Tough economics, drought, and increasing clashes with other public-lands users are leading some ranchers to consider taking the “golden saddle” – a check from conservationists in exchange for their grazing permits.
Also in this issue: Two researchers say that the “Sustainable Slopes” program, touted by the National Ski Areas Association as a sign of the industry’s environmental responsibility, is little more than “greenwashing.”
Thumbs up on Yellowstone snowmobiles
My wife and I just returned from a late winter trip to Yellowstone National Park, and as an ardent greenie and retired employee of the Department of Interior, I must admit the new rules for snowmobile use are a good compromise for us all. I have to give Gale Norton thumbs up on this one.…
Private environmentalism: alive and well
I’ve been patiently reading your teary editorials and now an entire issue on the death of environmentalism (HCN, 2/21/05: Where were the environmentalists when Libby needed them most?). Political rubbish! Talk to the private people on the ground, the people like me who are “doing it” every day, year in and year out. I’ve put…
Centigrade is fine, thanks
What’s wrong with centigrade for degrees C? (as noted by Charles Miller in “Corrections,” HCN, 3/7/05). After all, the scale covers 100 degrees, from ice to steam at sea level. I suppose it was invented by somebody called Celsius; I prefer the more explanatory centigrade, or just °C. Being corrected for using that is nonsense;…
Showdown over the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and its people
Oil drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge seems to be the current showdown issue for the environmental movement. Now, some of the movement’s top gunslinging writers, including Rick Bass, are stepping forward in defense of the refuge and its inhabitants. In his latest book, Caribou Rising, Bass shreds the argument for oil development while…
Developer under fire for destroying desert
A developer who was grading the desert for one of the largest developments in Arizona history now faces a lawsuit alleging major violations of state environmental laws. In February, the state attorney general’s office accused developer George Johnson and the five companies he owns of illegally destroying 40,203 native desert plants, bulldozing seven archaeological sites,…
The best thing since dams: pouring water underground
The era of dams, it has been widely declared, is dead. So what comes next? In Common Waters, Diverging Streams, William Blomquist, Edella Schlager and Tanya Heikkila argue that the future may lie with “conjunctive management,” or coordinating the use and storage of surface water with water in underground aquifers. When surface water is plentiful,…
Santa Fe Hispanic Culture: Preserving Identity in a Tourist Town
Santa Fe Hispanic Culture: Preserving Identity in a Tourist Town Andrew Leo Lovato, 160 pages, hardcover $24.95. University of New Mexico Press, 2004. As author Andrew Leo Lovato writes, Santa Fe is not only a “city of ancient traditions” but one of “invented traditions” — in other words, it’s a true tourist town. “It is…
Diminished Democracy: From Membership to Management in American Civic Life
Diminished Democracy: From Membership to Management in American Civic Life Theda Skocpol, 384 pages, softcover $24.95. University of Oklahoma Press, 2004. Harvard University professor Theda Skocpol wants to know where all the volunteers have gone. Americans today are less likely to join volunteer groups than at any other time in the past, and the ubiquitous…
Common Southwestern Native Plants: An Identification Guide
Common Southwestern Native Plants: An Identification Guide Jack L. Carter, Martha A. Carter and Donna J. Stevens, 214 pages, softcover $20. Mimbres Publishing, 2003. This user-friendly guide includes photos and descriptions of 108 woody species and 38 flowering plants found throughout the Southwest. Bonuses include a ruler for measuring leaves and flowers and an illustrated…
Watson is selling lies
Regarding the letter “HCN has it wrong on Bush:” I retired from the Bureau of Land Management after 31 years in resource management (HCN, 2/21/05: HCN has it wrong on Bush). The Bush administration’s policies toward the environment and resource management agencies are best described by an old joke, “The difference between rape and ecstasy…
Bush, Cheney, and the Three Stooges
The non-factual letter by Undersecretary of Interior Rebecca Watson was typical BushCO arrogance (HCN, 2/21/05: HCN has it wrong on Bush). The HCN rebuttal was excellent. Here are five concrete examples of the Bush assault on public lands: This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Bush, Cheney, and the…
The Big Buyout
Tough economics, drought and increasing clashes with recreational users have pushed some public-lands ranchers to the edge. Now, check-wielding conservationists want to give them an easy way out.
Grazing buyouts help land and ranchers
It’s springtime in the Rockies, which means blizzards, blooming fruit orchards, and lots of baby bovines in the valley-bottom pastures. A month ago, the calves were small, dark lumps deposited on dun-colored fields; today, they are energetic youngsters, chasing each other across green grass in free-for-all games of tag. In a matter of weeks, most…
Dear friends
TRAGEDY IN PAONIA HCN’s home town, Paonia, Colo., population 1,500, is grieving for three children killed in an explosion at a mountain lodge outside of town. At least 16 others were injured in the March 19 blast, which was probably caused by a propane leak. Delta County Sheriff Fred McKee identified the children as 2-year-old…
Do you want fries with that mustang?
I’ve threatened to turn Vinnie Barbarino, my horse, into mustang burgers. After a long day struggling with the stubborn creature, my stomped-upon toes swelling in my boots, I have promised to ship him off to France to be served with a side of pommes frites and a nice red wine. Of course, I would never…
The last happy agency biologist — and other April Foolery
Public servant decides it’s time to put his feet up and relax
Ski areas’ ‘green’ image not backed by action
Researchers call ‘Sustainable Slopes’ program ‘greenwashing’
Rock jocks fight a mining company
Land swap would undo a presidential order for land protection
The public pays to keep water in a river
A new wave of ‘takings’ lawsuits could bust the environmental protection budget
Who owns Klamath water — farmers or the public?
Note: in the print edition of this issue, this article appears as a sidebar to another news article, “The public pays to keep water in a river.” For four years, farmers on the California-Oregon border have battled the U.S. government in the courts for $100 million in damages, after the Bureau of Reclamation withheld irrigation…
The Far East yearns for the wild West
When my friend Kevin passed through my home state of South Dakota on a cross-country road trip a few years back, I did the decent thing as a host and took him to see Mount Rushmore. Why pass the ninth or tenth wonder of the world and not at least stop by? Still, it’s one…
Saving Maidu culture, one seedling at a time
It was just a family jaunt, Lorena Gorbet says — a day trip to Soda Rock, where mineral water fizzes out of limestone clefts into a tributary of northeastern California’s Feather River. Gorbet, a Mountain Maidu Indian, gathered her children at the base of the rock, a Maidu cultural landmark. She told them about the…
Heard around the West
THE GREAT PLAINS The Week magazine celebrated Elsie Eiler, 71, of Monowi, Neb., as the most powerful person in her town. She’s also the only person in her town. When her husband died last year, the population halved. But Eiler said she’s not leaving: “I like it here.” Too bad many others don’t appreciate freedom…
Buyouts by the numbers
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “The Big Buyout.” The legislation proposed by the National Public Lands Grazing Campaign would offer a “golden saddle” to public-land ranchers, ponying up $175 per animal unit month — the amount of forage needed to support a cow and her calf for a month.…
One BLM district grabs the bull by the horns
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “The Big Buyout.” One hot spot for grazing retirements is the Upper Deschutes area of south-central Oregon, where ranchers have been butting heads with a burgeoning population of newcomers, prodding the Bureau of Land Management to move cows off the land. Private development is…
Public-lands ranchers: Should you trust this man?
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “The Big Buyout.” Andy Kerr, who has been an environmental activist for more than 20 years, was a key figure in the struggle to curtail logging in the Pacific Northwest in the 1980s and 1990s. Today, he is the director of the National Public…