Northwest environmentalists eager to bust out of their Luddite stereotype now have a resource. It’s called ONE/Northwest, and it was recently formed to bring activists in the region up to speed on the internet and other electronic media. The nonprofit is working with the Oregon Conservation Network, a loose alliance of 70 environmental groups, to […]
Books
Posted inAugust 5, 1996: Disappearing railroad blues
Partners for an unspoiled place
The Greater San Juan Partnership sells a combative bumpersticker – -Keep It Country!’ – and a collaborative message: Newcomers and old-timers can work together to preserve the rural character of the southern Rockies. The fledgling partnership takes its inspiration from the San Juan Mountains watershed, which board member Todd Murchison calls the largest unspoiled place […]
Posted inAugust 5, 1996: Disappearing railroad blues
Will the real West please stand up?
Review by Joe B. Stevens We live by myths, by the stories we tell. If these are flawed, we’re in trouble. Writers such as the late Wallace Stegner have offered convincing arguments that many of our stories are flawed, that what we think is real gets confused with what we want reality to be. An […]
Posted inJuly 22, 1996: Glen Canyon: Using a dam to heal a river
From the Canyons to the Stars
If you’ve read Terry Tempest Williams and would like to hear her in person, come to a free reading and talk at 5:30 p.m. on July 30 at Aspen’s Harris Hall. The event is sponsored by the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance as part of the Aspen Music Festival’s “From the Canyons to the Stars,” a […]
Posted inJuly 22, 1996: Glen Canyon: Using a dam to heal a river
Instream Flows: Minimum Doctrine/Maximum Controversy
The 21st annual Colorado Water Workshop at Western State College in Gunnison Aug. 7-9 focuses this year on Instream Flows: Minimum Doctrine/ Maximum Controversy. For more information, contact the Colorado Water Workshop, Aspinall Wilson Center, Western State College, Gunnison, CO 81231 or call Pam Ayers at 970/ 943-7156. For those whose job requires detailed knowledge […]
Posted inJuly 22, 1996: Glen Canyon: Using a dam to heal a river
Endangered Species Act Conference
For those whose job requires detailed knowledge of the Endangered Species Act, there will be a technical conference Aug. 8-9 at the Hyatt Regency in Denver, Colo. Sponsored by CLE International, a company that hosts environmental law seminars, the third annual Endangered Species Act Conference will explain how the law works and how it affects […]
Posted inJuly 22, 1996: Glen Canyon: Using a dam to heal a river
Helping Small Towns Survive
Jackson, Wyo., will host the fifth annual training institute for community development specialists, sponsored by the Heartland Center for Leadership Development, Oct. 10-14. This year’s focus is Helping Small Towns Survive. Contact the Jackson Hole Institute, care of the Heartland Center for Leadership Development, 941 “O” Street, Suite 920, Lincoln, NE 68508 (800/927-1115). This article […]
Posted inJuly 22, 1996: Glen Canyon: Using a dam to heal a river
The history of two canyons, in photographs
Out of the flood of books on the Colorado River, two recent illustrated volumes caught our eye. Robert H. Webb’s Grand Canyon, a Century of Change features pairs of matched photos, old and new. The author, a hydrologist involved with Glen Canyon Environmental Studies, spent seven months replicating hundreds of photographic views from the Stanton […]
Posted inJuly 22, 1996: Glen Canyon: Using a dam to heal a river
Getting the lead out
The nonprofit Inland Empire Public Lands Council, based in Washington state, broke new ground in public outreach when it dropped 10,000 video cassettes on Spokane Valley doorsteps in May. It produced the 10-minute video, “Get the LEAD out!” to alert residents to the legacy of toxins from mining in the Spokane-Coeur d’Alene watershed. “We want […]
Posted inJuly 22, 1996: Glen Canyon: Using a dam to heal a river
How we did them in
Anyone interested in understanding the ongoing salmon debacle should read The Northwest Salmon Crisis: A Documentary History. Editors Joseph Cone and Sandy Ridlington have compiled over 80 documents from the last 140 years to lead us through the salmon’s decline. They remind us that this tragedy occurred even though red flags were waving every step […]
Posted inJuly 22, 1996: Glen Canyon: Using a dam to heal a river
Mine your own business
When a Canadian mining subsidiary showed up last year in the 1,500-person mountain community of Yarnell, Ariz., mine officials announced they were re-opening an open-pit gold mine that had been closed since 1942. Angry locals immediately formed Guardians for the Rural Environment, and members hope they can halt the cyanide heap-leach mine. They’ve asked the […]
Posted inJuly 22, 1996: Glen Canyon: Using a dam to heal a river
Sharing a clouded past
Thousands of people exposed to radiation from the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in southeast Washington during decades of Cold War experiments have had health problems and wondered: “Am I the only one?” Now they will have a chance to share their experiences, says Bea Kelleigh, of the Hanford Health Information Network. Formed by Congress in 1991, […]
Posted inJuly 22, 1996: Glen Canyon: Using a dam to heal a river
Forgotten, but not gone – yet
Few people know that the American marten, a forest-dwelling weasel the size of a house cat, hunts small mammals in cavities under snow, and “is so exquisitely tuned to its surroundings that it can depress its body temperature … minimizing energy expenditures in the stressful winter months.” Or that the wolverine, the largest of the […]
Posted inJune 24, 1996: Catron County's politics heat up as its land goes bankrupt
Lessons of Lewis and Clark
Our Natural History: the Lessons of Lewis and Clark describes the wilderness of the American West as the two explorers encountered it during their journey 1804-1806, and compares it to today’s American West as shaped by industrial civilization. Long the subject of historians, the famous journals also offer author Daniel B. Botkin, a leader in […]
Posted inJune 24, 1996: Catron County's politics heat up as its land goes bankrupt
It’s the pits
Summo USA Corp. hopes to extract 34 million pounds of copper each year over a 10-year period from the Lisbon Valley southeast of Moab, Utah. The operation would include four open-pit mines as well as waste-rock dumps and a processing plant on 1,030 acres of public, state and private lands. According to a draft environmental […]
Posted inJune 24, 1996: Catron County's politics heat up as its land goes bankrupt
Can the silence be unbroken?
Rocky Mountain National Park has so far been spared the headache – and earache – of commercial scenic overflights for one reason: no tour operators exist yet. Hoping to head off possible conflicts, Transportation Secretary Federico Peûa has proposed a ban on commercial overflights in the park. Peûa’s May 11 recommendation came with three alternatives: […]
Posted inJune 24, 1996: Catron County's politics heat up as its land goes bankrupt
Making history on the prairie
The Prairie Plains Resource Institute got its start 16 years ago when its founders gathered seeds from prairie grasses near Aurora, Neb., and planted them along a muddy creek in town. By restoring this small 15-acre corridor, “we were making a new history,” says institute manager Bill Whitney. Since then the land trust has sponsored […]
Posted inJune 24, 1996: Catron County's politics heat up as its land goes bankrupt
Living with wildlife
As suburbia swells into wild country throughout the West, conflicts between humans and wildlife increase: Deer graze in gardens and dogs lope into the hills after packs of singing coyotes. Occasionally, a black bear wanders close to a subdivision or a mountain lion lunges for someone’s pet. To keep such inevitable encounters as positive as […]
Posted inJune 24, 1996: Catron County's politics heat up as its land goes bankrupt
Still stealing trees
Since the U.S. Forest Service disbanded its special timber-theft task force nearly a year ago, investigations of large-scale timber theft have ground to a halt. That’s the conclusion of Unindicted Co-Conspirator, a report by the nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) and the Governmental Accountability Project (GAP), a Washington, D.C.-based group that protects government […]
Posted inJune 24, 1996: Catron County's politics heat up as its land goes bankrupt
Mountain outposts of empire
Although the Sangre de Cristo Mountains are almost synonymous with New Mexico, the range – the longest in the United States – extends about 110 miles into Colorado. Tom Wolf, a writer and one-time forestry student, explores these northern Sangres in Colorado’s Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Starting with the Anasazi and continuing through the Spanish, […]