“The culture in the Salt Lake Valley is a plus
for anybody who is not avant-garde, urban or cutting-edge.”
—Respondent in a survey of Utah executives. The
study found that Utah’s low rate of unemployment could be a
problem for economic growth.
THE SCENE: A mountain meadow full
of untouched sugary snow.
ENTER (stage left): A
cross-country skier. Steam rises around her face. The only sound is
the pounding of her heart.
ENTER (stage right): A
snarling snowmobile, ridden by an adrenaline-charged young man.
The skier gives the sledder the finger for wrecking her
backcountry experience; the snowmobiler glares back, knowing she
poses a threat to his freedom to ride.
This
scene is playing out all over the mountain West this winter. More
people are enjoying the backcountry snow now than ever before: 11.9
million ride snowmobiles and 12.3 million cross-country ski or
snowshoe, four times more than 20 years ago. As a result, public
land that once would have remained people-free from November to May
has become a crowded battleground.
In Utah, spandex-clad
two-plankers are irked at the U.S. Forest Service for opening about
half of a 10,000-acre swath of Logan Canyon to sledheads. The area
had previously been nonmotorized. Some claim the Forest Service is
biased, pointing to the fact that 70 percent of public land in the
West’s snowy states is already open to snowmobiles.
And sledheads up on the Montana-Idaho line don’t want to give
up any of that land. They’re fretting about potential
wilderness designation for Mount Jefferson, a popular snowmobiling
area. U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, and local county
commissioners have joined the motorized cause. They worry that
cutting off access will hurt the local economy; environmentalists
counter that there are plenty of other places for sledders to play.
Then there’s Yellowstone National Park —
ground zero in this fight. The park’s draft plan would allow
720 snowmobiles into the park each day, close to the average number
that buzzed through the park’s gates in December (up 19
percent from 2005). But that concerns the Environmental Protection
Agency, which wants the Park Service to pay closer attention to
potential impacts on air quality and human health from the noise
and copious exhaust the machines cough up. Skier visits to the park
are down 42 percent from last year so far.
It’s not
just the exhaust that can hurt people. A snowmobiler collided with
a snowboarder near Aspen, Colo., in January, severely injuring the
snowboarder. Near Bozeman, Mont., a day earlier, a Utah woman
riding a snowmobile crashed and was killed. Perhaps that’s
what Ski-Doo’s 2006 motto, “Sharpening the edge of
excitement,” referred to.
Tidbits from the West…
Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth retired Jan. 12 from
the post he held for six years. Gail Kimbell, the first
woman ever to lead the agency, will replace him. Kimbell served as
supervisor of forests in Colorado, Wyoming and Alaska.
Environmentalists are not cheering: Kimbell helped create President
Bush’s controversial Healthy Forests program.
It’s looking as if 2008 may be the year the West
emerges as a big player in national politics. On Jan. 22,
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, D, threw his
“sombrero” (as the New York Post’s headline
condescendingly put it) into the presidential ring. Just 11 days
earlier, national Democrats chose Denver over New York to hold the
party’s 2008 convention. There’s more: Nevada will hold
the second caucus in the nation; New Mexico, Arizona and Utah will
hold presidential primaries on Feb. 5, giving them more influence
in the nominating process. Republican early favorites include Sen.
John McCain of Arizona and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a
member of the Mormon Church.
The 700-mile fence
proposed for the southern border will cost a bundle of
cash — as much as $49 billion, says the
Congressional Research Service — if it ever gets built;
Democrats in Congress, now holding the reins of power, aren’t
too excited about it.
Furbearer Facts
19
Total number of wolverines trapped in Montana, 2002.
$18/$98 Average pelt price for an Oregon river
otter in 1954 and 2005.
$99/$345
Average pelt price for a Montana bobcat in 1999 and 2005.
580,000 Number of pelts produced by Utah’s
70 mink farms annually.
$8,999 Sale
price of a full-length bobcat coat with shawl collar from Henig
Furs. (Red fox vest, beaver sheared knitted jacket, coyote jacket:
$1,999 each.)
20 Estimated number of
pelts to make a full-length bobcat jacket.
$1,199.99 Cost of nutria bomber jacket, on
special at furoutlet.com.
176 Feral
cats accidentally captured by Idaho trappers 2004-2005.
400 Number of renowned fashion designers showing
fur fashions, coats and fur-trimmed merchandise, compared to 42 in
1985.
12 Percent of Americans who own
fur clothing.
Sources: Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks;
Oregon Furbearer Harvest and Pursuit Season Proposals; National
Agricultural Statistics Service; National Trappers Association;
Responsive Management study: American Attitudes Toward Scientific
Wildlife Management and Human Use of Fish and Wildlife; Fur
Information Council of America; Idaho Fish and Game Report.)
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Two weeks in the West.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
