Asbestos-laced dust from a vermiculite mine near Libby, Mont., has caused illness and death among locals for decades, but it is only recently that the media – and victims – have called W.R. Grace & Co. to account.
Round two for Steens Mountain development
OREGON — In southeastern Oregon, a couple has come up with a new approach for developing the 160 acres they own on Steens Mountain, the massif that Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt is eyeing for federal protection as a national monument (HCN, 11/22/99: Go tell it on the mountain). This time, John and Cindy Witzel, who…
Hunter orange is a long shot
IDAHO Five Idaho hunters died accidentally during last year’s hunting season, the highest number of fatalities for the sport since 1982, says a report from the Idaho Fish and Game Department. Since the fall accidents, a member of one victim’s hunting party has vowed to see Idaho implement a law that would require hunters to…
A scarce bird tests the new rule
The Gunnison sage grouse thrives in open country
Loggers tap new forests
THE SOUTH In the Pacific Northwest, the federal government can get tough with lumber companies because the forests are publicly owned. Not so in the South, where 85 percent of all timber grows on private lands. After the federal government drastically slowed logging in the Northwest in the 1990s, Boise-Cascade and other big forest-products companies…
EPA sets sights on snowmobiles
WYOMING, MONTANA Banning snowmobiles is the only way to clean up the winter air in Yellowstone National Park, says the federal Environmental Protection Agency, at least until the industry comes up with cleaner machines. The Park Service disagrees. Its preferred alternative in a new winter-use plan would plow the road between West Yellowstone and Old…
Neighborly mining negotiations sour
MONTANA Environmental groups and a Montana mining company failed to see eye to eye over a “good neighbor” agreement after eight months of talking, and negotiations have stopped. Stillwater Mining Co. and three citizens’ groups agreed that the platinum and palladium mine, located on public and private lands in the Beartooth Mountains, would be around…
A dam good speech
OREGON In a rousing speech before the Oregon Chapter of the American Fisheries Society in February, Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber became the first major political figure in the Pacific Northwest to back the breaching of four federal dams to recover dwindling salmon and steelhead runs in the Columbia River basin (HCN, 12/20/99: Unleashing the Snake).…
Tom Bell: The rancher’s dominance is over
Dear HCN, Wyoming’s illustrious Senate president, Mr. Twiford of Douglas (HCN, 2/28/00: A prof takes on the sacred cow), needs to creep out of his cave, somewhere in the wilds of Converse County, and smell the roses. This is the 21st century, not the 1890s, and the times they are a-changin’. I flew with the…
How much forest planning is enough?
Dear HCN, I disagree that President Clinton’s 40 million-acre roadless area proposal represents “uncharted territory: (HCN, 11/8/99: A new road for the public lands). We have already done what the president wants – been there, done that! Each national forest has been through at least one forest plan. In that process we looked at each…
About those Churro sheep
Dear HCN, Lisa Jones’ cover article in the Jan. 31, 2000 High Country News essays the travails Lyle McNeal has encountered with his Churro sheep. While I can’t judge the accuracy of the whole article, the portion I have personal knowledge of is just plain wrong! The writer states that Dr. McNeal’s sheep were used…
The Wayward West
A partially built farm for 859,000 hogs on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation in South Dakota has tribal members upset (HCN, 11/8/99: Can a hog farm bring home the bacon?). “We wish the production facility and the whole project would go away,” says Mike Blatz, a business representative for the tribe. But a federal judge ruled…
Endangered species must learn to wait
Conservationists worry wildlife will be stuck in bureaucratic limbo
Libby’s dark secret
For decades, mine dust has been killing people in Libby, Montana. Why didn’t anyone do anything about it?
Who knew what, and when?
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. W.R. Grace maintains it has always been frank about the dangers of asbestos. Former workers and union leaders disagree. They say Grace didn’t come clean with its workers until 1979, 16 years after it bought the mine. Earl Lovick, who managed the Libby mine…
‘It’s like sacking feather’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Former Grace worker Lester Skramstad is slowly dying from asbestos-related diseases. His wife and two children, now in their 40s, have also contracted asbestosis. The following is taken from his testimony in court. Lester Skramstad: “We built a screen, jig sort of a situation,…
‘Grace is going to have to own up’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Don Judge is executive secretary of the Montana State AFL-CIO in Helena. Don Judge: “For many years, neither the union nor the workers knew that the dust had asbestos in it, but we asked the company to clean it up. In 1964, the union…
Marc Racicot: One of the would-be president’s men
You never know who you’re going to meet on an airplane. Last summer, on a flight to Helena, Mont., as the seats in coach class began to fill, a handsome, middle-aged man walked up the aisle and slipped into the seat next to me. He appeared exhausted. His name was Marc Racicot, and he was…
A barbed tragedy is lodged in Libby
Note: This essay is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story,”Libby’s dark secret.” You remember asbestos: It used to be the hottest little insulator around. For years we crammed it into buildings and warships, wrapped it around water pipes and brake pads, wove it into fireproof clothing and flame-resistant drapes. Then we found out how…
Dear Friends
Reaching out Chris Setti’s work is a lot like that done by High Country News. He attempts to cover about 600,000 square miles of the West (Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming) with a few hundred square miles of resources. So when he stopped by our office a few weeks ago, we…
Tom Watkins has left us, but his Western dream remains
Tom Watkins, another pathfinder, has passed from the campfire circle. “He was a strong, clear and important voice backed by a good old-fashioned Rooseveltian-Ickesian liberal heart,” says Bozeman writer David Quammen. “Now we’re all older and more alone again, as we knew we were when Ed Abbey died.” T.H. Watkins died last week from cancer…
A new town hits the skids
Residents say no to development
Heard around the West
Holy flying s…! “Feces rained from the Utah skies again,” this time in Sevier Country, reports the Salt Lake Tribune. Two homes and two cars were splattered in February. This is Utah’s fourth poop-bombing, and police agree that a jetliner was the likely culprit. Last spring, three homeowners in the Utah towns of Riverton and…
Shadows out West
She greets you and your kids at the doctor’s office. Watching her as she goes about her work she seems very intent, almost frowning. But when a patient arrives she is attentive, tender towards the suffering, reassuring the frightened, and, especially with children, offering an encouraging smile. Her filing is precise and swift, as if…
Poison traps kill unintended victims
A rash of dog deaths puts the federal Wildlife Services agency in the hot seat
Shoveling vs. sniveling
Watch out, Nevada! It’s gonna rain shovels. In case you haven’t heard, the Montana timber boys are teaming up with Nevada cow-punchers. The loggers are sending 10,000 shovels to Elko, Nev., as a sign of solidarity against the federal government. I think collecting stepladders might be a more appropriate gesture. The way the B.S. is…
Goose got your gander?
Pooping plagues people in urban settings
The last Celtic warlord lives in New Mexico
LA JOYA, N.M. – Jim Catron, lawyer and history enthusiast, is sitting in his living room discussing the noble and inconvenienced Celt. He isn’t talking about modern-day Scotland or Ireland, however, which to his mind have degenerated into Socialist republics populated by barfly poets. He’s talking about real, live Celts. He’s talking about cowboys. Catron…