The revolving door to the Bureau of Land Management
director’s office took a spin in November. On the way out was Salt
Lake City attorney Pat Shea, who headed the agency for just over a
year. Shea has been promoted to acting Deputy Assistant Secretary
for Land and Minerals Management, where he will help create policy
for BLM lands, coal mining and off-shore oil drilling. Stepping
into the director’s office was the agency’s former deputy director
Tom Fry, the fifth person to hold the office in six
years.
In the Sierra Club’s
San Francisco board room, club President Carl Pope took a
cappuccino cream pie in the face during the annual board meeting in
November. According to a press release from a group called the
“Biotic Baking Brigade,” Pope was “tried and pied” by the BBB for
supporting a Habitat Conservation Plan for California’s Headwaters
Forest and backing the Quincy Library Group bill. The club firmly
denies backing either
project.
A judge gave
California police the go-ahead in November to give protesters a
shot in the face with pepper spray. Last fall, Humboldt County and
Eureka, Calif., police officers doused the eyes of logging
protesters who had chained themselves inside 25-pound metal sleeves
at Pacific Lumber Co.” s headquarters, and at the offices of
pro-timber Republican Rep. Frank Riggs. The protesters sued,
accusing the police of brutality. U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker
dismissed the case in October, stating the spray caused only
“transient pain without significant risk of physical injury,”
reports AP.
A fifth Mexican
wolf was found dead in the Southwest in late November. At present
there are no Mexican wolves running free in the wild in the U.S.,
says U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologist Wendy Brown. Managers
recaptured the remaining two male wolves and placed them in
acclimation pens with two females due to be released later this
winter. In the future, the agency may skip the acclimation pens and
take wolves directly to remote wilderness areas, says Brown. The
reward for turning in wolf killers has risen to $35,000 (HCN,
11/23/98).
Cows are targets
near Moses Lake, Wash., where snipers picked off at least 17 of the
animals this fall. Some of the animals were shot with a small
caliber weapon, while others looked like they also had been run
over by a four-wheel-drive vehicle, reports AP. “When we find the
shooters, we should use some good old-fashioned justice,” said
rancher Buddy Hampton. “Of course, we can’t lynch anyone, but right
now I’d sure like to.”
* Greg
Hanscom
and Gabriel
Ross
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline The Wayward West.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
