A knitting society in
Sequim, Wash., is making little wool
sweaters to outfit little penguins who were drenched by a tanker’s
oil spill in Australia. The one-foot-tall fairy penguins need the
sweaters both for warmth and for protection. When the penguins
preen their bodies the oil poisons them. “They look so cute,” said
a member of the North Olympic Shuttle and Spindle Guild, who heard
the call for knitting help on a Canadian radio station. “You can
just see their heads and little flippers sticking out,” she told
Associated Press.
Sadie Emerson loved her Tiny
Boo, a potbellied pig who had the run of the
house and who “gave me kisses and was really sweet.” Then 50-pound
Tiny Boo went wandering. Emerson and her 3-year-old son patrolled
the streets of Deming, N.M., hunting for the pet. Stopping off at a
party near a mobile home, Emerson noticed that the main course was
a big mound of meat. It was the remains of Tiny Boo. Homeowner
Robert Bertola, accused of cruelty to animals, claimed that the
little pig had “tried to attack him,” reports Associated
Press.
The Yellowstone Valley
Flyer, a newsletter of the
Yellowstone Valley Audubon Society in Montana, describes a fiery
complaint that an Audubon member sent to an all-terrain vehicle
advertiser in Field and Stream, the magazine
sometimes called the bible of the outdoors. The ad for Polaris ATVs
encouraged riders to hit trails that turn into a “rutted track”
crowded with boulders, bogs, mud and logs. Montana reader Phil
Jacquith let Polaris have it, explaining that bogs and mud equate
to riparian and wetland, and that the ad “encourages the mindless
criminal destruction of these lands.” In between other mentions of
“mindless” abuse by reckless ATV drivers, Jacquith explained the
public-lands tradition of this country, one derived from sharing a
commons that is always in danger of trashing by the thoughtless
few. Flyer columnist Robert Lubber says if
Jacquith gets an answer from Polaris it might make “interesting
reading.” The Yellowstone Valley Audubon Society is reached at Box
1075, Billings, MT 59103.
A Mormon carpenter in Powell,
Wyo., who hadn’t been to church in 25 years,
suddenly felt a call to go. But after being told to leave the local
LDS Church because he was smoking, Kenneth Albert Wiley, 47, drove
his Ford pickup through the church’s front doors. Later, he said he
wanted to start a new church that allowed smoking and drinking
coffee, reports the Cody
Enterprise.
Westerners wake up these
days and find that on a nearby hill stands a
cellular tower – a big and ugly surprise. In Santa Fe, US West has
a solution: Slather it with adobe. That way it might fit into a
historic neighborhood, says the New Mexican,
reporting on a US West proposal to mount a cell antenna next to an
adobe-covered chimney. Disguise is not a new ploy; Arizona cell
towers have been disguised as saguaro cactuses. But when a tower
rises 250 feet, it’s tougher to cover up. Santa Fe County is
currently fighting construction of a 250-foot antenna between Santa
Fe and Pojoaque that will be visible for miles. It’s next to an
equally large tower built on land owned by Nambe Pueblo, which says
that as a sovereign nation it does not need to adhere to the
county’s planning standards.
Canada gave us lynx to
replenish our almost-extinct supply of high-altitude cats and also
allowed us to export packs of gray wolves to Yellowstone National
Park. So what’s the problem with giving America 25 grizzly bears?
That’s overkill, say some Canadian environmentalists, in the
Boston Globe. “There’s too much of a Wild West
attitude down there; too many guns,” says Evelyn Kirkaldy of the
British Columbia People’s Action for Threatened Habitat. “The
Americans killed out their own grizzlies, and now they want ours.”
Canada’s spare bears – it has some 10,000 – would be relocated to
the 25,140-square-mile Selway-Bitterroot wilderness in central
Idaho and Montana. Biologists believe the big bears pose little
threat to cows or sheep in the area. But grizzlies might vie for
top-of-the-food-chain with hikers. In Canada, bear expert Stephen
Herrero says he’s all for the bruin drain, calling it the
“neighborly” thing to do.
If they’d been smarter about public
relations, Sacramento, Calif., water
officials would have drowned their money-saving plan in jargon.
Instead, they crowed about finding new water for drinking by
tapping toilets, and that’s when talk-show producers pounced. Yuck!
they reacted, not understanding that almost everyone drinks water
that has been treated after being flushed innumerable times. State
water mavens gamely pointed out that the wastewater would rest
underground for five years, cleansing itself in sandy layers before
getting pumped up and treated. Now, more public hearings are
scheduled to make sure the public understands water recycling, says
the Scripps-McClatchy Western Service.
While the “Million Mom
March” against handgun violence prepares to
crowd the Capitol on Mother’s Day, a Utah coalition wants Congress
to leave handguns alone. Including groups called Second Amendment
Sisters and Women Against Gun Control, the coalition planned a
small rally for downtown Salt Lake City. Organizer Janalee Tobias
told Deseret News she was fed up with gun
haters. It’s the “pistol-packing mamas’ who can outwit criminals,
she said. “Allow mothers to carry concealed weapons to defend
themselves … and confuse the would-be rapist and murderer.”
Organizers of the Million Mom March May 13 say their target is lax
laws regulating handguns.
Heard around
the West invites readers to get involved in the column. Send any
tidbits that merit sharing – small-town newspaper clips, personal
anecdotes, relevant bumper sticker slogans. The definition remains
loose. Heard, HCN, Box 1090, Paonia, CO 81428 or
betsym@hcn.org.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Heard around the West.
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