Residents of Jackson Hole, Wyo., have some new
neighbors: a pair of gray wolves and their five pups. Roughly 50
wolf pups have been born this spring around Yellowstone National
Park, bringing the population to more than 160. Meanwhile, the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service is appealing a 1997 district court ruling
that ordered the agency to capture the reintroduced wolves (HCN,
4/13/98). “I don’t know where we’d put that many wolves,” wolf
recovery leader Ed Bangs told
AP.
Some Nevada residents may
soon have unwelcome neighbors. State Sen. Mark Amodei, R, is
sponsoring a bill that would allow people to truck manufactured
homes into neighborhoods where they are currently prohibited. “I
think there are some people who have preconceived notions of
manufactured housing that are wrong,” he told the Nevada Appeal.
“They still think of them as trailers.”
Black-tailed prairie dogs
have been shot, poisoned and bulldozed out of much of the West, but
southern New Mexico’s Gray Ranch is rolling out the welcome wagon
(HCN, 2/1/99). The Animas Foundation, which owns the ranch, wants
to import 160 prairie dogs from Mexico. But some locals fear the
animals could spread to other ranches, bringing disease and
creating a headache for local landowners if the species is listed
as endangered.
Nevada state
leaders continue to fight a proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca
Mountain, so the nuclear industry is looking elsewhere for support
(HCN, 2/26/97). This spring, nuclear lobbyists at Yucca will host
Wyoming legislators who are under pressure to keep the waste out of
a temporary dump in their state. Julie Jordan with the National
Energy Institute says she won’t include Yucca Mountain opponents in
the tour. She told the Casper Star-Tribune, “We already know what
they are going to say.”
The
Sioux and Assiniboin tribes may kick alcohol off the Fort Peck
reservation in Montana. Responding to alarming rates of alcoholism,
drunk driving, domestic abuse and attempted suicide, tribal leaders
voted unanimously to put prohibition on the ballot this fall. But
some have doubts. “If you make it unavailable, they’re going to go
off the reservation for it,” tribal board member Gene Culbertson
warned in the Billings Gazette, “and there’s no telling what will
happen then.”
* Greg Hanscom
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline The Wayward West.
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