As political winds start to turn against him, Pombo pushes to sell off forests, parks, wilderness areas
Growth & Sustainability
Posted inWotr
A Western railvolution begins
In 1981, when I got my first car — a used Toyota Corolla — the first thing I did was take a trip out West. For a prisoner of the sprawling suburbs of St. Louis, Mo., nothing could have been sweeter than to put that sea of homes in the rearview mirror, and to fill […]
Posted inWotr
Friends don’t let friends drive gas-guzzlers
Judging from TV, Americans seem to think the only thing needed to sell a product or solve a problem is a catchy slogan. You’ve probably got the tinkly music from some jingle running through your head right now — even if you’ve tried to remove it with an ice pick. So I’m starting my crusade […]
Posted inOctober 31, 2005: The Public Lands' Big Cash Crop
Will the BLM Web site shutdown ever end?
During the past six months, most Bureau of Land Management Web sites have been unavailable to the public: The agency has disconnected them for the fourth time in five years while officials attend to security concerns. The most recent shutdown resulted from an ongoing class-action lawsuit brought by Elouise Cobell on behalf of 500,000 Indians. […]
Posted inOctober 31, 2005: The Public Lands' Big Cash Crop
The Public Lands’ Big Cash Crop
SHINGLETOWN, California — On a cool, late-September morning on the outskirts of this Northern California town, two men board a helicopter in a cow pasture. Each of them holds the title of “special agent,” but the agencies they represent are as different from one another as any two agencies could be. Dave Burns sports a […]
Posted inWotr
Nature works better with us
You’ve seen the ads: Some eco-celebrity urges you to make a donation to save one of the earth’s last special places. Your generous gift will help protect this place so it remains healthy and pristine forever. Few of us bother to think that this pitch contains a huge assumption — that protecting a piece of […]
Posted inOctober 3, 2005: Out of the Four Corners
Strange bedfellows make a grazing deal in Idaho
And influential Sen. Larry Craig is odd man out
Posted inSeptember 5, 2005: Rangeland Revival
Rangeland Revival
The Quivira Coalition prophesies a new era of peace and prosperity on the West’s rangelands, but is the group bold enough to make that vision real?
Posted inSeptember 5, 2005: Rangeland Revival
The ‘New Ranch’ poster child hangs on by a thread
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Rangeland Revival.” Jim Williams steps out of his small, brown, wooden ranch house, and glances out over the shrub-dotted grasslands he has called home for all of his 61 years. Despite the pelting early-spring snow, the land looks sparse. Short and scraggly clumps of […]
Posted inSeptember 5, 2005: Rangeland Revival
Science: The chink in Quivira’s armor
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Rangeland Revival.” Over and over, Quivira Coalition leaders have said that sustainable ranching is possible. But that claim isn’t backed up by a great deal of independent research. High Country News investigated rangeland science in southern Colorado and New Mexico, digging through the scientific […]
Posted inAugust 8, 2005: The Gangs of Zion
Primrose focus of legal dustup
This summer, no one is enjoying the dusty trails of central California’s Clear Creek Management Area: The Bureau of Land Management has temporarily closed 30,000 of the area’s 75,000 acres. George Hill, the BLM’s Hollister assistant field manager, says the agency shut the area down to protect people from naturally occurring asbestos dust. But environmentalists […]
Posted inAugust 8, 2005: The Gangs of Zion
Industry embeds its own in the BLM
Mining and energy companies fund workers at land-management offices
Posted inWotr
Why I pedal past the pump
This summer, it’s been hard for me to react to all the fuss about high gasoline prices. I never have sticker shock at a gas pump because I haven’t owned a car for 30 years, and far from being a liability, my life has been all the richer for it. It has certainly enriched my […]
Posted inJuly 25, 2005: The Many Faces of Richard Pombo
New grazing rules ride on doctored science
Veteran scientists leave the BLM in frustration
Posted inJune 27, 2005: Reflections on a Divided Land
Developer blocks trail to a famous ‘fourteener’
Ambitious hikers eager to scale all of Colorado’s 54 “fourteeners” almost had one less peak to cross off their list. Texas developer Rusty Nichols owns a 300-acre patchwork of mining claims on Wilson Peak, a 14,017-foot-tall mountain in southwestern Colorado whose image adorns calendars, posters and Coors beer cans worldwide. Last July, citing liability concerns, […]
Posted inJune 27, 2005: Reflections on a Divided Land
Private landowners become lords of the public estate
In Arizona, a strange dispute illustrates a growing problem
Posted inMay 30, 2005: Write-off on the Range
State takes another shot at land swapping
After several failed attempts at land exchanges, Utah is giving the idea another try. In early May, Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, reintroduced the Utah Recreational Land Exchange Act. The bill would give the federal government 46,000 acres of land in southeastern and northeastern Utah, while the state would receive 40,000 acres in the northeast. The […]
Posted inMay 2, 2005: The Great Energy Divide
As threats loom, conservation dollars disappear
Feds back away from buying sensitive land
Posted inWotr
Grazing buyouts help land and ranchers
It’s springtime in the Rockies, which means roiling rivers, blooming fruit orchards and lots of baby bovines in the valley-bottom pastures. A month ago, the calves were small, dark lumps deposited on dun-colored fields; today, they are energetic youngsters, chasing each other across green grass in free-for-all games of tag. In a matter of weeks, […]
Posted inApril 4, 2005: Calling It Quits
The Big Buyout
Tough economics, drought and increasing clashes with recreational users have pushed some public-lands ranchers to the edge. Now, check-wielding conservationists want to give them an easy way out.