Nevada is the nation’s driest state, and Mineral County is as parched as any place in it. Past the Sierra Nevada’s rain shadow, it’s sagebrush and alkali dust, sun-bleached skies free of clouds. So as a boy, Glenn Bunch, who grew up in Hawthorne, the county seat, spent as much time as he could at […]
Fish
Posted inApril 13, 2009: The Desert That Breaks Annie Proulx’s Heart
Columbia Basin (Political) Science
An investigation into the Bonneville Power Administration’s influence on salmon research
Posted inWotr
On second thought, Mr. Cheney
On the last day of 2008, a little bird told me that the venerable American Museum of Fly Fishing in Manchester, Vt., a beacon for the nation’s fly-fishers and a keeper of their rich tradition, had landed Vice President Dick Cheney as the guest of honor and speaker at its spring 2009 meeting. So I […]
Posted inOctober 16, 2006: A River Once More
A River Once More
In Oregon, an unprecedented alliance is working to put water someplace it hasn’t been in a long time: in the river.
Posted inMay 1, 2006: Magic Valley Uprising
County and Forest Service bury the shovel
A long-running dispute over an infamous dirt road in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest may be winding down. The Forest Service and Elko County, Nev., are asking a federal judge to approve a settlement over the county’s claim to South Canyon Road in Jarbidge Canyon. Although the agency still refuses to recognize the county’s assertion of […]
Posted inMay 1, 2006: Magic Valley Uprising
Hobby miners flock to public streams
Growing pastime raises concerns about an outdated law
Posted inApril 3, 2006: Land of Disenchantment
Columbia River dams revived
Tribes get shut out of new plan touted as good for fish
Posted inFebruary 6, 2006: The Killing Fields
Tiny stream invaders may harm Western trout
Researchers tackle a problem likely to be spread by hatcheries and anglers
Posted inFebruary 6, 2006: The Killing Fields
Trouble in the Delta
A water peace effort in California falls apart at the worst possible moment
Posted inWotr
Lewis and Clark trout at 200
One June evening exactly 200 years ago, a young private in the U.S. Army baited a hook tied to a willow stick and tossed it into one of the largest waterfalls on earth. The line went taut under the strength of a 2-pound flash of living silver. The soldier took in the line, hand over […]
Posted inMay 16, 2005: Unsalvageable
In the Washington woods, managers face a catch-22
Critics say that by trying to please everyone, new rules could fail fish and wildlife
Posted inMay 16, 2005: Unsalvageable
Protecting the treaty, saving the fish
NAME Kat Brigham VOCATION Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Board of Trustees member HOME BASE Umatilla Reservation, near Pendleton, Oregon CLAIM TO FAME Fighting for tribal fishing rights on the Columbia River, as well as for the health of the river’s fish. SHE SAYS “I like fish any way — baked, smoked, fried, dried or […]
Posted inApril 4, 2005: Calling It Quits
The public pays to keep water in a river
A new wave of ‘takings’ lawsuits could bust the environmental protection budget
Posted inApril 4, 2005: Calling It Quits
Who owns Klamath water — farmers or the public?
Note: in the print edition of this issue, this article appears as a sidebar to another news article, “The public pays to keep water in a river.” For four years, farmers on the California-Oregon border have battled the U.S. government in the courts for $100 million in damages, after the Bureau of Reclamation withheld irrigation […]
Posted inMarch 21, 2005: An Empire Built on Sand
Peace breaks out on the Rio Grande
Settlement between enviros and Albuquerque puts water in the river
Posted inMay 16, 2005: Unsalvageable
Cows versus condos — Northwest style
Note: in the print edition of this issue, this article appears as a sidebar to another news article, “In the Washington woods, managers face a catch-22.” Like ranches elsewhere in the West, small tree farms in Washington encompass some of the best fish and wildlife habitat: lowland areas close to streams. An estimated 40,000 people […]
Posted inMarch 7, 2005: Anarchy in the Gas Fields
Small tribe in Idaho weighs big water deal
Nez Perce will decide whether a $193 million package does enough for salmon
Posted inAugust 4, 2003: Pipe Dreams
Judge says Klamath plan needs revisions
A federal judge has sent the Bureau of Reclamation back to the drawing board with the management plan for the Klamath River Basin. In Oakland, Calif., Judge Saundra Brown Armstong called parts of the plan “arbitrary and capricious” and demanded that the National Marine Fisheries Service revise its biological opinion, on which the management plan […]
Posted inJuly 7, 2003: Invasion of the rock jocks
War on fire takes a toll on fish
One fish kill stretched five miles down Washington’s Omak Creek, and wiped out more than 10,000 trout and steelhead. Another fish kill hit five miles of Colorado’s Mancos River. Others hit several Oregon streams. The cause? Fire retardants dropped by airplanes, as federal agencies battled wildfires during the past three years. The plume of chemicals […]
Posted inJuly 8, 2002: The anatomy of fire
A landslide suit for salmon
OREGON Six years ago, a landslide that began in a clear-cut slammed into a house in western Oregon, killing four people (HCN, 12/23/96: Rain and clearcuts make fatal brew). That tragedy prompted state officials to limit logging on steep slopes near homes and busy roads. Now, a coalition of Oregon environmental groups says salmon should […]