The government’s planning team for the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is seeking ideas. The team, which includes the BLM and Utah’s Advisory Council on Science and Technology, wants proposals for papers on the geology, paleontology, biology and archaeology of the new monument. Scientists and planners at a symposium in November will assess the papers and […]
Books
Posted inJuly 7, 1997: While the New West booms, Wyoming mines, drills ... and languishes
Bolting blues
The Access Fund, an advocacy group of over 7,000 rock climbers, says a proposed federal rule could kill climbing in BLM wilderness areas. The proposal prohibits “physical alteration or defacement of a natural rock surface in wilderness.” Sally Moser, executive director of the Access Fund in Boulder, Colo., says without bolts or nylon webbing and […]
Posted inJuly 7, 1997: While the New West booms, Wyoming mines, drills ... and languishes
Not for aggies only
Those who think the phrase “agricultural press’ is an oxymoron should take a look at Oregon’s Capital Press, which covers ag issues in the Northwest with intelligence, perspective and a minimum of hysteria. While the weekly is definitely not an environmental publication, it covers much the same ground in a calm and informative way. Its […]
Posted inJuly 7, 1997: While the New West booms, Wyoming mines, drills ... and languishes
No parking in the parks
The public has spoken: America’s national parks are crowded. Consumer Reports asked 40,000 of its subscribers to rate their experiences in America’s national parks. The survey found that along with spectacular scenery, Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon offered headaches over parking, bad roads and too many people. Yellowstone, the nation’s first national park, ranked 27th […]
Posted inJuly 7, 1997: While the New West booms, Wyoming mines, drills ... and languishes
Riches and Regrets
In 1990, Colorado voters approved limited-stakes casino gambling in the three old mining towns of Central City, Black Hawk and Cripple Creek. Riches and Regrets: Betting On Gambling in Two Colorado Mountain Towns explains why. Gambling was promoted as a way to save towns, but it became a way to shred communities. After gambling arrived, […]
Posted inJune 9, 1997: Chaos comes to Costilla County
Who’ll run Hanford Reach?
If Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., has her way, the last free-flowing, undammed stretch of the Columbia River – the Hanford Reach – will stay that way under federal management. First, however, Murray has some politicking to do. She and Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., plan a public hearing June 21 in Mattawa, Wash., on the future […]
Posted inJune 9, 1997: Chaos comes to Costilla County
The road to no sprawl
It’s going to take more than a few isolated individuals to put the squeeze on suburban sprawl, according to Colorado Commons, a nonprofit think tank based in Longmont. With that in mind, the group brings together policymakers, environmentalists, developers and academics to address the state’s urban growth problems. They recently sent the first issue of […]
Posted inJune 9, 1997: Chaos comes to Costilla County
Threatened Rivers
The West continues to hold its own in the competition for the nation’s most at-risk rivers. Five of this year’s top 10 endangered rivers are in the West, according to American Rivers’ annual report, North America’s Most Endangered and Threatened Rivers of 1997. This year’s 45-page report focuses on threats more subtle than the untreated […]
Posted inJune 9, 1997: Chaos comes to Costilla County
Solstice Institute
The summer solstice is a time to join in harmony with natural forces – and boogie. The nonprofit Solstice Institute holds a first-day-of summer celebration June 21 in Boulder, Colo., featuring singing, drumming and some dancing in the street. Ben Lippman, who founded the institute in 1995 to promote cooperative housing, hopes the get-together will […]
Posted inJune 9, 1997: Chaos comes to Costilla County
Summer Wilderness Conference
From Missoula, Mont., comes a double celebration as Wilderness Watch’s Summer Wilderness Conference and the annual gathering of the Association of Literature and the Environment (ASLE) converge on the town July 17-20. Poet Gary Snyder will read to a crowd of conference-goers from both camps. Wilderness Watch hosts environmentalist Stewart Udall, who will highlight discussion […]
Posted inJune 9, 1997: Chaos comes to Costilla County
Rising From Tradition
The work of nine Native American artists from Idaho, Oregon and Washington will be on display at the High Desert Museum in Bend, Ore., for the next nine months. The show, called Rising From Tradition: Contemporary Native Art from the Plateau, features traditional work such as coiled baskets and woven cornhusk belts and pouches, but […]
Posted inJune 9, 1997: Chaos comes to Costilla County
How the West was destroyed
The Lochsa Story: Land Ethics in the Bitterroot Mountains Bud Moore. Mountain Press Publishing Co., Box 2399, Missoula, MT 59806, 1996. $20, paper. Illustrated. Many boys grow up dreaming of becoming a mountain man, to hunt, fish and trap in a wild country. Bud Moore lived the dream. As a boy in the 1920s, he […]
Posted inMay 26, 1997: The sacred and profane collide in the West
Youth Conservation Workshop
Today’s students are tomorrow’s land stewards, and for those interested in land management and conservation, the Colorado branch of the Society for Range Management is taking applications for four scholarships to its annual Youth Conservation Workshop, July 6-12. This national organization of ranchers, farmers, academics and employees of federal and state agencies sponsors the summer […]
Posted inMay 26, 1997: The sacred and profane collide in the West
Forest Guardians
Should commercial logging on public lands become a thing of the past? Some environmentalists think so, and their “zero cut” campaign is making waves around the West. This is just one of the topics of the Forest Guardians’ first annual conference, to be held at Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu, N.M., June 20-22. The conference will […]
Posted inMay 26, 1997: The sacred and profane collide in the West
Western governors’ annual meeting
Teddy Roosevelt would be proud. That’s the mood Western governors want at their annual meeting this June in Medora, in North Dakota’s Badlands, where Roosevelt hunted, ranched and fell in love with the West. Representing 18 Western states, the governors will meet June 22-24 to discuss the theme, Common Interests: Commanding Our Own Destiny. The […]
Posted inMay 26, 1997: The sacred and profane collide in the West
Free-range ferrets
Black-footed ferrets could inhabit northwestern Colorado’s Moffat County and Utah’s Uintah County as soon as this fall, if a federal proposal wins approval. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service chose each county because it had public lands populated by plenty of prairie dogs, the preferred prey of ferrets. Ferrets would be released into the Little […]
Posted inMay 26, 1997: The sacred and profane collide in the West
Yellowstone at 125
Yellowstone National Park turns 125 this year, and the Greater Yellowstone Coalition wants to re-examine not only the park’s mission but the national park ideal worldwide. The GYC holds its 14th annual meeting at Montana State University in Bozeman, May 29-June 1, under the theme: The National Park Idea: Where have we been? Where are […]
Posted inMay 26, 1997: The sacred and profane collide in the West
Eco-ranching – really?
Is ecologically sensitive ranching possible? The Sierra Club’s Santa Fe, N.M., chapter and the Quivira Coalition think it is, and on June 14 they will host a free workshop to show that a ranch can be both a successful livestock business and a landscape of healthy native grasses, riparian zones, streams and wildlife. “The goal,” […]
Posted inMay 26, 1997: The sacred and profane collide in the West
Let’s talk
Bitter disputes over public-land use and property rights in the West may increasingly be resolved through dialogue and cooperation, according to panelists at a conference on environmental conflict resolution held recently in Tucson, Ariz. There were 70 speakers and 260 participants at the conference, sponsored by the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy at […]
Posted inMay 26, 1997: The sacred and profane collide in the West
A negligent bureau?
What is the Bureau of Land Management doing in the woods? Not much good, says Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a national organization of resource management employees. The watchdog group’s latest project, a Comprehensive Study of the Public Domain Forestry Program of the Bureau of Land Management, details what it calls rampant negligence within the […]