The nonprofit Ecological Consultants for the Public Interest, founded five months ago by Boulder, Colo., lawyer Randall Weiner, has already made headlines. On behalf of a Denver neighborhood exposed to a hydrogen-chloride spill, the environmental consulting firm sued Vulcan Chemical Co., which had failed to provide adequate warnings and information to residents. The neighborhood has […]
Books
Posted inJuly 7, 1997: While the New West booms, Wyoming mines, drills ... and languishes
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
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 […]
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
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 […]
Posted inMay 26, 1997: The sacred and profane collide in the West
For urban dropouts
John Clayton, who lived in the Boston area before moving to rural Montana, has written a no-nonsense book that could help disgruntled urbanites make an informed decision before hitting the highway. The title says it all: Small Town Bound: Your guide to small-town living, from determining if life in the country lane is for you, […]
Posted inMay 26, 1997: The sacred and profane collide in the West
The Colorado Trail Foundation
You can learn more about Colorado’s alpine environment by experiencing it this summer. The Colorado Trail Foundation offers three classes: “Alpine Wildflowers,” July 20-26, taught by botanist John Sowell; “Watercolor and Ornithology,” July 27-Aug. 2, taught by painter Marge Barge, and “Geology of the San Juans,” Aug. 3-9, taught by geologist Jack Campbell. Classes take […]
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 12, 1997: Planning under the gun: Cleaning up Lake Tahoe proves to be a dirty business
Intimidation is on the rise
-Our goal is to destroy, to eradicate the environmental movement,” said Ron Arnold, of Seattle, Wash., one of the leaders of the wise-use movement, in 1991. “We’re mad as hell.” It’s one thing to talk about anger and destruction; another to act out those feelings. Since 1989, there have been over 100 incidents of harassment […]