The West is caught between congressional representatives beholden to resource industries, and federal officials with a conservation agenda. Can we find a middle ground?
Politics
Posted inApril 10, 2000: Beyond the Revolution
Notes from a fence-sitter
Though extremists on either side would never admit it, ranchers and greens care about the same things
Posted inApril 10, 2000: Beyond the Revolution
In search of a politics of union
So far, a bigger table for decision-making has not led to more agreement, just more litigation
Posted inApril 10, 2000: Beyond the Revolution
Learning to think like a region
Environmental issues have nothing to do with political boundaries
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
Tom Watkins has left us, but his Western dream remains
Tom Watkins, another pathfinder, has passed from the campfire circle. “He was a strong, clear and important voice backed by a good old-fashioned Rooseveltian-Ickesian liberal heart,” says Bozeman writer David Quammen. “Now we’re all older and more alone again, as we knew we were when Ed Abbey died.” T.H. Watkins died last week from cancer […]
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
Marc Racicot: One of the would-be president’s men
You never know who you’re going to meet on an airplane. Last summer, on a flight to Helena, Mont., as the seats in coach class began to fill, a handsome, middle-aged man walked up the aisle and slipped into the seat next to me. He appeared exhausted. His name was Marc Racicot, and he was […]
Posted inMarch 13, 2000: Libby's dark secret
The last Celtic warlord lives in New Mexico
LA JOYA, N.M. – Jim Catron, lawyer and history enthusiast, is sitting in his living room discussing the noble and inconvenienced Celt. He isn’t talking about modern-day Scotland or Ireland, however, which to his mind have degenerated into Socialist republics populated by barfly poets. He’s talking about real, live Celts. He’s talking about cowboys. Catron […]
Posted inFebruary 28, 2000: Acre by acre
Montana loses an environmental leader
WHITEFISH, Mont. – The works of great men last long beyond their passing, so it was fitting that the memorial service for Ben Cohen was in the community theater he helped found, at the base of the mountain he loved to ski. Friends, family, former and sitting Supreme Court justices, legislative colleagues, ski buddies, and […]
Posted inFebruary 28, 2000: Acre by acre
Goose eggs in Congress
According to the League of Conservation Voters’ 1999 National Environmental Scorecard, over one-third of senators received a zero percent score. Western delegates cast their votes against the environment more often than their counterparts from other regions. Eleven Western senators earned a big zilch, including the entire delegations of Colorado, Idaho, Utah and Wyoming. Of those, […]
Posted inFebruary 14, 2000: Land of the fee
Hazel Wolf: She made it
Hazel Wolf died in Port Angeles, Wash., on Jan. 24 at the age of 101. Wolf, a lifelong activist for social justice and the environment (HCN, 11/9/98: Wise words from a veteran activist), once told author Studs Terkel that she wanted to live to see the year 2000. “Then I’m going,” she said. Wolf, a […]
Posted inFebruary 14, 2000: Land of the fee
How green is your politico?
A new television ad campaign in Washington state lets voters know which candidates up for re-election next fall have minded their green p’s and q’s. The $2 million project got under way in mid-January, and it features the nationally syndicated Bill Nye, the “Science Guy,” who uses humor and science to teach the public how […]
Posted inJanuary 31, 2000: Searching for pasture
Not your average beauty queen
Note: This article appeared as a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Rachel Benally, recent runner-up in the Southwest Regional Miss Navajo Pageant, Internet surfer, and unflinching slaughterer of her grandmother’s goats, lies in a reclining chair in her Aunt Sharon’s living room. She is recovering from last night’s TV-watching marathon. Wrapped in a comforter, […]
Posted inDecember 20, 1999: Unleashing the Snake
All you can eat at Pueblito del Paiz
Ted Medina slams down a pan of, oh God, what is it? A pig’s head. Snout, eyes and yellowish toasted ears bubbling like Picasso’s own dinner. “You name it, it’s all good!” says Ted, stocky, aproned and grinning from under a cap emblazoned Denver Fire Department. “Here, you nibble on this bit here. It’s good!” […]
Posted inDecember 6, 1999: Peggy Godfrey's long, strange trip
Battling over the bottom line
Congress and the Clinton administration have finally called a truce on the national budget. On Nov. 19, the House and Senate approved a $385 billion spending package, including $14.9 billion for the Interior Department. Both sides are claiming victory, but Will Hart, spokesman for Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, calls the process “frustrating.” “(We were) dealing […]
Posted inDecember 6, 1999: Peggy Godfrey's long, strange trip
In this election, the West is lost
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congratulations, Westerners, you only have to live through 10 more months or so of presidential politics. Then Donald Trump, Warren Beatty, Cybil Shepard and other great intellects of our time will be off our television screens, at least masquerading as politicians, and you won’t have to think about the presidential election. What’s […]
Posted inNovember 22, 1999: Go tell it on the mountain
In Washington, the emperor is on Babbitt’s side
Washington, D.C. – In the combat arena to which your nation’s government has degenerated, belligerents armed with rhetorical excess and bilious discourtesy hurl their weapons at each other hoping to inflict humiliation, if not political death. In the center ring of this civic (but uncivil) Forum, the big-name gladiators fight over the federal budget and […]
Posted inNovember 8, 1999: A new road for the public lands
A new road for the public lands
Note: this front-page essay introduces this issue’s feature story. In early October, President Clinton visited the Washington and Jefferson National Forest. From that green pulpit, he asked us to tell him how to manage 40 million to 60 million acres of roadless national forest land: Do we want the clean water they produce, the wildlife […]
Posted inOctober 25, 1999: Monumental chaos
A man to match our mountains
The West lost a legendary mountaineer and outdoor educator Oct. 6. Paul Petzoldt, founder of the National Outdoor Leadership Training School (NOLS) and Wilderness Education Association (WEA), died at 91. “Paul was a tireless visionary,” said Jeff Liddle, former director of WEA. “He was one of the first people to draw a line in the […]
Posted inAugust 30, 1999: Who's stopping sprawl?
Montana tribes bid their leader farewell
Michael T. “Mickey” Pablo, leader of Montana’s Indian nations, died at his ranch Aug. 5, at the age of 51. Postoperative complications from surgery on a knee he twisted while fishing have been reported as the likely cause of death. This humble man was highly respected for his wisdom and much loved for his kind […]
Posted inAugust 16, 1999: Standing up for the underdog
Never underestimate a working majority
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Four years ago, shortly after the Republicans took control of Congress, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, glorying in her new status as a member of the majority, rose on the Senate floor to propose an amendment to the Interior Appropriations bill. She goofed. Still a newcomer (she had won the 1992 […]