WYOMING Last summer, a group of snowmobilers, wildlife advocates, cross-country skiers and business owners embarked on an ambitious adventure: to work out a collaborative plan for managing winter use in the Medicine Bow National Forest’s Snowy Range. By early September, two environmentalists had defected. Eric Bonds of Biodiversity Associates and the other green, University of […]
Recreation
Posted inJanuary 21, 2002: Finding the words
Boy Scouts want new digs
COLORADO The Boy Scouts, with their image as resourceful, courteous, “leave no trace” outdoorsmen, seem an unlikely focal point for an environmental controversy over public land use. But that is where the Western Colorado Council of the Boy Scouts of America has found itself since proposing a new Boy Scout camp in the White River […]
Posted inJanuary 21, 2002: Finding the words
Recreation-fee foes catch an agency fumble
Does the U.S. Forest Service need to relearn basic math? In 1996, Congress allowed the agency to charge recreation fees at no more than 100 sites nationally (HCN, 2/14/00: Land of the fee). Now, it turns out the agency forced visitors to pay at 1,349 trailheads, picnic areas and other sites in the Northwest region […]
Posted inDecember 17, 2001: Bad moon rising
The Buffalo War: a maelstrom of Western issues
If there were one emblem of Western history, it might be the American buffalo. In Matthew Testa’s new documentary, The Buffalo War, that emblem becomes the focal point for an impassioned controversy. “The buffalo provide a mirror,” says Testa. “They reflect how we see ourselves and our place in wilderness. And that reflection is incredibly […]
Posted inDecember 17, 2001: Bad moon rising
Protecting Arizona’s underground wonderland
State agency may condemn private land near Kartchner Caverns
Posted inDecember 3, 2001: Closing the wounds
A struggling mountain town looks for a lift
Silverton, Colo., hopes a backcountry chairlift will boost its fortunes
Posted inNovember 19, 2001: Bringing back the bosque
Outspoken Yellowstone ranger gagged
Bob Jackson silenced on salt lick problem
Posted inNovember 5, 2001: Wyoming's powder keg
Pedal where Lewis and Clark paddled
In 1976, a time when bikes were still mostly for kids and cross-country cycling was virtually unheard of, a few friends got together to map a bicycling route across the U.S. in celebration of the nation’s bicentennial. Twenty-five years and 25,000 miles of bike trails later, the group, the Adventure Cycling Association, is attempting to […]
Posted inNovember 5, 2001: Wyoming's powder keg
Utah’s Grand Staircase turns 5
Locals still wondering if the monument will provide an economic step up
Posted inOctober 22, 2001: Healing the Gila
Monument of tall trees will stand
CALIFORNIA In late September, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., rejected a challenge to the newly designated Giant Sequoia National Monument in the southern Sierra Nevada. The monument protects 330,000 acres of forest ecosystem, including nearly half of the world’s remaining giant sequoia groves. Timber and off-highway vehicle groups, as well as Tulare County, where […]
Posted inOctober 22, 2001: Healing the Gila
Park boss gored by grazing feud
Four-decade controversy continues in Dinosaur National Monument
Posted inOctober 8, 2001: Whoa! Canada!
Ski resorts pump up ecoterrorism defenses
Hired sentries call the measures ‘kind of a joke’
Posted inOctober 8, 2001: Whoa! Canada!
Rebuilding a road to prosperity
Ex-timber town’s plan to resurrect a buried highway worries conservationists
Posted inSeptember 10, 2001: The rise and fall of a desert stream
Congress may agree on fees
NATION The debate over whether people should pay to play on public lands is heating up once again. The Recreation Fee Demonstration Program, created by Congress in 1996, requires people to pay a user fee to visit certain forests, parks or deserts (HCN, 2/14/00: Land of the fee). Although it is due to expire by […]
Posted inWotr
Floating past ghosts on the Green River
The White Rim is a strip of manila sandstone on the edge of the Green River canyon. We’ve been following it for three days now, floating this 60-mile flatwater stretch above Cataract Canyon in Utah, one small raft and a kayak; 20 miles yesterday, 15 or so today. Sometimes delicately thin, sometimes robust and thick, […]
Posted inAugust 27, 2001: Restoring the range of light
Four-wheelin’ for fee
COLORADO Known as the “Jeep Capital of the World,” Canyon Creek, just south of Ouray, Colo., leads four-wheel-drive enthusiasts into alpine areas that are world-renowned for their abundant wildflowers and sweeping vistas. But if you’re planning to visit, don’t forget your wallet. This summer, the Forest Service has begun charging $5 per vehicle to enter […]
Posted inAugust 27, 2001: Restoring the range of light
Dangerous parks
National park rangers say inadequate funding is adding new risks to their jobs. Crime in parks is on the rise, and most parks don’t have the money to beef up their law enforcement. To publicize the problem, the U.S. Park Rangers Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police has listed the top 10 most dangerous […]
Posted inAugust 13, 2001: No refuge in the Klamath Basin
Boaters float for their rights
Colorado paddlers confront property owners over river access
Posted inJuly 30, 2001: Not in our back yard
Snowmobile ban stalled
WYOMING A Clinton administration ban on snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks that would start in the winter of 2002 has been stalled, maybe permanently (HCN, 3/27/00: Parks rev up to ban snowmobiles). At the end of June, the Bush administration announced that it wants to re-evaluate the rule because local communities and […]
Posted inJune 4, 2001: Tribal links
Jackson Hole takes aim at helicopter tours
WYOMING There’s a fierce dogfight in progress over the airspace in Teton County, Wyo. Vortex Aviation Services, headed by Gary Kauffman, is gearing up to begin commercial helicopter tours over the county’s scenic areas this summer (HCN, 8/14/00: Whirlybirds will fly over Jackson). The plan has environmentalists and other concerned citizens declaring war. “We don’t […]