Note: in the print edition of this issue, this article appears as a sidebar to another news article, “Columbia Basin plan staggers home.” Though politics may delay and water down the final plans of the Interior Columbia Basin Management Project, the science documenting the condition of the basin is strong and available. In late December, […]
Growth & Sustainability
Posted inDecember 9, 1996: Motorheads: The new, noisy, organized force in the West
Locals learn the value of a good view
STANLEY, Idaho – A proposal for two subdivisions on private land within the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, one of the nation’s scenic treasures, has stirred up long-held resentments between landowners and the Forest Service. A local outfitter’s plan to build 10 homes on a five-acre parcel has prompted a cease-and-desist order from the Forest Service. […]
Posted inDecember 9, 1996: Motorheads: The new, noisy, organized force in the West
Whiskey Peak: Great air, deteriorating ground
WHISKEY PEAK, Wyo. – Two hang-glider pilots ran into the air off the top of Whiskey Peak one day last summer and began circling over treetops. Just 20 minutes later they were soaring at 16,000 feet. “You just catch a thermal and blow downwind,” said Kevin Christopherson, who set two world distance records from the […]
Posted inNovember 25, 1996: Pollution in paradise
Ted Turner makes a deal
Thanks to a land swap, Montana commoners will no longer be able to hunt, fish or hike on state lands nestled deep within the private kingdom of media mogul Ted Turner and his wife, Jane Fonda. Turner didn’t like uninvited guests invading the Flying D Ranch southwest of Bozeman, Mont., so he offered the state […]
Posted inNovember 25, 1996: Pollution in paradise
New Mexico environmentalists lease state lands
For the first time in the history of the West, environmentalists have won a lease for state-owned land. Forest Guardians and the Southwest Environmental Center submitted a joint bid for the 550-acre tract on the Rio Puerco River in northwestern New Mexico; much to their surprise, they got it. “Now we have to shift from […]
Posted inNovember 11, 1996: Cease-fire called on the Animas-La Plata front
BLM fills a hot job
As the first boss of the newly created national monument in southern Utah, the Bureau of Land Management’s Jerry Meredith won’t have to worry about filling anyone else’s shoes. But he’ll have plenty of other headaches. President Clinton’s recent designation of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument sparked anger among locals and a flurry of controversial […]
Posted inOctober 28, 1996: Has big money doomed direct democracy?
Colorado voters decide fate of 3 million acres
Anyone who has read Amendment 16 in Colorado knows that it will fundamentally change the way the state manages its 3 million acres of school trust lands. Instead of maximizing revenues from these lands through leases or outright sales, the state land board would only be required to produce “reasonable and consistent income over time.” […]
Posted inOctober 28, 1996: Has big money doomed direct democracy?
Utah counties bulldoze the BLM, Park Service
A flurry of bulldozing in three southern Utah counties has led to one arrest, federal lawsuits and miles of newly improved roadways through wilderness study areas and the new Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The bulldozing, ordered by county commissioners in San Juan, Garfield and Kane counties, is the most serious challenge yet to federal land […]
Posted inSeptember 16, 1996: The filthy West: Toxics pour into our air, water, land
Two reports set the stage for Sierra Nevada’s future
The Sierra Nevada is a patchwork of dwindling old growth, imperiled species and degraded lakes, streams and rivers. But the seedbeds of its salvation are still intact, according to two reports released this summer, one by a group of scientists, the other by a regional business council. Both conclude there are many reasons for hope […]
Posted inAugust 19, 1996: Western voices
Marvel wins a round
Anti-ranching activist Jon Marvel has won a favorable decision from the Idaho Supreme Court on the first state grazing lease that he challenged three years ago. On June 20, Idaho’s highest court ruled that the state Land Board violated the state constitution by awarding a 640-acre grazing lease to a Challis rancher, even though the […]
Posted inJune 24, 1996: Catron County's politics heat up as its land goes bankrupt
State lands: money isn’t everything
Pockets of land exist all over Colorado where locals hunt, hike, farm and ranch. They look like public land. But these 3 million acres of trust lands, established by the federal government in 1876, usually have one purpose – to make money for public schools. And increasingly, in these boom times, the state land board […]
Posted inMay 27, 1996: Utah ushers its frogs toward oblivion
Arizona state land opens for conservation
Arizona environmentalists now have a chance to lease state lands for conservation purposes. As signed by Gov. Fife Symington, the Arizona Preserve Initiative allows conservation groups to lease state lands, estimated at 30,000 acres, within a three-mile radius of all major cities. An earlier bill from Symington proposed to open up over 700,000 acres of […]
Posted inApril 29, 1996: A park boss goes to bat for the land
Phoenix will try to save desert wash
Arizona has told the city of Phoenix that if it wants to save a state-owned desert wash teeming with wildlife, it must buy the land for $25 million. A citizens’ group hopes to persuade state officials that the historic, biological and recreational value of Cave Creek Wash makes it worth the money. But state staffers […]
Posted inApril 1, 1996: Gambling: A tribe hits the jackpot
Rebels without a case
Rebels without a case Nineteen months after Nye County, Nev., County Commissioner Dick Carver challenged federal authority by bulldozing a road into the Toiyabe National Forest, the government has pushed back. On March 14, a U.S. District Court in Las Vegas struck down a controversial Nye County ordinance claiming ownership and management authority over Forest […]
Posted inMarch 18, 1996: What does the West need to know?
They did it themselves
They did it themselves Some 200 federal employees and outside experts have developed a sweeping management plan for public lands in the six states of the Columbia River Basin. And it didn’t cost taxpayers a dime. It was done under the auspices of the nonprofit AFSEEE, the Association of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics. […]
Posted inFebruary 5, 1996: Lack of enchantment: Santa Fe's boom goes flat
Land Board bias questioned
Idaho environmentalists secured their first court victory in the ongoing struggle over who gets to lease the state’s school endowment lands. Judge Duff McKee of the Ada County District Court ruled in December that the State Land Board broke its rules when it combined two grazing leases into one parcel, then awarded the package to […]
Posted inNovember 27, 1995: Saving the ranch
Ranchers win again
Ranchers win again Environmentalists in New Mexico plan to follow a trend set in Idaho and Oregon: taking the state to court after having bids for state grazing permits rejected. They charge that the land office is discriminating against them and violating state law by not managing state land for maximum profit. Forest Guardians and […]
Posted inOctober 16, 1995: In the heart of the New West, the sheep win one
The disagreement is total
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, To save a Utah canyon, a BLM ranger quits and turns activist. When it comes to his Westwater mining claims, Ron Pene and the BLM disagree on nearly everything. To begin with, Pene believes BLM staffers overlooked man-made disturbances when they surveyed the […]
Posted inOctober 2, 1995: Did Idaho libel the feds?
Is another senator backpedaling?
New Mexico Sen. Pete Domenici, R, reluctantly conceded last month that his bill on public-land grazing needed at least clarification. Hunters and other recreational users of the public lands apparently made their opposition clear: They cannot live with legislation that puts ranchers above everyone else (HCN, 8/21/95). Now another Western Republican, Sen. Craig Thomas of […]
Posted inSeptember 18, 1995: The West's fisheries spin out of control
Report blasts land giveaways
Report blasts land giveaways Following recent congressional proposals that would divvy up millions of acres of federal land among states and private interests, the Natural Resources Defense Council released a report charging that such measures would “impoverish the nation.” NRDC outlines what it calls an assault on public lands: budget resolutions allowing the sale of […]