All those cries of “5.7 Wild!” may have paid off for
the Utah Wilderness Coalition. The Bureau of Land Management took a
look at the public lands proposed for wilderness status by Utah
environmental groups – and, in early February, announced that all
5.7 million acres have wilderness characteristics. “We’re pretty
tickled,” says Mike Matz, executive director of the Southern Utah
Wilderness Alliance. “The BLM did a bang-up job.” There’s no rest
for the weary, though: Another 2.8 million acres added to the
conservationists’ wilderness proposal this summer (HCN, 8/3/98) are
waiting to be surveyed by the
BLM.
Environmentalists are also tickled in
Montana, where the Forest Service has called a halt to hardrock
mining on the Rocky Mountain Front. On Feb. 3, Forest Service Chief
Mike Dombeck announced a ban on new mining claims on 430,000 acres
of Forest Service land in western Montana. After a two-year study
period, the agency may decide to withdraw the area from mineral
entry for up to 20 years. A previous decision by Gloria Flora, then
supervisor of the Lewis and Clark National Forest, put a stop to
oil and gas drilling on the Front (HCN,
10/13/97).
Surrounded by reporters, two female
Canada lynx took their first steps into Colorado’s Rio Grande
National Forest on Feb. 3. The agency plans to reintroduce a total
of 11 cats to the Colorado backcountry this winter. The Canada lynx
is a candidate for federal protection (HCN, 12/7/98) and has not
been seen in the state for 26 years.
The state of
Oregon has dropped its appeal of the coho salmon listing. When the
fish was federally protected last summer, Gov. John Kitzhaber said
the decision wouldn’t drown the state’s plan for saving fish with
voluntary measures (HCN, 10/26/98), but his optimism didn’t stop
the state from taking the listing to court. Environmentalists are
now praising the governor for walking his
talk.
Last year, the Department of Agriculture’s
proposed organic standards generated more than a quarter of a
million public comments, most of them negative (HCN, 4/13/98).
While it revises its plan, the agency has proposed a cautious
interim step: an organic label for meat and poultry. The label
would allow state and private certifying agencies, which currently
inspect only fruits and vegetables, to put an organic stamp on
antibiotic-free meats.
* Michelle
Nijhuis
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline The Wayward West.
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