Washington’s Methow Valley may avoid industrial tourism
Communities
Posted inNovember 28, 1994: Beauty eludes the beast
Citizens held off big money for years
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, Beauty eludes the beast. METHOW VALLEY, Wash. – Only by sticking determinedly to their vision of this valley for 20 years did environmentalists force a compromise from all-out development. When the Aspen Ski Corp. and the Forest Service wanted to develop a downhill ski resort […]
Posted inNovember 28, 1994: Beauty eludes the beast
How Methow Valley grew an economy
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, Beauty eludes the beast. METHOW VALLEY, Wash. – While developers and government officials spent two decades and millions of dollars trying to turn this valley into a destination downhill ski resort, residents quietly built and maintained a world-class cross-country skiing area. Now the proposals for […]
Posted inNovember 28, 1994: Beauty eludes the beast
The valley around us is deep
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, Beauty eludes the beast. Close to the Canadian border, Washington’s Methow Valley startles visitors with its wild 8,000-foot peaks and lively weather: sunshine one minute, boiling clouds the next. What words could do justice to its stark beauty, seen by visitors during an hour and […]
Posted inNovember 14, 1994: Land grant universities
A small town in Oregon gets ugly
After tarred-and-feathered effigies of two environmental activists were strung up in the center of Joseph, Ore., Sept. 30, the local newspaper headlined its story: “Enviros can learn a lot from a couple of dummies.” Some residents then organized an economic boycott aimed at driving the two environmentalists out of town. Were these tactics reminiscent of […]
Posted inNovember 14, 1994: Land grant universities
Land-grant universities
Their roots loosen as the Westchanges beneath them
Posted inNovember 14, 1994: Land grant universities
Between past and future
Washington State University tries to get there from here
Posted inNovember 14, 1994: Land grant universities
Budget cutters whack at researchers
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, Sexy weapon thwarts bugs. Jay Brunner is hunched over a microscope, watching a tiny wasp crawl over a bright-green caterpillar called a leafroller. The ant-sized wasp has laid about 10 eggs on the leafroller’s dense web. When the young wasps hatch, the entomologist […]
Posted inNovember 14, 1994: Land grant universities
A tale of two ag programs
Evergreen State provides an alternative to giant Washington State
Posted inNovember 14, 1994: Land grant universities
On campus: A department head tries to change the academic culture
Note: this feature article is one of several in a special issue about land grant universities in the West. If the West’s land-grant universities are to evolve, faculty like Glen Whipple are keys to that evolution. Whipple is head of the Agricultural Economics Department at the University of Wyoming in Laramie. Just as important, he […]
Posted inNovember 14, 1994: Land grant universities
Off campus: A sociologist tries to help Idaho’s small towns
Note: this feature article is one of several in a special issue about land grant universities in the West. When sociologist Aaron Harp interviewed for a job at the University of Idaho, he was asked if the university had an obligation to save the state’s rural communities. “That’s a loaded question,” says Harp. “And having […]
Posted inOctober 31, 1994: Water for the taking
Paved “paradise’ for workers
In Telluride, Colo., you can live in your car, but only if you park it in the right place. After passing an ordinance prohibiting car camping on all public land and rights-of-way within town limits, on Oct. 18 the Telluride Town Council designated a public parking lot as an alternative. The “campers’ are people who […]
Posted inOctober 17, 1994: As elections near, green hopes wilt
Reality intrudes on Big Rock Candy Mountain
The bluebirds no longer sing by the lemonade springs: The Big Rock Candy Mountain Resort on the Sevier River near Marysvale, Utah, is bankrupt. The sulphur- and chocolate-colored mountain, celebrated in a song written by Harry McClintock and sung by Burl Ives, attracted visitors from around the world who during the 1950s drank its mineral-rich […]
Posted inOctober 3, 1994: Subdividing the desert: Should there be a vote?
Saved from subdivision
A letter-writing campaign to members of Congress last year helped protect 18,000 acres of privately owned land within central Colorado’s Roosevelt National Forest. The area, known as Cherokee Park, was owned by Union Pacific Railroad and targeted for sale to developers for recreational homes. Once alerted, the Trust For Public Land, a San Francisco-based organization, […]
Posted inOctober 3, 1994: Subdividing the desert: Should there be a vote?
Subdividing the desert: Should there be a vote?
TUCSON, Ariz. – Plumber Neale Allen likes to tell the story about driving down a strip where builders were bulldozing cacti for homes and shopping centers, and getting tough questions from his 7-year-old daughter Sarah. “She asked me why they had to scrape everything and kill plants and animals,” recalls Allen, who is 42. “It’s […]
Posted inOctober 3, 1994: Subdividing the desert: Should there be a vote?
The Southwest’s writers are terrified liars
One of the best modern novels about the real Southwest is in technicolor. It takes place in Prescott, Ariz.: A rodeo performer returns to his hometown, finds out that his brother is bulldozing the home ranch and slicing it up into ranchettes and subdivisions, that his dad is about to hit the road for prospecting […]
Posted inSeptember 5, 1994: Can planning rein in a stampede?
The real bind is too many people everywhere
I suggest that one of the dominant environmental issues in the West’s future will be: How many people can live satisfied lives here? Population size is a factor of three variables: birth rates, death rates, and immigration. Birth, death and territory. Can any other issue cover such deep atavistic feelings? The issue will divide friends […]
Posted inSeptember 5, 1994: Can planning rein in a stampede?
To learn more: a list of sources
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, How to get involved and push the process. Wading into the world of planning is much like walking into quicksand: The more you struggle with it, the more bogged down you get. Fortunately, there are some useful starting points. General information The state […]
Posted inSeptember 5, 1994: Can planning rein in a stampede?
Towns angling for tourism should beware of the great white shark
MOAB, Utah – The simplest way to describe what happened in Grand County is to say that, in 1986, our resilient community leaders got in their rowboat and went fishing for a little tourism to revive and diversify our economy. They hooked a great white shark. This monster has swamped the boat and eaten the […]
Posted inSeptember 5, 1994: Can planning rein in a stampede?
This boom will end like all the others – in a deep, deep bust
In 1982 a plumber named Jeff Everett and I competed to see who was the greater fool. I won. The competition centered on a 1,000-square-foot building we owned at 124 Grand Avenue, on Paonia’s two-block-long main street. It had been home to Betsy’s and my first newspaper – North Fork Times; by 1982 it stood […]