Idaho has more wolves and one less wolf biologist.
The Nez Perce tribe has fired Timm Kaminski, who led the tribe’s
wolf reintroduction program for the last 18 months, AP reports
(HCN, 3/3/97). At the end of last year, six breeding pairs were
roaming central Idaho. The tribe isn’t saying why Kaminski was
dismissed.
Idaho Rep. Helen
Chenoweth and her Republican backers say they don’t understand why
their Capitol Hill colleagues won’t pass laws defending private
property rights. “We haven’t got support from the leadership,” she
told CongressDaily. Even Idaho Sen. Dirk Kempthorne, who’s leading
a bipartisan effort to reauthorize the Endangered Species Act,
seems to forget his anti–takings’ constituency, says Nancie
Marzulla, the head of a property-rights group. “I scratch my head
and say, “Aren’t we in the majority?” “
After filing for bankruptcy in January, Pegasus
Gold Corp. is closing its Zortman-Landusky gold mine in Montana
(HCN, 12/22/97). The company said it couldn’t afford an expansion
costing as much as $40 million. The nearby town of Malta mourned
the loss of a good neighbor, but longtime opponents at the Fort
Belknap Indian Reservation applauded the news.
Utah’s Lisbon Valley copper mine is gaining
ground (HCN, 6/23/97). Last month, the Bureau of Land Management
rejected an appeal by environmentalists, saying the San Juan County
mine won’t harm groundwater because it’s suitable now only for
farming and industry – uses that won’t be affected by the mine, the
agency says. Summo USA Corp. awaits a nod from the Interior Board
of Land Appeals before breaking ground.
A Colorado judge has told the state’s largest
gold mine to get back to work – on cleanup. Judge Nancy Connick
ruled March 3 that the Cripple Creek and Victor Gold Mining Co.
(HCN, 5/18/92) must meet EPA standards, even if historic mining
caused high acidity and metals concentrations in water near the
mine.
”
Dustin Solberg
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline The Wayward West.
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