“You start doing away with
cockfighting, then they’re going to start doing away with
rodeos … and then they’re going to start doing away
with hunting and fishing.”
—New
Mexico state Sen. Phil Griego, D, speaking in opposition to a
proposal to ban cockfighting in his state, one of only two in the
country where the sport is legal.
In early January,
eastern Colorado and much of New Mexico continued to dig
out after a brutal pounding by winter storms. Snowfall
broke records, stranded travelers and killed some 15,000 cows. But
Arizona faces the opposite problem: Winter has thus far dodged the
state, leaving snowpack levels at just 38 percent of average.
The severe weather could get even more
intense if global warming continues. Last year was the
warmest on record, and there’s a 60 percent chance that next
year could be even hotter, say British climatologists. Blame goes
to elevated levels of greenhouse gases and a resurgent El Niño
climate trend.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, D,
isn’t going to sit by while global warming ravages
his turf. He signed an executive order in December that
requires new cars sold in the state to emit less carbon dioxide and
also calls for studies of various emission-reducing measures. He
follows his California counterpart, Arnold Schwarzenegger, R, who
last year signed a bill forcing industry to slash greenhouse gas
emissions and is expected to target automobiles next.
Coal — one of the world’s leading sources of greenhouse
gases — keeps chugging along, though. Last year, U.S.
coal mines set a new record for production, with
Western producers pulling 30 million tons more coal out of the
ground than in 2005. Another record for the industry: 47 people
died in mining accidents in 2006 — the highest number of
deaths since 1995. Most of those deaths happened in the East, but
2007’s first fatality was in the West, on Jan. 6, at
Oxbow’s Elk Creek Mine near Somerset, Colo.
A new coal mine might dig into Kane County,
Utah, near the boundary of Bryce Canyon National Park.
Alton Coal Development hopes to lease 3,851 acres of public land
from the federal Bureau of Land Management. The public now has a
chance to weigh in for energy jobs or park tourism.
Northwestern New Mexico activists prefer clean air to
energy jobs, and literally stood in the way of a proposed
power plant to make their point. In January, Navajo District Judge
Genevieve Woody ruled that the protesters may keep pro-testing.
However, they have to stop illegally blocking a road to the plant
site, so workers can continue studying the plant’s potential
impact on the environment.
Other tidbits from
the West…
In San Francisco, Mayor Gavin
Newsom, apparently desperate to keep pro football in
town, invited the 49ers to build a stadium at the
decommissioned Hunters Point shipyard. A hot problem: Until 1969,
the shipyard was home to a major nuclear research facility and
wide-scale mishandling of radioactive material; $400 million has
been spent on remediation, but it’s unclear whether the site
can be cleaned by the 49ers’ 2012 deadline.
A
Colorado program that allows landowners who put land into
conservation easements to sell their state tax
credits has cost the state $193 million in foregone tax
collections so far, according to a recent audit. But
there’s no database detailing how many acres have been
easement-ized or where they are located. A separate Internal
Revenue Service review found that land appraisals — the basis
for tax credits — are often illegally inflated.
Near Payson, Ariz., a new deer and elk crosswalk
could reduce roadkill. When an animal approaches the highway,
lights warn drivers, and fences guide the animal across the road.
The device cost $700,000; wildlife underpasses cost $3 million
each.
The invasion has begun. A marina employee recently
found live zebra mussels in Lake Mead, according
to the 100th Meridian Initiative, a group that has tried to keep
the invasive species out of the West. Located on the Arizona/Nevada
border, Lake Mead is 1,000 miles west of the nearest established
population of the bivalve, which multiplies prolifically, starves
competing organisms and plugs up water intakes.
Going downhill
1936: The year Sun Valley Ski Resort
opened, making it the oldest ski resort in the United States
478: Number of ski areas
operating in the U.S. in 2005
3: Number of ski areas prohibiting
snowboarding (Taos, N.M.; Alta, Utah; Deer Valley, Utah)
6/6.9: Number in millions of
snowboarders and skiers, respectively, in the United States
82: Cost, in dollars, for a
one-day lift ticket at Colorado’s Vail Resort for the
2006-’07 ski season
39: Number of skiing (29) and snowboarding (10) fatalities in
2005-’06, out of 58.9 million user days
85: Percentage of fatalities that were
male
32.4/27.7: Average age
of male/female skiers
21.3/23: Average age of male/female
snowboarders
51/49: Percentage of skiers who are male/female
74/26: Percentage of snowboarders who
are male/female
12,840: Elevation (in feet) at the top of the highest chairlift in North
America: Breckenridge, Colorado’s Imperial Express Superchair
SOURCES: NATIONAL SKI AREA ASSOCIATION; NATIONAL SPORTING GOODS ASSOCIATION
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Two weeks in the West.
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