Two of the West’s greenest representatives in
Congress have announced they will not run for re-election. One,
nicknamed “Senator Public Lands’ for his commitment to
environmental issues during his four terms in office, is Arkansas
Sen. Dale Bumpers, who led the fight to reform the 1872 Mining Law
and raise grazing fees. The other is Oregon Rep. Elizabeth Furse,
who became a hero to Northwest timber activists when she wrote a
bill to repeal the 1995 salvage-logging rider. After four terms in
office, Furse is returning to Oregon, possibly to start a political
action committee …
It’s official. The Sierra
Club Legal Defense Fund has been reborn as Earthjus-tice Legal
Defense Fund. The new name was announced by actor Mel Gibson in a
full-page ad in the New York Times Magazine
…
It chugs along like a VW van, but looks like
a bison when it stops at tourist meccas around Yellowstone. Mike
Mease hopes his bus dressed up as a buffalo will educate tourists
about last winter’s bison slaughter. Mease spent the past two
winters videotaping the bison that were killed to protect cattle
from brucellosis. Mease is the co-founder of a Missoula-based
environmental group, Cold Mountain, Cold Rivers
…
Trying to draw attention to another native
beast, the Great Grizzly Hikers will walk 300 miles of a vital
migratory corridor for grizzly bears. The Missoula-based Alliance
for the Wild Rockies organized this trek along the Continental
Divide trail in Montana to promote protection for grizzly habitat
…
Under the motto “faith in every footstep,”
some 200 people on horseback, in wagons and pulling handcarts have
successfully retraced the route of the original Mormon exodus from
Nebraska to Utah. Despite greatly improved travel conditions, this
re-enactment faced some hurdles that the original wagon train did
not have to deal with 150 years ago. In Wyoming, for example, the
highway patrol stalled the Mormon Trail Wagon Train for three hours
for not having adequate signs to alert motorists.
* Heather Abel
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline The Wayward West.
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