Greenpeace may no longer be going door to door, but another group continues its long-time canvassing, often stressing environmental issues. It distributes millions of copies of its material in about 60 languages, including Pidgin, Hiligaynon and Zulu. The July 8 issue asked on its cover: “Who Will Save Our Animals?,” with a story inside that […]
Books
A timber country memoir
It’s hard to make straight lines stick to the earth, writes Robert Leo Heilman in Overstory: Zero; Real Life in Timber Country, and even harder in hilly Douglas County, Ore. In his book of 32 essays, Heilman returns to this theme again and again; he likes the earth’s reluctance to bend to blueprints, whether he […]
Let rivers heal
A report from the Oregon State University Department of Fisheries says that current salmon habitat and river restoration efforts will fail unless they focus on entire watersheds or landscapes, rather than on a single process or species. For such a holistic approach to work, the report says, overgrazing, pollution and too much water consumption must […]
Forest fragmentation in the Central Rocky Mountains
Forest Fragmentation in the Central Rocky Mountains is the theme of a two-day conference at Colorado State University Nov. 12-13. From scientists to environmentalists, all-terrain vehicle drivers to timber industry representatives, everyone interested in forests is invited and no registration is needed. For more information, contact Rick Knight at 970/491-6714, or by e-mail: knight@cnr.colostate.edu. This […]
It’s a big bird
Eleven California condors are cruising the skies over Grand Canyon all the way to Moab, Utah, after being released this year in northern Arizona. Biologists with the California Condor Recovery Project suggest bird-watchers travel Highway 89A north of the Grand Canyon between Lee’s Ferry and House Rock Valley Road to see the carrion-eaters. Pull-out parking […]
Keeping rural American rural
City sprawl has swallowed up rural communities; a revised edition of Saving America’s Countryside: A Guide to Rural Conservation shows how local action can stave off urbanization. Written by Samuel N. Stokes, A. Elizabeth Watson, and Shelley S. Mastran, the book offers everything from well-honed ideas for organizing residents to sample drafts of easements designed […]
Just charge it
Only 50 or so electric cars are on Arizona’s roads, but the Tucson Electric Power Company has opened eight free charge-up stations in the city. General Motors says it chose Tucson, Phoenix, San Diego and Los Angeles as test markets because the cars perform better on flat terrain and in a warm climate. The EV-1, […]
The Greater Yellowstone Coordinating Committee
When land managers meet to talk about the greater Yellowstone ecosystem, they need a large table. The Greater Yellowstone Coordinating Committee is composed of the superintendents of Yellowstone and Grand Tetons national parks and the six supervisors from neighboring national forests. They’ll get together in Jackson, Wyo., Oct. 7 and 8, to discuss air quality, […]
Call to the Desert
Call to the Desert will cover “hot” topics at the Nevada Nuclear Test site, 60 miles northwest of Las Vegas, Nev. The anti-nuclear group, Healing Global Wounds, hosts a gathering Oct. 10-13 that features prayers at sunrise, a workshop led by Margene Bullcreek, a Skull Valley Goshute member who opposes nuclear waste coming to her […]
Western Colorado Congress
The consumer and environmental coalition, Western Colorado Congress, holds its 17th annual meeting in Grand Junction on Oct. 11, with historian Patricia Nelson Limerick, author of The Legacy of Conquest, starring in a provocative dramatization of “The Urban-Rural Divorce in the West.” This divorce hearing will explore the relationship between Western urban life and small-town […]
Managing Colorado Watersheds for Riparian and Wetland Values
You can learn for yourself about the West’s most precious resource at the Colorado Riparian Association’s Oct. 14-16 conference in Montrose, Colo. Managing Colorado Watersheds for Riparian and Wetland Values features speakers from dozens of agencies and citizen groups; topics include wetland recovery, pollution clean-up, agriculture and the Glen Canyon flooding experiment. CRA spokesman Larry […]
National Recreation and Access Summit “97
Climbers, mountain bikers, river rafters and other outdoor enthusiasts will converge in Boulder, Colo., Nov. 7-8, for the National Recreation and Access Summit “97, sponsored by sports retailer REI. Summit hosts, including the Access Fund and American Whitewater, want ideas for promoting conservation while ensuring access to public lands, reducing user conflicts and building a […]
Glen Canyon Institute
Members of the Glen Canyon Institute aren’t wasting time about their call for the restoration of a free-flowing Colorado River. Meeting for their third annual conference at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City Oct. 8-9, they plan to present the start of a “Citizens’ Environmental Assessment” centering on the removal of Glen Canyon […]
Just in time for the budget requests
Forest Service mismanagement is one thing many environmentalists, ranchers and loggers agree is a problem. Now the Government Accounting Office has chimed in with a July 31 report to Congress that says the Forest Service’s decision-making culture is one of “indifference toward accountability.” The agency’s inability to make timely decisions costs taxpayers millions of dollars […]
Chemicals aren’t the only answer
Your french fries were probably soaked in chemicals, warns the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides, since potatoes are some of the most treated crops in the Northwest. But there are ways to reduce chemical use, such as rotating crops, and that’s just one of the messages the coalition hopes to convey Oct. 11 in […]
Abnormal amphibians
Have you ever been mucking about in the local swamp and found a one-eyed frog or a five-legged salamander? If you have, you’re not alone. In the last decade, malformed amphibians have turned up in about a dozen states around the country, including Washington, Oregon, California and North Dakota. Herpetologists, the scientists who study amphibians […]
Fleeting forests
For more than two decades, Utah wilderness advocates have been chanting, “5.7! 5.7!” Now, a similar cry is rising in Idaho: “8 million! 8 million!” There are 8 million acres of unprotected roadless land in Idaho’s national forests, according to Idaho’s Vanishing Wild Lands, a report by the Wilderness Society. The number is falling fast. […]
Fixing Fish Creek
The past 50 years have not been kind to Mount Hood National Forest’s Fish Creek watershed. In the past two years alone, over 200 landslides have ravaged its 30,000 acres, where unstable slopes have been made even weaker by decades of logging and road building. Now, with the forest at 60 percent of its original […]
Close those roads
Up Stevens Gulch near Paonia, Colo., some Coloradans want to drive all-terrain vehicles on logging roads the Forest Service once promised it would close off. Now, the agency is offering two more timber sales, which means even more road construction, and then more ATVs. The Colorado Wildlife Federation, Colorado Environmental Coalition and the Western Slope […]
Quincy Library Group
Michael Jackson, co-founder of the Quincy Library Group, known for its controversial plan for northern California forests, will speak in Olathe, Colo., Sept. 5. The Delta/Montrose Public Lands Partnership, a coalition similar to the Quincy Group, is hosting environmental attorney Jackson, who will speak at 2 p.m. at the Olathe Community Center and participate in […]
