In the Klamath River Basin on the Oregon-California border, farmers, Indians, wildlife refuges and now three endangered fish are fighting over scant water in a dry year, and some say the Endangered Species Act only makes the situation worse.
Montana tribes drive the road to sovereignty
PABLO, Mont. – Most roads leading to Indian reservations in Montana run through stark, lonely country. Things are different on the Flathead Reservation, home of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. Highway 93 is the busiest and most dangerous two-lane road in the state, and 56 miles of it traverses the reservation, beginning about 12…
Invasive invaders
On a rainy spring day in western Oregon, five volunteers, clad in raingear and heavy work gloves, slowly work their way up the southeast flank of Mount Pisgah, a tract of private land looming above the Willamette River. Led by Kyra Kelly of the nonprofit Friends of Buford Park and Mount Pisgah, the volunteers cut…
The Latest Bounce
The Forest Service’s fire czar has big plans. On July 23, National Fire Plan Coordinator Lyle Laverty told the Missoulian that his agency cannot “let nature take its course.” Though the National Fire Plan was initially touted as an effort to thin overgrown forests near towns and homes, Laverty said the Forest Service needs to…
Court helps candidates
NATION More than 200 wildlife and plant species have waited years for a spot on the federal endangered species list. A recent court decision could soon put an end to their wait. On June 20, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a 1996 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ban on citizen petitions to list…
Blackfeet bet on wind
MONTANA Montana’s Blackfeet Nation is a step ahead in the race to generate new, renewable sources of power. Using two of its most abundant natural resources – land and wind – the 15,000-member tribe is partnering with a private wind-power firm to build the first large-scale wind-energy project on tribal land. Blackfeet WindPower One is…
Predators keep their pelts
COLORADO In Colorado, three species of fur-bearing predators will hold onto their skins for a little longer. In its July meeting, the Colorado Wildlife Commission decided to not allow live-cage trapping and shooting seasons for the swift fox, pine marten and opossum. Commission chair Rick Enstrom, who cast the tie vote which killed the Colorado…
On the trail of an exotic ‘native’
Long considered an “exotic” species, wild horses occupy a sort of borderland, caught between the mythology of their origins and the reality of their plight today. This is the subject of a new documentary, El Caballo, by Drury Gunn Carr and Doug Hawes-Davis. Known for their hard-hitting documentary films, Varmints (HCN,10/26/98: Varmints) and Killing Coyote…
Disappearing cowboys get exposure
Each spring, photographer Adam Jahiel leaves his home in northeast Wyoming and treks to the remotest corners of the Great Basin to photograph cowboys on their annual roundups. The seasonal journey has become a 10-year personal quest. Jahiel, whose photos have appeared in The New York Times and National Geographic among others, says he is…
2001: No refuge in the Klamath Basin
LOWER KLAMATH NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, Calif. – Wildlife biologist Tim Griffiths leans out his truck window, squints at the bright, scorching sun, and shakes his head with wonder. Yellow-headed blackbirds perch on slender cattails, bald eagles swoop through the sky, and white pelicans dunk their tugboat-size beaks in the shallow water. “This place is pure…
Heard around the West
Oh, Smokey Bear, what have they done to you now? Smokey has a new day job. If you visit the lobby of the Forest Service’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., you can see the agency’s famous spokesbear, looking, perhaps, like one of the bureaucrats upstairs. The plump bear lounges at a rolltop desk, his feet crossed…
Dear Friends
Writers on the Range, redux In the Dear Friends column for June 18, 2001, we discussed HCN’s op-ed syndicate, Writers on the Range, and the extent to which it should air a variety of views. The heart of the discussion was a column by Frank Carroll, a Potlatch timber company employee. In response, we got…
The man in the rubber boots
In the Land of IrrigationWhere the Desert blossoms as the roseThere dwells a Knight in armorWhom everyone loves that knows.He guides the little streamletsTo the famished stems and roots,He carries life in his shovel -The man in the rubber boots From “The Man in the Rubber Boots”by Agnes Just Reid (1947) When it rains in…
Boaters float for their rights
Colorado paddlers confront property owners over river access
Old firefighters need not apply
Forest Service regulations are keeping experienced workers off the fireline
Depot neighbors are on a short fuse
Pressure mounts against the Sierra Army Depot’s open-air munitions burning
Will farmers harvest a legal take?
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Farmers in the Klamath Basin are not the first group of irrigators to lose their water to endangered fish. In the early 1990s, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service ordered California to shut down pumps that divert water…
Digging for liquid gold
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. – Farmer Doug McCabe didn’t wait for the Bureau of Reclamation to announce that it wasn’t delivering any water this year. With only junior water rights, he suspected that drought would force the agency to cut his water off early in…
Klamath’s federal agencies map different realities
Maps are no more objective than any other documents. Just look at the ones of the Klamath Basin produced by its two federal landlords. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation portrays the basin as a network of reservoirs and canals designed to deliver water to farms. Since parts of the basin have no natural outlets, areas…