyotes from the air came under fire this spring. Twenty environmental groups sent a letter to Colorado Bureau of Land Management Director Ann Morgan demanding a halt to aerial gunning in the state until the agency studies its effects on wildlife. “Aerial gunning needs to stop because of the biological impact and the…
‘We haven’t got anything back’
Note: this article is a sidebar to the news story “Utah’s river kid takes on the water buffaloes.” Roscoe (Ross) Garrett, a lifelong resident of Nephi, Utah, has served on the board of the Central Utah Water Conservancy District for more than 35 years. Ross Garrett: “This community settled in 1852. About 15 years ago…
‘The vampires are in charge of the blood bank’
Note: this article is a sidebar to the news story “Utah’s river kid takes on the water buffaloes.” Zachary Frankel, a native of Salt Lake City, is the executive director of the Utah Rivers Council. Zachary Frankel: “I lived in Washington state and studied river ecology. I went diving in rivers and realized how gorgeous…
Caterpillar concoction causes concern
OREGON, WASHINGTON The U.S. Forest Service is using ground-up caterpillars and another biological insecticide to target an infestation of tussock moths on national forests in the Pacific Northwest. In a widespread outbreak in the 1970s, the moths defoliated trees across 700,000 acres in Oregon and Washington. The agency hopes that the caterpillar concoction, which carries…
Idaho labs blow another stack
IDAHO Last winter, when Jackson Hole, Wyo., residents sued the Department of Energy to stop a nuclear waste incinerator planned for Idaho, it was just the tip of the smokestack (HCN, 4/10/00: Incinerator plans go up in smoke). In early June, two conservation groups, Keep Yellowstone Nuclear Free and Idaho’s Environmental Defense Institute, notified the…
Climbing is the easy part
COLORADO To scale a “fourteener,” it helps to possess the body of a goat and the nerves of a test pilot. To climb 14,047-foot Culebra Peak in southern Colorado, you also need to join a club. Culebra Peak is part of the 77,000-acre Taylor Ranch near San Luis, Colo., which was sold last year to…
Los Alamos races against time
Summer monsoons could wash laboratory waste into the San Ildefonso Pueblo and the Rio Grande
Fires illuminate our illusions in the Southwest
Air, earth, water and fire. In the dry Southwest, the ancient fundamentals emerge clearly, and act upon each other in plain sight. When the wind moves rapidly above the earth after water has been scarce, little fires become big fires, and big lessons. For a few days after the fire at Los Alamos, the usual…
Heard around the West
Yes, they look freaky, some of them, but on the whole they’re peaceable and just want to see old friends and hang out – sometimes, it is true, while sampling controlled substances. They are the Rainbow Family of Living Light, a loosely affiliated group of ’60s-style hippies who gather for a week once a year…
Drying up the Melon capital
Farmers in a small Colorado town plan to sell their water
Freedom of speech shines in Arizona cave
State reinstates biologist fired for criticizing managers at Kartchner Caverns
A gutsy activist challenges a powerful industry
California off-roaders kiss their unregulated days good-bye
Utah’s river kid takes on the water buffaloes
Where is Utah’s water needed most: in fading farming towns or booming cities?
A river resurrected
The Colorado River Delta gets a second chance
Dear Friends
Summer break To give everyone a chance to catch up on their reading, hit the trail, ride a bike, paddle a river or – you get the general idea – High Country News will skip the next issue. We’ll return July 31, 2000. New to the board Last issue’s Dear Friends column on the Albuquerque…
Red Mountain tries to hang on to history
Locals want to put an abandoned mining district in public hands
Los Alamos fire offers a lesson in humility
The Cerro Grande fire in the Jemez Mountains of northern New Mexico blackened 42,869 acres, destroyed the homes of 400 families, and penetrated the security of Los Alamos National Laboratories more effectively than any Cold War enemy. In much the same way that the Cerro Grande restarted ecological succession on the scorched slopes above Los…