In the game of tug-of-war on the Klamath
River, farmers just lost a little bit of ground (HCN,
6/23/03: ‘Sound science’ goes sour). In order to keep
water in Upper Klamath Lake for two species of endangered suckers,
and in the Klamath River for threatened coho salmon, the Bureau of
Reclamation has told farmers to cut their water use by about 25
percent.
You don’t need to shoot
a condor to kill it; just leaving behind contaminated
animal carcasses will do the job (HCN, 2/18/02: Condor program
laden with lead). Two independent studies have confirmed that
hunters, who abandon 30,000 carcasses in California each year, are
exposing endangered California condors to contamination from lead
bullets. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is now asking hunters
to use lead-free ammunition, remove carcasses altogether or to at
least remove the lead bullets and surrounding
flesh.
The U.S. Department of the
Interior has announced the creation of a new appraisal
office (HCN, 11/25/02: Report slams BLM’s land-exchange process).
In the past, the Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife
Service, Bureau of Reclamation and National Park Service have each
hired private contractors to handle appraisals and land swaps. But
beginning next fall, all appraisals will come out of a centralized
office. According to an Interior Department press release, the new
office will “restore public confidence” in the
agency’s handling of real estate
transactions.
Who says historical
re-enactments are boring? In June, Indian activist
Russell Means crashed the National Park Service’s dedication
of a memorial to the Indian soldiers who died at the Battle of
Little Big Horn (HCN, 6/9/03: Tribes recognized at Little Bighorn).
Means rode up on horseback and commandeered the podium, causing
Interior Secretary Gale Norton and Montana governor Judy Martz to
leave the stage. Afterward, Fort Peck tribal member Chauncey
Whitwright III, one of the organizers of the ceremony, told the
Billings Gazette that he needed some “intensive counseling
and rest” and is “never volunteering for another thing
in my life.”
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Follow-up.
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