-My pictures concentrate on landscapes that lie between the extremes of wilderness and metropolis.” * Eric Paddock I moved to the West because of spectacle: the mountains, their streams, the canyons those streams cut, the summer flowers in high meadows. I stayed because of the landscapes Eric Paddock shows in Belonging to the West – […]
Books
Posted inDecember 9, 1996: Motorheads: The new, noisy, organized force in the West
Coyote Angels
Bart Koehler, director of the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council and a co-founder of Earth First!, always took time out from fighting for environmental issues to sing about them. Now he and his Coyote Angels band have released a CD featuring songs about the wild life of the West. Some, dedicated to green greats such as […]
Posted inDecember 9, 1996: Motorheads: The new, noisy, organized force in the West
Rein in those planes
Anyone who has had their solitude blasted by the sudden scream of low-flying military jets while hiking in the West will want a copy of the 24-page Citizen’s Guide to Opposing Military Airspace Expansion. While the military has downsized its airfleet almost by half since the demise of the Soviet Union, it continues to seek […]
Posted inDecember 9, 1996: Motorheads: The new, noisy, organized force in the West
Roll on, Columbia
It’s easy to sum up the view of two new books on the Columbia River, the Nchi-Wana in a native tongue: It was wild, dammed, polluted and mutilated. Pulitzer Prize winner William Dietrich tells a fascinating tale in Northwest Passage: The Great Columbia River as he leaves no aspect of the river untouched. Beginning with […]
Posted inDecember 9, 1996: Motorheads: The new, noisy, organized force in the West
Even in Quiet Places
It is a secret still, but already your tree is chosen. It has entered a forest for miles and hides deep in a valley by a river. No one else finds it; the sun passes over not noticing. But even while you are reading you happen to think of that tree, no matter where sentences […]
Posted inNovember 11, 1996: Cease-fire called on the Animas-La Plata front
Eyes of fire
It was March 7, 1996, on the fourth day of a 10-day lion hunt in the Peloncillo Mountains of southern Arizona, when rancher Warner Glenn and his hunting dogs happened on a big cat they’d never seen before in America. It was a jaguar, and Glenn, in this quickly produced little booklet, tells us he […]
Posted inNovember 11, 1996: Cease-fire called on the Animas-La Plata front
Californians stay home
After five years of stirring up the real estate pot, Californians have stopped moving east, and newcomers are moving to the coast again. That’s the conclusion of private researchers who studied surrendered drivers’ licenses in the Golden State. It marks the first time in six years that more people are moving into the state than […]
Posted inNovember 11, 1996: Cease-fire called on the Animas-La Plata front
Help find Pyramid Lake
Locals around Pyramid Lake, Nev., have wondered for years how explorer John C. Fremont first discovered this body of water in 1842. To test some hypotheses and to publicize the area, the nonprofit Friends of Pyramid Lake is sponsoring a two-part essay contest: Writers are invited to submit essays by Dec. 31 describing how Fremont […]
Posted inNovember 11, 1996: Cease-fire called on the Animas-La Plata front
Urgent news from the front
The battle over whether to industrialize Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front has heated up, thanks to a proposal from the Forest Service to allow new oil and gas leases in the Lewis and Clark National Forest. The preferred alternative in a draft environmental impact statement would make 52 percent of the 1.8 million-acre forest available for […]
Posted inNovember 11, 1996: Cease-fire called on the Animas-La Plata front
Montana’s Wild Landscapes: New Perspectives and Traditional Values
Public-land controversies will spice up the Montana Wilderness Association three-day convention, Montana’s Wild Landscapes: New Perspectives and Traditional Values, in Bozeman Dec. 6-7. Topics include the debate over motorized trail use, planning for Glacier National Park and the effects of Montana’s growing tourism industry on public lands. Retiring Rep. Pat Williams, D, will deliver the […]
Posted inNovember 11, 1996: Cease-fire called on the Animas-La Plata front
Conflict or Collaboration
The Intermountain Forest Industry Association will talk about “Conflict or Collaboration” Dec. 12 at its annual meeting in Idaho. Speakers include Idaho Rep. Mike Crapo; former Gov. Cecil Andrus; Tom Tuchman, President Clinton’s representative for forestry issues in the Northwest, and High Country News publisher Ed Marston. For more information, contact Intermountain Forest Industry Association, […]
Posted inNovember 11, 1996: Cease-fire called on the Animas-La Plata front
The West in Motion: Navigating the Shifting Currents of Change
This year’s annual meeting of the Council of State Governments-WEST will focus on what makes the West go, from the information super highway to cement byways. Kicking off the meeting Nov. 16 to 19 in Santa Fe, N.M., is keynote speaker Neil Goldschmidt, former governor of Oregon and chair of the council’s task force on […]
Posted inOctober 28, 1996: Has big money doomed direct democracy?
Casualties of controversy: Two editors’ jobs and a biologist’s naivete
Now that the public has gotten into the habit of regulating bear hunting through initiatives, the issue has become increasingly polarized. That became obvious this summer when Colorado bear biologist Tom Beck stepped out of the hunting culture to write an essay critical of the sport and attitudes toward it. Among other observations in the […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Congratulations
When the Western Colorado Congress gave its “Not-So-Smart Growth” awards Sept. 21, it was no surprise when the “winners’ failed to show up. The grassroots coalition held the event to showcase the worst examples of development on the Western Slope – a follow-up of sorts to Gov. Roy Romer’s 1995 “Smart Growth” awards. Had its […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Managing American’s Public Lands
The 18th annual public lands law conference in Missoula, Mont., Oct. 24-25, Managing America’s Public Lands: Proposals for the Future, features Forest Service Chief Jack Ward Thomas and Forest Service critic Randal O’Toole of the Thoreau Institute. Contact the Public Land and Resources Law Review at 406/243-6568. This article appeared in the print edition of […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Bring back the natives
The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, a nonprofit group in Washington, D.C., recently announced the grant winners of its “Bring Back the Natives’ campaign. The 26 projects chosen in 13 states include local partnerships to preserve riparian areas and bring back native fish throughout the West. In Washington’s Olympic National Forest, for example, grant money […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Helping hands
-They treat you just like gold,” says Stan Banta, who at 79 works for Idaho’s Targhee National Forest as part of the Older American Program. Started 25 years ago by the Department of Labor, the program offers retirees some income while their labor props up cash-poor parks parks, says coordinator Marsha Phillips. To be eligible, […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Who you gonna call?
Are you distressed about a nearby mine polluting streams, groundwater or soils? The Mineral Policy Center in Washington, D.C., might be able to help. It recently published the Green Mining Guide: Mining Experts You Can Call, which lists 101 consultants, government employees and mining specialists from across the country. The experts range from hydrologists and […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
What happens when “True Grit” meets “Easy Rider’
Utopian Vistas: The Mabel Dodge Luhan House and the American Counterculture by Lois Palken Rudnick, 1996, University of New Mexico Press, 416 pages, $35. Lois Palken Rudnick’s Utopian Vistas is almost enough to send me back to my native New York. But it’s probably too late. After more than two decades here, I’m unlikely to […]
Posted inSeptember 30, 1996: Can this man break the right's grip on Idaho?
The Producer/Consumer Connection
Would you like to find a mentor who knows how to run a small farm? The Alternative Energy Resources Organization, a Montana group that links aspiring farmers with retiring ones, is holding its 22nd annual workshop, The Producer/Consumer Connection, Oct. 11-13 on Flathead Lake near Rollins, Mont. To register for the event, contact AERO at […]