To protect spawning salmon, cattle on four allotments in Oregon’s Wallowa-Whitman National Forest have been shifted away from streams. The Forest Service reacted to a federal appeals court injunction that banned all grazing, logging and road building in parts of the Wallowa-Whitman and Umatilla national forests. The appeals court had found that the Forest Service […]
Energy & Industry
Posted inAugust 22, 1994: Whose fault? A Utah canyon turns deadly
Rancher finds fame expensive
If you seek publicity, you might just find it. Just ask rancher Marcus Rudnick, who was declared a “limited public figure” by an appeals court judge in Ventura, Calif., on June 13. The controversy began in San Luis Obispo County in 1991, when Rudnick put up for lease 75,000 acres he had owned and grazed […]
Posted inAugust 22, 1994: Whose fault? A Utah canyon turns deadly
Bruce Babbitt in the lion’s den
Elsewhere in this issue (page 4), writer Michael Riley describes how Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt attended a ranchers’ barbecue. At the barbecue, as Babbitt knew they would, speaker after speaker tore into him. Throughout the talks, Riley reports, Babbitt chatted quietly with ranchers and local officials. Babbitt’s visit to the barbecue was another example of […]
Posted inAugust 22, 1994: Whose fault? A Utah canyon turns deadly
We aimed for Russia and hit the West
Former Arizona congressman Stewart Udall served as Interior Department Secretary during the 1960s when landmark bills such as the Wilderness Act and Endangered Species Act became law. When Udall returned to Arizona, however, he took on a cause that would change his life. With a team that included members of his family, Udall investigated what […]
Posted inJuly 25, 1994: 'Unranchers' reach for West's state lands
House of straw
House of Straw Straw-bale housing construction, known for its flimsy role in the children’s tale The Three Little Pigs, is making a comeback. After a brief period of popularity in the early 1900s, straw bale buildings lost favor in the 1940s. But tastes change, lumber is increasingly expensive and structures built of straw are springing […]
Posted inJuly 25, 1994: 'Unranchers' reach for West's state lands
A calm book on diet, health and the environment
A CALM BOOK ON DIET, HEALTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT In the Impacts of Livestock Production, Peter R. Cheeke writes about the animal rights movement, antibiotics in livestock, competition between people and domestic animals for grains, and the environmental aspects of livestock production. He does it in a calm way, without demonizing those who criticize the […]
Posted inJuly 25, 1994: 'Unranchers' reach for West's state lands
Mega coal mine proposed again in Utah
A single dirt road winds through the white sand and expansive piûon-juniper forests of Utah’s Kaiparowits Plateau. Encircled by Bryce Canyon and Zion national parks and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, the desert mesa hides both a seldom-visited wilderness and the state’s last large deposit of high-grade coal. Where dusty adventurers now dodge potholes, in […]
Posted inJuly 25, 1994: 'Unranchers' reach for West's state lands
How love of gold moves mountains
Through the centuries of our mythology, gold has gathered such a mystical sheen that we forget it is just another commodity. This is a critical oversight, especially for those people fighting gold mines in the West. We oppose gold mines and proposals for mines through the usual government channels, meager as these might be with […]
Posted inJuly 25, 1994: 'Unranchers' reach for West's state lands
How I tried to patch together a disintegrating world
Royce Green (not his real name) and his wife were eating dinner by the kitchen window during a storm when the wind blew their new roof into the air, opening the tin trailer like a can opener. Royce’s wife thought the whole place was going to go, just like Dorothy’s house in The Wizard of […]
Posted inJuly 25, 1994: 'Unranchers' reach for West's state lands
Wyoming boom could gas wildlife herds
ROCK SPRINGS , Wyo. – A boom in natural gas drilling in southwestern Wyoming is happening so fast that government scientists don’t have enough time to study, let alone mitigate, impacts to wildlife, say state wildlife officials, sportsmen and environmentalists. More than 3,000 gas wells are currently operating in the five counties of southwestern Wyoming, […]
Posted inJune 27, 1994: Home, home on the range ... where neo-Nazis and skinheads roam
BLM reversed on grazing permit transfer
The Oregon Natural Resources Council, with legal help from the National Wildlife Federation, has thrown 500,000 acres of public grazing land in south-central Oregon into legal limbo. The Department of Interior Board of Land Appeals overturned a decision by the Bureau of Land Management transferring grazing permits to the new owners of the MC Ranch, […]
Posted inJune 27, 1994: Home, home on the range ... where neo-Nazis and skinheads roam
Tourists and tailings in Utah
When the federal government suggested hauling 3 million cubic yards of low-level radioactive sand down the main street of Blanding, Utah, the mayor and city council agreed. That came as a shock to the Department of Energy’s project manager Don Leske, who expected to be urged to build a highway bypass. “When you go to […]
Posted inJune 27, 1994: Home, home on the range ... where neo-Nazis and skinheads roam
So much for badges
Between 1953 and 1967, workers at Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant near Denver, Colo., were either incorrectly monitored for radiation or not monitored at all. Now, the Department of Energy is telephoning hundreds of current and former employees at the closed weapons plant to tell them they were exposed to more radiation than anyone knew. […]
Posted inJune 27, 1994: Home, home on the range ... where neo-Nazis and skinheads roam
Elk ranchers escape from Colorado’s Division of Wildlife
Mention the Division of Wildlife to a Colorado elk rancher and criticism comes easy. “They think we’re a terrible disease threat to native wildlife,” says Steve Wolcott, president of the North American Elk Breeders Association, “and that we’re a bunch of crooks.” Mention elk ranching to a wildlife biologist and watch a grimace form. “We […]
Posted inJune 27, 1994: Home, home on the range ... where neo-Nazis and skinheads roam
The West’s grazing war grinds on
After a new round of public hearings, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt’s attempt at a political compromise on grazing reform appears dead. The proposal – partly developed in negotiations between Babbitt, ranchers and environmentalists in Colorado last winter – would raise fees and tighten ecological standards for ranchers who graze livestock on public lands. At the […]
Posted inJanuary 24, 1994: Turmoil on the range
Consensus may not be the best way to reform grazing
Editor’s note: The following letter was sent to Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt by Dan Heinz, a 25-year veteran of the U.S. Forest Service. Heinz is now an environmental consultant and field agent for the non-profit American Wildlands, 16575 Callahan Ranch, Reno, NV 89511 (702/884-1998). Dear Secretary Babbitt, Your willingness to listen to the grass […]
Posted inJune 13, 1994: A doomed species?
Renewable energy festival
Democracy will be celebrated, but energy independence is the main theme of the first annual Freedom Festival July 3 in Glenwood Springs, Colo. The event features an array of renewable and sustainable energy products. Reggae music, alternative health care and craft booths will also share Two Rivers Park on the shores of the Roaring Fork […]
Posted inJune 13, 1994: A doomed species?
Self-reliant homes
You can unplug from the electrical grid, writes home-builder and author Michael Potts in The Independent Home: Living Well with Power from the Sun, Wind and Water. Potts’ exploration of both the philosophy and technology of energy independence makes an excellent primer for people wanting to design and build a house, or to minimize power […]
Posted inJune 13, 1994: A doomed species?
Same old DOE?
U.S. Energy Secretary Hazel O’Leary may be displaying unprecedented candor by disclosing her agency’s sordid history of radiation experiments on humans. But two reports by the General Accounting Office suggest that the agency remains an old boys’ club. According to one report, the DOE has yet to investigate what happened to $30 million of goods […]
Posted inJune 13, 1994: A doomed species?
Five star visitor complex
The Bureau of Reclamation is now building the nation’s first boondoggle tourist stop. Thanks to cost overruns and management neglect, the Hoover Dam visitor center in southern Nevada will cost $119 million instead of an estimated $32 million. Scheduled to be finished in 1995, the 44,000-square-foot center, which sits on the side of a cliff, […]