As methamphetamine moves into the small, isolated towns of the rural West, the waste left by its manufacture pollutes the environment while the drug’s abuse and the traffic in it strain the resources of local law enforcement and social services.
Reform school for wolves
MONTANA Things are shocking for three wolves on Ted Turner’s ranch near Bozeman, Mont. For the past several weeks they have been serving time in what one wolf biologist calls “reform school,” an experiment that managers hope will stop wolves from killing cattle. In a few weeks, when a beef calf is added to the…
Environmental education takes a ride
With only a bike to call his home, Mike Kahn is on a mission this summer. He wants to educate children about nature and the environment – while he pedals almost 4,000 miles from California to Maine. Kahn is the former office manager for Environmental Volunteers, a nonprofit group based in Palo Alto, Calif., and…
A leaky mine must get in line
IDAHO When the Grouse Creek Mine opened in 1995, it was hailed as an example of mining done in harmony with the environment. But the central Idaho gold mine closed in 1997 because it wasn’t making enough money, and its 500 million-gallon tailings pond leaks and has been contaminating streams with cyanide. Now federal and…
After Lewis and Clark: Explorer Artists and the American West
The journals and paintings of four artists, including George Catlin, who explored the Rocky Mountains after Lewis and Clark, will be featured at the Sun Valley Center for the Arts in Ketchum, Idaho. After Lewis and Clark: Explorer Artists and the American West is on display until Sept. 29, and then moves to the Boise…
Condors back in captivity
ARIZONA The California condor is one bird big enough to complement the vast size of the Grand Canyon. But it will be a while before visitors see the endangered birds’ huge soaring silhouettes again. All of the Grand Canyon condors, whose reintroduction began in 1996, were recaptured this summer after lead poisoning wiped out four…
14th Annual National Forest Reform Rally
Forest activists unite at the 14th Annual National Forest Reform Rally in Romayor, Texas, from Sept. 15-17. Participants will attend workshops on maintaining roadless areas, restoring ecosystems and ending old-growth logging, among other topics. Registration fees received before Aug. 28 are $35; late registration costs $45. Contact the Forest Reform Network, c/o Texas Committee on…
Farm it or mine it?
OREGON A gravel company’s proposal to mine 550 acres of farmland near the Willamette River has farmers fighting to save their soil. A mild, wet climate and top-grade soils make Oregon’s Willamette River Valley a prime farming location. “Anything you put in it will grow,” says Thom Lanfear, planner for Lane County. The river valley,…
Learning from the Monument
Agency managers, environmentalists, lawyers and legislators hope to shed light on land protection in the West by analyzing the designation of Grand Staircase-Escalante as a national monument. Learning from the Monument is from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 15, at the University of Utah College of Law in Salt Lake City. To…
No recreation fees – for now
WYOMING There’s at least one way to get around the government’s recreation fee-demonstration program. Just one week before the Forest Service installed signs telling visitors that they’d have to pay to enjoy the Snake River in Wyoming, an anonymous donor offered $50,000 to keep river access free. Then the nearby Jackson, Wyo., community added its…
Nature Writers Retreat
Northwest authors Tim McNulty, Stephanie Mills, Robert Michael Pyle and Susan Zwinger will teach their writing secrets at the Nature Writers Retreat near Leavenworth, Wash. From Sept. 24-27, participants will learn the tools of observation, metaphor and character development. For more information, call the North Cascades Institute at 360/856-5700 ext. 209; e-mail: nci@ncascades.org or visit…
Dumping diesel
CALIFORNIA Southern California, home to some of the dirtiest air in the nation, is dumping diesel engines in favor of cleaner-burning energy sources such as natural gas and electricity. Last year, a report conducted by the South Coast Air Quality Management District, a local air pollution control agency, found that diesel exhaust is responsible for…
When the pot calls the kettle black
Dear HCN, In Jon Margolis’ article on “property rightsniks’ (HCN, 6/5/00: Can ‘property rightsniks’ stop a popular bill?), he says, “Mainly, though, the very irrationality of the opponents is rational. Their purpose is not to make sense, nor even to win votes, but to oppose, and to prosper while doing it. Cushman’s American Land Rights…
Open your mind to Mexico
Dear HCN, Let me calm down a minute here before trying to respond to Denver’s Wayne Schnell. His bigotry in the July 3 issue deserves some comment and analysis. First, Mr. Schnell, if you want Mexican nationals to stop coming to the U.S., stop hiring them to do the work you disdain or find some…
Subdivision approved in owl habitat
ARIZONA Last year, when the federal government designated Tucson’s northwest side as critical habitat for the endangered cactus ferruginous pygmy-owl (HCN, 8/30/99: A pocket-sized bird takes on Sunbelt subdivisions), developers feared their boom had busted. But a federal Fish and Wildlife Service decision in late July may bring the bulldozers back. The agency says developer…
We’ve done it wrong for a long time
Dear HCN, I am concerned about the call to logging put forward in Frank Carroll’s essay, “Los Alamos is burning” (HCN, 5/22/00: Los Alamos is burning), and I am concerned about the “BLM … planting millions of acres in non-native crested wheatgrass.” I am a biologist who used to work for the BLM in eastern…
Composting takes out the trash
CALIFORNIA California produces nearly 48 million tons of trash every year. A decade ago, the Golden State mandated that it cut landfill waste by 50 percent in an attempt to reduce these numbers. The state is close to its goal: It’s reduced landfill waste by nearly 40 percent so far, and some say composting has…
Interior secretaries have what it takes
Dear HCN, Some Westerners seem to believe that Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt is the only one who ever moved, under presidential direction, to encourage the preservation of land and water under national monument designation. America has had 48 secretaries of the Interior. Since the passage by Congress in 1906 of the act that allows presidents…
Whirlybirds will fly over Jackson
WYOMING After months of bitter debate, the Jackson Hole Airport at the edge of Grand Teton National Park has decided to allow some helicopter flights. Vortex Aircraft CEO Gary Kauffman originally proposed scenic air tours of the Jackson Hole Valley, the Bridger-Teton National Forest and the National Elk Refuge, but not over Teton National Park.…
Tee off for salmon
OREGON When Ed and Janice Hopper bought a 27-hole golf course at the base of Oregon’s Mount Hood in 1989, they dreamed of coho and steelhead salmon swimming in the small stream that runs through the course. More than 100 years ago, the fish were there in the Wee Burn, a tributary of the wild…
Critter-watching etiquette
If you’ve ever wondered why it’s hard to see raccoons at night, or why Lassie’s favorite meal didn’t include broccoli, a new children’s book called On the Trail of Colorado Critters can help. “Have you ever been hiking and seen a deer? Have you heard an owl hooting at night? Does a woodpecker live in…
Farm workers’ kids exposed to pesticides
Some children of farm workers in Washington state show elevated levels of pesticide exposure, according to a study by University of Washington researchers. In 1995, urine samples from 109 children in agricultural counties in eastern Washington – almost all children of farm workers – were tested for two pesticides known as organophosphates. Results show 56…
The Wayward West
Wildfires continue to scorch the West at a record pace (HCN, 7/31/00: Colorado blazes fuel forest restoration efforts). High temperatures, low humidity and a plethora of dry lightning have created the worst wildfire season since 1988. The federal government is spending $15 million a day on fire fighting. As of Aug. 7, more than 60…
Migrating with the monarchs
Trying to unlock the secrets of the West’s monarch butterflies, writer and naturalist Robert Michael Pyle logged over 9,500 miles in his beloved 1982 Honda Powdermilk. In his Chasing Monarchs travelogue, Pyle starts by the Similkameen River in Canada, traveling south along the Columbia and Snake rivers, through the Great Basin, up onto the Colorado…
Small mines stay under the radar
Environmental laws, designed to regulate the big boys, overlook some big messes
Meth invasion
America’s drug of the moment wreaks havoc in the rural West.
Who speaks for the sheep?
Desert bighorns are caught between waterholes and wilderness
Heard around the West
If you’re dying to see 70,000 nonpoisonous snakes, then a town of 20 people in Manitoba province, Canada, is the place for you to go. Narcisse, though tiny, boasts four limestone pits that shelter the gray and black snakes from minus-40-degree winter weather. In spring, the snakes wake up, and that’s when University of Oregon…
‘There’s not much to do out there’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Erec Hopkins, 20 years old, is serving a year of work release for third-degree sexual assault. He works 6:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. four days a week at the Whitman County shop, where he assists in maintaining county vehicles. When he’s not on work…
Forests on a forced diet
Hungry Washington office keeps Forest Service funds from reaching the ground
Native American wannabes: Beware the Weasel Spirit
I once stayed at an upscale spa that had a Native American theme. We padded around on Navajo rugs, awoke to morning drumming and disrobed in locker rooms referred to as kivas. At night, instead of finding a chocolate on my pillow, there was a woven dream catcher. This failed to soothe my Spirit Self.…
The makings of a meth lab
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Mike LaScoula makes sure I correctly write down the following quote: “Not everyone associated with meth is a dirtbag,” says the Spokane County Health District’s chemical and physical hazards adviser, “but they are all dumb asses.” To prove his point, LaScoula takes me to…
The next great adventure: Stay home
The cover of a recent issue of National Geographic Adventure proclaims “America’s Best! The Adventure 100.” Topping the “adrenaline trip” list are the Colorado River and the White Rim Trail in Utah’s Canyonlands National Park. In the “Letter from the Editor,” John Rasmus muses: “We need vacations! We all need to decompress from the rigors…
Dear Friends
An unlikely lead Why, you might be asking yourself, would High Country News run a cover story on methamphetamines? One reason can be found on the front page of a recent Grand Junction, Colo., Daily Sentinel. “Pot-meth bust leads to 5 arrests.” Pick up any Western newspaper these days and you’ll find similar headlines. After…
Farewell, Marc Reisner
In 1995, when we first asked Marc Reisner to write an article for High Country News, we didn’t know what to expect (HCN, 3/20/95: The fight for reclamation). Would the man who had changed how America thought about dams and reservoirs accept suggestions from an editor of a small paper in a small town in…
Telluride tackles ski town sprawl
It’s big money vs. big money in Colorado development battle