California’s sprawling San Joaquin-Sacramento river delta has been mercilessly shaped by agriculture and water-development projects. A massive $8.7 billion plan holds hope for restoring the Delta and helping sate California’s growing thirst, but political infighting and a lack of funding have clouded the project’s future. Also in this issue: In central New Mexico’s Sandia and Manzano mountains, drought, hunting and traffic accidents have cut black bear populations in half. But for the second year in the row, the state’s Department of Game and Fish has extended the bear hunting season.
BLM gets a land-swap lemon
COLORADO/UTAH In early September, Bill Rodgers, a Buick salesman in Knoxville, Tenn., landed a great deal. Rep. John Duncan, R-Tenn., introduced a bill to Congress ordering a land exchange that would give Rodgers 3,888 acres of Bureau of Land Management land, mostly in Utah on the Colorado border. In exchange, Rodgers would give 2,048 acres…
Farewell to Dave Love
Dear HCN, One of the authentic icons of 20th century Wyoming and the West is gone. Dr. J. David Love, known to many as a great geologist and to many others as simply a friend, died Aug. 23 (HCN, 9/16/02: A legend of the land). He was 89. His humble beginnings as a ranch boy…
Nuclear waste road accidents don’t faze WIPP
NEW MEXICO August, a drunk driver crashed into a truck in southern New Mexico that was hauling 28 55-gallon drums of nuclear waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Project in Carlsbad, N.M. (HCN, 4/12/99: Nuclear waste dump opens). Less than two weeks later, the driver of another truck carrying waste to WIPP blacked out, hurtling…
Thumpers hit a speedbump
COLORADO On August 16, seismic “thumper trucks” were poised to explore for oil and gas in the Canyons of the Ancients, a national monument in southwest Colorado, home to several rare lizards and more than 5,000 archeological sites. But four environmental groups sued to stop the 30-ton trucks from rolling across the landscape, and in…
Crawdads get the boot, but not the boil
ARIZONA At Arizona’s Fossil Creek this August, concerned locals took a bite out of an invasive crayfish population. Two years ago, under pressure from local environmental groups, power provider Arizona Public Service agreed to remove a 90-year-old dam from the creek, which provides important habitat for native fish like Gila and roundtail chubs, desert and…
A new planning tool takes flight
Have you ever endured an incredibly boring planning meeting at Town Hall? Some developer, standing before a blizzard of maps and charts, drones on about how his subdivision will fit seamlessly into your community. You know that the size and location of the project will forever mar the incredible view over the river to the…
A dry old time
The Dry Cimarron River is called “dry” because it has a tendency to sink, then rise again, as it flows from Johnson Mesa in northeastern New Mexico, through a deep canyon, across a corner of Oklahoma and into the Arkansas River near Dodge City, Kan. Along the way, the Dry Cimarron nourishes rangeland that has…
A flood of admirers
The Clark Fork River in Montana suffers from more than a century of extraction, but there’s no shortage of praise for the resilience and enduring beauty of the river and its tributaries. Just as the river runs over boulders, drops through cascades, and meanders through its floodplain, the collection of works in The River We…
Magical, mystical and down-to-earth
They’ve been coined “boineers” – for biological pioneers – and they look to nature for models of sustainability and ecological and social restoration. This translates into topics as varied as transforming toxins using natural shamanic rituals to exploring the role of marine ecosystems. Now, you can see what these cutting-edge scientists, artists and activists have…
Drink up, it’s good for you!
Dear HCN, As I read the latest issue (HCN, 9/02/02: EPA puts cleanup in local hands), I was fascinated by the article relating the drinking of untreated lake water by Christine Whitman and others. I was struck not only by the ignorance of doing such a thing, but by the ironic similarity to an incident…
Where is McInnis?
Dear HCN, I appreciated your coverage of the coalbed methane controversy in your latest issue (HCN, 9/2/02: Backlash). However, despite your usual dose of comprehensive analysis, I noticed one glaring absence * where is Colorado Rep. Scott McInnis in all this? Given Mr. McInnis’ tireless advocacy for local control (when it comes to forest policy),…
More thoughtfulness, please
Dear HCN, I just want to thank you for Jeff Golden’s piece about finding the middle ground in the forest management debate (HCN, 9/16/02: A modest forest proposal for President Bush). We need more sensible, thoughtful people who understand the situation to reflect and contribute their thinking on how we can preserve wilderness, reduce huge…
The Latest Bounce
Federal forest boss Dale Bosworth’s complaints about citizen appeals of forest projects hit a crescendo in mid-September, yet appeals continue to pop up across the West. In Colorado, 11 groups appealed the White River Forest Plan, released in June (HCN, 7/8/02: White river). This time, Bosworth can’t lay all the blame on environmentalists: Appellants range…
Increase the peace – share the pain
Dear HCN, Paolo Bacigalupi’s NIMBY status used to sound more selfish to me in the past than it does now (HCN, 9/2/02: A NIMBY and proud of it). The major reason for my change of heart is my awareness that there is more than one “self” involved in being a NIMBY. His rant points toward…
Golfers may oust eagles
WYOMING A developer’s plan to install a golf course and 71 houses along the Snake River near Jackson has raised convoluted legal questions that sound more like bad jokes. One example: How many eagles does it take to build a golf course? That question came up when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service granted Dick…
Environmentalists fight chemical weapons burns
OREGON Plans to burn Cold War-era chemical weapons in northeastern Oregon have environmental groups up in arms. Before burning the more than 3,000 tons of sarin and mustard gas that have been stored at the Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility since 1962, the Army must first test its furnaces by burning “surrogate” chemicals. At the…
This land holds a story the church won’t tell
MARTIN’S COVE, Wyo. – As politicians in Congress, interest groups and Mormon bishops battle in the far distance to decide the fate of this place, a sad wind ruffles the tall grass and sagebrush here. It’s sad for those who know the story. In this sandy cove nestled amid the rocky hills overlooking the Sweetwater…
Idaho seeks a reputation – and a reality – free of hate
Nothing irritates us more in Idaho than our reputation as a haven for neo-Nazis. Our tolerance of hate-mongers in the past brought us this sorry legacy. These days, we can make a case that Idaho has become a place that stands up for human rights. That case was strengthened this summer, when Boise residents dedicated…
Delta Blues
California struggles to get a massive restoration project off the ground
Balancing act, part 2
Balancing act, part 2 The cover story of this issue is the second in our series, “California’s Water Balancing Act.” In it, veteran journalist Susan Zakin writes about the state’s water hub: the California Delta. The delta, just inland from San Francisco Bay, collects a mammoth one-half of the state’s rainfall and snowmelt each year.…
It’s open season on New Mexico’s bears
Despite dire warnings, state maintains an extended hunting seaason
Independent ranchers fight corporate control
Lawsuits seek to eliminate mandatory checkoff payments
Dam busters win symbolic victory
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. AUBURN, Calif. – Tom Aiken guides his old pickup along a crumbling road, past a steel gate, past a weathered shed filled with drilling cores, past heaps of gravel. Stopping at a pullout, he parks and leads the way to the canyon’s lip. The…
Flow charts for the Golden State
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Even for the state’s water wizards, it can be tough to get a handle on how California’s natural and extremely unnatural water systems fit together. But a series of maps published by the nonprofit Water Education Foundation helps make a normally arcane world accessible…
Heard Around the West
A reader swears he’s seen this bumper sticker: “Support gun control or I’ll kill you.” At the recent sheepdog trials in Meeker, Colo., top-selling signs for the rears of vehicles included: “My border collie is smarter than your honor student,” and “If it’s not a border collie, it’s just a dog.” But for the first…