Mormons are often stereotyped as conservative anti-environmentalists, but Utah activists Richard Ingebretsen and Chris Peterson of the Glen Canyon Institute want to convince fellow believers that it’s OK to be green.
Also in this issue: The proposed salvage logging of the Biscuit Fire area in Oregon’s Siskiyou Forest is one of the largest timber sales in history, and critics say it’s not only ecologically dangerous, but undermines the Roadless Rule.
Cattalo could get the boot
The verdict is in — genetically speaking — on a troublesome bison herd in the Grand Canyon. The state-owned bison herd has been straying from its range north of the canyon and venturing into Grand Canyon National Park (HCN, 4/28/03: Bison arrive in Grand Canyon uninvited). The state wants to leave the herd on the…
Story gave San Diego plan short shrift
The article on the San Diego Multiple Species Conservation Program (MSCP) paints an overly negative picture of the effort (HCN, 11/10/03: San Diego’s Habitat Triage). The MSCP took a fragmented ecosystem within a major metropolitan area — otherwise on the road to oblivion — and created an interconnected reserve system. Indeed, the most developable large…
Story was biased against Los Alamos
Laura Paskus’ one-sided article, “New Mexico goes head-to-head with a nuclear juggernaut,” has largely parroted the viewpoint of the local anti-LANL (Los Alamos National Laboratory) organizations (HCN, 11/24/03: New Mexico goes head-to-head with a nuclear juggernaut). I am a LANL employee, although the opinions expressed here are my own. The problems with this article begin…
A disappointing story on Los Alamos
I write in response to your cover story on Los Alamos National Laboratory’s waste-cleanup practices (HCN, 11/24/03: New Mexico goes head-to-head with a nuclear juggernaut). I was most interested in how you would approach the subject, being a subscriber to HCN and a great fan for roughly a decade, a conservation activist in northern New…
Follow-up
During his introductory address, the new Environmental Protection Agency administrator, Mike Leavitt, told of a visit to President Bush’s Crawford ranch: “I’m from the West, and I know love of the land when I see it,” he said. Leavitt then announced plans to implement Bush’s Clear Skies Initiative, which, among other things, allows coal-fired power…
Whose thousand words?
Print the Legend: Photography and the American West, is not another coffee-table gallery of black-and-white mountain vistas or solemn American Indian portraits. Rather, Martha Sandweiss’ book looks at how the new art of photography shaped the nation’s view of the West in the 19th century. Photos are not the accurate historical records they appear to…
Calendar
The annual Colorado Agricultural Forum for 2004, “Profits Outside the Box: Agri-Energy and Beyond,” will be held in Denver on Feb. 19. Speakers and breakout groups will discuss how Colorado agriculture can harness renewable energy and other innovations to stay profitable. www.coloradoagforum.com 303-477-0076 ext. 210 Where will you be when the sun rises? If it’s…
More than just a city on a river
In New Mexico, history is never an abstraction. Whether you are seeking shelter in a thick-walled adobe home, listening to the lilt of a native New Mexican’s words, tracing the path of acequias or tasting posole, you can sense history there. And there are few writers better able to tell that history than Marc Simmons.…
Log onto Democracy!
Want to keep a closer eye on your state and federal lawmakers? Looking to find out more information about a bill before Congress? Eager to browse the hot topics debated in your state legislature? Look no further than www.statedemocracy.com. Run by the nonprofit State Democracy Foundation, the Web site allows users to compare how different…
Big development gets bought out
California has agreed to buy the site of one of the most controversial housing projects ever proposed in the state — and to preserve the land as open space. Since 1986, a series of home builders has tried to develop the 3,000-acre Ahmanson Ranch, north of Los Angeles on the Ventura County line. But the…
Clean water changes could sully Western streambeds
Western rivers might be left high and dry — and polluted — if Bush administration officials push through a rule change to the Clean Water Act. In November, a senior government official leaked a draft of the proposed change to the Los Angeles Times. Under the new rule, the Clean Water Act would apply only…
Mormons win Martin’s Cove
Culminating a five-year effort, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has gained control of Martin’s Cove — 940 acres of federal land — where several dozen Mormon immigrants died in a blizzard in 1856. The church considers the site, southwest of Casper, Wyo., sacred and sought to buy it (HCN, 9/30/02: This land…
A near-miss for California’s clean-air rules
California’s newest clean-air law narrowly escaped an attempt to shoot it down in the U.S. Congress. Faced with the worst air pollution in the nation, the state has led the way in enacting tough air-quality regulations. But although California has made progress in combating auto emissions, pollution from small engines like lawnmowers and weed whackers…
Wildlife win one in Yellowstone
As part of a program to reduce conflicts between cattle and wildlife, the National Wildlife Federation has negotiated two important land deals with ranchers in the Yellowstone National Park region. In Wyoming in August, the federation raised $250,000 from other conservation groups, foundations and donors to buy out 77,000 acres of the Blackrock-Spread Creek grazing…
Being Green in the Land of the Saints
In the heartland of the Mormon Church, a new movement is taking root
Toppling monoliths in Mormon Country
It’s all too easy to stereotype Mormons as conservative, anti-environment and unquestioning of their leaders. Kudos to those within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who are breaking out of that stereotype — those who are proving that there is room within the faith for diversity and debate. As Rosemary Winters writes in…
Dear Friends
VACATION TIME
Massive logging plan shakes Northwest
One of the largest timber sales in history uncovers old animosity, and undermines the Roadless Rule
Planning for the new rural Idaho
Recently, an acclaimed young writer and a world-renowned opera singer charmed a packed house in Driggs, Idaho. What were they doing there instead of in a place a hundred times larger? The answer tells us something about the future of rural Idaho. The writer was Ann Patchett, whose most recent novel, Bel Canto, draws its…
West Nile isn’t just for people
Coalbed methane development may be helping spread disease to wild birds
National preserve is in hot water
Some say proposal to build a geothermal power plant in the Valles Caldera is a ploy to extort money from the Forest Service
Fires take toll on San Diego’s wildlife
Rare butterfly is likely extinct, while imperiled gnatcatcher loses a chunk of habitat
King coal is back
With natural gas supplies stretched thin, and the Bush administration loosening environmental regulations, energy companies are turning their attention back to coal
A gift of supreme excellence
It is good to be writing again. The mountains have snow, the air is cold, the sun is shining. It is a good November day, and I have been thinking of this idea of sovereignty, an almost foreign word here in Antonito, Colo., where there is so much poverty, and where most of us, to…
Biologist busted for moving endangered cacti
A darling of developers, consultant gets five years’ probation and $5,000 fine
Heard Around the West
CALIFORNIA Remember that New Yorker cartoon, the one where a plump pussycat looks at its behind in a mirror and asks: “Does this collar make my butt look too big?” Well, humans are passing on their overeating habits to pets. Medical researchers warn we’re also bad influences on wildlife: Bears in the Lake Tahoe area…
Mormonism 101: A primer for gentiles
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Being Green in the Land of the Saints.” The Mormon faith began in 1820, when Joseph Smith, then 14 years old, had a vision of God and Jesus Christ in a grove of trees near his home in Palmyra, N.Y. Three years later, the…