Four years of work, months of public review and a $1.5 million investment have paid off for Glacier National Park planners. Last summer, the Park Service signed the General Management Plan that will guide Glacier’s resource management for the next few decades. Project leader Mary Riddle says the plan reflects people’s desire to keep the […]
Books
Posted inNovember 8, 1999: A new road for the public lands
Wising up to whirling disease
Scientists are considering new management strategies for whirling disease, which has been attacking fish in the West since the early 1990s. The disease has spread from one Western river to the next, eluding attempts at a cure and draining funds from state game and fish department budgets. Trout get the disease by eating worms infected […]
Posted inNovember 8, 1999: A new road for the public lands
Mining may need some brakes
Outdated federal mining regulations cause environmental disasters, says the Mineral Policy Center in Washington, D.C. Its 32-page report, Six Mines, Six Mishaps: Six Case Studies of What’s Wrong With Federal and State Hardrock Mining Regulations and Recommendations for Reform, describes a wide range of mining sites that have “slipped through the loopholes of regulations,” says […]
Posted inOctober 25, 1999: Monumental chaos
Powerful Images at the Heard Museum
The Heard Museum in Phoenix, Ariz., known for its extensive collection of Native American art, opens its 70th season in an expanded facility, an $18.1 million, 50,000 square-foot addition that doubles its size. Three major exhibits are slated for the new space this year: Powerful Images: Portrayals of Native America, opening Nov. 13, explores the […]
Posted inOctober 25, 1999: Monumental chaos
Home Free
With the number of new land trusts topping 1,200 in this country, it’s not surprising that even the Washington, D.C.-based Humane Society of the United States has come on board. Its Wildlife Land Trust has protected 46,391 acres in 18 states, including recent additions of 500 acres in northern California and 1,280 acres in southwest […]
Posted inOctober 25, 1999: Monumental chaos
Living in the outdoors
Wilderness Guide, by Mark Harvey, Simon and Schuster, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020; paper, illustrated, $15. This starting-from-scratch revision of The National Outdoor Leadership School’s Wilderness Guide will tell you what to wear, how to navigate, and how to get across streams and scree fields in the backcountry. It will give […]
Posted inOctober 25, 1999: Monumental chaos
Environmental Restoration Conference
Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt will talk at an Environmental Restoration Conference: Challenges for the New Millennium, Nov. 11-13, at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Speakers also include writer Terry Tempest Williams, David Wegner of the Glen Canyon Institute, and Dan Luecke of the Environmental Defense Fund. Call 520/621-8430, or write to Environmental Restoration Conference, […]
Posted inOctober 25, 1999: Monumental chaos
Rivers, Dams and the Future of the West
-Rivers and dams are the lifeblood of the West,” says the University of Utah’s Wetlands and Riparian Center, which holds its second annual conference, Rivers, Dams and the Future of the West, Nov. 18 in Salt Lake City. The gathering will bring together riparian experts and those concerned with dams and river exploitation. Contact Jack […]
Posted inOctober 25, 1999: Monumental chaos
Water aficionados
The Idaho Water Resources Research Institute holds monthly video-link seminars with water aficionados in Boise, Moscow, Idaho Falls and Coeur d’Alene. To find out more about topics for the fall series, call Christian Petrich at 208/327-5409, or e-mail kathyo@uidaho.edu. This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Water aficionados.
Posted inOctober 25, 1999: Monumental chaos
What should every Westerner know
The Center of the American West wants to know. What should every Westerner know, and, how does someone become a Westerner? If you have strong opinions and hanker for a good discussion or debate, log on to the Center’s Web site at http://www.centerwest.org/westerner, or send a postcard to the University of Colorado-based Center of the […]
Posted inOctober 25, 1999: Monumental chaos
Conference for the Animals
Animal Protection of New Mexico Inc. will host its 1999 Conference for the Animals Nov. 5-7 in Albuquerque. The gathering’s aim is to strengthen animal-activist networks and educate the public about domestic and wild animals. Speakers include Alan Green, author of Animal Underworld, and Steven M. Wise, animal rights attorney. Contact APNM at 505/265-2322 or […]
Posted inOctober 25, 1999: Monumental chaos
Volunteer work in the nation’s parks
Student Conservation Association interns will soon have more than pretty pictures and increased conservation acumen to show for their volunteer work in the nation’s parks, refuges and forests. Starting in 2000, the group’s resource assistants will also receive educational awards, ranging from $1,200 to $4,000, depending on program length. The money is allocated through the […]
Posted inOctober 25, 1999: Monumental chaos
River Network
Merged: River Network from Portland, Ore., and River Watch Network of Montpelier, Vt., on Oct. 1. The new group will keep the name River Network and headquarters in Portland, with field offices in Montpelier, Vt., Helena, Mont., and Washington, D.C. Over 800 local partner groups participate in the network. Contact the group at 800/423-6747 or […]
Posted inOctober 25, 1999: Monumental chaos
See the secret desert
X-Files fans and conspiracy theorists dream of visiting Area 51, the test site for America’s advanced aircraft and weapons systems – and, some say, the place where UFOs are hidden. Now the curious can visit, sort of. In Los Angeles, an exhibit by the Center for Land Use Interpretation offers an inside look at the […]
Posted inSeptember 27, 1999: The Millworker and the Forest
Glen Canyon unplugged
Michael Collier, a river-runner, geologist, pilot and photographer who sometimes masquerades as a physician, has been using his “bushy sort of airplane” to take river pictures from the air since 1975. Slides from Collier’s recent book Water, Earth and Sky: the Colorado River Basin, co-authored with Dave Wegner of the Glen Canyon Institute, will be […]
Posted inSeptember 27, 1999: The Millworker and the Forest
Is help from a federal agency a “charade’?
Is the federal Office of Surface Mining (OSM) a pawn of the mining industry? The Denver-based Citizens Coal Council says “yes’ and points to documents it obtained by filing a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The Citizens Coal Council, a federation of 48 citizens’ groups in 21 states, sued the OSM to release its files. […]
Posted inSeptember 27, 1999: The Millworker and the Forest
Blurring the landscape
In southern Idaho’s irrigated landscape, the boundaries between what’s natural and what’s not appear to be definitive: Canals and huge water sprayers on central pivots draw stark lines between fields of green produce and sagebrush desert. But historian Mark Fiege says in Irrigated Eden: The Making of an Agricultural Landscape in the American West, that […]
Posted inSeptember 27, 1999: The Millworker and the Forest
Up in the air
Currently offering: rent-free co-op housing in upper and middle canopy condos, 150-230 ft. above reality, with suspended sidewalks winding between 500/600/700-year-old Doug fir and hemlock trees. * from a poster by Red Cloud Thunder, a group protesting the Clark Timber Sale near Eugene, Ore. It’s amazing what gets done in treetops these days. Julia Butterfly, […]
Posted inSeptember 27, 1999: The Millworker and the Forest
A gem of a park
Great Basin National Park is a modest gem. Set in Nevada, within a stone’s throw of Utah, deep in the stillness of the Great Basin, the park was formed out of other public land in 1986. Like many parks, it was the child of compromise: Cattle were permitted to continue to graze the alpine meadows […]
Posted inSeptember 27, 1999: The Millworker and the Forest
Environmental Protection and Growth Management in the West – 1999
Everyone from planners to community activists and lawyers is welcome at a continuing education program workshop, Environmental Protection and Growth Management in the West – 1999. The Oct. 29-30 gathering will focus on what works to protect open spaces and what doesn’t. To register, write to the Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute at the University […]