The Bureau of Land Management is cracking down on
stray cattle along the San Pedro River in southern Arizona. On May
8, the agency announced that cows that wander into the San Pedro
Riparian National Conservation Area will be rounded up, and their
owners handed trespassing fines, reports AP (HCN, 4/12/99). The
Arizona Cattlemen’s Association’s C.D. “Doc” Lane had no quarrel
with the announcement: “If it’s not your allotment, you don’t graze
there.”
Bison that wander out of Yellowstone
National Park won’t get any relief from a new National Wildlife
Federation plan, according to Montana state veterinarian Arnold
Gertonson. The wildlife group announced May 2 that it will spend up
to $12,000 annually for the next five years to reimburse ranchers
for vaccinating their cattle against brucellosis. But Gertonson
says the program won’t stop the state from killing wayward bison
(HCN, 4/12/99). “It’s not the cattle that have the brucellosis,” he
told AP, “it’s the bison that have the brucellosis.”
A plan to cut the flow of cars into Yosemite
National Park hit a speed bump. In April, two California counties
dropped their support of a new bus system, saying it was
unnecessary. But 7,000 vehicles roll into the park on summer
weekends, and parking lots fill open meadows and wetlands. The Park
Service says traffic is the single greatest threat to the
park.
Rock climbers will continue to make
themselves scarce in Wyoming’s Devils Tower National Monument this
June. In April, a 10th Circuit Court of Appeals judge turned down a
second appeal from rock climbers who said a voluntary ban on
climbing was unconstitutional (HCN, 4/27/98). Since 1995, the Park
Service has asked climbers to stay off the 600-foot-tall butte in
June while Native Americans perform religious ceremonies. Since
then, climbing in June has dropped 80
percent.
Environmentalists are halfway toward
raising $13.7 million to buy the Loomis Forest in north-central
Washington. On May 10, an anonymous donor contributed $2 million to
help buy the 25,000-acre state-owned wilderness area (HCN,
6/22/98). The group has until July 1 to raise the rest of the
money.
* Greg Hanscom
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline The Wayward West.
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