Help celebrate 25 years of the Sawtooth National Recreation Area at the annual Wild Idaho! conference May 16-18, at Redfish Lake Lodge near Stanley. The weekend features lively auctions, field trips, music and a slide show on the Boulder-White Clouds mountains; speakers include Rep. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, Bill LeVere, the feisty supervisor of the Sawtooth […]
Books
Posted inMay 12, 1997: Planning under the gun: Cleaning up Lake Tahoe proves to be a dirty business
Cry Wolf
With The Great American Wolf, wildlife biologist Bruce Hampton has written a book almost as compelling as the fiercely intelligent predator itself. Hampton, who lives in Lander, Wyo., first tells us how white hunters in the West sought to wipe out wolves, which were viewed as competitors in the taking of “helpless’ buffalo, deer and […]
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 […]
Posted inMay 12, 1997: Planning under the gun: Cleaning up Lake Tahoe proves to be a dirty business
Beauty prized above all
It may come as a surprise to developers, but the Grand Canyon region’s lower-income residents favor protecting the environment over promoting economic growth. So says a recent survey, Grand Canyon Reflections: A Report on the Environmental Values, Attitudes and Beliefs of the Residents of the Grand Canyon Region, by Northern Arizona University’s social research laboratory. […]
Posted inMay 12, 1997: Planning under the gun: Cleaning up Lake Tahoe proves to be a dirty business
Following the salmon
The Northwest salmon crisis has spawned a $150-a-year journal devoted, says its editor, to “the most significant environmental restoration effort ever undertaken in the United States.” Bill Crampton, a fourth-generation Oregonian and former newspaper editor, started the Northwest Salmon Recovery Report in February to provide an independent voice on regional salmon issues. Crampton, who publishes […]
Posted inMay 12, 1997: Planning under the gun: Cleaning up Lake Tahoe proves to be a dirty business
It’s back
For the fourth time, the U.S. Air Force has released its draft environmental impact statement for a new electronic combat and bombing range in the Owyhee Canyonlands of southern Idaho, eastern Oregon and northern Nevada. The Air Force currently makes 7,500 sonic and subsonic annual flights over the Owyhee Canyonlands. The Air Force says the […]
Posted inMay 12, 1997: Planning under the gun: Cleaning up Lake Tahoe proves to be a dirty business
Getting off the road to ruin
Can you imagine a world without traffic jams, potholes or auto accidents? Activists can at the Arcata, Calif.-based Alliance for a Paving Moratorium. Since 1990, the group has been urging people to get out of their air-polluting vehicles and find their feet again. The alliance’s 40-page, newsprint quarterly, Auto-Free Times, keeps the public up to […]
Posted inApril 28, 1997: Evangelical Christians preach a green gospel
Wise Use Leadership Conference
Green infiltration of the Christian right and Endangered Species Act reform, are just some of the topics that will be covered at The Wise Use Leadership Conference at the Nugget Hotel in Reno/Sparks, Nev., May 2-4. The gathering includes workshops and talks by private-property advocates such as Kathy Benedetto of People For The West. For […]
Posted inApril 28, 1997: Evangelical Christians preach a green gospel
Transportation partnerships
Transportation Partnerships, a May 1-2 symposium at the Hotel Colorado in Glenwood Springs, Colo., will highlight solutions for the state’s growing transport problems. Communities that have received grants – sponsored by the governor’s Office of Energy Conservation – will share what they’ve learned, including reports about trying to relieve traffic congestion in Boulder, and developing […]
Posted inApril 28, 1997: Evangelical Christians preach a green gospel
Wetland Restoration in the Landscape
The destruction of wetlands may have dropped out of the headlines, but they are still disappearing at a rapid rate across the West. Whether it’s possible to restore wetlands will be the focus of the conference, Wetland Restoration in the Landscape, May 5-7 in Corvallis, Ore. The Society for Wetland Scientists and the Society for […]
Posted inApril 28, 1997: Evangelical Christians preach a green gospel
Pacific Northwest Environmental Directory
From Puget Sounders to Trout Unlimited, you can find it in the 1996/97 edition of the Pacific Northwest Environmental Directory. It’s a good resource for job-hunters, researchers and anyone interested in environmental groups and agencies in Oregon, Washington and the Canadian province of British Columbia. The 230-page softcover book costs $18.50. Write to National Environmental […]
Posted inApril 28, 1997: Evangelical Christians preach a green gospel
Wolves will be wolves
When the federal government restored wolves to Yellowstone National Park two years ago, it anticipated that the surrounding states would ultimately take over management of the predator. Now, Wyoming has taken the first step in that direction by producing a draft wolf-management plan. The plan’s preferred alternative calls for allowing six wolf packs to move […]
Posted inApril 28, 1997: Evangelical Christians preach a green gospel
Night of the Living Beanfield
Come hear “how an unsuccessful cult novel became an unsuccessful cult film after only 14 years, 11 nervous breakdowns and $20 million.” That’s how New Mexico writer John Nichols, author of the Milagro Beanfield War, describes his upcoming visit May 1-4 at Father Dyer United Methodist Church in Breckenridge, Colo. In two lectures, Night of […]
Posted inApril 28, 1997: Evangelical Christians preach a green gospel
Colorado Coalition of Land Trusts
How do you keep land open and out of the hands of developers? The Colorado Coalition of Land Trusts will detail methods at its spring meeting May 1-3 in Colorado Springs, Colo. Workshops and talks will cover easements, stewardship, and funding opportunities for land trusts. Continuing legal education credit is available. Call 970/259-3415 or write […]
Posted inApril 14, 1997: Beauty and the Beast
Tribal force
Tribal Force, a new comic book created by two 28-year-old artists from Arizona, begins in the year 2006 with the usual mega-battle: Native superheroes must stop the U.S. government from bombing the Indians and confiscating their resource-rich reservation land. But the story quickly becomes both more human and contemporary. Basho Yazza, one of the comic […]
Posted inApril 14, 1997: Beauty and the Beast
The burning barrel
The Burning Barrel is worth watching for its prairie shots and for the home movies of filmmaker Tim Schwab’s childhood that will make you nostalgic even though it’s not your childhood. An old oil drum that was used to burn his family’s garbage is the metaphor for wastefulness that narrator Schwab (he made the film […]
Posted inApril 14, 1997: Beauty and the Beast
Bringing back the small family farm
In their mid-40s and newly married, Bob and Bonnie Gregson dropped out and bought a 13-acre farm near Seattle, Wash. in 1988. When the couple left their corporate jobs and city lives, they dreamed of making a “reasonable, community-oriented, non-exploitive, earth-friendly, and aesthetically pleasing living.” They managed to succeed, after some trial and error, as […]
Posted inApril 14, 1997: Beauty and the Beast
Here’s looking at tourism
Tourism is as hotly debated in the West as clearcutting. Some see it as salvation for overworked landscapes and faltering economies; others see it as a more vicious form of extraction than mining and logging. All those perspectives as well as a few from the center will be at the “Seeing and Being Seen: Tourism […]
Posted inApril 14, 1997: Beauty and the Beast
The information dirt road
Instead of booms and busts brought on by fluctuating demand for everything from gold to coal, rural areas believed that the information age would bring economic stability as educated information workers moved to small communities. No longer would small towns be turned into ghost towns when the ore gave out or commodity prices plunged. So […]
Posted inApril 14, 1997: Beauty and the Beast
Cherish and Renew: Restoring Western Ecosystems and Communities
To Cherish and Renew: Restoring Western Ecosystems and Communities is the theme of the second annual Wallace Stegner Center symposium, in Salt Lake City, April 17-19. Revitalizing damaged natural resources and local economies will be the focus of discussion sessions hosted by writer and naturalist Terry Tempest Williams, sustainable agriculture expert Wes Jackson, Ted Strong […]