OREGON — In southeastern Oregon, a couple has come up with a new approach for developing the 160 acres they own on Steens Mountain, the massif that Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt is eyeing for federal protection as a national monument (HCN, 11/22/99: Go tell it on the mountain). This time, John and Cindy Witzel, who […]
Growth & Sustainability
Posted inFebruary 28, 2000: Acre by acre
BLM signs snatched
UTAH San Juan County officials recently removed federal “road closed” signs on three dirt roads they claim in the Grand Gulch area of southeastern Utah. The action could provoke a lawsuit to test who owns these roads – San Juan County or the Bureau of Land Management (HCN, 10/28/96: Utah counties bulldoze the BLM, Park […]
Posted inDecember 20, 1999: Unleashing the Snake
Buy land now, says Udall
The state of Colorado is tightening its belt on land purchases, and Democratic Rep. Mark Udall wants someone to account for it. The state’s Department of Natural Resources has been discussing a moratorium on buying properties for wildlife habitat, says Greg Walcher, the department’s executive director. Budget concerns drove the decision. “We decided we would […]
Posted inNovember 22, 1999: Go tell it on the mountain
Risks multiply for land managers
Beatings, bombings, death threats and other acts of violence against Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management employees are on the rise. According to documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by PEER (Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility), agency workers or buildings were attacked or threatened nearly 100 times in 1998 alone. One Forest […]
Posted inNovember 22, 1999: Go tell it on the mountain
The secretary’s must-do list for Western lands
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt’s Western road tour didn’t finish at Steens Mountain; in fact, no one seems quite sure where it will end. In addition to the Arizona Strip and the Missouri River Breaks, several other Bureau of Land Management sites could gain greater […]
Posted inNovember 22, 1999: Go tell it on the mountain
Go tell it on the mountain
FRENCHGLEN, Ore. – Atop 9,600-foot Steens Mountain, a brisk northwest wind races up the spectacular U-shaped canyon of Little Blitzen Creek at dawn. Howling over the top of golden aspen trees in the canyon below, the wind rips up-canyon to a steep alpine bowl at the top of the draw, and – poof! – like […]
Posted inNovember 22, 1999: Go tell it on the mountain
‘Environmentalists will win’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Andy Kerr is a veteran Oregon environmentalist who represents The Wilderness Society on the Steens issue. He is pushing for an end to livestock grazing on Steens Mountain. “The (Southeast Oregon Resource Advisory Council) is the wrong entity to cut a deal. It has […]
Posted inNovember 22, 1999: Go tell it on the mountain
‘I see lawsuits as a last resort’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Jill Workman is a Portland-based volunteer for the Sierra Club. She believes that livestock grazing should continue on Steens Mountain. “I see lawsuits as a last resort. I’d rather try to work with people. I personally don’t think you can rule those people out. […]
Posted inNovember 22, 1999: Go tell it on the mountain
‘The more protection … the better’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Bill Marlett is the executive director of the Oregon Natural Desert Association. He has filed a number of appeals and a lawsuit against the BLM, all asserting his group’s opposition to grazing on Steens Mountain. “I told (Babbitt) point-blank that we want a date-certain […]
Posted inNovember 22, 1999: Go tell it on the mountain
‘I don’t want to run a different business’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Fred Otley is a fourth-generation rancher on Steens Mountain in the Kiger Creek and Kiger Gorge area. He is the coordinator of Friends of Steens Mountain, a group of local citizens and ranchers, and is a “private landowner liaison” to the Resource Advisory Council. […]
Posted inNovember 22, 1999: Go tell it on the mountain
‘Multiple use is still the best concept’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Stacy Davies is the ranch manager of the Roaring Springs Ranch in the Catlow Valley, on the west side of Steens Mountain. Owned by the Bob Sanders family for the last seven years, it is the largest ranch on Steens Mountain, with 146,000 acres […]
Posted inOctober 11, 1999: A home-grown Water War
Another wilderness developer pops up
PARADISE VALLEY, Mont. – Chain saws are running in the middle of the Absaroka Beartooth Wilderness. There’s a miniature backhoe there, too, along with a regular series of noisy helicopters, hauling in work crews. The man responsible is having a blast, like a kid with a new toy. All this would be illegal on public […]
Posted inSeptember 27, 1999: The Millworker and the Forest
Battered borderlands
The Border Patrol seeks a conservation ethic
Posted inSeptember 13, 1999: Troubled Oasis
Agency cheerleader
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. John Singlaub is the manager of the Carson City, Nev., office of the BLM. During his 20 years with the agency, he’s worked in four states at every level of the organization, and he’s known as a man of action. In Colorado, when the […]
Posted inJuly 5, 1999: The new faces of the West
Trail-crew volunteers
The Colorado Fourteeners Initiative needs trail-crew volunteers willing to work weekends on Mount Harvard and Mount Bierstadt, two of Colorado’s most visited over-14,000-foot peaks. Contact Jennifer Tucker, Colorado Fourteeners Initiative, 710 10th St., Suite 220, Golden, CO 80401 (303/278-7525 ext. 115). This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Trail-crew […]
Posted inJuly 5, 1999: The new faces of the West
Wilderness developer Tom Chapman is back
VAIL, Colo. – One of Colorado’s best-known real estate speculators is back, but some say the deals he’s offering ought to be turned down. Tom Chapman has a history of buying private land in wilderness areas, threatening to build mansions, and then goading the U.S. Forest Service into buying him out or trading him valuable […]
Posted inJune 7, 1999: Mining the past
Court nixes land exchange
In a surprise May 19 ruling, a federal appeals court sent a land exchange in western Washington back to the drawing board. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decided that the controversial Huckleberry Land Exchange needed more study and told company loggers to stop cutting the traded land. The exchange gave Weyerhaeuser Co. 4,300 acres […]
Posted inApril 12, 1999: Is trapping doomed?
The new voice at BLM
Dallas lawyer Thomas A. Fry III talks and acts like a guy who’s in charge, but in reality, he’s “acting” director of the Bureau of Land Management. The 54-year-old Fry is the second acting director of the BLM in five years. Mike Dombeck supervised the BLM for three years as acting director before becoming chief […]
Posted inMarch 29, 1999: Wheeling and dealing
Tree lovers are willing to pay
Washington’s Loomis State Forest has 25,000 roadless acres, and environmentalists say they’ll spend millions to preserve it. In just a few months, the Loomis Forest Fund raised $3 million, but contributors say they need $10.1 million more to compensate the state for the cash it could make by logging. The forest, which borders Canada, is […]
Posted inMarch 29, 1999: Wheeling and dealing
Land deal links desert parks
A California-based land trust has arranged to put almost 500,000 acres of mountaintop forests, sand dunes and volcanic cinder cones into public hands. The $61.5 million deal now awaits a decision by Congress to release $36 million from the Land and Water Conservation Fund. The Wildlands Conservancy, based in Yucaipa, Calif., will pay the remainder. […]