When the U.S. Air Force told residents of northern New Mexico that it was considering their blue skies for a new bombing range for B-52s and B-1s, it galvanized local defenses. “In northern New Mexico, with our high level of poverty, the only assets are beauty and tranquility,” says Cliff Bain, who has organized a […]
Books
Posted inAugust 3, 1998: Tribes reclaim stolen lands
Ghostly fish swim in Idaho
Once there were thousands of sockeye salmon leaving the Pacific Ocean to spawn in Idaho’s Redfish Lake. Only one sockeye salmon made it to the lake in 1994, 1995 and 1996; and not even one bright-red fish returned to spawn in 1997. The decline of these once abundant native fish is something we ought to […]
Posted inAugust 3, 1998: Tribes reclaim stolen lands
Spills and secrets
Knowing what chemicals ride the rails is crucial in preparing for accidental spills, says a citizens’ coalition for environmental health in Alberton, a small northwestern Montana town. The group formed after a Montana Rail Link train derailed, exposing the town of Alberton to chlorine and leaving some residents with lingering health problems (HCN, 4/28/97). Long […]
Posted inAugust 3, 1998: Tribes reclaim stolen lands
We can take it
As the country struggled through the Great Depression, nearly 3 million young men came together in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) with the motto, “We can take it.” Between 1933 and 1942, the CCC built 125,000 miles of roads, strung 89,000 miles of telephone lines and revegetated almost a million acres of rangeland. This year, […]
Posted inAugust 3, 1998: Tribes reclaim stolen lands
Not boring, not befuddling
Somewhere there is a school that teaches those who work for government agencies and environmental groups to write press releases. The school’s core curriculum consists of courses in Boasting in Print and Bad Writing; it also offers seminars in Boring and Befuddling the Reader, Grazing the Truth, and Tunnel Vision. Even in peacetime, those who […]
Posted inJuly 6, 1998: Riding the Wyoming 'brand'
Justice for the cutthroat
When it listed bulltrout as a threatened species recently (HCN, 6/22/98), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also announced that westslope cutthroat trout deserved study for possible protection. The move was pushed by six conservation groups – American Wildlands, Madison Gallatin Chapter of Trout Unlimited, Idaho Watersheds Project, Montana Environmental Information Center, Clearwater Biodiversity Project […]
Posted inJuly 6, 1998: Riding the Wyoming 'brand'
Takings clarified
-If I tell my daughter that she cannot play with her ball in the house, she has lost something of value – the right to play with the ball in the house. I have regulated what she can do with the ball, but I haven’t “taken” it. She is still free to play with it […]
Posted inJuly 6, 1998: Riding the Wyoming 'brand'
Still on the hit list
When the Wilderness Society released a list of the 10 most endangered wild places in the U.S. last year, it hoped media attention would slow down the development threatening these unique areas. But this year’s list has been expanded to 15 sites, and only one area dropped off the list because of increased protection. The […]
Posted inJuly 6, 1998: Riding the Wyoming 'brand'
Colorado Water Workshop
The 23rd annual Colorado Water Workshop will be held July 29-31 at Western State College in Gunnison, Colo., with Floyd Dominy, former commissioner and dam-builder of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the keynote speaker. This year’s theme: World Water Lessons for a Changing West. Registration is $225 before July 20. For more information, call 970/641-6215 […]
Posted inJuly 6, 1998: Riding the Wyoming 'brand'
Wild Mushrooms/Telluride
Bring your mushroom hat to Wild Mushrooms/Telluride Aug. 27-30 in Telluride, Colo., where, in addition to a mushroom costume parade, a conference features field excursions, a mushroom cook and taste party, and talks by Andrew Weil, author of Spontaneous Healing. Contact Fungophile, Inc., P.O. Box 480503, Denver, CO 80248-0503 (303/296-9359). Or check out the Website: […]
Posted inJuly 6, 1998: Riding the Wyoming 'brand'
The San Pedro River
The San Pedro River in Arizona’s southeastern corner is famous for the diversity of its birdlife, but groundwater pumping by surrounding communities and the Fort Huachuca military base in Sierra Vista, Ariz., is draining the desert refuge. Now, the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, a Montreal-based group established by NAFTA, has released a report entitled “Sustaining […]
Posted inJuly 6, 1998: Riding the Wyoming 'brand'
Colorado curmudgeon defends the rural West
Review by Ken Wright Ed Quillen isn’t exactly a voice crying in the wilderness; he’s more like that guy with a beer and a Camel Straight in his hand, yelling from the sagging porch of the house down the street – the one with all the weeds and the 1975 Jeep Cherokee on blocks in […]
Posted inJuly 6, 1998: Riding the Wyoming 'brand'
Defining a scientific movement
Review by Michelle Nijhuis Janine Benyus’ Biomimicry is a book about science. One of its many unexpected pleasures, however, is that it is also about scientists. Benyus’ fondness and respect for researchers is evident in every chapter, even as she gently pokes fun at their peculiar obsessions. Here, for example, is her description of biochemist […]
Posted inJuly 6, 1998: Riding the Wyoming 'brand'
Waterton Glacier International Writers’ Workshop
At the third annual Waterton-Glacier International Writer’s Workshop in Glacier Park, Mont., Sept. 24-26, nature, environmental and travel writers come together with editors and publishers from both the United States and Canada. Writing and publishing workshops will be offered, with story opportunities emerging from field trips throughout the Glacier area. To register, contact Joan Baucus, […]
Posted inJuly 6, 1998: Riding the Wyoming 'brand'
Whitewater boating groups
Whitewater boating groups are invited to eddy out in July and apply for a $500 to $2,500 grant to promote river access or conservation projects. Nonprofit groups within the Rocky Mountain region may apply by July 15. Contact the Colorado Whitewater Association Grant Committee, c/o Jay P.K. Kenney, 1675 Larimer St., Suite 725, Denver, CO […]
Posted inJuly 6, 1998: Riding the Wyoming 'brand'
When Will the Joy Ride End?
Remember the oil crisis? It’s only just begun, according to the petroleum primer When Will the Joy Ride End? published by an Aspen, Colo., nonprofit, the Community Office for Resource Efficiency. With catchy phrases, hard facts and many graphs, authors Randy Udall and Steve Andrews stress that when global oil production peaks, it may already […]
Posted inJuly 6, 1998: Riding the Wyoming 'brand'
The illustrated adventures of bison
What weighs 4 pounds, boasts stunning watercolor illustrations of wildlife, and purports to regulate brucellosis in free-ranging bison? The new 400-page Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Interagency Bison Management Plan for the State of Montana and Yellowstone National Park, of course. The statement, a collaboration by the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, […]
Posted inJuly 6, 1998: Riding the Wyoming 'brand'
In the footsteps of Muir
Would John Muir recognize the Yosemite of today? What would he think of his beloved “hospitable, Godful wilderness,” where he roamed freely, built campfires anywhere he pleased and traveled with his unleashed dog, Carlo? To explore questions like that, writer Geraldine Vale and geographer Thomas Vale retraced the route that Muir described over a century […]
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
Lonely Art
In a crumbling, long-abandoned building in the desert of eastern Utah, anonymous artists have created one of the world’s loneliest art exhibits. “Thou shalt not bear false witness. Thou shalt not steal,” is scrawled ominously above a gutted upholstered chair inside a small building called the White Buffalo Bar. Cowboy boots, stuck upside down on […]
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
Fees please visitors
Land-management agencies call new user fees an “unqualified success’ and they’re asking Congress to make them permanent. During its first season on more than 200 sites around the country, the fee program raised $53.5 million. Before the trial fees got under way, public correspondence ran about 2-to-1 against, saying they discouraged low-income and local users […]