Wildlife biologists, environmentalists and Western politicians are engaged in a fierce debate over whether two decades of protection have so restored Yellowstone’s grizzly population that the animal ought to be removed from the endangered species list.
The 105th Congress didn’t come completely clean
At the last minute, out of the quagmire of the 105th Congress came word that the federal government is plunking down a $40 million down payment on the sprawling Baca Ranch in New Mexico (HCN, 8/3/98). In a Congress with few environmental victories, environmentalists were happy to put this one in the win column: “A…
Subdivisions loom over the Sawtooths
The Forest Service has spent about $50 million over the last 25 years to protect the Sawtooth National Recreation Area in central Idaho from the spread of subdivisions. Its work is about 90 percent complete – conservation easements protect most private land – but unless the Forest Service can work out a last-minute deal, rancher…
Three cheers for the arsonists at Vail
Dear HCN, In its single-minded pursuit of ever-increasing profits and greater market share, it seems Vail has finally stirred some resistance from folks not overly concerned with such niceties as the legality of their actions, and who exhibit a downright healthy disdain for the property of large corporations. Well, God bless the Earth Liberation Front!…
Lynx stops timber sale
The Canada lynx – proposed but not yet listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act – has stopped a controversial timber sale in southern Wyoming’s Medicine Bow National Forest. Deputy Regional Forester Tom Thompson overturned an earlier decision to allow the 1,473-acre Tie Camp timber sale within a dense forest of lodgepole pine, spruce…
Erosion danger fans flames
In Washington state, Patricia Hoffman’s community group, Save Our Summers, successfully led the fight to end bluegrass-field burning that was choking the city of Spokane (HCN, 12/22/97). Now she’s launched another air-clearing campaign, this time against wheat-stubble burning. “This is the first year that we haven’t had plumes rising in Spokane County,” Hoffman says. “What…
The lynx: To list or not to list?
You may be seeing more of the elusive Canada lynx if conservationists have their way. Groups such as the Biodiversity Legal Foundation have long argued that this cousin of the bobcat needs protection under the Endangered Species Act. Last spring, a federal judge ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the lynx. The…
Picturing Native American Culture
If you watched any television in the 1970s, you’ll recall the “Keep America Beautiful” campaign featuring Iron Eyes Cody – the Indian actor whose image, with a tear rolling down his wrinkled cheek, persuaded us to put litter in its place. His teary eye taught our society more than was ever intended – it helped…
Trading up to salmon power
The Emerald People’s Utility District near Eugene, Ore., says it will provide “green power” to its customers. The district has agreed to pay 75 percent more to a new partnership between the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) and a trio of environmental groups formed to encourage energy production that doesn’t harm air quality or salmon. The…
Spotted owls vs. jobs?
Does environmental protection really cause timber workers to lose their jobs? An article by University of Wisconsin sociologist Bill Freudenburg says no. His peer-reviewed study tracks employment numbers through three flashpoints of the modern environmental movement: 1964, when the Wilderness Act became law; the advent of Earth Day in 1970; and the northern spotted owl…
Endangered Mexico
Living in Mexico City – a place that has already suffered a kind of ecological collapse – has convinced me that the most crucial environmental struggle in the coming decades will be providing water, food and clean air, and ensuring basic human health in a world where resources are more and more limited. The most…
The Wayward West
Chalk one up for the Coeur d’Alene Tribe in northern Idaho. U.S. District Court Judge Edward Lodge rejected the state’s attempt to stop the tribe from taking control of the southern third of Lake Coeur d’Alene and part of the St. Joe River, reports the Spokane, Wash., Spokesman Review. The decision came on the eve…
Big Sky or Big Sprawl?
As cities swallow countyside, two upcoming conferences will consider ways to protect open and agricultural land from urban growth. Montanans meet in Helena Nov. 20-21 for Big Sky or Big Sprawl? Montana at the Crossroads: Montana’s First Statewide Summit on Growth. Call or write AERO, 25 S. Ewing, Suite 214, Helena, MT 59601 (406/443-7272), or…
9th Headwaters Conference, “Relationships Between Learning and Locality’
The collision between rural society and academia is the subject of the 9th Headwaters Conference, “Relationships Between Learning and Locality,” at Western State College in Gunnison, Colo., Nov. 13-14. Presentations include a one-man docudrama about philosopher John Dewey and a role-playing exercise about “fractious mountain valleys.” For information contact George Sibley, Western State College, Gunnison,…
Poacher gets trapped
When the authorities cracked an extensive Utah cougar-poaching ring this fall, they got help from an unlikely source: the poachers themselves. The hunters, unaware that their guide didn’t have the proper permits, documented their illegal hunts in photographs, videotapes and boastful magazine articles. In mid-September, Colorado hunting guide Samuel Sickels pleaded guilty to wanton destruction…
From Watersheds to Watertaps
Community activists from the Rocky Mountain states and the Dakotas are invited to attend From Watersheds to Watertaps, a workshop Jan. 9 in Denver on the new Safe Drinking Water Act. The workshop will combine strategies for protecting both watersheds and safe drinking water. Contact Carmi McLean at 303/839-9866 or denvercwa@cleanwtsaer.org. This article appeared in…
Who controls the Sandias?
When families in Albuquerque want to get away from it all, they need only look east, to the Sandia Mountains, where foothills begin just beyond the city limits. So residents and elected officials were shocked when a federal judge issued a ruling in July that was widely interpreted as handing over much of the western…
Renewable Energy Policy Project
The Washington, D.C.-based Renewable Energy Policy Project’s August Research Report suggests a way to boost the small market for water heaters powered by the sun. Instead of relying on public subsidies to stimulate sales, the report says, manufacturers could borrow techniques from the insurance industry, giving salespeople a commission on every heater they sell. The…
Bull Trout Workshop
The mysteries of the bull trout, recently listed as threatened on the Blackfoot River, will be revealed Nov. 16-17 at a Bull Trout Workshop hosted by the American Fisheries Society’s North Pacific-International Chapter. To be held in Nelson, B.C., a three-hour drive due north from Spokane, Wash., the symposium will explore recovery and management techniques.…
Gutsy scientists stand up to bureaucratic juggernaut
Science Under Siege: The Politicians’ War on Nature and Truth By Todd Wilkinson, Johnson Books, Boulder, Colo., 1998. Paperback, $18. 364 pages. The struggle to protect the American landscape is often portrayed as a boxing match between powerful corporations and gritty environmentalists. That simplistic picture leaves out a less-heralded yet equally critical player: the federal…
Even in the remote West, growth happens
STEHEKIN, Wash. – Tucked into a narrow mountain valley on the shore of Lake Chelan is a village so small it barely qualifies for the state map. A single phone serves its 70 residents, no roads lead here and only a ferry links Stehekin with the nearest grocery store in the small city of Chelan,…
A Montana writer’s real-life tales of bears and terror
Joe Heimer had the sow grizzly’s upper lip clenched in his fist, shoving and squeezing as hard as he could. The bear had knocked him flat on his back in the deep, sticky snow, and she was standing on his mauled legs, trying to shake his hand loose and sink her jagged teeth into his…
Arson isn’t the only crime on Vail Mountain
Fires set atop Colorado’s Vail Mountain have unleashed a storm of condemnation, a media feeding frenzy, and a no-holds-barred federal investigation. But the powerful public outrage provoked by the arson has obscured more important events occurring on the backside of Vail Mountain. To my way of thinking, there was just as much to be outraged…
Vail fires outrage community
VAIL, Colo. – Vail Resorts has never enjoyed so much support. The early-morning fires that destroyed cafeterias and other ski facilities atop Vail Mountain, causing $12 million in damage, have transformed the nation’s largest ski area into a victim. The Earth Liberation Front – Internet sites identify it as a splinter group of Earth First!…
Heard around the West
Western signs continue to puzzle people. Wandering around California’s Death Valley recently, Mark V. Sheehan of Olympia, Wash., came across one for “Death Valley Health Center,” which seemed to cast doubt on their services. And Jeffrey Dickemann, who lives in Richmond, Calif., says he couldn’t figure out what the “it” meant in a huge sign…
Grizzly war
Scientists, activists and politicians clash over taking away the great bruin’s federal protection
A parade becomes a memorial after a murder
Laramie, Wyoming, wrestles with the hate in its midst when a gay student is beaten to death.
Bare facts
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. * An adult male grizzly can stand eight feet tall, weigh up to 1,000 pounds and run as fast as a racehorse – 35 miles per hour – uphill or downhill. Females are just as fast as males, but may be half their size.…
Idaho grizzly plan shifts into low gear
Note: this story appeared in the print edition as a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Three years ago, Tom France and Hank Fischer were on a roll. The two veteran conservationists from Missoula, Mont., had successfully completed negotiations with timber and labor leaders to bring back grizzly bears to the Selway-Bitterroot country that straddles…
Dear Friends
Heading for the highway High Country News has adopted a three-mile stretch of state Highway 133 just outside of Paonia, and on Saturday morning, Nov. 21, volunteers from staff plan to pound the shoulders, picking up debris. A Sept. 23 story in the Salt Lake Tribune gave some of us pause, however. It was headlined:…
Wise words from a veteran activist
National Audubon Society activist and HCN subscriber Hazel Wolf stole the show at the Great Old Broads for Wilderness conference in Escalante, Utah, last month. Just a few months past her 100th birthday, Wolf traveled from Seattle to give a campfire talk about the great women in her life. “When I was 5, I asked…
Deaths drive change at Lake Mead
BOULDER CITY, Nev. – Lake Mead has never pretended to be anything but a watersports playground for the masses. Recreational pursuits that would make visitors outlaws at most areas managed by the National Park Service get a warm reception at Lake Mead. This summer, the lake hosted a hydroplane boat race, a bass-fishing tournament and…
A quiet victory in Quincy
QUINCY, Calif. – The day after President Clinton signed the Quincy Library Group’s forest management plan into law on Oct. 22, members of the grassroots coalition celebrated with a sparkling cider toast. That was it. No Main Street parade. No victory banner across the Plumas County Courthouse. After five years of planning, plotting and politicking…
Defensive GOP cleans up its budget act
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Look no further, ye seekers of political truth, who wish to know why the Republicans surrendered 30 or so riders to the appropriations bill – riders that authorized their friends to chop down more trees, graze more cattle and build more roads and airports on public land throughout the West. The answer…