The native-seeds business is thriving, as more Westerners realize the value of a restored and healthy rangeland, but the current unfriendly political climate in Washington, D.C., may bring an untimely frost.
Also in this issue:The Clinton-era Sierra Nevada Framework is being dismantled under the Bush administration, and California spotted owls, denied protection as endangered species, may pay the price.
Backcountry road deal runs over wilderness
A nearly three-decade-long fight over who controls backcountry roads crossing federal land in Utah may soon come to an end — and the resolution casts a huge cloud over the future of wilderness protection. In 2000, the state threatened to sue the federal government, claiming ownership of the roads under a Civil War-era law known…
Leave wilderness to llamas
Dear HCN, Sorry, but this is one of the most ridiculous debates I know of (HCN, 3/3/03: Get off and walk — wilderness is for wildlife) (HCN, 3/3/03: Let bikers in, and we’ll atand behind wilderness). Mountain bikers in the wilderness? I am a llama packer. Our worst problem is people who bring poorly behaved…
Missing Interior money: Piles or pennies?
American Indians who claim the federal government owes them billions of dollars are crying foul over a recently released report. In 1996, Indians across the country filed a class-action lawsuit, alleging the Interior Department mismanaged billions of dollars in royalties from oil and gas production, timber-harvesting and grazing on Indian land (HCN, 2/4/02: Indian trust…
Farmland protection may dry up
As California faces its largest budget deficit ever, a nearly 40-year-old farmland-protection program could go to the chopping block. Reacting to a burst of mid-century sprawl, the state legislature passed the Williamson Act in 1965. Under the act, farmers promise to keep their land in commercial agriculture in exchange for county property tax breaks. The…
Phelps tries to dodge bond
Phelps Dodge Corporation, the state of New Mexico and environmentalists remain locked in a conflict over the cleanup of an open-pit copper mine in southern New Mexico. In March, the New Mexico Environment Department approved a draft permit for the Chino Mine near Silver City, the fourth-largest copper mine in the country, with a suggested…
Historic preservation vs. tourism?
Colorado’s ancient petroglyphs and pioneer-era courthouses might soon be left to the ravages of time. State Treasurer Mike Coffman wants to boost the state’s economy by redirecting funds earmarked for historic preservation to promote tourism. In 1990, Colorado voters approved a constitutional amendment that legalized gambling in three towns — Black Hawk, Central City and…
Nevada: A diamond in the rough
Our country’s driest state does not treat humans gently. “The desert was one prodigious graveyard,” wrote Mark Twain about his arrival in Nevada in the 1860s. “And the log chains, wagon tires, and rotting wrecks of vehicles were almost as thick as the bones.” Today, many people perceive Nevada as a gambling mecca surrounded by…
Healthy energy on public lands
Wind turbines and solar panels may be coming soon to a national forest near you. According to a new report, there are plenty of opportunities to develop renewable energy on millions of acres of federal land in the West. In Assessing the Potential for Renewable Energy on Public Lands, the Bureau of Land Management and…
Hiking toward healing
Maybe it sounds crazy for us to have spent years getting me well from cancer, only to go out into grizzly bear country. But we wanted to be back in the wild country that I dreamed of when things were at their worst. Diagnosed with cervical cancer at 30, Katie Gibson of Bozeman, Mont., craved…
How safe is that fillet?
Most Americans — even those fanatical about eating only organic foods — assume that eating fish raised in the ocean is a healthy act that does no harm to the environment. Not necessarily. Some seafood varieties are overfished, and some are caught and farmed in ways that damage ocean ecosystems (HCN, 3/17/03: Bracing against the…
Ranches: Wildlands or scenery?
Dear HCN, I am writing in response to a letter from Nathan Sayre, wherein he reiterated the often-heard claim from ranchers that the preservation of public-lands ranching will prevent sprawl, (HCN, 3/17/03: Ranching is preventing sprawl). I would like to respond to Mr. Sayre’s conclusion that, “Even under mediocre management, I’ll take one cow every…
Wilderness would have been better for ranchers
Dear HCN, From my kitchen window, I can see the Escalante River and Del LeFevre’s old grazing allotment. Since Del traded his grazing privileges here, parts of the river bottom have begun to recover from many years of overgrazing (HCN, 4/14/03: Change comes slowly to Escalante country). Cattle grazing is still the single most environmentally destructive…
The Latest Bounce
Work on “the last great federal dam” is under way: The Bureau of Reclamation has begun building the pumping plant for the Animas-La Plata Project outside of Durango, Colo. (HCN, 8/27/01: A-LP gets federal A-OK). The station will pump Animas River water 510 feet uphill and two miles west to a reservoir site in Ridges…
Stay divided, and the land may fall
Dear HCN, I’m writing in response to the letters about mountain bikes in wilderness areas (HCN, 4/14/03: Be careful what you ask for). I am an avid hiker/backpacker, mountain biker and horse owner and am conscientious about my actions in whatever mode of transport I use. I’ve seen destruction and rude behavior by all these…
There are plenty of places for bicycling
Dear HCN, Jim Hasenauer makes the basis for a reasoned argument in his piece “Let bikers in, and we’ll stand behind wilderness” (HCN, 3/3/03: Let bikers in, and we’ll stand behind wilderness), but loses his focus as he perpetuates a number of fallacies in his argument to repeal the wilderness bicycle ban. Hasenauer cites that…
In search of the desert manna
TAOS, N.M. — Winter was coming, and like so many others, I was broke. I had a freezer full of elk meat, but it wasn’t enough to survive the cold months in the high country. There’s no fat in elk meat; explorers Lewis and Clark lost weight on it, my friends say. With little money…
Planting time
The native-seed business is blooming, but can a restoration economy take root in the West?
In Iraq, there’s hope of restoring the Garden of Eden
Watching the chaotic aftermath of repression and war in Iraq hurts my heart. As an antidote, I conjure a vision of hope: a shimmering expanse of water and life that may once again grace the Iraqi desert. Until a decade ago, southern Iraq boasted one of the world’s largest wetlands, the Mesopotamia Marshes, almost 7,800…
Dear Friends
Two weeks to launch time It’s true: This is the last issue of HCN in its current format. Your next issue will look a little different. We won’t give away the details of the new design, but thanks go out to all those who wrote in with ideas and critiques of the covers we printed…
To restore the West, go big and go native
It’s always disconcerting to have a myth blown apart — like when you discover that your favorite sports star, whom you always thought to be a nice, upstanding person, cheats on his wife or abuses his kids. The world wobbles; food doesn’t taste as good; you just want to fall asleep and wake up when…
New forest plan leaves owls in a lurch
Sierra Nevada plan gets logger-friendly
On Black Mesa, the natives make a comeback
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Planting time.” BLACK MESA, Navajo Nation — On a sterling, sunny spring day, a 14-story-tall machine chews gaping holes in the Navajo Nation tribal homeland. The Marion 8750 dragline weighs 9.8 million pounds, supports a 300-foot boom and operates a bucket that removes 200…
Heard Around the West
A typist at the Herald Journal in Logan, Utah, misread a letter to the editor, and the result was a howler, particularly since the letter dealt with public misconceptions about wolves. The word “wolves” was transmogrified into “wives,” and somehow got through copyediting without a hitch. Here’s how the sentence appeared in the paper: “Wives…
Tiny tribe bets its community on casino
Stillaguamish say gambling offers an escape from poverty
Nation’s largest tribe keeps casinos out
Note: in the print edition of this issue, this article appears as a sidebar to another news article, “Tiny tribe bets its community on casino.” The Navajo Nation may have found a way to get gambling profits without gambling’s pitfalls. Last November, Arizona voters narrowly approved Proposition 202, and opened a new way for tribes—including…